I wasn't 100% planning to do this race until yesterday, but I've had it on my mind for the whole summer. I did a small warm up, stretched, and looked for competition, but I didn't see anyone I knew that would be pushing me. Maybe Jerrell, but he said he wasn't going to kill it, so I thought, my goal should just be to beat my time from the half I did 2 weeks ago.
As soon as we started I took off feeling pretty confident on the win, but not feeling that good with the running. My legs didn't have a spring much like they usually do. At the first mile(5:57, way slower than what I wanted) I looked back and saw someone running with Jerrell. I didn't recognize him, so I didn't know what to think. The second and third miles I sped up, and same with the 4th mile. The 5th was alright, but the 6th and 7th were 6:30s. At mile 4, this guy caught me. I later found out he is John Coyle, who runs Steeplechase for Weber. I let him lead for most of it. I probably led about a mile of the 3 or 4 miles we were together. Mile 8 was just under six, so it was alright, but not where I wanted. Mile 9 was just as fast as mile 3, a 5:20, and that is where he gaped me. Miles 10, 11, there were people telling me to catch him. I didn't but he was with-in sight the whole time.
He finished maybe 20 seconds or so before me, so he never lost me. I was a bit mad at my time. Oh well, maybe another day. I averaged a 5:49, and I usually average around a 5:40- 5:44 in that canyon on my training runs recently. I did a cool down with Jerrell who finished 4th, and talked with a lot of people after. Nice fun run. |