The forecast was for a windy day. At the morning sign up the wind wasn't blowing hard yet. The race started at 6:30AM. They also had a 10K that stared at 6:30 but headed in the opposite direction and a 5K that started at 7:00AM. The Half marathon is on dirt roads for about 2/3rds of the race.
There were only about 30 people that came to the Half starting line. I heard they had over 200 registered total. I thought I would have a good chance of winning with such a small crowd but there was a couple of guys that looked like they new what they were doing.
The teenager that started the race didn't give any information or direction so I was hoping the course was marked well. She just said ready GO! The first 3 miles of the race is mostly west out of town which is slightly down hill. The two guys I was eyeing before the race took off fast. At the half mile mark they were both 10 yards ahead of me and my watch said we were still under a 6 minute average. I new this was a little to fast for me but I thought they surely would slow down. I was right with one of the guys, he did slow down and I passed him just before mile one. He looked like he was fading so I thought it was now a two person race. The guy in 1st was the young Travorts husband. He was slowy gaining on me but I didn't dare go any faster. Just hoping he would slow down before the end of the race.
At about mile 2.5 I started hearing footsteps coming up on me. I was going fast enough so I just kept my pace. I thought that guy I passed must have got his second wind but low and behold it was a woman! What is going on. I'm in a little town race and now I'm getting passed by a woman! Third place is not what I was thinking when the race started. She passed me with some good energy. By mile 5 she had passed the 1st place guy. They were both about 30 seconds or more ahead of me.
At about 6.5 miles the suprise came. We ran into HWY 89. I new from looking at the race map that we had gone to far east and had missed a turn. They both made a false move of trying to cross the road and going on this really rustic dirt road but I decided to head back into town on Hwy 89 and then see if I could find my way back onto the course. I should have studied the map better before he race. They both decided I looked like I knew what I was doing so they followed me. I wasn't long before the woman caught and passed me but the other guy never caught up. I'm guessing it metally messed with his mind to know we were off course. The woman got another 20-30 second lead on me when she decided to turn east at the Co-op which is were the race started to ask for direction. I turned west to go down and get back on the course. She saw what I was doing and couldn't find anyone left at the Co-op so she stared chasing me again. She did catch me but didn't pass me we such vigor this time. After a couple of more miles she had about a 20 second lead on me which she kept all the way to the finish. The wind really picked up after a few miles into the race. Miles 10-12 back into town were tough.
I did get chicked but I felt better when I found out she was a distance runner from SUU. I won the mens division and got $50 cash! No prizes for second place. My sophmore son Dallas ran the 5K in 18:55 and got second place. Maybe next year he can collect some cash.
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YR2012 |
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| 1 |
6:09 |
Down |
| 2 |
6:20 |
Down |
| 3 |
6:37 |
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| 4 |
6:42 |
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| 5 |
7:01 |
up |
| 6 |
7:25 |
up |
| 7 |
6:57 |
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| 8 |
6:31 |
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| 9 |
6:35 |
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| 10 |
6:56 |
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| 11 |
7:33 |
into wind |
| 12 |
7:24 |
into wind |
| 13 |
6:40 |
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| 13 |
:07 |
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1:28.56 |
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