Went up to Ephraim to run a 1/2 marathon with Emily my parents and the kids and celebrate our Scandinavian heritage. This was her first 1/2 marathon and first run over 10 miles. She did great and Im super proud of her. We had a fun time at the festival and ate some good food.
We had perfect weather and a flat course so it was a great day for a run. I wanted to use this race to judge how far my fitness has fallen before running Utah Valley in a few weeks and as a result of how I felt I will be changing my "goals" for up there. I ran a little warm up and then we got right to it. There where prob only 20 people in the 1/2 and none looked to be much of a threat (looks are decieving) so I wasnt worried to much about having anyone to run with. My plan was to just start easy and then if I felt ok try and speed up and see what kind of pace I could hold (I figured I could hold a 6:20-6:30 without killing myself).
Right off the bat about 4 guys took off at sub 6 pace. I didnt fret as I thought they would slow pretty quickly. They didnt and I found myself sucked into a much faster pace for the first 2 miles than I had planned on. The lead guy (didnt look like much of a runner and looked to be working way too hard to hold any kind of pace for long) just kept pulling further out but I finally got myself calmed down and into a pace I felt I could hold and maybe even speed up the final couple miles. Passed all but the leader by mile 2 and was feeling good. By mile 5 I was not feeling as good but I could tell that the leader was coming back so I keep trying to speed up. Caught him at 6 but stopped to grab a water (no one handing it out) and drop my gloves off to my dad so he pulled away again. When I caught back up to him he wasnt going to let go of the lead without a fight. He kept speeding up but I just kept holding the pace knowing he was going to fall back which he did after a mile of fighting. For the rest of the race it was a battle to just not slow down to much and get passed. I would be going along at what felt like the same pace but each time I looked at the watch I was down to almost 7 min pace. I would push to speed back up and just repeated this cycle for the last 5 miles. Towards the end anytime we turned a corner I could see the 2nd place guy and he was closer each time. Thankfully I held him off and walked away with a little cash for the effort.
The family picked me up at the finish and took my back to find Emily who was at mile 8. The boys and Ada ran with her for a bit then I ran with her to the finish which was fun to be able to do.
The splits are pretty even (not counting miles 7,11,12) so I must have checked my watch just as I was starting to slow and then sped up before I held the slower pace for very long. Overall a good run but I shouldnt have to push as hard as I did (and those last 6 miles where VERY hard) to hold a 6:30 pace. When you dont train you cant expect to run great.
1-6:12
2-6:12
3-6:20
4-6:22
5-6:25
6-6:24
7-6:41
8-6:28
9-6:20
10-6:33
11-6:53
12-7:07
13-6:18 | 