I've been looking forward to Top of Utah 1/2 as a way to cap off the "summer season," and since it fell 12 weeks before Philadelphia, the timing was perfect before I start my big buildup towards the marathon. I also figured this would be a good indicator of whether I was on the right track towards the OTQ. Pre-race logistics were easy breezy. TOU does an awesome job organizing this race. Andrea & I got on a bus around 5:20am, hung out w/ Paul and chatted a bit at the top, and before you know it, it was time to warmup and get rolling. I took the lead off the start... Paul and I separated from the pack immediately. Splits down the canyon were 4:48, 4:58, 5:03, 4:55, 4:51, 4:56, 4:53. We pretty much ran together... I tried to make sure the pace was honest and would set us up for sub 66. I would get a little bit ahead at times, but not by much, and by the 5-6 mile mark we were running shoulder to shoulder. Around 7.5 miles I got a bit of a sidestitch and Paul put a little gap on me. I was probably 5 seconds behind when we hit the 8 mile marker. For the rest of the race, he maintained a 5-10 second lead. I never was quite able to make a strong enough move to close the gap. Miles 8-10 were 4:59, 5:05, 5:06. Ten mile split was 49:35. Now it was uphill time. Ugh. The hill from 10.5 - 12 is not easy. I missed the 11 mile split, but I ran 10-12 in 10:39. I think it was probably around 5:15/5:25 for those two miles. Paul kept running strong up ahead. Crested the hill and tried to take advantage of the remaining downhill, with a goal of getting under 5 minutes. I ran the last mile in 4:58 and then the last 0.1 in 28 seconds. Official time was 1:05:40. At first I thought I could have run faster, but a few hours later my perspective has changed. I'm really happy with this result... its probably the second best performance I've ever run (other than UVM). I guess at first I was a little disappointed because I didn't feel 100% today, but all things considered, its a big step forward for me. It was also great to have my parents and sister (and their dogs) there cheering me on at the 7 mile mark and the finish line. After I finished, I ran back a bit to watch Andrea bring it home with another PR! Then ran about 4 miles cooldown w/ Paul and called it a day. Now its time to buildup for the marathon. I am excited to see what happens this fall. Its going to be a fun journey. There was a nice article about the race in the Herald Journal. 
Awesome awards! We weighed them on our kitchen scale when we got home... mine weighed 6 pounds! I barely have the upper body strength to pick it up :-)
| 
