Well, this will go down as a decent race, but not up to potential. In retrospect, I suspect my 22 miler on 3.75 hours of sleep last week probably ran down my immune system, making me susceptible to illness, then the mild illness this week (Montezuma's and sore throat), helped seal the deal on not-prime racing form. Though look at the week Paul Petersen had, and the race he had, and my excuse feels weak. Regardless, I pushed through a race that felt blah, and I got a good workout, so I'll have to take it! Woke up at 4:30, got ready with Paul (my Paul, my husband ran the race and did great: 1:52, and he has lost 49 lbs over the last 4-5 months). Got to the park at 5:25, got our packets and boarded the bus. Earned 6 stars pre-race--is that a good thing or a bad thing. Is there such a thing as too many new stars? Given my stomach issues for the week, I took two imodium's last night and they worked perfectly--didn't prevent any prerace stars but did prevent any race issues. Anyhow (that's the fullness of my bathroom talk for this blog), saw some bloggers, including Emily Jameson, we started together and chatted before the race. It takes her having an infant for me to be able to compete with her, I'll take any handicap I can get. I was hoping to ride the bus up the mountain with Emily and ask her to tell me the inspirational story of her falling in the NCAA National Championship and getting up and taking 2nd or 3rd after the fall (I can't remember the exact info). I've heard about it and want to hear the story from her. I guess it'll have to wait. If you read Paul Petersen's blog, she's Teren's wife, and Paul's description of Teren matches Emily, full of talent and speed. She pointed out Stephanie Talley, who she said was good, I saw Marianne S, who could trip me up, and I saw another serious looking runner I didn't know (Carol Rowe, I found out later). It seemed Emily and I might be going the same pace. I wanted to try to hit the barely under 1:17 the race predictor predicted off my Provo River half, but start off conservatively (5:50 pace) and see if I had it in me. I knew I'd be 1:17-1:20. At the start, it's Stephanie, Emily, me and Marianne. We stayed together through mile 1 ( 5:45). I let them go a bit in the second mile, because the pace didn't seem conservative enough. Mile 2 was 5:54, slower than I wanted, but felt right, I was a little off the other three. Maryanne and I seem to be running tangents in more earnest than Stephanie and Emily. In Mile 3 Stephanie and Emily are about together, Maryanne is behind a couple seconds, then me 5:56. I am not panicked, I know it is a long race and if I am feeling good, I could catch any of them. I do catch Maryanne at about 5k, and don't see her again. Mile 4 5:53, Stephanie is now ahead of Emily a bit, Mile 5 5:45, still in third, Mile 6 5:46, get gatorade, make some time on Emily in water stop. Surging to reel her in. Over the next couple of miles we trade leads a bit. Mile 7 5:53, Mile 8 5:58 harder to keep sub 6. Mile 9 6:07, take a gu, pass Emily in this mile, Mile 10 6:14 wheels falling off, but throwing in surges, each one thinking "This is the surge that will break Emily". There is nothing worse for me when I am surging to try to catch someone and see no progress because they are surging or just plain going faster. It is pretty much a battle for second now. I haven't been feeling the love at any point in the race, as my splits show, so I am running scared. Mile 11 starts the uphill 6:26, Mile 12 6:45 (that's just embarrassing) big uphill, not too steep but long and challenging because it's in a hard part in the race at the 12 mile mark I realize I won't likely hit 1:18:45, but I want a miracle for mile 13 and a sub 6:00 mile, or anything approaching it, to prevent the Emily Nay (I meant Jameson) fly by. I do find some juice and actually hit a 5:59 (I didn't know this split until just now, THAT IS A HAPPY SURPRISE, maybe this race wasn't all bad ;D). .11 miles in 33.77 seconds, as I see that the clock is ever so close to 1:19 but I might slip under. That's a decent kick, but reaps me a 1:19:02. Overall, this was a great workout, a decent race, and I am glad I didn't do any worse, and that I held off the field with the exception of Stephanie.
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