UTAH VALLEY HALF MARATHON
This is my second time running this half; the first time two years ago was miserable. I was sick and struggled the whole way. Today, was quite the opposite. I felt surprisingly good, despite heavy legs earlier in the week. I really enjoyed the race out there this morning. Temps were perfect, with the whole race being run before the sun hit me. There was also a noticeable tailwind for sections of the first half in the canyon, which was nice.
Before the race my stomach was not too happy, so I didn't get much of a warmup, only 1.4 miles which included a couple half-hearted strides. The field of competitors was loaded up front. Ryan Hall was in the race, but he ended up doing a fartlek of alternating 5:00 miles with 7:00 miles I think.
At the gun I settled into second behind Brett Hales, who has an OTQ in the half earlier this year. After a tenth of a mile or so Ryan Hall passed me and settled in right behind Brett. After the mile Hall slowed down and I took over second place and stayed there the rest of the race.
I measured the gap from Hales to me a few times and despite some sub-5:00 miles in the middle, he was still increasing his lead. I ran strong the whole way though and actually negative split the course. I did some poor math in my head somehow and thought I could break 1:06 if I ran last four miles at 5:02 pace. So I really went after those miles and then with one mile to go and I did the math again and realized I wasn't really all that close afterall to 1:06 and I think that killed my spirit a bit and I let up the last mile a little.
But overall I'm happy with the result. I was second place in 1:06:49. Brett won in 1:05:44. There were a lot of other great performances out there today. Congrats to everyone that ran. Utah Valley puts on a great race and is very organized with great staff and volunteers. Thanks to all of them!
Garmin Splits: 5:10 5:05 5:15 5:04 4:52 4:53 5:03 4:57 5:01 5:04 5:12 4:57 5:08 and 4:50 pace for the leftover change.
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