PROVO CITY HALF MARATHON
I signed up for this race back in either December or January I can't remember when for sure, but it was to be my first race back and I thought at that time that a 1:15 would be pretty good coming back from injury. Well, clearly I underestimated how quickly I'd get back in shape, which is awesome and a blessing.
I wasn't sure how today would go, since I raced last week and was sore/fatigued most of this week, and I also worked in my yard all day yesterday hauling and laying sod out in the sun. But I figured just like any other race, I'd give it my best shot and let it fall where it may.
We stayed the night at Amy's grandparents' house, who are always willing to let me stay there for races in Utah County, which makes it a lot more feasible to race there. Denver, my brother, stayed there too and he and I met Dave and his wife, Kayla, at the buses and headed up to the start. The weather was a tad cool at the start, which is great news for racing. We warmed up just a tad, 1.5 miles, and then started the race.
Right as we started the race I saw Scott and Mike jogging up and figured they had ran up from the bottom of the canyon and were going to tempo a bit with us racers. That was indeed the case and I enjoyed chatting with them for 1.5 miles or so before they backed off a tad and wished me well. From then on out it was just me and the lead bike pacer. I ran hard and took tangents as best I could through the canyon. I wasn't hitting splits as fast as I thought I would, but I kept plugging along anyway.
Out of the canyon I tried to keep pace as in the past I usually slow a lot on University Ave in both this race and UVM. I indeed kept an ok pace. I saw Amy and my girls drive by and honk at mile 9 and I waved back to them. I was slower than I wanted on mile 11 with the only uphill of the race and was now right on the edge of sub-1:07, whereas I was on pace to go under up to that point. So I knew I had to hit the last two miles really hard if I wanted 1:06:xx. I managed to run the next 1.5 really well, but with 0.5 left I kind of hit a wall. Luckily I still got close to the finish with 30 seconds to cross it and it seemed manageable. So I gave my last push and crossed for the win in 1:06:50. I also tried to give Evelyn, my daughter, a five on the way in and totally missed! But she gave me a "A" for effort.
I waited for Dave to finish and was happy to see him come in second place with a solid 1:11. Then we both waited for Denver to finish. He didn't believe me earlier when I told him that I thought he could average 6:10-6:15 pace. But he ran very well and finished in 1:19! He was running 1:30s here and there over the last couple years off little to no training, but now after 4 months running with us, he's really starting to get fit again. I was super proud of him!
Dave and I cooled down two miles, the second mile while eating a Creamie (still managed an 8:20).
Splits: 5:07 4:59 5:17 5:04 4:55 5:03 5:03 5:05 5:10 5:09 5:15 4:59 5:06 and 4:49 pace for last tenth.
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