6:00AM start, Cloudy, Temp 55-70?
Had the joy of staying with two highschool friends in Parowan Friday night and then driving to the start in the morning. With about 4 hours of sleep I was tired but excited for the race. We did about 3/4 of a mile warm up and everything seemed ready to go. Tom thought I may be able to get an 1:18:00 and the more I thought about it the more I thought it was possible.
I went out at a fast pace for me. I wanted to give this race as much as I thought I could on my best day. I probably did the first 3 miles a little fast but it felt good. Miles 4-6 I hit some mile times that seemed a little more reasonable. However, miles 7-9 I started playing the dumb mind games that us ameteures play. I started to worry I hadn't trained hard enough for the speed I was going, I was worried I went out to fast and I'd die near the end, my longest train runs have only been 10 mile runs etc..... Anyway those 3 miles were probably a little slower than I should have run. Then at mile 10 I kinda woke up and remembered I was in a race and I only had 3 miles left and I was still running and alive so get with the program even if it hurts. I ran the last 3 miles better.
I didn't know it but I kinda gest that a person the past me at about mile 5 was in my age division. He was in my sights and had got about 150 yards ahead of me at one point. I caught up with him at mile 10 and ran near him for the next two miles. I kept thinking I should pass him and try to hold him off. I finally decided to do it with 1 mile left. I put it into that final gear that makes your body really hurt. I kept thinking its just one mile and the pain will be over. I kept going hard and luckily I held him off. He did end up being in my age division and I'm glad I gutted it out so I could claim the 1st in my age division.
The race has 2 miles of flat then 2 miles of steep 8% down hill according to the sign and then it has a few miles of more gentle down hill. My mind went fuzzy but it seemed like miles 7-9 had a lot more flat then down hill, then the last 3 miles seem to stay at a more steedy gentle down hill. I missed a PR by 4 seconds. In 2001 I ran the Provo half in 1:18.25.
Mile 1 - 5:59, Mile 2 - 6:07, Mile 3 - 5:20
Mile 4 - 5:41, Mile 5 - 5:56, Mile 6- 5:49
Mile 7 - 6:13, Mile 8 - 6:14, Mile 9 - 6:34
Mile 10 - 6:10, Mile 11 - 6:12, Mile 12 - 5:49
Mile 13 - 5:54, Last .1 - 0:32
PS, Thanks Tom for keeping me awake on the drive home and thanks Bob and Stephanie for the nice home and great lunch. | 