Kimia and I drove up from Las Vegas for the St. George Half on Friday evening for the race this morning. Temperatures were a little colder than I am used to (I know, I am a wuss now that I live in Vegas) so I came prepared this time (unlike with the Indy Monumental in Nov when I only had shorts in 27 degree weather). I copied Paul to an extent and went with some compression shorts and long socks that cover my calves. I got in about 3 miles before the race started and also did a couple strides just before the start, in addition to taking off the long shirt, coat, and pants that I was wearing. The gun went off and I immediately shot off to the front. I was unexpectedly alone for the first few meters, but I knew that others would be in the mix, so I backed off and waited for Paul to catch up. He did, as well as Fritz and the three of us went through the first 2 miles in a fairly leisurely pace (5:29, 5:27). We were actually chatting quite a bit at the beginning, but we started to get more serious past the two mile mark. We hit mile three in 5:14 despite a decent hill near the end of it, followed by a 5:01. Fritz fell off the pace near the beginning of the fourth mile, and it was just Paul and I after that. We hit the fifth mile in 5:11, followed by a 5:13 for mile 6 (total time of 31:35). The seventh mile was a 5:20, and I am honestly not sure why we slowed down, but we hit mile 8 together in 5:01 (41:56). I started to struggle during mile 9, and Paul pulled ahead of me. He had about 1 second on me at the 9 mile mark (5:17 split), but we made a couple of turns shortly thereafter and I caught back up before we had even made it 150m past the 9 mile mark. However, this was to be short lived as I started to get a cramp in my side, and Paul feeling good, put in a strong surge and dropped me pretty quick. I worked through the cramp and was feeling better by the time that I hit the 10 mile mark (5:09 split, 52:22 total) and I started to focus on keeping Paul close. During the 11th mile I figured that Paul was about 15 seconds ahead of me, and things didn't look any different when I hit that mark with a split of 5:12. However, just past the 11 mile mark we went up a steep but short hill and I lost sight of Paul. I decided to use the hill as a chance to make up some room and I pushed hard up the hill. The reason I couldn't see Paul is because the course looped back on itself near the end, and as Paul and I were getting to the end of the race there were other people who were only 6 or 7 miles into the race that we now had to pass. There were so many people that I was constantly yelling at people to warn them, and swerving all over the trail. On occasion I would bump people or leave the trail entirely in order to get past them. The last 3 miles of this race were really a mess. Anyhow, after I got to the top of the hill I still could not see Paul, but I heard another runner mention that the race was going to be pretty close. It was only a few seconds later that I caught sight of Paul again and realized that my surge up the hill had worked and I had closed close to half of the distance between us. I decided to use a downhill section on the course to attempt the same thing shortly thereafter and I closed the gap even more. I continued to push in order to close the gap, and by the 12 mile marker I was maybe 1 or 2 seconds back (5:16 split, 1:02:50 total). This split was the last that I caught before the race got even weirder. I passed Paul just after crossing a bridge and he immediately surged to take back the lead. We were then weaving in and out of people trying to stay in front of one another, and we missed the final turn we were supposed to take to finish the race. There were supposed to be people manning the turn, but they didn't direct us to take the turn, and there were spectators standing in the way as well, further muddling the picture. Somehow Paul heard a guy mention that we had passed the turn, and once we realized that we had gone past the turn we both turned around and went back towards the finish. This was a real momentum killer for me after I had spent so much time catching back up to Paul. I was slower turning around then he was, and I was a step behind from here to the finish. Once we made the correct turn Paul really started to push, and I made no move to cover. I am really mad at myself for not taking more of a shot at winning this at the end. When Paul made his move I thought to myself that I would wait just a little longer and then really kick hard on the homestretch to try and win, but I was already a couple seconds behind before we even got to the homestretch and at this point I just didn't have anything left in me to try and catch Paul again and I ended up finishing 3 seconds back. It is possible that Paul still would have out kicked me even if I would have tried to cover his move, but I wish that I would have tried. On a more positive note, I am very pleased that I was able to keep pushing and catch back up to Paul after he dropped me earlier on in the race. I really am pleased that I was able to catch back up, as mentally getting dropped can leave you demoralized and it is easy to give up and is hard to make up ground on a runner (especially when you have to dodge around a trail full of people). Overall I think this was a good race. I feel really positive about how things went. I figure that I would have finished in about 1:08:20 if it weren't for the missed turn, which is a very good time, and I feel good about how I competed (with the exception being the last few hundred meters).
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