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Bear Lake Half Marathon

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Location:

Salt Lake City,UT,USA

Member Since:

Jul 23, 2006

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

5k 16:16 / 10k 33:12 / half marathon 1:12:28/ marathon 2:32:59/ 100 miles: 34 hours, nine minutes (Wasatch 100).


Short-Term Running Goals:

Compress six months of marathon training into six weeks.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Stay curious.

Personal:

I'm an attorney in Salt Lake City. Married to Heather. We have two little boys.


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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: Bear Lake Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:23:02, Place overall: 1, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
1.2513.100.000.000.0014.35

 I ran the Bear Lake Half Marathon this morning. I chose this race since we have a cabin up here and it made sense to mix a race with a little getaway.   The plan was to run as well as I could given the limitations of my training and fitness.  The fact that I topped out at about 63 miles last week and then came down with a cold this week suggested that I may not have a whole lot to draw from if the going got tough.  The 6000' elevation wouldn't help.

The weather forecast was worse than the actual weather. It was in the 40s and cloudy, no rain during the race though it has continued to rain off and on throughout the day since. 

The race is pretty low key and although attendance is pretty good (about 400 I'm told), it's not a terribly competitive crowd.  At the start there was maybe one or two runners that were doing a pre-race warmup that I could see.  A few guys looked fit but I didn't recognize them.

It turned out not to be the guys that I had to think about.  After the race started, I was out in the lead right away and a woman named Jaclyn LaBell (spelling is likely off), a former Idaho State runner now living in Seattle, joined me almost immediately. Pace was easy--in the 6:15-6:20 range and I wasn't worried about running much faster than that if I didn't have to since I knew my fitness wouldn't let me push much hard later in the race.  We ran together for about the first 4.5 miles. This part of the course covered from the east shore of the lake, through to the main highway that leads into town.  We had a one mile stretch of dirt/gravel road which would normally be great but the road was totally soaked and very muddy.  I got very muddy myself.

Once we hit the main road, Jaclyn dropped back and I just sort of shifted into autopilot and tried to keep running pretty hard without having my legs blow off.  My cold was not doing  all that great and I was coughing pretty regularly. Thecourse is mainly flat, but there is some moderate climbing between miles 6-9.  Around mile 7-8 I started to catch up to the 10K runners and  spent the remainder of the race sort of meandering in and out of those groups of runners.  Said hi to my friends Keli & Helen who were running the 10k with about a mile and a half to go.  In the last couple of miles I had some calf cramping, which is the sign that my fitness won't permit me to go all that much longer.

I finished in 1:23:02 for the win, which is great, but a long way off of a great half marathon time for me.  Ultimately though, I think I ran exactly the race I could and should have run taking everything into consideration.

Most importantly, it was a pretty fun race.  I wanted to race for running's sake, rather than race for racing's sake, if that makes any sense. I'm in a pretty transitional period as far as my running goals are concerned and doing it for the right reasons is important to me.

Got a  great big sandstone plaque for the win, which should be right at home here at the cabin.

Comments
From Kelli on Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 20:12:50 from 71.219.93.114

I understand what you are saying about that transitional phase and trying to figure out why we run! Nice job on the win and just running the race you could!

From Superfly on Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 22:04:18 from 208.117.127.110

Thats a pretty impressive job considering the cold, altitude, and mileage. Good job Chad. Glad you had fun too. I think more of us need to get back to that aspect. I know that's been my focus since being injured from the days of 130 miles weeks. Puke!

From Paul on Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 23:31:06 from 174.27.230.30

Nice race. It's good to have fun while running, and it's also good to win a race.

From The Scouting Wolf on Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 23:55:47 from 12.185.33.2

Well done I kept you in sight for like the first half mile. haha great job

From Jon on Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 00:15:33 from 75.169.136.39

A win's a win, especially when sick. Nice job, Chad- you really enjoy those Bear Lake races. And by the way, happy birthday in advance for Monday!

From jtshad on Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 07:38:52 from 69.20.183.178

Nice job grabbing the win at the end of a good week and with a cold.

From Walter on Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 10:50:35 from 24.10.169.110

Yeah, my record still stands! Thanks for not embarrassing me. lol Im kidding. I still think they need to put that race on in August when you can actually get into the water. It sucks running with a cold also. When I ran that a few years ago none of the aid stations were set up. They had a table with water and a bag of cups. I had to pull the twist tie off, fill my cup up and then go. lol They actually did that to us in the Mesquite marathon too. It was like the Halloween house you go to that has the candy in a bowl near the front door with a sign that says "take one"

From c h a d on Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 13:09:44 from 67.42.252.25

Thanks for the nice comments, guys. Paul summed it up perfectly, it's good to have fun while running, and it's also good to win a race. It would also be good and fun to run 1:06 in the half. Paul knows about that too.

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