Ran to the capital, jumped up on a bus, warmed up in the canyon, ran the Haunted Half in 1:16:02, did a couple miles of cooldown (picked up Holly from home on the way), went back for awards, and then jogged home. I metered my effort pretty well. I led by a small margin for the first 7, but a guy running in his first half started conservatively, pulled up alongside me at mile 7, and then made a big move at mile 8 that I couldn't go with. I lost touch and he closed really fast. I don't think there was anything I could do to stay with him. Overall, I'm pleased with it. The course has a net drop of 1450 feet, but is countered by 350 feet of uphills. By my calculations, it's almost exactly equivalent to a totally flat course at sea level (14 seconds slower, actually). Provo City, where I ran my PR, is about a minute slower due to less downhill, and I ran about 30 seconds faster there, so I consider that performance to be roughly 90 seconds better than today's. I haven't had the best training since May and have just started to get the ball rolling again, so I consider this a big success.
Splits:
1: 5:22 Most downhill mile of all, starting around the hairpin turn in the canyon. Felt really easy.
2: 5:34 Half as downhill as the first mile.
3: 5:39 Slightly less downhill than 2nd. Little uphill rolls here and there.
4: 5:40 Similar to 3rd.
5: 5:42 Similar to last 2.
6: 5:38 Similar. Came out the bottom of the canyon.
10k split: 34:42. Better than my PR. Felt good, just hoping my legs could stay together.
7: 5:36. Nice fast first half of mile, but the uphill by the zoo in the 2nd half was the biggest roll up to that point. Th eventual winner pulled up alongside me at the mile marker.
8: 6:20. Long gradual uphill, followed by a very steep uphill through research park, finally flattening a bit. 130' of uphill in the first half of the mile alone. Oof.
9: 6:00 Quick downhill, long very slight uphill. Definitely struggling to recover from the terrible uphills still, and the winner injected a bit surge right at the start of the 9th mile. I tried to go with it, but quickly realized it was suicide.
10: 6:01 Steep plunging downhill through federal heights, then a horrendously steep uphill to Shriner's.
11: 6:17 Very steep uphill along Virginia, the rest of the way to 11th, gradual uphill on 11th for awhile. Finally started going downhill at the end of the mile. Even with the nice moderate downhill in the last chunk of the mile, the section from mile 7 to mile 11 was still a little bit net uphill.
12: 5:41 Nice downhill along 11th, and then turning onto Canyon Road. An extremely thick crowd of slow 5k runners was in the way in the canyon. This was very frustrating, as they were supposed to be contained on one side of the road, with an open lane for half runners on the other side. I hit the mile 11 marker at 11.03 on my Garmin, but had to weave so much over the last 1.5 miles that I tacked on an extra .05, which ultimately cost me a 1:15.
13: 5:38 Canyon Road and Memory Grove. So much weaving. It's extremely irritating when I'm trying to hammer and idiots with strollers are running (well, walking) on the wrong side of the road and cutting me off. I felt like I was capable of a faster last mile, but the rhythm kept getting interrupted.
13:18: 54 (5:03 pace). Couldn't quite make the sub-1:16.
Overall, while I'm annoyed that 5kers blatantly ignoring race instructions cost me a sub-1:16, I'm pleased with how things went. No matter how you cut it, I wouldn't quite have been able to beat my Provo City time, but just being close is super encouraging. 18 total for the day. Not too bad.
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