Well everyone has good and bad days running and this just happened to be one of my worst days ever! I warmed up before the race and was feeling really crappy, and I knew that I was in for a long hard time.
All of my buddies were at the start Paul, Logan, Jon, Walter, and Cody. I didn't care about the place today, but my goal was a sub 1:13. I figured it was easily possible since I had about done it at Provo and this is just as fast or faster of a course. The problem was my body felt like death during the warm up and I knew it wouldn't get much better, eventhough I tried to stay positive. My first mile I went out at 5:30, right where I wanted to be, but the rest of the race was progressively slower and miserable. Jon and Walter came up from behind me after after a couple of miles, and each one pretty much told me that I looked like crap! I was hurting the whole time, the tightness, cramps, and feeling sick to my stomach just wouldn't pass and kept getting worse. The parts of the course that I should have been flying I was dying, even with a sweet tail wind coming out of the canyon I continued to slow down. Here are my splits:
Mile 1: 5:30
Mile 2: 5:40
Mile 3: 5:39
Mile 4: 5:47
Mile 5: 5:38
Mile 6: 5:35
Mile 7: 5:31
Mile 8: 5:47
Mile 9: 6:01
Mile 10: 6:01
Mile 11: 6:12
Mile 12: 6:18
13.1: 6:09
Finish time was 1:15:54
I not only hurt physically but I was dying mentally too. If Cynthia Fowler wouldn't have caught me and passed me like I was standing still at just before mile 12, I would have stopped and walked. I had it all planned out to stop walk, stretch out, and try to make myself throw up or something. When I got passed by the first woman I started to get mad and pushed through the pain enough to to pass her and hold her off for the last mile. There was no way that I was going to get chicked! I honestly can never remember feeling so crappy in a race, other than a 1500 meter race that I ran at Southern Utah years ago where I had to be packed off the finish line. The problem was I am not sure why? I know I was mentally never into that race even before I got registered, but physically I am in pretty darn good shape right now! I know my stress has been high with moving, starting student teaching, and other life issues, but I had hoped that my trip to Island Park and Yellow Stone would help that. I really don't know what happened, but hopefully I don't feel like that in St. George or I won't even break 3 hours and possibably wouldn't finish.
Logan had some mishaps and lost the course, I don't know about those St. George friends of mine running through Milleville, they seem to have a hard time not getting lost!!! Although Logan lost the course he proved that he is in the 2:25 marathon league with a killer run! The rest of the guys ran awesome, and seemed very pleased with their time and performances, and they should have. I felt bad about belly aching around when Jon, Cody, and some of the others all ran so well, and I was being so negative. Paul is amazing, doing a workout and beating Demetrio Cabanillas’ record by over 30 seconds! I am disappointed with my race but was glad to be done and hope I never feel that bad again. I won't break 1:13 this year now so maybe next. I think the worst thing was, I had a bad experience last year at this race and really wanted to have a good one this year, and it was an hundred times worse. I like TOU half and want to do it again, but honestly I am kind of scared of it!
I cooled down with the guys for a while and then kept going until I found my wife and sister running. I ran the rest of the way back with them and was having a hard time keeping their 10 minute mile pace up. They did really well for their first 1/2, and were happy with their races. Both Allison and Tarynia ran 2:14:03. All of my friends swept the race, and wards, but not the prizes as usual. I will chalk this one up as a learning experience and try to remember the good, which was everything post race!
(Tangent-188 miles) | 