Snow Canyon Half Marathon, new 10k and half pr.

Ok the Snow Canyon half marathon is my favorite race of all time, it was my first half marathon, and I have set a pr on it every single time I have run it trimming my time by 40 minutes in 2 years on the course. I love it so much I actually talked Justin out of running the really big free marathon and Katrina as well out of that race to run this race instead. I look forward to this race all year and it is always a race I want to go for a big pr on.

My training has been a little off since the marathon as I pushed myself so hard with marathon training and triathlon training that I have had a little struggle wanting to run anything more than 25-30 miles a week in the last month and a half. I felt a lot more confident going into this race last year but knew that I could get a pr with a good race. Also I made the mistake of doing my last 4 miler on Thursday in shoes with nearly 1000 miles on them which made calves hurt. I commute to work a couple of times a week on my bicycle and I turned a pair of old running shoes with nearly a 1000 miles on them into my biking shoes. I use cages on my pedals and my shoes would keep coming untied and wrapping around my pedals nearly causing me to wreck as I couldn't get my foot out with it wrapped around the pedal. So I bought yankz that you just cinch up and don't tie and put them on a old pair of running shoes. When I got home from work on Thursday I knew I needed to hurry as my wife needed to work at 6pm so I forgot to change out my shoes in my hurry and used my really old shoes. This wore out my legs a little but I figured oh well nothing you can do about it. This week has been a little crazy as it was my little boys third birthday on Monday and then trick or treating on Wednesday just made it a hectic week. Yesterday morning I left for work an hour early so I could get off a little earlier to pick up my packet and it may have ended up saving my life. Since I was leaving earlier I took Bluff and the Blvd roads normally a lot more traffic crazywise when i leave at my normal time. Normally when I leave at my normal time I go down Dixie drive and get on the freeway to avoid the traffic, its a little longer route but takes less time with the less traffic. But leaving earlier I went the shorter route as there is less traffic that early. As I am driving up the BLVD I get a complete blowout (it looked like someone shot my tire with a shot gun). Had I not been leaving early to get my packet after work I would have taken my normal route and been on the freeway when I got the blowout this meant I would have been doing 75 MPH instead of the 35 when the tire blew. Running saves your life in more ways than one I tell you.

So here I am at 7am in a Maverik parking lot trying to put on my donut. I am parked on a slope as I was afraid to drive the car any further and all of a sudden my car falls of the jack. I realize its because I am on the slope and not wanting to drive any further but needing a flat surface I decide to inch up on the sidewalk and change the tire there. The car falls off the jack a second time and I examine the jack and realize I bent the jack when it fell off on the slope. So now I am like crap and call my boss as I know he should be on that end of town on his way to work to see if he can bring me a jack. Some random stranger offers a hydraulic jack and I get my tire changed and drive it up the street to Big-O to get a new tire. Evidently my alignment was off and it wore the inside of the tire to the threads which caused it to blow and my other front tire was really close to blowing as well. So 2 new tires and 3 hours later I finally get to work. This means I was not able to get my packet early and by the time I got it it was nearly 7pm. It also meant as I was so late getting there I also didn't get a race shirt as they run out of both mens L and XL shirts. They did take your name and said they would mail you one. I picked up mine and Katrina's packet (she got a shirt guess it pays to be a skinny minnie) and got home around 7:30. This meant I didn't get to sit around and chill like I had wanted too. I got to bed around 11pm after finalizing my new running playlist for the race. Katrina was picking me up at 6:45 to give me a ride to the buses. I initially was going to just ride my bicycle to the buses as my wife had to work at 11 and needed the car and was going to drop Oliver off at the grandparents on her way to work. But as I had Katrina's packet she just agreed to pick me up as my house is only like a half mile detour and I am only about 3 miles from the finish line. Funny thing is I forgot to set my alarm but since I get up at 5:50am everyday anyways I woke up at 5:55 regardless. I had set out all my stuff the night before including a couple bags of Gu for Justin and Katrine. If you come see me for a race you get a bag of GU LOL i gotta get rid of em somehow (I got an entire diaper box of them for volunteering for the ironman 1000's of them and I rarely use GU (I used 0 today, just ate a bonk breaker and had a gatorade before the race). So come see me for a race and a bag of GU.

Get my morning business done and get a text from Katrina that she was a little early so gather everything up and head out for my ride. I took her some trick or treat candy because I felt bad her house didn't do candy and she funningly had the same idea and brought me some fruit snacks her healthier treat. We get there and meet up with my friend and head to the start. It is a little cold at the start and have to stand around for 40 minutes. I decide to use the restroom but screw those porta potty lines so for the first race ever I go find me a bush to pee so much better. I know its not going to be a great day as I am feeling a little tense and tight usually a bad sign that it is not going to be my day running-wise. I know there is nothing I can do about it so I make a decision most runners would think was a crazy race strategy (I suggested it to Katrina for her race and she laughed at me). I know I am tense and tight but I also know how the course is laid out and know if I wait too long to make my move I will not pr with how I am feeling for the day. All the best downhills happen in the first 7 miles and if I want to pr I will need to take advantage of those hills. So i decide to go out at 1:45 pace and run 8 minute flat miles as long as I can. I know I will likely blow up with how I am feeling that day but also know I should be able to hang on to a pr. I am thinking heck best case scenario is hey I get the 1:45 but I know its unlikely with how I feel that day. I am running pretty good and come in to the 5k point at 24:45. I get passed by batman at this point and the 1:45 pacers which is odd because I was on a 1:45 pace all the way to mile 9. I hit the 10k point at 48:25 a pr by almost 3 minutes for a 10k which also means that second 5k of the race was ran in 23:40. It also means I ran my very first sub 50 10k ever and set a new 10k pr and nearly set a 5k pr as I my 5k pr is 23:05. This is what I knew I needed to do if I was going to pr because I know how hard the second half of the race is having run this race the last 2 years.

My shoelaces drove me crazy the entire race, I had to tie them 3 times and I can't remember the last time I had to retie my shoes in a race. I didn't want to stop or slow down to tie them so I would run a mile before tying them when I hit a aid station so I could get a drink and retie them. I really don't like running with my shoes untied that I found out it made my ankles hurt but I didn't want to stop. When I hit mile 9 aid station I decided to stop and retie my shoe one last time and actually walk the aid station and get a gatorade and water in me and do a little walk. Bad bad bad bad idea when I started back up I could no longer hit the 8 minute miles. I had been right at a 8:00 pace at the mile 9 station and hit it at 1:12xx. But after my little break I found all I could muster anymore was a 9mm. I knew pretty quick a 1:45 was no longer going to happen so i decided to just make sure I pr and hopefully go sub 1:50. The last 4 miles were pure misery but I knew I just needed to hang on. I finally crossed the finish line at 1:50:46 which is a 1:09 pr and I am very happy with it. I hung around at the end with Justin and we went and got our drop bags and loaded up on goodies (he finished in 1:40 he has gotten so fast last year he ran it in 2:07 and his first half marathon a year and half ago in 2:27) while we waited for Katrina to finish (she took my advice she won't admit it though and went for a sub 2 and did awesome and got it). It was then I got to scar Katrina for life and I hope the bag of Gus offset the scarring. At some point my tape came off my left nipple and I was about a mile away from having a full on bloody nipple. Luckily it was only slightly bloody but I am sure her getting to see my bloody nipple ruined her We hung around for prizes and I danced for my dinner. I got up on stage and danced to win me and my wife dinner and cramped up from it LOL advice to others do not funky dance after a pr half marathon it will not end well Katrina laughed that she should have video taped it, I felt bad she didn't get to win a prize but I guess getting to see me dance is prize enough.

She gave me a ride home and I took a quick shower before having to walk up to get my son from the grandparents house. Ok that 3.5 mile walk sucks after a race I will tell you that. My wife had dropped off the stoller off but about a half mile from our house Oliver wanted to get out and run and I can't deny the kid running. So even though hes not a very fast runner I had to run the last half mile home way too early to be running gall darn it. All in all a great race and still my favorite race of all time. A 10k pr, my first sub 50 10k, a half marathon pr and nearly a 5k pr, and free dinner for me and wife at a place I love to eat what more can you ask for. My Splits Mile 1: 8:02 (good start pace, not going out to fast) MIle 2: 8:08 (still doing good not going out to fast) Mile 3: 7:53 (starting to speed up went through the first 5k in 24:45) Mile 4: 7:37 (second fastest mile of the race) Mile 5: 7:41 Mile 6: 7:34 (fastest mile of the day, went through the 10k at 48:25 and the second 5k was a 23:40) Mile 7: 7:48 (still doing good) Mile 8: 9:09 (this was one of my shoe lace related problems as I stopped at the 7.7 aid station to tie it and it came loose less than a half mile later arghhhh) Mile 9: 8:01 (still doing good but this is where I stopped tied my shoe, walked the aid station and couldn't get back up to pace but came in at 1:12xx for the first 9 miles right on pace) Mile 10: 8:54 Mile 11: 9:36 Mile 12: 9:07 (tried to speed up to make the sub 1:50 which I failed at) Mile 13: 9:36 last .15 (course was slightly long everone got 13.15-13.2 depending on how you ran the tangents) 8:57 pace/