Top of Utah Half Marathon this morning. I got up at 5AM, and had some free time before Cody picked me up at 5:45AM. I started brewing a cup of coffee, and did a mile shake-out run from my house. Came back, grabbed the cup and my breakfast (banana, apple, and a peach), and fired up the ol' internet to watch Ritz's record-breaking 5K performance. Pretty cool race, and it was awesome to see Ritz take it to the east Africans. Looked like he was even gaining on Bekele for a while, until his wheels fell off in the last 200m. But that got me pumped to run today. Hitched a ride with Cody and AdamRW, and got on one of the middle buses. We got to the start well after 6AM, but that was okay with me since it was a forgone conclusion that the race would start late. After all, the race started late last year with ~1200 participants, so it should start twice as late this year with ~2400 participants. Weather was perfect, mid- to low-50s and clear.
Cody made the ultimate observation of the day: he noticed that the two portapotties that are always at the Hyrum City park were indeed still there...about 2 feet behind the main row of race portapotties and completely hidden from view (unless you happened to be looking from the bus). We got off the bus and made our way there. Sure enough, no one was aware of them and they were empty (there were already long lines on the others). We used them and it was great. I dubbed them "Narnia", since they were hidden and rather magical. We warmed up about a mile, and I eventually made two more visits to Narnia, making this a 3-star race. Eventually they lined us up, and it looked like the race would eventually start. It dragged on a bit, but I managed to chit-chat with Teren, Joe Wilson, and a few other folks I haven't seen in a while. The start line is always one of my favorite places for conversation. That probably annoys folks that get all stony-faced and serious at races, but that's okay. Before the gun, they told us that we had to stay on the right side of the road (in other words, could not run full tangents). If we did, there would be repercussions. Serious repercussions, judging by the look on the cop's face when the announcement was made. So that will add at least 20 seconds to everyone's time (since the course is certified using the full road). But whatever, it's aided anyway. So that's the pre-race write-up, which is the bulk of what I like to write about. The race itself went really well, and I completely surprised myself. It was mostly the fault of Teren and Aleksander, who pulled me out way to fast. I backed off of them in the first mile and let them go at it, but I still hit Mile 1 in 4:59. Miles 2-4 I tried to settle in. Splits for 2-4 were 5:04, 5:05, 5:07. I decided to just go with it and keep the train moving.
I was expecting a tailwind (based on our bus drive up), and we eventually got it. It was not too strong at first, but I could see it moving the weeds and grass along the road, so it was definitely there, probably about 10mph. The tailwind, combined with the steeper downhill on this part of the course, really sped me up for the next few miles. I just tried to stay steady and run within my means. Teren and Alex were up on me quite a bit, but I had no perception of how much, maybe a minute or more (they were flying!). But I wanted to hang on for 3rd, as getting passed is no fun, especially on my home course. Miles 5-7 were 4:55, 4:58, 4:48(!). Kind of shocking to me, but having run TOU several times, I know there markers are correct. The route enters Hollow Rd near the end of Mile 7, and this section is still downhill, but much more subtle. The canyon wind was still there, but more mellow than at the mouth of the canyon. I could still see Teren and Alex at times, and it looked like one had pulled away from the other by a little bit, but I could not tell who was who (both are taller, brown hair, and white singlets). But they did not seem to be moving away from me anymore. I was definitely working hard by Hollow Rd. but wanted to stay smooth and just make it to the uphill near the end of the race, then I would figure that out later. Miles 8-10 were 5:01, 5:08, 5:07. Miles 11 and 12 are the tough ones. Mile 11 starts out well enough on the flat, slightly downhill stretch along Hwy-165, but then turns into Millville and begins climbing a little. Mile 12 continues the climb and is uphill the whole way. Mile 13 is blissful downhill to the finish. I hit Mile 11 in 5:17, and was really laboring. The second place guy seemed to be getting closer, which was encouraging to me, but I was getting to the point in the race where I start making funny noises, and that's usually the redline point. So I wasn't too optimistic about catching him. In Millville, we were back on the grid system, so I could see that 2nd place was less than a block ahead of me (so probably ~30 seconds), and 1st place was a block or less ahead of 2nd (>1 minute from me). Cool. I'm happy to be that close to Teren and Aleksander. If 2nd place just completely tanked the last two miles, maybe I could catch him.
Unfortunately Mile 12 really wiped me out. I mean, it wasn't horrible or anything, but it pretty much took the pop out of my legs for the finish. Hit Mile 12 at 5:30, and tried to rally back to sub-5minute pace for the last downhill mile, but ended up 5:10 for Mile 13. Last 0.1 was about 30 seconds. I stopped my watch a few seconds after I finished and saw 1:06:45, which is splendid. Figured my actually time was 1:06:43 or so, since I stopped my watch late. I was very pleased and surprised by this race. I was in great shape back in June, but then did nothing but 40-mile weeks all of July with no workouts, so figured I would not be in great shape for this race. I thought sub-1:10 was reasonable, but not much faster than that. But I ended up with a great time and an aided-course PR by over two and a half minutes. Who knew? Even better, I finished 70 seconds back from Teren, and about 25 seconds back from Aleksander, and I'm usually not that close to those guys. In fact, Aleksander beat me by almost 4 minutes back in April at Striders. So that was pretty sweet, to lose in a non-humiliating fashion. People might think I'm being funny, but I'm mostly serious. I judge how well I do more on my competition, than my actual time. It was a deep race; Seth Wold was about 1:30 back from me, Nate Hornok about 3:30 back (I think). Jon 6th, then Albert, then I don't know. Seth was shaking his head and laughing afterward about his 1:08:30 being out of the money, but I guess that goes to show how much that race has improved over the years. 1:15 used to win, now you have to run 1:05. Crazy. Speaking of crazy times, my chip time was actually 1:07:05 (or so), about 25 seconds slower than my watch time. What's weird is that several people I talked to had correct chip times, but others experienced discrepancies similar to what I had. That's two races in a row for me with funny timing, and both races were done by Milliseconds...but I wore the same watch for both too. So either Milliseconds has some issues, or my watch battery is messed up for something. For now, I'm sticking with my watch time, but it's certainly possible that my watch is broken. Hmm...a mystery to solve...but not a big deal. 1:07 is still good. ***correction: Milliseconds have posted official results, and everything is ironed out. My watch is not crazy. They probably just had to correct for curvature of the earth or something. My official time is 1:06:42. Teren in 1:05:55, Aleksander in 1:06:17. I was closer to Teren than I thought.
Enjoyed my $100 prize by having lunch at Angies. Will probably spend the rest on a moving truck and other incidentals next week.
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