I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- 6

PM- 10 with Cody on the River Trail.  I have never seen as many runners on it as we saw today.  Easily 10 times more runners than walkers or bikers.  Then ran 4 with Marci and the kids.

AM- Tired this morning, so scrubbed the morning run.  I love recovery weeks- mileage doesn't really matter.

PM- BW with Cody.  Last year on the Tues before TOU 1/2, I did a BW with Paul and Cody running the Providence hills loop with 8 miles tempo.  I felt terrible and took 3 potty breaks, but I ran one of the best races of my life that Saturday.  Well, today I did an 8 mile tempo with Cody on TOU course through Providence and Nibley.  I felt pretty bad and took 3 potty breaks.  It was hot and we didn't drink for 10 miles, so wasn't the best workout, but that's ok.  4 miles warmup, then splits of 6:00, 6:19, 6:29 (up the hwy and Hollow Rd), 6:15, 5:58 (down the highway), 6:10, 6:23 (up the Millville hill- I actually felt good on this mile), 6:20 (down the hill into the Middle School- ran out of steam on this mile).  Avg 6:14 for the tempo, 6:51 pace for the 15 miles.  Not a great workout, but got it done.  Cody felt even worse than me but toughed it out.  Now 3 very easy days before the 1/2 marathon.

PM- 3 with Marci and the kids, then 4 by myself.  A golf ball flew within 1-2 feet of my head while I was running near the golf course- lucky I wasn't hit.

AM- 7 easy on WP-Planet Walk. No golf balls.

Noon- PW 4 w/ 4 strides.  Shoes are retired.

AM- Top of Utah 1/2 marathon today.  I want to first brag about Marci.  She ran this race in 2005 in 2:21, and was doubting if she could beat her time.  She crushed it in 1:49:58, finishing in the top 20% of all finishers!  Good job, babe!

I have done this race more than any other (5 of the past 7 years) and really use it as the primary means to gauge my fitness.  I have gotten faster every year, though my places have gotten steadily worse (2003 1:16:49 3rd, 2005 1:15:36 1st, 2007 1:14:12 3rd, 2008  1:11:37 5th).  Last year was a great race for me, one of those days where everything clicked and I felt amazing.  I have put in more miles this year so was hoping to be near or faster than last year.

Caught an early bus with Marci and I ran down to the secret elite staging area/private bathroom (a nearby picnic area).  I had it to myself for 45 minutes as I jogged around, stretched next to the river, and repeatedly used the bathroom.  It was a peaceful scene before the coming chaos.  Jogged to the start and saw quite the stacked race- lots of guys from the circuit (Taren, Seth, Nathan Hornock, Aleksander, Albert Wint, Joe Wilson) plus a big FRB crew- Paul, Cody, Adam, Walter, Scott, Matt, Allie, et al).  They told us pre-race that we had to run in the right lane down the canyon rather than running the tangents, which I would guess added at least 20 seconds to the times.  They have never made that request before.  Weather was nice- mid-50's, overcast.

The race finally started and we quickly sorted into our places.  Walter and I ran near each other for a few miles before he dropped back, leaving me alone in 7th place, with only Nathan and Albert in view, plus occastional footsteps behind.  I ran the whole race this way, ~10-40 seconds behind Nathan and Albert.  Splits down the canyon were 5:20, 5:27, 5:29, 5:28 (worried that my splits were too slow here), 5:18, 5:17 (that's a bit better- 10k split of 33:25, which is close to my PR and 45 seconds faster than Des News 10k last month), 5:19.  Felt good with just slight sideaches down the canyon- I didn't seem to have a faster gear that was there last year, but it wasn't incredibly hard to maintain this pace.  We had a moderate tailwind for a few miles at the bottom of the canyon, though not as strong as I hoped.

I hit Hollow Road and I finally had put a gap on everyone behind me.  The road flattens out a bit, with splits of 5:30, 5:33, and 5:36.  Mile 10.5-12 climbs a bit, then mile 13 downhill to the finish.  Nathan and Albert had steadily increased their lead to about 35 seconds, when all of a sudden I noticed Albert starting to come back to me after mile 10, though he was still a long ways ahead.  Mile 11 was 5:42, total time of 1:00:03.  I remembered being at 59:59 last year at this point, so just a hair behind.  Albert was coming back even more, and I caught him just after mile 12 (5:51), moving into 6th overall.  I did my best to convince him to drop by running a 5:20 for mile 13 and 30 seconds for the last bit.  Total time was 1:11:46, 3 seconds ahead of Albert, 90 seconds behind Nathan, and 9 seconds slower than my PR. 

All in all I am satisfied with my race.  Last year was an amazing, A+ type race.  This year was more normal, maybe an A-, and I was only 9 seconds back.  I'm sure I would have PR'ed if we could have run tangents, but that doesn't really matter.  All in all, this is probably a better relative performance, plus I wasn't ever straining and never felt overly tired, which is a good sign for TOU in 3 weeks.  I will say I think I am near my limit for this race- it may be possible for me to break 1:11, but I think I have pretty much maxed out my results.  I'm not sure if I'll do it again, since I plan to focus on trail races after TOU this year.  It is a great race that has grown phenominally in both numbers and competition- my winning time from 2005 would have put me in 15th place today.

I didn't get to stay around to talk as much as I would have liked with all the FRB-ers but there were some great performances- Paul(!!!), Adam, Cody, Walter, Matt, Scott, Allie... the list is long.  Sorry I didn't get to see all of you more, especially the SLC guys Adam and Walter.  But congrats to everyone today.