What a great weekend. I got away with my family Thursday afternoon and arrived in Provo around 9 pm. I slept in Friday morning then went to the lunch Riverton Paul organized. It was a lot of fun and the food was perfect for carb loading. Thanks Paul for getting that set up. Had pizza for dinner and drugged myself with Lunexa which allowed me to get the best nights sleep I have ever gotten on the night before a race. Got up at 3 am. Went and picked up Ross at his hotel and headed to the busses. It was cool up there at the starting area, but we were able to get close to the fire and had a good time chatting with the other runners. I was still in the POP line when the gun went off. I crossed the start line about 4 minutes after the start. I was breathing hard on the first mile which made me nervous that the altitude was going to affect me more than I thought. Then I realized the first mile was up hill. I was back on track by the end of the second mile. I found a nice groove. The hills between mile 7 and 12 where definitely larger and more numerous than I thought they would be. I hit the half way mark 17 seconds behind pace at 1:37:47, if I were going even split a 3:15. Looking back on the course that is about right. I think this course should be run with a negative split. At mile 17 my quads started screaming at me. I was a bit worried that they wouldn't hold up for the rest of the race. Since I've been injured all year and have not done any real long runs in a while I figured that soon my whole body would shut down and call it quits. As each mile passed and I kept running at the pace I had planned, my confidence grew. At mile 23 I was exactly on pace to run a 3:15. Unfortunately that is where my lack of training caught up with me. I ran the last 3 miles each in 7:51 and the last 0.2 at that same pace. I was trying everything to get my body to go faster, but I just couldn't. Ended up finishing in 3:16:09, 69 seconds behind my goal, but still a BQ. I am grateful that I was even healthy enough to run the race and even more grateful to have been able to run a Boston qualifying time with such little training. After the race I had a great time at lunch that Doone put together. I have such a great wife. It capped off a great day. | 