Well, I signed up for this race last week because the XC girls were setting goals. I set a goal to run under 1:40:00 in this race. Well, that didn't happen. My stomach was sloshing and was about to explode w/ gas pains. It might have been the Indian food I ate the night before--It's a Utah valley tradition for my wife and me. Anyway, the race. I'm not sure how I felt about it. It's 1 of the first races I haven't hit a PR in a while. My stomach told me how things were going to be a few miles in. So I decided to just gut this 1 out. Here are some +s and -s fromt the race: +) The course was beautiful. The new shoes worked well. It was fun to get out and run a race again and realize that it takes all shapes and sizes and speeds to make up a race. 13 miles seemed shorter for some reason, even w/ the struggle. The body doesn't ache much after the race probably because I wasn't able to push it. The weather was beautiful. -) The gut. The fact that I really don't know where I'm at fitness-wise. Half marathons are proving to be my bogey race--I'm still not sure how to run a half. I know that I'm in for a pretty big PR at the distance but can't seem to line it up. Last thing. The race, for the most part, was a joke. (There was a big turn-out. Everyone seemed ignorant of the start time and starting line. There wasn't much of a chance to slip up through the masses in the pre-race confusion and because of this I found myself working hard to move past runners. 2 notable passes were the girls @ mile 3ish chatting about how fast a 9-minute mile is and @ mile 4ish the guy in Air Jordans, basketball shorts, and possibly a ciggy in his mouth.) In the end, a few miles were amassed and in there somewhere a few MP miles. Probably won't be running this again.
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