Snow Canyon Half Marathon (6th overall, 1st Age Group 30-34) 1:13:22
Went into this race without a race plan or goal, but felt based on my workouts I should have been around 70 minutes. The Wednesday before the race I got a touch carried away with strides and turned them into sprints. Thursday I felt very tight and fatigued, not really how you want to feel two days before a race. I got a massage and went VERY slow on Friday morning. Ken, Jared, and I met Ben and Taylor at the buses at 7(really late because clocks hadn't rolled back yet) Felt a little better as we were warming up before the race. Did 2 miles and then some strides.
Gun went off and I settled into a chase pack of 4 guys. We ran the first 3 miles together (5:20, 5:29, 5:14) I felt really easy and didn't even look at my watch through these miles. Miles 4-7 are bombing downhill. I tried to stay relaxed and not brake on the down. Let gravity do the work. However around mile 6 I started to feel some cramping in the hip flexor portion of my quads so I had to shorten my stride. (5:11, 4:59, 5:10, 5:15) Miles 8-10 are less downhill and on a walking path. My quads really started to cramp and fatigue. I had passed Ken during one of his many bathroom breaks and he had passed me back. I was just running behind him and slowly catching him when he pulled off for his second. (5:36, 5:35, 5:44) The race and my legs really started to come apart for me. Every time I tried to get going, my legs screamed back at me. When Thatcher came by me in the 12th mile, I had no response. I was really upset at myself for hurting my chances of running fast by not doing the workout the way Strazza had set it out. I just tried to keep the pace half way respectable. (6:08, 6:12, 6:04, and 5:46 pace for the last .2 on my watch)
Overall I am not happy with the results, but it was my first race in 18 months and was just supposed to be a rust buster. It could have been worse and I am still healthy and chomping at the bit. I know I am more fit than the results show and I know I will have all of 2017 to throw down some fast results.
Thanks again to John Starrett (Strazza) for building a great workout plan for me, to Jared for meeting me on all those early Wednesday and Saturday mornings and knocking hard workouts before the sun comes, and to the Rest of the OgdenCrew (Riley, Ben, Ken, Jason, Bryant, Denver, Jon, and Matt) and even Chris Burnet for helping give me a reason to get out early and run even when I was 30lbs over weight and slow. Running with my friends every morning is always one of the highlights of my day.
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