Trying to keep up with you

Canyon run, easy.  Recovering from 3 days in the Uintas with a heavy pack.

Moderate effort up City Creek Canyon with Jeff and relaxed stride down.  Calves loosened a little more during this run.  No left knee pain.  Light wieghts after run.   Calves should be in good shape for the Provo Canyon Half Marathon this Saturday.

On the the uphill I noticed my ability to maintain a pace that requires labored breathing has increased and my recovery times have shortened.  This is likely due to the medication.

Two days to the Provo Canyon Half Marathon!  Don't want to make any predictions since it has been a very long time since I've raced a half marathon and a little over a year since my last marathon (which went very poorly).  I am optimistic given the way I've felt with the long runs for the past 3 months and how the Des News 10-k went.

Today was the last run prior to the race.  I ran up to the guards gate (City Creek Canyon) faster than I should of and then turned around till I met up with Dick.  Took it easy back up to the guards gate with Dick and coasted back down.  Everything feels ready to go this Saturday.  I just need to get a good noghts rest tonight since I am sure that I'll sleep poorly tomorrow night.

Great Race!  I was shooting for a sub 1:40 so I'm happy with the result.  The plan was to run at a 7:30 pace for the first 10 miles and then run as hard as I could the last 3.1.  However, I'm either blind or the race organizers didn't not provide mile markers for each mile.  So I ran on feel.  The first 4 minutes or so was very slow, trying to get around the slower runners.  But once I got into the right crowd I managed to find an ideal pace. 

Here are the splits I could manage to record:

Mile 1 - 6    44:31  7:25 ave pace    44:31 total

Mile 7 - 9    22:36  7:32 ave pace 1:07:07  total (didn't slow down much in the uphill portion)

Mile 10-11  14:47  7:23 ave pace  1:21:54 total

Mile 12          7:40  7:40 ave pace  1:29:34 total

Mile 13 to end 7:31 6:49 ave pace  1:37:05 total

My best guess is that Mile 12 was measured long and the last 1.1 miles was measured short.  I don't trust the markers much given the commetary that others have blogged.  However, I still managed a even split (first half of the race = second half of the race).