Happy with the Race. I haven't had much experience with how inconsistent training the last 1-1.5 months would affect my performance, so I was just hoping to be in the 2:50-3:00 range.
Didn't really look at the garmin much the first 4ish miles because I locked the bezel to avoid any problems with the moisture making it go haywire. Unfortunately, when you lock the bezel, you can't turn the light on. Just ran and enjoyed the time with my trashbag on (didn't want my clothes to get water-logged just yet). Finally tore it off at mile five and enjoyed how quiet everything was! The race was a blur to me other than I felt great before "the hill", and like crap during/after. I remebered at mile 13 that I thought I would be in trouble the rest of the race and that I could just feel that I was going to hit the wall hard. I had stomach issues for the first time in any run. My GU was just sitting there, and any attempt to take water to try to wash it out just made it hurt more. I did spend about a mile thinking about my race report and how I was going to start my eulogy of the race. The downhill miles gave me a jump start, however, and I was able to get back on track. Went through 13.1 at about 1:31:30 I believe. Met quite a few bloggers throughout the race and was happy to finally see them instead of their tiny pic on the blog. Caught up to RivertonPaul and Andy and Joe? I believe. Ran with them for a while until I fell back on another hill. I was constantly a minute behind them until about 20 or 21 when I caught back up and started my dash down the hills. Felt good, but worried that I wasn't leaving anything left for the bottom, flatter 2 miles. Slowed a bit during these miles, but realized I was still going to be under 3:00, and most likely get under my current PR (2:59:25 at Deseret News this year), which I would be happy with given these conditions. Andy passed me with about 1-1.5 left and I encouraged him on. I really wanted to hang, but my body was almost numb at this point, and I was losing it. Hung on for a 2:58:35.
I'm happy with the year: 3:36 at SLC, 3:20 at Ogden, 2:59 at D.N. and 2:58 at St George. Now if I can just keep up the trend to get a sub 2:45 by Boston next year!!
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