Bad sleep. I dreamt I got to meet Green Day then went to one of their homes (they lived with their mom) and I proceeded to lecture the poor fellow on how he wasn't living his life well. For the race I was hoping to break 1:20 but the gold goal was to hit 6:00/mile ave pace (1:18:41 or so). I did it and got first place too! Woke up at 4:10am, ate two pieces of whole wheat bread, picked up the babysitter, and took off with Paul to Provo. There were a ton of buses at the Riverwoods. We got in a line and got on the first bus that filled up, but it turns out we cheated because there was a long line of people in the other direction trying to get on. Sorry. At the top James was doing his best to get the buses to turn around in an orderly manner. Our bus hit a sign on a tight curve at the turn around point. I left my bag at the start and helped James with the buses for a few minutes, then ran downhill to the park with restrooms. It was about 1.5 miles before I got there, so I took it nice and easy back up the mountain to the start. Stretched and chatted with bloggers. I didn't recognize Dave Holt with his buzz, nor Steve C, who I mistook for Adam, who I haven't seen in forever. I am full of faux pas. I met Kristen (used to be Barnes) from my BYU college days and we chatted for a while. I also met a couple of Sojourners. I had enough time for all the prerace business so it was perfect from that stance. On to the race: My GPS watch misbehaved the whole time so I had to make complicated calculations in my head and I don't remember all of my splits. I'll break it down the best I can for posterity: Miles 1-4, steepest downhill, 5:40's or so, the male bloggers dominate the front packs and I wish I could stay with them, they had such a nice pack, but I knew I should be 10-20 secs behind them so I keep my distance, Craig blows by me at mile 1 or 2 and I let him go because I don't want to blow out my legs on the downhill. I hope to get him later but he was always just ahead. Mile 5 6:01 (per mile marker)- starts downhill then a gradual uphill as we hit the highway. I just try to reel in Red shirt while on the highway Mile 6 6:06 - more uphill on highway then start to hit some more downhill, I get right up on red shirt but he doesn't like it so won't let me pass Mile 7 5:45 or so - we have a water stop so I take a gu, red shirt puts some distance on me, I nearly choke on my water, and my shoe lace unties, I try to run with it untied and ended up never stopping to tie it (but I have a blister as thanks for that). Mile 8 5:50 something like that, trying to get into a manageable rhythm for the rest of the race Mile 9 6:26 perhaps the mile marker was off for the 9th mile, or I slowed down. I tried not to panic with such a slow time for this mile, I gave up alot of the cushion I wanted for the last three miles, I tell myself to run the next mile faster Mile 10 6:00 (all miles are per mile markers) a much stronger mile, I switch my watch to total race time and tell myself to push hard to see if I can be under 66 minutes at mile 11. Mile 11 65:38, this is a flat mile, feeling in the groove, I know I can hit six minute average pace for the race if I stay strong for the last two miles, trying for a 6:10 for mile 12 Mile 12-13 have no idea on splits for these, I tried to stay tough but there was no mile 12 marker and I was in no mans land, red shirt was way ahead, noone behind, I try to pick it up in mile 13 but feel the need to go to the bathroom so I back off. Last .1, lots of cheering for #1 lady and I give a little kick and I try to smile, and I raise my hands for the finish, but there's no ribbon so its pretty dorky to do that really. The clock at the end was a minute off and I stop my watch a little late (too busy raising my hands) at 1:18:42, so my time was likely 1:18:40 or so. Yeah! I won and I got the time predicted from the Deseret News 10K! I think this course was faster than last years because of the course change, so it is likely only 2 minutes slower than Hobble Creek instead of the 4 minutes the race predictor "predicts". I met several people after the race. Hopefully they'll join the blog (if you are reading this, join the blog already!). FRB/St. GRC had an awesome showing today. I hope it caught the attention of some media and we'll get a newspaper article out of this race. On an embarrassing note, I took an "ice bath" with my new thermometer and it only registered 61 degrees, way too tepid to be much of use. I have been putting in more ice, and I accidentally put too much water in, but I will continue to monitor my ice bath temperature, and try to drop it down to an acceptable range (I also need to research ideal range for it, though I am sure its not in the 60's). weight 122 - I thought I would be below 120 by this time of year, but I am meeting my racing targets without a lower weight, so perhaps this is my ideal running weight? I still have some junk in my trunk but perhaps I always will.
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