St. George Half Marathon
Warmed up from the hotel with Bryant and Ken. During the warmup I felt a little sluggish, but felt pretty good on my strides. I got one last visit to the potty and was ready to roll. The weather was a bit chilly at first but after a few miles it felt fine.
The gun went on and Ken and I ran side by side in front for the first straightaway. After the turn he dropped back a bit and Holt got up on my side. After 400 meters it was really just Holt and me, which was surprising; I thought more people would challenge for the lead early on. But, judging from everyone's times, they started conservatively and it paid off as many people had great times today.
Mile 1 split 5:14. Dave and I were just rolling side by side with a tiny bit of chatting but not much. Ben was biking alongside us and he and Dave struck up a light conversation as well.
Mile 2 5:17. This was some gradual uphill; nothing bad though. I was still just feeling out the race and getting into a rhythm. Dave was still alongside me.
Mile 3 5:11. This mile was some downhill followed by some up and then a bit more down. I think Dave dropped back at some point during this mile. I was starting to roll and ready to increase the pace.
Mile 4 5:03. Feeling good and just rolling along. Ben keeps telling me to continue to open the lead up.
Mile 5 5:05. The hills start on this portion. The lead bike takes a wrong turn, but I knew the right way and ignored them.
Mile 6 5:19. There was some decent uphill on this section. It's all uphill but it's not steep; just a grind. But I felt good and just tried to maintain a good pace. Toward the end of this mile I thought I may need to stop for a pit stop, but was hoping to hold it.
Mile 7 5:18. This mile contains the steepest portion of the course, but I attacked it and kept the pace under 5:20. My stomach is really starting to churn though and I feel like it cost me a few seconds on this mile and the next two.
Mile 8 5:04. Some good downhill followed by a good flat section. I wasn't laboring at all and I didn't even feel like I was racing on this mile, yet I couldn't go faster with my stomach churning. This mile should've been like 4:55. It was that good of a stretch of down and flat.
Mile 9 5:07. I know by now that I'm going to have to stop for a potty break, but the helicopter is overhead and flying low and watching me! I'll wait until it goes away. Also the lead biker is a girl so I will wait until she goes around a curve.
Mile 10 5:42. There's a really good spot behind a bush right off the paved trail and the lead biker is out of sight. I pull off the side and take care of business. I am now only running with one glove ;-) Ben timed my stop and had it at 25 seconds. It was worth stopping because I couldn't run faster than 5:20 at this point without the stop.
Mile 11 5:03. I am really feeling good and feel like I have a ton left in the tank.
Mile 12 5:00. I've made the turn and am heading toward the finish. I can't believe how easy the pace is feeling.
Mile 13 4:55. I'm really rolling. Ben can tell I'm not laboring much and yells at me "come on! start working!"
Finish 4:35 pace for the last bit. I realize I just missed going under 1:08 and the pit stop cost me that 1:07, but you gotta do what you gotta do (my "moving time" on my garmin report was 1:07:43, which would have been a 1 second PR). I finish and feel like I left quite a bit on the course. I felt so good. I felt like I could've kept rolling. The mile splits are from my garmin and my garmin had the race at 13.19, so add a about 2 seconds per mile to get about what the actual splits were on the mile markers.
Overall, I am happy with the result. It's a new non-aided PR by two minutes on a very honest course with some good uphill portions. Before the race Ben said I had 1:07:30 in me and I didn't really believe him. But now I think maybe I could've come close to that with a quicker start. But this is a confidence builder and I am excited for the new year.
Bryant was second and we were hoping Ken would finish third for a 1-2-3 sweep for our training group, but he didn't quite have it.
It was great to hang out after with everyone: Ben, Scott, Bryant, Jon, Spencer, Ken, Matt. And I met more of the Utah county crew: Brandon and Mike.
Congrats to everyone who ran. It was so good to come down and get out of the cold and haze. St. George did a great job of putting this race on and Aaron Metler is to be commended as the race director: job well done!
Here's the garmin data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/264368349 | 
