Ran the Hobble creek half marathon today. After last weeks tempo run of provo river half I knew I could still put up a decent time even with all the hip issues I have had recently, if I could get the sacrum back where it is supposed to go beforehand so the muscles wouldn't all lock up during the race. If I can get this thing figured out, eventually, I will be a much happier runner. Caught a ride with Scott Keate, Matt Poulsen and his wife Elaina, to the buses. Scott and I caught a bus and did a warm up from where the buses dropped us of up to the start. I could tell the hip would probably hold up during the race, but not sure after. We did another mile or so warm up, and hung out with a bunch of friends at the start. It was great to see a lot of my early morning running friends all gathered for one race. I saw David Taylor whom I have beat in a couple of races this past year, Nebo and Timp Trail half, and knew he would probably be my biggest competition for winning masters, either him or Curtis Eppley. With my lack of base I was pretty sure I wouldn't have the stamina towards the end of the race, but nothing like running the race to find out. The race actually started on time, which was really nice, and we took off down the canyon. David took off to a screaming start the first mile, I think he said it was like a 4:55 mile, with Scott on his heels. My first mile was a 5:19 and felt pretty good. I had bought some new Kinvara 3's the night before that I was wearing, hoping to find a replacement shoe before the end of the year and my launches are discontinued. They performed great through the downhill and the race. My heart rate through the race never got too crazy, but I also didn't feel like I could push it any faster either. I usually gu before the race and halfway through a half marathon but elected not to take one half way through this time and see what happens. I think I would rather have taken one so the last couple of miles may have felt a bit better. I kept David in sight most of the race, though probably at least a minute behind him. Matt passed me at mile 7, Toni passed me a couple of times, he had to stop to retie his shoe after his chip started falling off. Brandon blew by me around 11 or so. I got chicked with .5 to go, but just had nothing left in the tank to do anything about it. I ran a few miles with Curtis who caught up to me during the middle miles. After pushing through the hilly trail miles he had to slow down for a little recovery and never caught back up. We had reeled David in a little bit here and there, but eventually we had nothing left to catch him. It was fun to see our early morning running group take 5 of the top 12 spots. The hip really tightened up the last mile or so as the energy waned, and after I crossed the line I was in full limp mode with the tight psoas, or maybe illiacus. I eventually got it stretched out so I could walk normally again. Will be fun to see how things go if I can get the body to hold up for longer periods of time. Since David won masters I got the 40-44 age group award. 1 5:19 157 avg. HR 2 5:30 168 3 5:39 167 4 5:38 168 5 5:40 170 6 5:42 172 7 6:00 173 8 5:50 173 9 6:06 174 10 6:06 175 11 6:14 175 12 6:10 175 .87 5:32 176
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