This race went surprisingly well for me. I didn't have high expectations going into it. I wasn't even really considering this to be a race I would "race". I've been pretty tired from my training lately and I did hill repeats on my bike on Thursday that left my legs feeling dead so I wasn't expecting my legs to feel fresh and strong. I was happily surprised that they felt pretty dang good and what started out with what I intended to be a training run turned out to be more of a race pace effort than I thought it would be.
The race is the exact same as the first half of the Ogden Marathon. It starts with about 4 miles of downhill, flattens out for several miles and ends with several miles of rollers. I wore a watch but rarely looked at it and mostly ran by effort. I checked my heart rate randomly and glanced a few times when it beeped my mile splits. When I saw that my legs were feeling good I made sure I was pushing at an effort that was difficult but sustainable. I really worked on staying mentally focused and relaxed. The last 5k I tried to really turn on the mental side of racing and worked through the fatigue I was starting to feel. I worked hard for those last three miles and I am really proud of my effort. It's hard to race when you're not feeling "it" and I'm glad I could switch gears and prove to myself that I can push.
Splits: 7:45, 7:56, 7:38, 7:38, 7:39, 7:42, 7:49, 7:51, 7:55, 7:47, 8:03, 7:52, 7:51, 1:11(7:26)
Finished with a 7 mile cool down w/ Josse. Good day :)
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