Provo City Half-Melody

This race is one of my favorites for many reasons.  It's close, the weather is usually perfect and the course is one I'm very familiar with and train on frequently.  It is also very well done and organized.

I got up to the start with 40 minutes to burn so I stretched and jogged a bit.  At the start I lined up and hardly any women joined me near the front.  Riley Cook (the eventual men's winner) turned to me and asked what my goal was.  I wasn't very direct but said maybe a low 1:20 if I'm feeling good.  He introduced me to his brother and said we should run together. I nodded and the gun went off.

The first mile is really downhill.  I usually take this one somewhat easy because it's easy to get excited and burn this one up.  I looked at my watch...6:20 pace!  Yikes, time to pick it up.  I sped up just s bit and not long after that I was joined by Denver (Riley's brother).  We clipped off the next several miles together and slowly picked off guys along the way.  

I had a pretty solid lead and was feeling great but once we got out of the canyon I started to get tired.  We were joined by the female winner about mile 8 and ran stride for stride for almost 1.5 miles.  Denver tried to help me and threw in a surge and pulled away but I could not speed up.  She let him go at first but reeled him in and gained about 10 sec per mile on me at this point.  She was throwing down sub 6s on the hardest part of the course!  

I caught Denver on the CC hill and tried to lock on the the lead female but she just kept pulling away.  I was happy at this point to not completely fall apart.  My pace had slowed but not by a lot and I was focused on finishing strong.  I held it together and picked it up when I saw I could break 1:19.  I can't do math after mile 10 so I really had no idea what pace I was on.  

I ended up with a 1:18:40 and 2nd place.  The winner I found out later was Morgan Haws, a former standout at BYU and WSU.  

I credit her and Denver for pulling me way under my goal of 1:21-22!