Bad night sleep. Lots of dreams and sleeplessness at 2am. On to the race: We got to the buses at 5:45. Marcie and Jody were there and Paul and I rode up the same bus as them so we could chat on the way up. Jody, Marcie and I run the .75 miles up to the starting line to warm up, and we joined Josse there. There were lots of bloggers at the race (some even with purple ponytails!). We contemplate waiting in line for toilets but the stench downwind from them was bad, so I hit the bushes twice while warming up. At the start line Dustin made up the contingency of bloggers who could beat me today. It sounded like we might be able to run together. Marie Glahn (a Sojourner I met at the Provo 1/2) showed an interest in tagging along with me so I invite her to start with me. I am not aware of any female competitors (there was a registration list and I checked for any potential female competitors) but anyone could pop up. My plan is to run 5:40's for the first 15k then just try to hang below 6:00 for the next couple of miles and be as close to 6:00 for the last mile. This is a downhill course, the fastest in Utah, and I thought it would be about 2 minutes faster than the Provo 1/2 (not 4 minutes as predicted by the predictor). I was hoping to break 1:16, but would be happy with 1:16:40, but turns out I have to be content with 1:17:14. I took splits from the road markers since I knew the GPS watch would be useless. 1 - 5:48, downhill, The race start was a siren (like a police siren), very confusing if you ask me. Very quickly Mike Vick takes off and then its Dustin and I leading the rest of the runners. We are perplexed why there aren't some inexperienced young ones popping out a 5:00 or some fast runners ahead (besides Mike, of course). I am concerned that maybe we are going too fast since Marie Glahn didn't go with us (she said she wanted to start at 5:30), but Dustin got a little ahead by the one mile mark and the mile was 5:48. Turns out Dustin was right on pace and I was behind goal. 2 - 5:33, downhill, I catch up to Dustin and we run together (very nice) 3 - 5:53, downhill with some rollers, Dustin pulls away at about 2.75 (why did I let him, not like my pace was hard), water stop at mile 3 made his small lead a little harder to bridge 4 - 5:26, much better, still downhill 5 - 5:45, downhill
6 - 5:59, downhill, no! too slow, have been running behind Dustin since 2.75, trying to bridge the gap, I noticed he is not running tangents too well so I try to use that to my advantage, gu at 6 miles, water stop at 6.5
7 - 5:54, thrilled with this split because this mile is tough, two uphill sections, but overall the mile is still downhill 8-9 11:24 for the two miles (missed the mile 8 marker because there was a water station there), getting hot!, rolling downhill, but the uphill sections make it hard to keep my rhythm
10 - 6:10, this mile is so stinky, it is the same place where I didn't do well with James last Saturday, thankfully there were some spectators so I couldn't totally dog it 11 - 6:02, I wanted this mile to be below 6:00 so bad, but I was close, I passed Dustin at 10.5 as we went up a hill that lasted only .2 but seems so nasty at this point in the race, 12 - 6:19, wheels wobbling, just get me to the finish line 13 - I have to get a 5:59 by my watch to be sub 1:17, so I try to be close, but only manage a 6:09 or so (I didn't lap for the 13 mile mark, too close to the finish). I didn't kick at the end as much as I should have :( Overall, I wish I could have been 1:16:40 or faster, but it was a great workout, and I think my effort never slacked off too much (some weakness in mile 12 but not too long of a weak point). I just kept telling myself to keep up the effort, to turn over those tired legs. I think this race is great preparation for St. G because it pounds your legs then you get flat at the end and you have to find a way to keep with it. I won the race by about 3 minutes, and posted a time comparable to some elite ladies who have gone to OTQ, so I can't complain. After the race I met several bloggers I haven't met face to face. Most notably 1) Marion-self proclaimed peanut gallery of the blog, who is way cuter in person than even her picture on her blog, it is awesome when people's personality are as sweet and cute as their outside. She is perfect! and 2) Brent finally! He congratulated me but I didn't know who he was at all, so I asked his name and it was B of BS Rools! And I met Sylvie too.
I won a bouquet of flowers, a $150 gc to Runners Corner (everything is way overpriced there, so this is worth maybe 4 pieces of clothing on sale), a pair of shoes and a plaque (not bad!, much better than the Provo River 1/2). It was quite a festive atmosphere, especially as I get to know more and more runners in the community.
Lots of bloggers posted PR's and great performances. I can't wait to read some race reports (sorry mine is so long). | 