DESERET NEWS HALF MARATHON
I stayed downtown in a hotel for this race. Normally I don't, since it's only 35 minutes from my house to the buses, but the girls wanted to do the parade in the morning, and this made it easier on Amy to take them to the parade and fore me to save a bit of sleep (also the girls love sleeping in hotels). Jason was cool enough to pick me up, and we were off to the buses, where we ran into Brett. At the top we also ran into Taylor and we all hung out and warmed up together and ended up with the 1-4 spots in the race.
I figured I could run 1:05:xx on this course, it has a lot of downhill. But the goal was to throw time out the window and run for place. I know Brett is very tough to beat, but I wanted to challenge him and see where it led. I knew I was likely to fade, but WHAT IF?
We started the race and Brett and I got to it straight off. We ran side by side down the first mile with the exhaust of two Harleys blowing in our faces (this would continue...). First mile was 4:44 (I only have Garmin splits, which overall was 13.21).
I felt decent and thought I could roll off quite a few miles at this pace. Brett surely wasn't slowing down, so we kept the pace. Mile 2 4:51. Still side by side we ran and came through mile 3 in 4:48. I was just focusing on my form; keep the shoulders and hips forward and let gravity help.
During mile 4 Brett picked up the pace just a tad and got about 5 meters on me. I quickly closed the gap. Another slight pickup and again I responded. Mile 4 was 4:45. During mile 5 Brett got yet another 5-meter lead. Mile 5 4:48. Another mile and another small gap, this time I decided to not only close it but to take the lead and just see what happens. I got a 5-meter lead and Brett quickly closed that. Mile 6 4:37.
Several thoughts were going through my head. How do I feel? Can I keep this blistering pace much longer? Can Brett? Did I just overdo it with a 4:37? I probably overdid it, right? But he had to feel that mile too right?
We came through 10k in 29:35, which is 22 seconds faster than what I came through 2 years ago when I ran this race. Finally during mile 7 Brett got the gap he had been searching for and I couldn't close it. Mile 7 4:44.
I just got dropped running a 4:44, it was kind of deflating. Now we were out of the canyon and there was some slight headwind. Mile 8 5:01 and mile 9 4:52.
Then the wheels just came right off! I was sooo done! I had 4 miles to go and I was just exhausted. The pace had been too much, and now I had to pay the price. But hey I would've never known, unless I tried right?
The rest of the race was just terrible. I was holding on for dear life. The last 1/4 mile I was dry heaving and gagging on some mucous in my very dry throat. I managed to cross the finish line, just barely! I keeled over 2 inches over the line and wanted to just fall over! Miles 10-13 5:10 5:11 5:11 5:25 and 5:31 pace for last bit.
So, it was a 1-minute course PR over 2013. I was 2nd place, which is a nice $500 payout. So all in all, I can't complain. But it was quite miserable at the end. I probably could've run faster if I was smarter about pacing, but I had to at least take my shot at the win. Jason ran a very good race for 3rd in 1:06:01.
Cooled down with a huge crew. Fun day.
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