It was 28 degrees when we started from the Just Cuz Half Marathon finish line at Centennial Park. This marathon is set up like the full marathon at Timpanogos where you run up the mountain and turn around at the half start and run back. The 2 guys that finished 1st and 2nd last year showed up again....darn. I decided to carry my own water as the aid-stations would be unmanned all the way up.
We had a pretty nasty and very cold headwind until we finally turned up the canyon around the 5.5 mile mark. I was glad to trade the wind for the uphill and actually ran better once we turned. My goal was to get to the start before the half marathoners started. I wanted to be there in 1:57. I ended up getting there in about 1:56:30 so I was good. The half wouldn't start for about 15 minutes so I was happy. The last 2 miles up are very steep and my split on 13 was 10:50 with no walking at all. I made the turn and headed back down. My legs just would not give me the turnover to run the quick miles I had hoped on the way back. I ran strong and never took a single walk-break the entire run so I feel good about that. I was finally able to shed my windbreaker around mile 18 and the temperature was in the 40's. The first of the half marathoners caught me around 21.5 miles. Kory looked good as he passed and he finished in a 1:19. My hip flexors started to bug me around mile 22. Probably from all the hills (up and down). But I was able to press on and didn't have any bonk miles at the end. I finished in 3rd place overall. The winner was in 3:22 (a new PR for him), and 2nd place was a 3:32 and 4th was in 4:17 so we were really spread out. I managed to run this race only 42 seconds slower than the Pocatello marathon and considering the course is probably 15-20 minutes slower I feel I ran a good race. | 