Arrived at the race a little before 8:00 a.m. and did some light running to test out my calf. It was feeling pretty good. Probably due to the cool weather, adrenaline, or race day jitters. Ended up doing a couple miles warm up before boarding the busses for the starting line. It was nice to meet some of the fellow bloggers on the bus. Ended up meeting Steve Hooper, Mike Warren, Dave Holt and Clyde Behunin. Man those guys are in good shape.
The starting line was fairly well organized and felt much more organized than my prior two St. George races (Painters and Snow Canyon). I did see several people hikning back down the hill from where they had been told the starting line was at including my wife, dad and sister. Anyway with the good organization we knew when and where the race was going to start and the staggered buses to the starting line allowed us to get our mandatory trip to the POPs over without too much of a wait.
The start went as anticipated....very fast. Having run the Snow Canyon half a few months ago I knew what to expect from the downhills. The race didn't start as high up the canyon as the half but the first mile was still pretty steep and fast. I think I did a pretty good job of keeping my legs and pace under control and came out of the first mile feeling pretty good about a 6:18 split. The second mile is when the rolling hills started popping up. They aren't very long or steep but they are often and they have a tendency to throw off your rhythm. So I struggled for the next couple miles going up and down and up and down these little rollers. Finally about mile 3 we got into a fairly gentle downhill and I was right at 20:00 at mile 3. The little rollers were over but the longer hills were still ahead not really all that steep but enough to make you know your working. (I run on almost perfectly flat roads every day of the week so any kind of hill is work for me). The nice thing at the 4-5 mile point of the race is I still feel pretty good and I am able to actually get some people in my sites and pass them. The last small climb started at about mile 5 and I knew the finish would be generaly downhill/level so at about 5.7 I started to pick up the pace and got one more guy in my sights and picked him off. At about 6.1 he snuck back in behind me and picked me off right at the finish. I thougt I had him put away but somehow he came back and nailed me. That stinks! But I am still happy with the results overall and happy about the effort.
The calf is a bit sore after the race and I have kept a compression wrap on it and elevated for most of the day. Luckily this next week is a recovery week for Meg and I in our marathon training so it will give me a chance to really nurse it along and try to get better before the final big push for Ogden.
As usual the fast running blog made a great showing with several runners in the top 10 and MarcieJ winning the overall womens. Great job Marcie! Gimpy hamstring.....bah! | 