UTAH VALLEY HALF MARATHON
Here's a short recap: I'll admit I was a bit disappointed with the way this one turned-out. Though this race was just three weeks after the Ogden Marathon, I felt like I had recovered fairly quickly from that race and that the last couple weeks of training had been pretty good. A little over a month ago, I ran the Provo City Half Marathon in 1:11:20. I felt the course profiles of that course and UV1/2 were similar and that my fitness now is a little better than it was then. So my goal coming into this race was to go sub-1:11 and maybe break my course PR from 2 years ago of 1:10:38. Thought that would be doable, but it just wasn't in the cards. Can't really explain why, other than the fact that there must be some underlying residual fatigue in the legs from the marathon.
The field of this race was deep with great runners. I had no expectations of placing in the money (top 5), but figured a top 10 was possible. The race started and as expected, all the fast dudes took to the front (Jake, Riley, Jon Cotter, Trevor, Matt, Mike, etc.). After a mile, I was in about 10th place about 5 seconds back of Matt and Mike who were running side-by-side. They were both looking great. Somehow I think the tunnel threw off my Garmin (it gave me a weak signal notice). It didnt't ding the 1st mile until 30 seconds after we past the sign. I didn't look at it one time during the rest of the race. At about the second mile mark, I moved up along side of Matt and Mike figuring it would be a good thing to work with them. At some point around mile 3 or 4, the photographers snapped a good shot of the three of us running next to each other. We weren't moving super fast, but the pace was honestly starting to feel a bit fast for me. It became apparent to me my legs were lacking pep and mentally I was thinking this wasn't going to be a great race. We pressed on and started hitting the downhill miles of the canyon. Mike and Matt were looking great. I was breathing a bit hard. Matt seemed to be breathing too, but he was still conversational. I could hardly tell Mike was breathing at all. About mile 6, I decided to fall back a couple steps and ride their wake thinking that it might help me come into a better rhythm. It didn't. Before long I was drifting off that back and they built about a 10-15 second gap that held for a few more miles. I didn't have any energy gels onboard, so I grabbed one from a volunter about the 6th or 7th mile. It seemed to help a little. Towards the end of the canyon, Matt started pulling away from Mike. Man, he looked good. Now out of the canyon. I could see several bodies in the distance in front of me. Mike was about 10 seconds up on me, Matt was pulling away. There were three other dudes in white shirts up a little ways (incluidng Trevor) who I suspected Matt would catch. I could even see Riley's blue singlet off in the distance. Mike started to come back to me and I suspected I would eventually catch him. About the 11-mile mark I did. I watched as Matt methodically picked-off the 3 white-shirted guys. Mike was never far behind me. I never looked-back, but as on-lookers would clap and yell for me there was never a long pause before I'd hear them doing the same for him. I tried to remember back to our old HS cross-country days and wondered if it came close down to the wire if he'd out-kick me to the finish :). He just about did. I knew he was gaining on me that last 100 feet and though I beat him to the line, he couldn't have finished more than a couple seconds behind.
For some reason my chip didn't work, so my result didn't get captured, but it was about 1:12:30.
8 more easy miles after the race to just get some more mileage.
Great races for several bloggers including Matt (5th overall; very awesome), Mike, Jake, and Trevor. Real excited to see the damage Jake and Riley are going to do at Duluth in a few weeks.
For me, my next race will likely be Hobbler Half on July 13th. So we'll see what a few more weeks of training will do. I'm thinking about looking for something shorter (5-10k) around the 4th of July for a little speed stimulus. Would love suggestions for a good one if anyone has any.
P.M. - 50 mile ride to the top of Guardsman (Big C) and back. Love that ride. First time to Guardsman this year. Looking forward to many more. | 