Today's race went well for me. I went into the race planning on winning it based on the fact that I won the race last year, and knowing that the field would be a little weaker this year due to less representation from bloggers. So, the plan was to go out with Sasha, and to take it easy for the first few miles, and to then pick up the pace some. Sasha was not feeling 100% this morning, and based on the runners at the start I could tell that my assumptions about the competitiveness of the field were probably correct, so when the gun went off, I stayed with Sasha and took it easy for the first couple miles. The race starts heading down South Fork Canyon. There are a few short uphill sections, but the race mostly heads down until you get to Vivian's park about 4 miles into the race. Based on my overall time as I neared the bottom of the canyon I guessed that I had been averaging about 5:15 coming down, whereas last year I had averaged under 5:00 pace at this point of the race due to starting out more aggressively. We made it onto the Provo River Trail, where the course flattened out a bit more, although it was still heading downhill. At this point of the race I decided that I was going to start pushing the pace a little more. I do not know my exact pace during this section, but at worst I think that I was going the same speed as when I was coming down the canyon. At about 6.5 miles the course leaves the river trail, and starts to head up the old highway going back uphill (it keeps the course more honest, so I don't mind the uphill). We eventually turned around at maybe 7.6 miles and started back down the highway. At this point of the race I was able to get a decent tailwind (after the headwind going uphill), and coupled with the downhill I was really able to get moving. I made it from the mile marker at 8 miles to the marker at 9 miles in 4:56. I decided that the markers must be wrong, since most of the markers in this race were either wrong, or non-existent. Just to make sure, I started using the marks on the river trail to time myself, and to gauge my pace. I found out that I was hitting 5:00 pace almost dead on. I would occasionally time sections on the trail as I kept going, and I never hit a single quarter in slower than 76 seconds (or faster than 74). What surprised me the most, was that it did not feel like I was pushing the pace too hard. It felt hard, but comfortably hard, yet I was running about 20 seconds per mile faster than I ran on the same section of trail last year. The pace started to feel harder around 10.5 or 11 miles, but I was able to maintain the pace fine to the finish. As I neared the finish line I could tell that I had a good shot at breaking 1:08, so I really picked up the pace quite a bit to make sure that I got under, and I crossed the line in 1:07:53 (25:40 from the 8 mile marker to the finish, 5:01.4 pace). So, I ended up getting a pr by 62 seconds on this course as compared to last year, after running the first 4 miles over a minute slower than last year, because I was taking it easier this time around. So, I am pleased with the effort, and with the result. Now, I just need to find a good honest course that I can run at sea level so that I can find out what my true pr is.
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