Well I stayed true to my goal of running the 1st half of the race conservative, then the plan was to push the last half if I was feeling juiced. Turns out I didn't have a lot of juice today, but for a non-tapered race, and if I look at this as just a marathon training workout and not a race, then I had a pretty decent day and had great training run for SGM. Not exactly sure on official time or placing so I'll update that later if necessary. This is also a big PR for this race (haven't run it for 2 years however) and close to PR for 1/2 marathon, although this course is much faster than any of the other 1/2 marathons I've done this year so I still consider Painter's and Strider's to be my best overall performances. I think I like cold weather races, these races that end with the sun beating down and getting into the 70's aren't my favorite. But I guess SGM will probably be that way so I need the training. Also I sure wish I could get over all the lingering aches/pains that have plagued me all summer (mainly lower abs and groin). I'm really hoping with a good taper for SGM I'll be more race ready come race day. Kim and I got on the 1st bus up and had a good chat with the racers we were sitting by. I was a little suprised the guy I was sitting by knew who we were and knew our names. Turns out the guy was Jason Riding from SF who confessed that he and his wife are both FRB lurkers so that's how they knew us. He had also run Heart of Holladay and we had seen each other there. SO RIDING'S IF YOU ARE READING THIS THEN GET ON THE BLOG ALREADY!! I started the race with Paul and Nate. We were pretty good at keeping the pace we had planned (6:15-6:20?) for the first 6 miles but the garmins were all whacked out and some of the mile markers were suspect so I'm not sure. About the 1/2 way point Paul backed off a bit and I went with Nate for a while but he was feeling pretty good and was in more of racing mode than I so he left me in the dust shortly thereafter. Nate had a killer race and set a PR beating me by over a minute and looking good for sub-3 at SGM despite having had training woes due to lots of travel as of late. Paul also finished strong and had a PR and continued his streak of victories over Josse but I think it was pretty close today. Unfortunately (if I remember correctly, please correct me if I'm wrong Paul!) Paul did not keep up his streak of beating Hal Amos as Hal squeaked by him today. But overall a great effort for those guys. Also directly in front of me the whole race was Marcie J and Wildbull. I tried to catch the Bull but he just had more than I did today on that last mile. Marcie would have beat me too if not for the VPB around mile 9. She did pass me with about 1/2 mile to go but I managed to drum of bit of kick the last quarter and pass her back to keep my chick count under 5(?? I think ??). So I ended up finishing sandwitched between the fine SG running dynamos Bill and Marcie. Here are my splits, I was on manual lap mode today since I knew the garmin would likely give me trouble down the canyon. Some of these look pretty fishy so I think the mile markers were messed up around miles 7 and 8. Also I forgot to push lap at mile 13 as I was too focused on trying to pass Marcie. 1 - 6:24 (too many slower runners crowding the start line!) 2 - 6:07 3 - 6:21 4 - 6:01 5 - 6:22 6 - 6:22 7 - 6:26 8 - 5:53 (this has to be wrong) 9 - 6:29 10 - 6:40 11 - 6:40 12 - 6:57 (I wimped out but at least it was under 7) 13.1 - 7:21 (6:31 pace) Good to see and chat with all the bloggers after the race. I won't try to name anyone as I'll probably forget somebody. It was fun to watch the purple hairs Kim and Jody come in. They both had great times, Kim came in just under 1:43 and Jody was a minute or 2 earlier. I wish Kim would have been able to be further up in the pack at the start as I think she lost nearly a minute getting to the start line and dodging around the slower runners. But still a super effort and good for a flower and special Top 100 finisher necklace. Good job everyone! | 