22 mile run from home to the top of City Creek and back. This run was designed to emulated my Desnews marathon morning prep and time of day run. I woke up at 2:00 am, ate my oat meal, drank two cups of coffee and watched my recorded version of Friday's Tour de France. I went to bed at 8:30 to get as much sleep as I could. My achilles tendon is very sore, so I taped up my ankles, slipped on my white Crocs and headed out the door at 5:00 am. The running goal today was to climb rather slowly to the top of City Creek and then blast down at an aggressive pace and then hold a marathon goal pace for the last flat 3.5 miles home. My "B" goal for this race is 3:19:59 (7:38 pace), this would be 10 minutes faster than my BMQ time which puts me in the second early registration wave. I think I have a realistic shot at this time. If I hit it, I then have to figure out how in the heck to pay for another trip to Boston, oh joy! The slow climb to the top of City Creek was rather painful, the slow pace and steep uphill really stressed the achilles. It was a beautifully cool morning, with my achillies aching I was concerned that I would not be able to do the downhill bomb I was hoping for, but I soldiered on. Mile splits up which was 11 miles. 9:22 9:16 9:13 10:29 10:36 10:31 10:05 10:16 10:29 10:43 11:28 Mile splits down 7:24 6:43 6:53 6:53 6:44 7:01 7:08 6:55 7:17 7:27 7:30 The pain subsided within the first mile down, then I went for it. I kept glancing down at my Garmin to check my pace and I liked what I saw. There were a few times I was sub six, in fact, 5:43 was the fastest I happened to see. I wish I could do that on the flat, and for many miles, oh well. I'm very happy with this run, It turned out better than I expected and it's a confidence builder going into the Desnews marathon. I got the morning routine down and the downhill training seems to have me prepared. The hay is in the barn! For you bird people, I saw a lazuli bunting in City Creek, very beautiful bird. Total run time, 3:10:28 8:39 ave pace. Up time 1:52:28 10:13 ave pace Down time 1:18:00 7:05 ave pace
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