And I Ran... Not So Far Away
All of a sudden last week I decided to run the Provo City Half Marathon. I had been a little tired lately of running the same places every week and wanted a little variety. I also felt like I had improved my time a lot since 2011 when I ran that distance for the first time, and I wanted to see if a race would improve it more.
It started when I awoke at 4 a.m. and headed down to Provo, where the organizers shuttled us up Provo Canyon to the starting line. We got there by about 5:30, which means we had 90 minutes to hang around in the freezing cold before we started. They had some raffles and such, and there were some bonfires for warmth, but that wait was definitely my least favorite part.
And then at 7:00 we were off. I could immediately tell this was going to be interesting, because I was just flying down the canyon. My GPS later told me that I ran one of the miles at a 5:59 pace, which is insane for me.
Eventually we got out of the canyon and things more or less leveled out. I was still doing okay, and I had gotten ahead of the main crowd. But I could tell that the speedy start was beginning to catch up with me. I noticed that my GPS claimed I was about a quarter mile ahead of where the race markers were, so I was having to run extra distance. The last mile was pretty tough, but I did make it.
In the end my chip time was 1:26:28, which was by far my best time ever (by my measure I ran that extra quarter mile and could probably knock a minute or two off the half marathon time). I also set new personal 5k and 10k records, which was very cool too. Overall I placed 44 out of 921 runners, and 9 out of 69 in my age bracket.
Of course, when I woke up Sunday I could hardly walk. It’s been a long time since I’ve been genuinely sore after a run, but the pace combined with all the downhill took its toll. Still, it was a good experience, and now I’m trying to decide whether to attempt a full marathon later in the summer. We’ll see.
It started when I awoke at 4 a.m. and headed down to Provo, where the organizers shuttled us up Provo Canyon to the starting line. We got there by about 5:30, which means we had 90 minutes to hang around in the freezing cold before we started. They had some raffles and such, and there were some bonfires for warmth, but that wait was definitely my least favorite part.
And then at 7:00 we were off. I could immediately tell this was going to be interesting, because I was just flying down the canyon. My GPS later told me that I ran one of the miles at a 5:59 pace, which is insane for me.
Eventually we got out of the canyon and things more or less leveled out. I was still doing okay, and I had gotten ahead of the main crowd. But I could tell that the speedy start was beginning to catch up with me. I noticed that my GPS claimed I was about a quarter mile ahead of where the race markers were, so I was having to run extra distance. The last mile was pretty tough, but I did make it.
In the end my chip time was 1:26:28, which was by far my best time ever (by my measure I ran that extra quarter mile and could probably knock a minute or two off the half marathon time). I also set new personal 5k and 10k records, which was very cool too. Overall I placed 44 out of 921 runners, and 9 out of 69 in my age bracket.
Of course, when I woke up Sunday I could hardly walk. It’s been a long time since I’ve been genuinely sore after a run, but the pace combined with all the downhill took its toll. Still, it was a good experience, and now I’m trying to decide whether to attempt a full marathon later in the summer. We’ll see.
Comments
Also, glad you're blogging again, Joel.