Perfect weather for a race and I am glad that I did it. My goals going into this were not to worry that much about pace but run on feel and see how the legs would handle some speed. I haven't done any fast stuff in over a month.
The race started off fast due the steep downhill. I went out and about a mile into it I heard footsteps right behind me. It was Tony Jones. This was his first half marathon and said he was going to pace off of me. We talked about him running at Utah State and SUU. We had good conversation throughout the entire race. He told me to take off because he wasn't feeling that great but I told him I had nothing to gain by blowing away from him. It was fun to run with somebody. I kept it relaxed and felt great throughout the entire race.
We came down Snow Canyon State Park and then went back up the West Canyon Trail for about 2 miles of dirt and then came back down. It was a nice change of scenery but the legs slipped a couple times. Tony stayed with me right until the end where I kicked it in once we reached the high school.
The course was a touch short but I was happy with the time. I averaged 5:23/mile overall. My legs felt good and I was really happy about that. Katey is going to give me some strength exercises to help me with my leg strength and also other core exercises. I am excited to see what will happen. I am most likely going to do the Painter's Half Marathon in January but I will see how I feel over the next little while. No sense of racing anymore races for the rest of the year.
Congrats to all who ran today. It was fun meeting some new bloggers for the first time. |