Believe to Achieve

Kim met me and my dear faithful and sleepy husband at my house at 435am.  We drove to Riverwoods and left Kim's car there then Troy drove us to the start of the Provo River Half Marathon for a 510am start.  Kim had a head lamp, I had a tiny flashlight.  It was PITCH BLACK for the first four miles.  Very Halloween-like.  The cows moo-ing sounded like those in the movie Cars.  I think they were tipping as we sped past them.  It was difficult to keep pace at first in the dark and cold.  Perception was off obviously.  I always run slower in the dark.  Our plan was to run MP average for the whole half.  We stopped at the Vivian park potty for one to two minutes.  Very strong smell of cologne in the women's bathroom.  Odd.  Not good for me of course so b-lined it out of there and started our flatter part of the course to the big uphill at mile 6.3 to 7.5 turn around.  Gross.  Headwind was intense and it was still very dark.  Shadows were playing tricks on us.  We had our headphones on at this point as we weren't as scared as up South Fork.  It took the edge off.  We didn't talk much here cause we couldn't hear each other.  We eventually passed two runners and two bikers.  We picked up the pace after the turn around and were happy to get under 7s for 6 of the 13 miles.  It was tough for me as three intense workouts in one week is a little much but it is all in the name of SGM PR.  Time will tell.  Will be taking it down a notch next week and even more the next.  Here are our splits: 

1:  7:12

2:  7:15

3:  7:10

4:  7:05

5:  7:10

6:  6:47

7:  7:24  Major uphill!!!!  Head wind.  We pushed hard.  This mile is out in the open and not on the trail so the wind is felt much greater.

8:   7:27  Major uphill for half of this.  Legs vacationing at the turn around so pace slower.

9:  6:54  Time to pick it up so we did.

10:  6:38 Little too early of a surge.  Must slow it down.  Still dark.

11:  6:53 

12:  6:57  Hey I think Kim can turn off her headlamp. I see a glimmer of daylight.

13:  6:49

13.1 @ 6:41 pace.

Wow we did it and the world still looks asleep.  Hopped in the car and made it home by 7:10am.  Average pace: 7:02.4.  Yee Haw.  Now to go, go, go the rest of day before my big 5 of 7.  I will try to pencil in a nap around 1pm.  And a blizzard of course.