Let's just say it rained..... I got to the start of a 5:30 race at 5:15 because the driver of the bus I was on did not know where he was going and missed the turn at the top and kept heading to Park City. It was OK though because he wasn't the only one to do it and the race started 15 minutes late. It started raining pretty good about 5 minutes before we started so we were all pretty wet. I decided to start farther back in the pack so I wouldn't start out too fast. I did not want a repeat of Ogden as I am still battling the same hip/groin issue. I jumped in about 1 or so minutes after the gun and ran with the crowd. My goal was originally to try for something between 3:15 and 3:20 depending on how the day went. 1. 7:14 Right where I wanted to be. 2. 6:57 Probably got a little carried away. 3. 7:09 Better pacing, starting to feel the pain already in the hip/groin area. 4. 7:10 Staying steady. 5. 7:08 Good. 6. 7:14 Starting to rain harder. 7. 7:52 Lots of uphill and rollers, injury hurting worse. 8. 7:59 More of the same At this point it was decision time. Do I stop and stretch like I did in Ogden or just soldier on? Based on my runs the last 2 weeks, the stretching feels good but doesn't really help so my new goal was to see if I could just run the whole way without stopping no matter what the time ended up. 9. 7:17 We are back downhill again. 10. 7:29 Not too bad. We passed last year's start line in this mile. 11. 7:45 This mile had a good portion of uphill again. It hurt but I survived. 12. 7:28 A little better. 13. 7:36 Really raining again. The tunnel was a nice break. Half Split 1:37:30 I am 2 minutes behind Ogden pace, but I am determined to run a better 2nd half than I did 4 weeks ago. I figure that if I hold a decent pace until the bottom of the canyon I will be in the 3:25 range when I slow down on the flat the last 6+ miles.
14. 7:38 I can live with this. 15. 7:53 Our last real uphill mile. 16. 7:30 Hips really not liking the downhill. 17. 7:27 Still OK. 18. 7:32 Worrying about how bad I will slow down on the flat. I figure that if I run 8 flat through town I will be at 3:22. 19. 7:40 Last real downhill mile. 20. 7:33 I actually felt better as the course flattened out. 21. 7:31 Feeling pretty good. Passing a lot of people now that the downhill is done. 22. 7:24 I am feeling really good now and reeling runners in like crazy. 23. 7:24 There was an uphill in this mile.....didn't seem to matter to me. 24. 7:23 Still cruising. Hoping I can hold it. I know I will be under 3:20 now. 25. 7:20 I can smell the finish line. 26. 7:30 Slowed by the overpass but still moving. 26.2 7:09 Tried to get it under 3:16. Didn't quite make it. I feel VERY GOOD about how strong I felt the last 7 miles on the flatter course. I was able to push a better pace. I am still not as fast as last year, but you have to train fast to run fast and I have not done that yet. I feel VERY confident that I will be sub-3 by late summer-early fall. It stopped raining when we got out of the canyon, so the last 6-7 miles were a bit drier. When I took off my shoes back at the motel, however, my feet were wrinkled and pruny from how wet they were but at least blister-wise I am OK. Still need to improve the injury issue, but I feel much better than I did after Ogden.
| 