I must do this race since it will be at least three years until I will next be in Provo for Independence Day. I am not in 10k shape, so I thought I would run it a bit differently. I have run this race many times and I usually go out too fast (in the first uphill mile and the second blazing fast downhill mile, or the third .5% downhill mile) then the hills in the second half turn the race into a death march cum humility check, so since I know I am sucking wind because of the altitude and I am not in 10k shape, I thought I would try a different approach and run the first half conservatively. However money was three deep and it appeared that Kassi was the only one who clearly outclassed me, so I thought I should keep the girl count in mind. Paul and my three boys were also running. Paul had gotten into Utah the day before so was suffering from jetlag but was going to muscle through the 10k and the boys were doing the 5k. 3.6k warm up (120 ave hr), 2 strides, Paul and I chatted with Gary Lew from HK at the start, and I talked with Kassi, and Gary and I started together for the first half mile. I wanted to keep my hr in the first half around 167 or lower then to try to push the second half and see if I could get my hr above 170, and even up past 175 by the finish (the uphills should help) (I didn't get my coach's email to not look at my hr until after the race). So I switched my watch to miles that morning to match mile markers: mile 1: net uphill 6:27/158 5th pace in women, mile 2: fast downhill 6:02/166 4th place in women, mile 3: slight downhill 6:22/167 3rd woman, mile 4 slight uphill, started trying to close gap on #2 woman 6:21/170, mile 5 was slight net uphill but had an uphill then a downhill, 6:19/172, I passed #2 girl at about 4.5 miles, still alot of race to run, mile 6 all uphill, passed a couple more guys, but the uphill was hard b/c dodging lots and lots of slow 5kers 6:37/172, last .25: 5:38 pace despite dodging racers and 173 hr (I know my hr got higher than 172/173 but those were the averages for the splits recorded by my watch). I was really happy with how I ran the race. Ironically, I think this is the best race I have done on this course strategically, even though it is my worst time since 2007. I know I ran it well for the shape I am in + altitude woes. US miles: 23
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