Seeking a better country...

After two 10 minute snoozes, I got up for oatmeal, and headed for the BST.  I took the usual way, but went higher after Ford Canyon to the high Farmington houses.  I saw a couple old guys walking up there, and they seemed as pleased to be up on a Sunday morning as me.  I went to the creek, and soaked my powerade for a while while I stretched.  The drink did get cooler.  After turning around and stopping climbing all over the place, I got some okay pace miles in; around 7:50 pace for the last 6 miles.  The first ones were 10-11, climbing 1800'.  I need to quit reading articles that say you can't go too slow.  This run felt too slow, but I was pretty sluggish from yesterday.

After a grandkids picture at my ancestral home, I ran up to the mouth of Mueller Canyon, back down, over to Vineyard, down to 13th, over to northern hills to North Davis Blvd and home.  The first mile was windy and rainy, the rest of the run was windy, muggy and hot.  It was a good shakedown for my tired legs.  I hope it's rainy with a tailwind for the 1/2 on Friday night.  The lit temple looked amazing against the dark, brooding sky at sunset.  It's not often you see a rainbow and sunset at the same time.

Slow, slow, slow miles.  Ash came with, so it was a real treat.  She was "tired" and didn't do a very good job of keeping up, so we languished along for nearly an hour. Besides finding a dollar in the gutter, she got a donut, so she was really happy with the run.  I got to listen to her silly prattle for an hour, so I was really happy with the run.  Afterwards, I picked raspberries for an hour, and didn't make it to work until 10.  Ahh, July.

My son dropped me off at Deuel Creek. I ran BST to Freedom Hills and came home.  I ran too fast for a nice easy run the night before a race, but couldn't hold back for some reason.

This race way pretty okay.  3 sisters, my mom and bro-in-law ran it as well.  My mom and one sister won their age divisions.  I could only muster a 3rd place finish.  I ran the first 4-5 miles pretty easy with my sister.  By then she had enough, and sent me on.  To make something out of this race, I wanted to try and speed up and run each mile quicker.  Although this was my mental intent, I didn't check my watch to verify I was actually accomplishing the goal, rather, I ran by feel, and gauged my effort on breathing.  Running at night takes away most visual cues, but I'm used to running this path in the dark, so it didn't slow me down.  

Awards afterward started 45 minutes too late, and were extremely tedious.  I didn't get home till after 2 am.  It was fun to run into my Van 1 teammates from WB, as well as complete this half with so many family members.  Overall, 1100 people entered all three of these races, so it was pretty well attended and a fun event.  It might play better in the fall when it's cooler and the calendar isn't quite so full.

Splits:  8:19, 7:49, 8:06, 7:49, 7:49 7:33, 7:14, 7:16 7:05, 7:15 7:11 7:30 6:34. I passed 8 people in the final mile.  I liked starting out slower and continually overtaking people over the whole race, rather than running in no man's land the whole time.