Super cool race this afternoon. This race should be packed with people. For $30 you get a t-shirt, BBQ, live music and BEER! In addition, I talked with several Fast Running blog people and met the St. George marathon record holders (Devra out-kicked me the last mile)and John Cahill (MC the event).
My plan was to use this race as speed work before the Top of Utah marathon next week. At the start, several runners told me it was a bad idea, so I was going to go a little easy; however, you get sucked up into the downhill speed and well....I ended up racing it. Mile 1: 5:03. 200+ feet of drop. This is crazy fast...and I'm going to run 4 more of these?
Mile 2: 4:55. 400+ feet of drop. Even faster, but start to get into a rhythm. There is no way I could run this time for just 2 miles on a flat track.
Mile 3: 5:04. 300+ feet of drop. I begin to hear expected foot step behind me. I just ran a 15:38 5K. I remember thinking, this is Paul's marathon pace?
Mile 4: 5:04 400+ feet of drop. Rob and Devra are right behind me ready to pass.
Mile 5: 4:53 450+ feet of drop. I tried to keep contact with Rob and Devra. They pulled me in to the finish. Crazy PRs all around. I had a quick water/recovery and decided to run back up the canyon. This was a bad idea. After 1 mile up, I was done. Luckily, Stephanie Talley's husband picked me up. My legs didn't feel too bad, so I should be able to run fine on Monday (I hope so).
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