El Burro Blanco

9.5 miles in the evening.

I did a 3.5 mile warmup before my workout with Paul. I did 8x400m at 73-74 sec. per lap. It wasn't bad at all. It felt good to get the legs moving. I then ran from Weber State down to MTC park which is right next to the parkway on the marathon course. Saturday is almost here. I need to run a smart race with the heat possibly being a factor.

7.5 miles in the evening.

We had another track meet to run today so I ended up doing my easy 7.5 miles later in the evening.  The weather was a little hot.  It felt alright.

6.25 miles in the morning.

I did an easy 5 miles and then 4x400m on Ben Lomond's track.  I got wet nice and early this morning due to the sprinklers being on.  Usually I would be refreshed but that wasn't the case at 6 AM in the morning!

4.30 miles in the morning.

Another nice and easy stroll around the wonderful streets of Ogden this morning. 

3 easy miles this morning in Lehi.  I then went to the track meet and watched a ton of great performances. 

Today was an interesting race.  I didn't want to go out and do anything crazy but run a nice race and see what would happen.  I did an easy 1 mile warmup with some strides and went to the starting line.  I saw Seth Wold and knew this was his first marathon.  He told me that he was going to pace off of me.  Sasha, Seth, Clyde, and me went out and were very conservative for the first couple of miles.  At a mile 4, Seth and I started to move out a little bit.  Seth kept right behind the entire race up except for his potty break at the half and then until mile 21.  We hit the half at 1:12:30 and both were feeling fine.  We kept it nice and easy up the big hill and then I started to get a side stitch at about mile 16.  I worked it out a little bit but it didn't want to go away.  I knew Seth was quick on the track but he was right behind until mile 21.  I felt great and then all of a sudden my right hamstring tightened up and it shot down into my calf.  I knew it was bad.  It felt like it almost popped.  I had to stop and stretch it out even to get going again.  Seth took off and I knew my chances of taking 1st were gone.  My leg hurt really bad.  Our pace was close to Paul's 2:26 performance last year so I was really disappointed.  I had to stop about 10-15 times the last 5 miles in order to try and keep my hamstring loose.  Sasha caught me with just under 2 miles to go.  I was excited for Sasha because he ran a great race.  I basically hobbled to the finish line and then they had to rush me to the medical tent.  I couldn't believe how tight my right hamstring was.  I was happy with the 3rd place finish but disappointed with my time because I knew I was there.  I led the entire race up until mile 21.  Bummer!  I don't know if it was attributed to the hot weather or if I didn't stretch out enough but the hamstring went to pot the last couple miles.  I drank water and Powerade at each aide station.  I was happy for Seth and he came up to me afterwards and thanked me for pacing for the race.  That felt good but I was still a little disappointed.  Seth will be an OT guy for sure.  I'm just glad he is on my Wasatch Back team and nobody elses.  I am going to go to a doctor and get a lipid analysis to see if I need more potassium or anything else.  I will take this race just like last year's Ogden and use it for motivation to rock and roll for the rest of the year.  I am doing Twin Cities this fall and will be focused on that for the rest of the year.  You can't have a great race everyday.  Oh well!  You have to love the learning experiences we go through.  Fast Running Bloggers did very well today.  10 out of the top 12 were from the blog.  Sweet!  Here is the rundown of my mile splits:

1-5:41

2-5:42

3-5:23

4-5:26

5-5:22

6-5:25

7-5:27

8-5:27

9-5:31

10-5:36

11-5:32

12-5:30

13-5:34

14-5:31

15-5:58

16-5:50

17-5:45

18-5:32

19-5:40

20-5:40

21-5:59

22-5:59

23-6:00

24-7:13

25-7:08

26-7:55

.2-7:26

I will be back for sure!