This was the second time I've run the Spanish Fork Half Marathon, last year was the first. It's not a fast course compared to the usual downhill Utah screamer. It's got a lot of flat with some substantial rollers and a couple of attention-getting climbs. In short, a very honest course-perhaps even a little too honest. The course is also beautiful, tracing the rural farm roads that flank Spanish Fork.
I had a variety of goals today, some were met, others not. Last year I placed second in 1:17:45 and I wanted to beat that time and also beat Chris Rogers' winning time from last year of 1:16:08. From what I knew about the field, I also thought I would have a good chance to win the race this year, so that was a possibility as well. Most importantly, I wanted to do all of this without running so hard that I would have any substantial recovery time.
Well, Sasha decided to come run and that got in the way of winning the race, but on every other score I'm satisifed.
I ran what added up to 4 miles of warm up before the start, a bit on the course, a bit not.
We started fairly conservatively and then Sasha gradually took off, building a one minute lead that I couldn't make a dent in and, since this isn't a goal race, I saw no reason to kill myself to do so. So he jogged it in to victory in 1:13:55.
Other than running with James for the first mile or so, I ran entirely on my own. This was good for a training run because it forced me to run within myself and observe my race closely as it developed.
Here are my splits:
1-5:52
2-5:58
3-5:50
4-5:55
5-5:45
6-5:59 (climbing)
7-5:59 (climbing again)
8-5:27 (rolling downhill)
9-5:39
10-5:52
11-5:41
12-5:46
13-5:35
I cooled down for four miles, mostly chatting with Holly Hagerman, who had won the 5k outright. I gave her a little blog pitch. Hopefully she'll at least lurk a bit :) | 