At 6:30 am I ate my standard 1/2 cup of instant oatmeal. I was still feeling the full margarita I shouldn't have eaten last night. Hip was a little sore but legs generally felt good. Headed up to Ivins, got in line to get my number and hopped the 2nd to last bus to the starting line. 1 mile easy warm up on the dirt and then another 1/2 or so with strides on the hill near the starting line. I ran in to Karl and Caleb and chatted a bit. I saw Brad Osguthorpe with about 2 minutes before the start which officially put 1st place out of reach. 1st mile was very steep. Ran comfortable. Brad went out fast (probably 4:30). Before the mile marker Logan Fielding passed me and I ran behind him for a while. 2nd mile had some uphill and I just ran behind Logan and let him set the pace. 3rd was gentle down, 4 was 1/2 down 1/2 up (about 60ft). I felt strong through 4. I passed Logan at 3.2 down the last hill. Brad was about 75 meters ahead at 3.5. 5 and 6 were tough, lots of hills which shut me down pretty hard and I fell of pace. I lost sight of Brad quickly during the hills. I recovered a bit by the last 1/2 mile and finished strong (2:28). Splits: (4:55, 5:17, 5:03, 5:17, 5:34, 5:34,0:49) I had an outside hope for sub 32 but I'm pleased with the race. Went on a 2 mile cool down with Karl and then another 6 with Ty. All in all a great trip. Pinecreek was probably working against me a bit, hard to tell how much...but it was awesome. Who knows, maybe those 29 seconds were left in Zion somewhere? | 