Pretty happy with my place today in the Hurricane Half marathon. My time was 1:19:10, only 15 seconds faster than last year. However, I finally broke my streak of running races slower than last year. The last two 10ks I've run have been 1 min slower than last year. So finally with today's race I'm passed that.
The event seemed well organized, and everyone from the group did really well. It's really exciting to see so many people improve.
So here's how the race went down:
1. 5:59 - Started off and kind of just held back to see what was going on. Dustin, Ryan, John Araujo From San Diego, Me and some other guys all hanging out.
2. 5:47 - Trying to figure out what pace to settle into.
3. 5:57 - John Araujo started pulling away a little from Ryan and I
4. 6:14 - Rolling hills - Each hill we went up Ryan would pull away from me.
5. 6:06 -
6. 6:12 - Started into more climbing. Tried catching John and got ahead of Ryan a little bit. Once I got up to John he picked up the pace and Ryan came by me as well.
7. 6.48 - chasing John and Ryan - probably back 15 seconds
8. 6:19 - 3/4 of the way through this mile we started down the hill into LaVerkin. Trying to pick up speed but John and Ryan kept dropping me more.
9. 5:31 - Still getting dropped - back a good 20- 25 sec.
10. 5:41 - Saw that I was starting to make some progress on the guys once we hit the flat. A Special Thanks to Mike for Yelling At Me During The Race!
11. 6:19 - Getting a little closer.
12. 6:13 - Crossed the bridge from Hurricane into LaVerkin started heading up into Hurricane. Only about 1-2 seconds behind Ryan - I was having a hard time mentally and physically shifting gears to get passed him so I kept telling myself I could win the race and decided to do "The Crazy Man Grunt" to shock my system out of my funk. So at 12.5 I yelled out with the loudest GRUNT I could muster and threw myself into a surge. I think just about freaked Ryan out. He probably thought I was dying and By the time he realized I was OK I was passed him going for John about another 7 sec in front.
13. 5:55 - At the 12 mile marker I caught John and just started going as fast as I could. With about 200 M to go I turned around to see if I had time to put my singlet on. Ryan and John finished just a few sec behind. It was a great race. John is an amazing athlete for his age 50 - 54.
Overall I was really happy with the race. I think my endurance has really improved, I hope my speed will continue to pick up as well. | 