Spring (I Mean Winter) Race Report

This has to be the mildest winter I've ever spent in Utah.  It made for a terrible ski season with the warm temperatures and lack of snow.  So since we didn't do much skiing I took advantage of the nice weather for running instead.  I feel like I'm coming out of winter in great shape after a lot of good workouts.  I've mostly focused on training this winter rather than racing but I did run a 5k in January that was part of the Salt Lake Track Club's winter series.  The night before the race I received news that my grandpa was doing poorly and we didn't expect him to live much longer.  I made a late visit to the assisted living center that night thinking it might be my last time to see him.  It made for a stressful night with not much sleep.  I woke up the next morning not feeling like I was in the mindset to race.  We were fortunate with a warm January morning although there was a strong wind coming from the west.  The course was out and back so we would have to come back into the wind.  I was surprised to take the lead from the first with no one even challenging me.  I had a few men to race with but my heart wasn't really in it and when we got to the turn around and had to come back into the wind I was disappointed that I just got through to the finish strong enough to maintain my lead but not really pushing myself as hard as I could.  I finished in an 18:21, a decent time considering the wind but nothing I was thrilled about.  I was happy to take the win though for the first race on the USA Track and Field race circuit for the year.  My race kit hadn't arrived yet from Brooks but I loved trying out some of my other new gear and loved my racing flats.

The end of March I ran the Striders Winter Race Circuit half marathon.  This time I was ready to race hard.  After a couple more months of solid training I was ready to race again and was hoping to really test my fitness level before the Ogden Marathon coming up in May.  Jason wasn't able to run because he hurt his achilles but he drove me to the start.  It was nice not to have to ride the bus to the start and get a few more minutes of sleep.  Again we were fortunate with a mild early spring day.  The race course was the first half of the marathon course, starting about a mile further up South Fork Canyon than it has other years.  It was chilly at the start with the temperature in the low 30s.  I knew it would warm up a lot once we were in the valley though so I decided to run in shorts.  My legs were cold the first couple miles but soon I'd warmed up and was comfortable.  This race usually attracts a lot of fast runners and I was hoping for some women to push me to run a fast time.  There were some fast women there but they let me take the lead from the start and didn't stay with me.  I was alone all the way down the canyon.  There was a group of men up ahead but I felt like I couldn't stay with them without going a little harder than I wanted to that early in the race.  Jason stopped several places down the canyon to cheer me on.  It was nice to have him there cheering for me, especially since I was running alone.  I was able to keep my pace slightly under six minute miles down the canyon.  By mile five we were out of the canyon but still had a few miles of slight downhill on our way into Huntsville.  These were some of my fastest miles.  I was finally able to start cutting into the distance between me and the men who were in front of me.  Once I started catching some of them it made it gave me a reason to keep pushing the pace.  At one point Jason told me I had about a 400 meter lead on the next woman.  I knew there were some fast women behind me and I couldn't let up at all or I would be in danger of getting caught.  I also wanted a fast time so I tried to keep focusing on the men in front of me.  By about mile eight the course gets a lot harder.  We wound our way around the lake through Huntsville and Eden.  Instead of the nice gradual downhill we were running up and down rolling hills.  They also had us run on the path that was next to the road.  The path had a lot of steep dips in it that made it more challenging than the road.  I slowed down a bit but that was part of the plan.  I was still able to keep my mile pace at 6:10.  The last two miles flattened out a bit more.  I was able to pick the pace up again to around six minute pace.  There was one more runner in my sight and I was catching him the last two miles.  I caught up to him on the final stretch but in the end he out kicked me.  I was happy to finish in 1:18:33 with an average pace of 5:59.  It was a fun win and a great confidence booster.  I feel like I'm ready to run the Ogden Marathon just the way I want to.  My Brooks teammate Riley Cook won the men's race.  It was fun to get a team win.