A.M. Today was the Deseret News Practice Run. I had two purposes. Measure how long it takes to get to the start of the race from my house following the magic route through Heber, Kimball Junction, and Jeremy Ranch road; and to run the first 16 miles of the course to remember what to expect, as I have not done that since 2008. Time flies. So I drove up with Ariel. It took 1 hour and 22 minutes. Then Ariel drove further to do his run, and I ran the 16 miles. I started right by the Morgan County/Salt Lake County sign, but I think that was wrong because my first mile was 6:19. I think part of it was starting at the wrong place, but part also was just from running too slow - I started with zero warm-up, and had a hard time kicking into gear. The subsequent miles were more normal, but still slow, considering I was going down 8% grade. 5:43, then 5:29 I think. 29:02 at 5 miles. Still feeling sluggish. To make matters worse, somehow I managed to run the 6th mile in 6:24. It had some uphill, but not that much. It should have been at least 6:10. The next mile up the Little Mountain was 6:58, followed by 6:19 which was about half up and half down. When I saw 48:43 at 8 miles I told myself it was time to wake up and try to start running. I was not sure if I did have that wake up in me, but the next mile showed I had at least some juice - 5:23, followed by 6:01 10th mile which has a detour to the subdivision. It was a bit slower than it should have been because I slowed down looking for the turnaround sign. It was not easily visible I did find it painted on the road, however, and with that obstacle past me, got going again. The mile split was 6:01 with 1:00:07 at 10 miles. It was getting warmer, and I was running without water or fuel. However, the next two miles were good - both in 5:33. It felt too aggressive in the anticipation of the Hogle Zoo monster encounter, so I eased off a bit, and ran the next one in 5:38 - 1:16:51 at 13 miles. 15 mile split was 1:28:21 - the miles were 5:48, 5:42 I think. The last mile had the notorious Hogle Zoo bump that can help you evaluate how much glycogen you and your competitors have left in their legs. If there is a decent amount, it feels like a bump. If not, it feels like an endless climb, which is a bad sign because you still have more than 10 miles left. This mile was 5:54, it felt more like a bump than an endless climb, and I was happy with that. Total time was 1:34:14, with which I was not as happy, but since the last 8 were decent, I can claim that the first 8 were just a warmup. I was also happy that Ariel showed up in my car and rescued me from the Hogle Zoo monster right as he began chewing on my quads and calves. There was some damage left, though, and I could feel it. It should heal up and get stronger on the day of the race. The kids ran on their own, all except William and Joseph. Benjamin did 6, Jenny and Julia 2, Jacob 1. P.M. 2 miles with Joseph. Julia ran 0.5 with William.
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