Andrea and I decided, sort of on a whim a few days ago, to run this race as a marathon-pace tempo run. I'm really glad we did, because it was a super-fun morning and one of the coolest courses I've ever run on - it was a mix of road racing, cross country, and a very advanced level of Mario Kart! I went into this with a set of rules - don't run faster than 1:11-1:12, don't get caught up in actually racing, just get a good workout and have some fun. I knew Riley was running and he has been on a tear lately, so I figured a tempo effort would probably at least yield some 2nd place prize money, but then when I saw John and Brandon about 15 minutes before the start (we still hadn't warmed up yet), I had to dial back my competitiveness a bit... Andrea was instrumental in drumming "don't be an idiot" into my head :-) So the race itself was very cool - we had a big pack right from the start... the 3 guys I mentioned above, along with Scott and Walter. First couple miles were on the roads and we were just bopping along - its fun running with a pack! Especially after running solo the whole time in Boston. We went into the gardens after 3-4 miles and then the Mario Kart portion of the course began! Winding through the gardens, TUNNELS, bridges, around trees, and about a dozen 90-180 degree turns. Riley led through most of this section, thank goodness, because I would have run off the course about ten times! Then we made our way over to the golf course - lots more rolling hills and more turns than I could keep track of. We pretty much ran as a pack of 4 until somewhere between 9-10 miles. The other guys started stretching it out on the steep downhills, and I wanted no part of that. So they had a little gap on me when we went into the last 2-3 miles, and I was more than content to continue running MP effort while they duked it out up front. Cruised to the finish just a bit under 1:11, so I got exactly what I wanted out of this run - minus any cash, but that would have required a harder effort than I needed today... Jon, Riley, and Brandon ran great! Watched Andrea finish up, then we grabbed Melody and went out for a leisurely cooldown until we hit 19 miles. My legs felt great today and this was a good indicator that I'm ready to get back into the swing of training again. The post-race was a lot of fun, chatting with everyone for a long time (too many people to list!) and getting a bunch of chocolate chip cookies. The blog had a strong showing - Melody and Lily went 1-2 in the 5K and Walter won the master's race despite going off course for about a mile. I would highly recommend this race. Its not your typical "fly down a canyon" Utah half-marathon by any means. I don't even know how else to describe it beyond my Mario Kart analogy, because its so different than any other road races I've done. And despite the fact that it was a "complicated" route, the course was well marked with arrows on the ground and signs. Splits - 5:29, 5:25, 5:18, 5:18, 5:36, 5:31, 5:35, 5:24, 5:28, 5:21, 5:40 (long?), 5:20, 5:33 for the last 1.1 miles (~5:03 pace, but this may have been short). I felt like I kept the effort very even the entire time. Course Map/Profile from my watch...
 
PM - 3 miles easy shakeout.
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