Last year I was running 40-50+ miles per week. For the past few months I've not been doing much more than that per month, mostly due to a sore left Achilles, a career change, and bad weather. Considering my lack of conditioning, I'm quite pleased with the results of this race, even though it's 9 minutes slower than last year. I started out the race running with Wayne, even though I knew he was in better shape than me. He said he was going to start out easy. I hung with him okay for the first 5 miles or so, and managed to average sub-7:30 for the first half of the race: 7:31, 7:31, 7:13, 7:18, 7:36, 7:13, 7:27 My lack of training caught up with me on the uphills and in the latter miles: 7:50, 8:07, 7:47, 8:02, 8:26, 8:16
My time was 1:41:34 (7:47/mi). I finished 10th of 49 in the M 45-49 age division, and 171st of 1033 overall. Wayne finished in 1:38, Bill R. in 1:47, Larry in 1:57, Lyle in 2:17.
I'm encouraged that even with my pathetic training I still managed to finish in the top 20%. My left Achilles didn't bother me at all, but my right calf started feeling tight about mile 6 and two days later is still pretty sore, but it feels like it will heal up pretty quick (knock on wood). I enjoyed seeing my old Novell running buddies Tom (and Kim), Nathan, and Bill. Kim is injured and was walking the 5K just to fulfill the Runner Series requirement, so Tom walked with her (what a guy!). Nathan's daughter was running the 5K so he did, too. He finished in 19:35 (6:18/mi), 2nd in his division. Not too shabby! It sounded like Bill's training has been a little like mine this winter, and he seemed satisfied with his slower than normal 1:47 (8:15/mi) half marathon. I can relate.
Even though it was a little chillier than I hoped in St. George, it was still very nice running in shorts and not having to worry about icy roads, no shoulders, or poor footing. I felt my running fire rekindle a bit. I think once things thaw out here in Orem it will throw even more fuel on the fire. Karen and I enjoyed our quick getaway and I'm pleased with the results of the run. Life is good. No regrets.
| 