Long day, so I'll try to keep this short... Ran the Smithfield Half Marathon today. Got up at 4:30AM, had some coffee and oatmeal for breakfast, read a little bit, and then drove around Smithfield setting up yard sale signs (our church had a big yard sale & block party today, right after the race). Got back home at about 5:45AM, used the potty, and then raced down from my house to the Smithfield Rec Center, about a mile. Had a couple minutes before the race started, so got to use the bathroom again, and then it was time to go. I love local races that I can run to from my house. So much easier. This was the inaugural race, and I am pleased that Smithfield is putting on a half. With only the TOU Half, Cache Valley was overdue for another, and will certainly accommodate it. The course is tough though, not your prototype cream-puff Utah downhill screamer. This is truly "Not Yo Mama's Half" (the actual race name). It is a loop course with over a thousand feet of cumulative ascent and descent. But it's all very pretty, with a mixture of farmland, city, and canyon running. I eased into the race with a 5:40 first mile on the slight downhill, and nobody went with me. Kept that same ~5:40 pace on the next two uphill miles. And then dipped under 5:30 for miles 4, and 5 past the golf course, which were net downhill. I was feeling pretty good, and enjoying the run. These are all routes that I run on every day, but it felt especially good to run it early in the morning, and with flats and a singlet. Miles 6-8.5 were going uphill in the canyon. I was surprised to maintain a 5:30/mile pace, although markers may not have been great. Hit the turnaround at Mile 8.5, took some gatorade, and then started down. The downhill really clicked, and the rest of the miles were sub-5. I passed the entire field going the other way (about 200 runners), and we all exchanged "good job" to each other. Kind of fun. This race truly had a small-town feel to it, and I like it. Very laid-back. Got out of the canyon after Mile 11, and was still feeling good, and had a net downhill to Skyview, with the exception of the last quarter mile, which is up. As I was checking my watch during the last couple miles, I realized that a low-1:10, or even sub-1:10 was possible, which surprised me. My initial goal was to break 1:15, given the difficulty of the course, but halfway through I figured I was get around 1:12, but now it was looking even better. As I neared the finish, it didn't quite measure up. Sure enough, mile 13 was something like a 4:20 mile, and then the 0.1 was about right. So I ended up at 1:09:22, but the course was short by at least 35-40 seconds, maybe more. Maybe every mile was short, who knows. They measured it with a garmin this year, but maybe they'll use a bike or a jones counter next year. It's all good. Fun race, and I'm glad I ran it. All in all, city of Smithfield did a great job on the first-year event, and I hope to see it grow over the years. Good prizes too.
Ran home, and then set up and ran the yard sale the rest of the day.
Splits: 5:40, 5:41, 5:41, 5:26, 5:12, 5:28, 5:31, 6:15, 5:06, 4:51, 4:41, 4:49, 4:45, ?
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