This was my debut half marathon, which, as Paul pointed out on my facebook page is kind of strange, considering I've run two marathons and a trail ultra already. But I had never actually done a half before today so this was new to me. Here's the somewhat belated report: Woke up at 6 AM, and drove with my friend Jamie to the bus pickup. I thought that this race seemed to be more about dressing up than racing, and this was confirmed when we got to the pickup area and there were 2000 people in line and about 5 buses. More buses came, but it took a long time compared to other similar events. It was ok though, because I kind of expected it to be that way just from the tone of the event website and things so I wasn't too stressed about it. After all, this is just a race to keep me motivated through my post-marathon doldrums. Finally got on a bus at about 7:30 or so and did most of my race prep on the bus and talked with Jamie on the way up. My "costume" was just my full body black winter spandex stuff with black gloves and a black "ninja" mask which I use in very cold weather. Didn't look much like a ninja with a white SGRC singlet on (totally stealthy huh?), but oh well. Maybe I should have bought some plastic katanas (sp?) to go with it. Anyway, we had about an hour before the start once we got up to the staging area so I earned another star (** for the race) and went inside the big and very warm tent for awhile. Temps outside were chilly, but not as bad as I expected. Probably actually warmer than the TOU start. Warmed up for about ten minutes and made my way to the starting line where I saw Walter and Steve (?) who was also wearing a blog singlet. There were also a couple of fast looking guys wearing Utah Elite singlets (they would go on to take the top 2 spots). I was happy to see that it would be at least somewhat competitive even with the party vibe. Anyway, enough prelim. We started about 12 minutes late, but apparently that wasn't too bad compared to the previous year. There was a bus blocking the way about 100 yards out, and I would have paid 10 bucks to see the bus driver's face to see us all come around the bend full tilt while he was still crosswise in the road. I was too busy trying to figure out how to get around to look though. We settled into a very fast pace down the side canyon. Mile 1 was a 5:18, mile 2 was a blistering 4:53, but I felt good and didn't really want to let that lead pack go, so I just tried to relax and hang in there. 3 miles was 15:30 according to somebody, but I must have accidentally pushed something on my watch because it had stopped. So now I was running blind. But I wasn't worried. This was just for fun and to see what I could do. Near the bottom of the first canyon I could start to feel some fatigue in my quads from the hard downhill, but thankfully we soon turned onto the highway with more reasonable grades and I quickly felt better. I picked off a couple of guys over the next couple of miles and settled into 5th place with Walter nipping at my heels and some really really tall guy with a 10 foot stride dressed as a devil a little bit in front. The two UE guys were in front followed by Steve in 3rd. Some other guy was with Walter. Anyway, we turned onto the River Trail and soon after I started getting some very severe cramps. it got so bad that I actually had to stop and double over twice to relax it away. The first time was right next to some old people roller blading and I think they thought I was dying or something. I also had problems getting enough air, oddly. Same scenario as coming down Dry Canyon at Logan Peak. I fought through it though and slowly gained ground on the devil guy and somehow managed to stay ahead of Walter. I kept feeling like I was starting to lose it, but I was somehow able to mentally tough it out through these miles and maintain a respectable pace. Somewhere around mile 9 (the marker was WAY off, so I don't really know) Jamie's mom and siblings were there cheering and so that was nice to have someone there to motivate me through a tough section. Somewhere in here I also got passed by another guy, who looked like he was doing really well, but he didn't end up finishing that far ahead. With 5k to go, my right calf started cramping pretty hard, but with that short of a distance left I ignored it and turned my focus to beating the devil guy, who had done an admirable job thus far of staying just out of contact, even while carrying a wicked looking trident. I was somewhat nervous as to what would happen should I try to pass him. But I slowly reeled him in and FINALLY passed him just after the 12 mile mark. He was actually very gracious and not devilish at all and we exchanged congratulations between breathing. At this point I was dead, but I willed myself to push hard the last mile and was very pleased that I actually had a decent kick. Finished in 1:10:38 which was much much better than what I had been shooting for and very unexpected, as I had been running without time for 10 miles. I thought I had faded a lot more, but it turns out I wasn't going all that slow after all. Overall I was very pleased with this race. It was a fun time. I don't know if I'll count it as any kind of PR, since it was such a crazy downhill affair but it was fun and a good first time half. And I beat the devil. :)
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