El Burro Blanco

7.15 miles in the morning.

9.35 miles in the late evening.

I woke up a touch late this morning so I wasn't able to go longer than 7 miles.  I had another early meeting at work.  I ran this morning at a 7:18/mile pace.  I am really excited for the half this weekend.  I was at the school all day due to getting ready for school starting on Wednesday.  We also had Back to School night until 7:30.  I finally got home about 8:15 or so and then chatted with Katey for a bit.  I finally got my run in after a long day.  I did a warm up of 1 mile and then did the next 5 miles at 6:30/mile pace.  I finished the last 3 miles with a 6:15/mile pace.  At the end of my run I did a light cool down.  I was glad to have this run over with.  I was tired!

7.05 miles in the morning.

8.70 miles in the evening.

I woke up and did the same run as yesterday morning at about the same pace.  On my evening run I decided to a little bit of tempo.  I warmed up with 2 miles at 7:18/mile pace and then did 5 miles at 6:00/mile pace.  I finished up the run with 1.5 miles at a 5:42/mile pace.  Nothing to exciting and didn't feel like I pushed it to much.  Hopefully everything goes well Saturday.

6.5 miles in the morning.

9 miles in the early evening. 

I was up trying to get everything ready for school starting today. I don't feel to ready. It is weird to think the kids are already back. The pace was right around 7:20/mile this morning. Another nice, relaxed run.  I got home from the first day of school at around 5:30 and went out for my run.  Yes, I survived the first day!  I did my run up along the mountain going towards North Ogden.  The black clouds were coming but it wasn't to bad at first.  I wasn't pushing the pace by any means but did average 6:36/mile pace for the first 4.5 miles.  As soon as I turned around I had to really kick it into gear.  I did not want to go very fast today but that changed quick.  I heard thunder and saw lightning.  I also got drenched with huge balls of rain.  It almost felt like hail.  I did the last 4 miles at 5:41, 5:37, 5:29, and 5:27/mile pace.  I am sure people driving in their cars looked at me and thought what a idiot.  You gotta run no matter what the weather is like!  The lightning did make me a little nervous though. 

5 miles in the morning.

6 miles in the evening.

I did an easy 5 mile run this morning at 7:24/mile pace.  I will do a few more miles tonight and then run once tomorrow to get ready for hopefully a fast TOU/half.  I did another easy 6 miles this evening.  Nothing to serious but just kept the legs moving.  Katey biked alongside me. 

After work I did an easy 6 miles just to keep the legs loose for tomorrow.  I hope all goes well.  We will see.

Today was a very interesting day for me running.  I felt great when I woke up and was excited for the race today.  I got up to the starting area and did a short .30 mile warm-up.  I then went to the starting line and saw everybody there.  Jon, Paul, James, Cody, Walter, and a couple USU runners were also running today.  The temperature was about 45 degrees at the starting line.  It was a perfect day to run.  I talked with Paul and he said that he was going to try and hit 5:20/mile pace down the canyon.  I decided to stick with him for a bit and then see what happens after the canyon ended.  The race started and I was about 5 to 10 yards behind Paul up until mile 4.  He slowed down a little bit and said that I should go for it.  It was a nice push for the first 4 miles.  I was feeling good and ready to roll after this.  I was in the lead for the rest of the race until about mile 11.5.  I missed the correct turn going back into Providence and went about 3 blocks to far east.  They didn't have anyone there to tell me when to turn.  I stopped twice and tried to find my way back to the course.  I went back down and saw Walter and Jon so I finally turned down the correct road and eventually caught back up with them.  I went by them and came in 2nd place overall.  Half-marathons are usually just 13.1 miles long but I ended up doing just over 14 miles when I crossed the finish line!  Paul ended up coming back and running the last quarter of a mile with me.  He knew that I didn't make the right turn.  I crossed the finish line and one of the race directors realized that they didn't have anyone out on the course where I missed the turn.  She said that they missed me by about 45 seconds.  Oh well!  Things like this happen.  I need to get me a "I'm with stupid" shirt and have the arrow pointing straight at me.  I ended up runing 1:13:42 according to my Garmin.  5:16/mile pace overall.  This included 2 stops and going 14 miles!  Here are my splits:

1- 5:18

2- 5:19

3- 5:17

4- 5:13

5- 5:08

6- 5:06

7- 5:04

8- 5:09

9- 5:14

10- 5:11

11- 5:18

12- 5:41 = going uphill on the wrong route and stopping twice, doooh!

13- 5:19

14- 5:13

14.1- :12

I am a little disappointed because I would have PR'd by about a minute if I made the correct turn.  I was at 1:08:17 at my mile 13.  This course was much slower than Bryce Canyon and it was ideal race conditions.  Despite my blunder, I am really stoked about St. George.  I am ready and need to keep pushing myself for the next month.  The Logan running guys represented well.  Cody and Jon both got PR's.  Paul won the race on a training run and James ran a good race despite a week of not running much due to his trip.  Congrats to all of them.  I did 2.85 mile cooldown with the Logan guys.  What a day!