Craig's Running Blog

Got up at the ungodly hour of 3:45. Had to meet Marie & Cindy in Draper at 4:15. Fortunately, I assembled my pack the night before so there were no surprises. We met up and I rode down with them. We got there pretty early, so we had some time to relax and ride the bus up the canyon.

We saw Mark and Bill at the starting line. I also talked to Walter, who was racing it but fortunately not under his own name in our division. Mark and I got a minimal amount of warm ups in, and decided to pace each other the first part of the race since we had the same goal time of 1:18. I haven't been running as many miles this year, but I've been biking a fair amount and doing 2-a-days (running in the morning and biking in the evening). I knew that my fitness was good, and it's also comforting to be totally injury-free.

The gun went off in the usual Kurt-style chaos. Mark and I found ourselves pacing with Michelle L, who was shooting for a sub-1:18. Naturally, she pulled ahead about 1 minute while we averaged a 5:40 pace on the first 3 miles. Once we flattened out and hit the trail at mile 4, I thought we would slow down, but I was pacing miles 4 and 6, and I was keeping the pace around 5:45. Travis was doing a training run, and hooked up with us for mile 5. At the mile 6 marker, I looked back to see Mark about 15 seconds behind me, so I slowed and offered to let him pace. I told him I just felt good and relaxed, so he told me to go ahead and run a 1:16. So I pulled ahead and worked it pretty well up the hill. I came down the hill to find Michelle and a couple others within reach, so I caught up and pulled ahead of them. This tall guy who looked like a college runner pulled ahead of all of us, so I used him as a pacer the rest of the way. Travis hooked up with me again at mile 8, and ran a couple miles with me until he couldn't hang on anymore. I was still feeling strong, so I decided to maintain the pace in to the end. I almost caught the tall guy on the last mile, but there wasn't enough distance or time left. I finished it up at 1:16:46, which is the fastest I've run that course in 5 years or so. I was pleased with the time. Michelle was the next finisher, coming in at 1:17:45 and winning the race.

We'll see how Hobblecreek goes in a couple weeks.

Hobblecreek 1/2 Marahon

Well, I knew the pressure was on me this year for a PR. I've been running a little better than last year, and this is probably the best year I've had since 2005. Since last year was my first Hobblecreek half, I knew what to expect and knew that the course is so fast there would be no excuse not to PR. Fortunately, I had a pretty good day.

I would say about 60% of our group raced this year, which brought about 18 of the Runamoks crew down to UT county. I rode down with Bill (our coach) to get his usual good advice on race day.

As expected, the race started close to 8:00, even with the buses leaving earlier this year. I was hoping heat wouldn't be a factor, because it was scheduled to be a very hot day and an 8:00 start for a summer half marathon isn't exactly early.

The race started, and I knew I was moving at about a 5:30 pace over the first 5 miles. I don't wear a watch any more, so I'm racing strictly by feel. It felt good. I had Linsdey (who won for the women), Justin (who won the Ogden half but was disqualified 'cause he registered for the full), and a couple sojourners guys named Clark and Derick in my sites through most of the early miles. There was some older guy with red hair and a tucked-in shirt who didn't look like he'd be able to keep the pace with them. I passed him at mile 5 and I don't know what happened to him. Maybe he won the masters division in 1:14. Eventually, I passed Derick and Lindsey broke away, so I just had the 2 guys in my sights.

The heat started getting to me around the golf course, and that's where Nan came up and passed all of us. That was pretty crazy. I mentioned something about it being a scorcher, but she wasn't in the mood to say anything. About mile 10, I saw Travis off the side doing his tempo training, and he ran a couple with me. I started feeling better around mile 11, and started picking up the gap between me and Justin/Clark. Travis bailed out at 12, but closing the gap had me surging mentally. I eventually passed Clark when he stopped & stretched with a 1/2 mile to go and caught up to Justin. He knew I was right there and he had a decent kick, so we ended up finishing together. Still, I was pretty pleased I was able to hold pace with the guy who beat Walter and ran 3-4 minutes faster than me at Ogden. Justin and I talked after the race for a while, and he gave me some decent suggestions for running flats, etc.

In all, I'm pretty pleased with the race. I think hitting the bike hard this summer and keeping my running mileage at a mild base is paying off at the 1/2 marathon distance. I am not sure how it will translate at St George, but I'm going to increase the mileage over this next month to get my endurance where it needs to be. I'm not too worried, because I'm feeling pretty strong at the end of these 1/2 marathons (unlike last year).

On another positive note- my training partner Jeremy came in 2nd at the Park City marathon, so he'll be good to train and race with over the next month. Mark (our other training partner) is doing the Top of Utah half this weekend, so we'll see how that goes.