This is a late race report but hey it's better late than never. Kellie and I drove down to St. George on Friday with our friends Brandon and Rachel. We hit St. George and went into the Brick Oven for some pasta. I really didn't feel nervous about this race, I was not going out to hit a specific time just run and feel good. I really hadn't trained for it and it was like my 6th time running since the St. George Marathon. I started the race in about 20th place, I had 3 girls in front of me and my plan was to hit the half point at or around a 6:35-6:45 pace. I finally caught up to Marcy an mile 7 and ran 2 miles with her, and then I caught up to Mary Ann at mile 11. This is where the course got very HILLY!!! I finally caught Erika Schramm at mile 13 and my pace at the half was 6:37. I knew that it would be hard to stay under a 7:00 min pace with the next 13 miles being very tough. I passed several people from mile 11 on, I was glad that I didn't go out to fast. I was running most of the way with a 16 yr old kid that would get in front and then I would get in front. His iPod was blasting, so he was much for talking. When I hit mile 19 I could see a very large hill at mile 20, I thought to myself if I can get to the top of that hill and still be under 7:00 I will be happy. It was getting hot and I was really starting to get achy legs. I hit mile 20 at a 6:43 pace. I knew that I could still get under 3:00:00 if I could finish the last 10k strong. My legs were dead, I had no turn over I tried picking up the pace and I felt like I could have stayed under a 7:00 min pace but I really didn't want to injure myself so at mile 21, I passed a guy and then did a little .25 mile burst to see if the 16 year old would hold on. I never looked back, but he came in 5 min after me. So he must have really dropped. I had to stop and tie my shoe at mile 22 and then at mile 24 I had to stop and take my arm sleeve off. I was cooking. I could see one more guy in front that passed me at mile 7, I finally cought him with about .5 left, I told him let's finish together. This was a good race for me. I learned a lot about going out slower and then picking the pace up. I think that my body does so much better running that way. I know that I went out to fast this year at St. George and I hope that I can learn from these 2 races. I know that I could run a 2:50 something on this course if I was in great shape. It is a hard course and the last 15 are not FUN AT ALL.
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