2:54.14 - not exactly what I had hoped for but happy with, and I need to celebrate, my almost 5 minute PR.
Ribs did not bother me at all. Fought some cramping early in my calves that slowed me up. No excuse, I simply didn't run fast enough. I need to figure out my calf issues and then evaluate what to do next.
[update] cramping and calf issues largely due to the rib injury and overcompensating because of it.
More later
As most have noted, the race started over 15 minutes late. John and I ran from the start side by side. There was a nice little tailwind, but it seemed a tad warmer than I would have liked. I had my splits on my wristband and it seemed like John was mostly letting me control the pace. I didn't see him look at his watch too often.
Miles 1-7 - This first section seemed easy, like it should. We just clipped along according to plan. We were within a few seconds of every one of our planned splits and the effort seemed good. By mile 3 I was starting to have some sweat on my brow. I started to think of Boston and knew that I needed to be good about getting water in, and on, me at each station. (6:40, 6:38, 6:22, 6:15, 6:21, 6:11, 6:09)
Miles 8-13 - Before I knew it, we were about to start climbing Veyo. We had planned to take this pretty easy to conserve as much energy as possible. I took my first gel at the mile 7 aid station. We just trudged along uphill and I didn't feel like we were exerting much effort. That mile came in at 7:11. The next several miles felt similar, we were close to our splits we wanted and the effort seemed about right. This is an interesting stretch of the race that a lot of people talked bad about beforehand. It was not horrible. We just maintained effort and I was still feeling good. My legs were tiring a little from the uphill and I was looking forward to some down. 9-13 were 7:01, 6:54, 7:04, 6:45, and 6:30.
Miles 14-20 - Mile 14 was mentally tough for me. I thought we would have been going more downhill by now. I guess I had not done enough of my own studing up because I was under the belief that the course turned downhill right at mile 13. That was not the case and it shook me a little. I was happy to finally turn down the canyon. The legs welcomed the change and John and I quickly dropped the pace again. 6:22, 6:14, 6:10, 6:14, 6:22. In the middle of mile 16, something odd happened. My left calf spasmed and I almost went down into the shoulder. John looked over at me and slightly joking said, "Are you alright man?" For the next several miles each of my calves seemed a little odd, but nothing serious like that one spasm during 16. I started to not feel that great during mile 18. I mentioned it to John and he encouraged me to stick with him. I snapped out of it pretty quickly and we were clipping along. Mile 19 had what I considered the final climb. We slowed up and that came in at 6:47. We ran through 20 and John said, "Only a 10k left." 6:33.
Miles 21-26.2 - I was hurting at this point and my calves were firing at odd times. I kicked my legs up behind me here and there to try and loosen the quads as the elevation would change. When I did that, my calves would spasm. So, I just tried to stay calm and stick to the plan. After running a mile 21 at 6:12, things really went south for a minute and John pulled away. There was a little rise in 22 and I thought I was going to have to stop or my legs were going to cramp up bad. I committed to walking for 10 seconds to see if I could calm down. I counted to 5 twice and then started running again. 7:04. That seemed to help, but it was not enough. I could not get all the way back on track. Mile 23 was encouraging at 6:44, but it was still slower than I wanted. Then, it started to slip and I finished out at 6:55, 7:30, 7:28, 1:39 (7:25).
I have had some time now to think about the race. My first thought is that St. George is not as much of a downhill course as people say it is. It is a rolling course with some great downhill sections. The course was not my downfall though. I need to figure out why my calves seem to be a weak link. I had an awesome training cycle and I made some great improvements. The last 2 weeks were rough with my rib injury and that likely shook my confidence a bit, even if it was subconsiously. I am not complaining about the almost 5 minute PR. It is an accomplishment, yet short of expectations. Perhaps, there were sections we ran too fast? I don't really think so though. I will take this and build on it.
Big props to John, Brayden, and Scott for running great races and PRing. Thanks to them for training with me through the cycle. We all helped push one another. I owe Josh a lot. He pushed me early in May to commit to being faster and ran many miles with me a lot slower than he likely wanted. I look forward to one day hanging at his pace. Thanks to Jake and Fritz as well for letting me always pick their brains. We have a great community of runners here in Utah and I consider it a privilege to be a part of.
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