My build up to this race was as bad as any I've ever head. Training has been so-so, sleep has been poor, stress high and I've been feeling off in the workouts. I committed to doing the race in November and none of my excuses were quite reason enough to bail.
I dragged my family down to St. George for a short day in the sun. About 7pm the night before I started feeling sick. Flu-like symptoms. I went to bed early, slept OK, but not great, and woke up still feeling like I had the flu. There was no way I was backing out of the race now though so I got ready, ate a half breakfast and drove to the starting line with Matt.
Warmed up 3 miles with Matt, Ben, Clyde, Dave H and Dave O. I started feeling a lot better after the warm up. Temps were chilly.
Bryant took the race out with Dave H, Clyde, Ben and me trailing. Ben had to stop and tie his shoe after a 1/2 mile :/. Bryant slowed up a bit and the 4 of us ran mostly together the first 2 miles. Bryant slowly started to gap us but I was content to stay back. I ran with Dave through 5 until Ben caught back up and then went with him through 6.5. Ben powered up the hills and I let him get away from me. I ran pretty conservatively up the hills, probably too slow in retrospect.
The next 2 miles (8 and 9) were lonely. Ben was a good 20 seconds ahead and Clyde and Steve Shepherd were chasing me down from behind. I hit them hard and hoped my legs would hold out for the rest of the race. I was feeling pretty good but starting to feel tightness in the hamstrings. Steve passed me around 10 and gapped me by about 15 feet through 11. 2 miles to go, Steve was still 20 feet ahead and I was feeling strong but those darn hamstrings got tighter and tighter. I was running a careful balance between chasing him down and not pulling a muscle. I was able to pick it up a little on the last mile. My last 3 miles were disappointingly slow but I really didn't want to risk a hamstring injury.
Splits: (5:22, 5:24, 5:19, 5:20, 5:16, 5:38, 5:40, 5:09, 5:19, 5:26, 5:32, 5:29, 5:16).
I'm happy with the race. I was really hoping to make Ben work a little harder for 2nd. Hats off to him for a great race.
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