Plan for this was to run it smarter than I ran the 10K, to be more conservative in the first half and do well on the uphills. I realized as I was leaving my house, I was giving myself only 1 hour to drive, instead of the 1:45 it takes to drive there. Oops. So sped up there. I got there around 7:33 (race time 8am). I realized when I got there that I had no watch. Brother. So I got my number then ran down to Harrison, looked at two gas stations and Smiths to see if I could find a watch, but none were sold there. So asked random people if they had a spare watch and with just minutes to start a guy takes pity on me and goes to his car to get a spare watch. It was a gps with not a full race-worth of battery in it. He got back about 4 seconds before the race started so I held the watch, trying to get the gps to register, during the first bit of the race. Stephanie Talley (reigning champ of St G marathon) and Sariah Long (who beat me in the 10k) were both there. Despite my desire to start easy got a 6:11 (plan was 6:30) first mile (uphill then downhill). Stephanie came along side. Sariah is just behind. I really want to take the screaming downhill mile in the second mile easy, so it doesn't thrash my legs. Sariah comes up in the second mile and we are a three lady pack. Pretty cool. 5:48 (plan was 5:50). I want to push it because there are ladies around but I keep reminding myself that the race starts at mile 5. Mile 3 was 6:08 I think, it was faster than my planned 6:20, but it was a bit downhill net still, and I felt good. Mile 4 was like a death march in the last race, rolling but net uphill, but this time felt good. I was leading the ladies but they were right there, 6:24 I think (plan was 6:30). Mile 5 started the nasty hill, I think I was about 7:08 (was hoping for 7:00), Sariah passed here, but I kept pretty close, didn't give up on this hill like on the 10k. Mile 6 was 7:17 (hoping for 7:00), Stephanie passes, but I keep pretty close to her, Sariah is inching further away (maybe 20 sec, Stephanie is about 5 sec up). Mile 7 is the real meat grinder, my legs are tired and I am tired of fighting (elevation change between 3 and 7 miles is 931 feet), and they gap me the best on this mile, and my watch stops working so I am running by feel. Finally crest at 7 miles and we have two good downhill miles ahead of me, so I start to reel them in. Stephanie starts the downhill about 25 sec ahead of me, I close it to about 12 (I am counting at major turns), Sariah pulls up with what looked like a cramp, so I am now in second place, but there is a hill at the beginning of mile 10 that, in retrospect, I just crawled up. Sariah must have jumped back in the race because she passes me again, and I didn't really care at that point (I really care now, and am pissed at myself for not fighting) but I crawled up the hill, then tried to finish strong. 3rd place. Dang. So this race was. . .character building. Uphills are definitely not more forte. I can handle hills less than a mile in length but these long, steep climbs are just brutal. I definitely did better in this race than in the 10k (splits on miles 4, 5, and 6 were better), but have a lot of room for improvement. I am very glad that the next two races in the series are not hilly beasts, which will help me to compete better. The 18k does have a 5k uphill bit, but it is more like a 2% grade overall and in the first half and there is lots of race after it, so I am feeling good. I need to focus now on some excellent training between now and the Ogden half ;) Core workout in the evening.
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