The best part of this race was definitely the pre- and post-race company. The trip with Fritz and Brandon was great. The race itself was ok for me--about what I expected given my current training.
Fritz picked me up at the Adobe building in Lehi and we met Brandon at his home in Spanish Fork. We loaded up in Brandon's scion, hit the local Subway for a sandwich, and had a great trip to Green River. Fritz's mom hooked us up with two "top-rate," $27/night rooms in Green River. We hit the sack early that night.
We left for Moab around six in the morning, arrived at the packet pick-up location in Moab early, and avoided some long lines before the race. We went back to Brandon's car where we snoozed for a few minutes before we saw Kevin running down the street on his way to the buses. We hit the second wave of buses and arrived at the starting line more than a hour an a half before the race--too early. I was glad to bump into one my favorite running buddies, Justin Park and spend a few minutes chatting with him before the race. I got in a mile warmup with a few striders before lining up for the start.
At the starting line we saw Patrick Smyth (All-American XC runner for Notre Dame and sponsored by Nike) and immediately started thinking about who would be contending for second place.
The race got off to a quick start with the steepest downhill of the whole course for the first 200 yards. I chose not to go out with the lead pack and found myself running alone, which I worried might have been a bad decision. I stayed 10-15 seconds behind the lead group for close to the first three miles. I was tempted the whole time to make a push to catch them so I could draft. Patrick took the lead immediately and broke the headwind for one of the runners he is coaching at Westminster. There was a line of about 6-7 guys for the first mile or two snaking behind Patrick.
I think it was around mile five when I started to catch up to Fritz. I had been reluctant the whole race to make a push afraid that when I caught up to him I would have to draft off him for the next several miles and not take the lead just to recover. I gradually caught up to him and got close enough to shout out to let him know it was me coming up behind him--hoping he would be interested in working together rather than taking off. I ran behind him for a 1/4 mile or so to regroup and took the lead to break the wind for a while. It was really nice to have somebody to work with for the next 4 miles or so.
As we were approaching mile 10, I knew I had to make a move if I had any hope of catching the two runners behind Patrick (Zak James and the kid from Westminster). I gradually was closing the gap on the kid from Westminster, but Zak kept gradually pulling away. With a mile left I knew the kid from Westminster would need a pretty bad blow up if I had any chance of catching him and at time I started to worry more about Fritz soaring by me. The last stretch of the race ends on a slight uphill grade and I was exhausted. When I crossed the finish line, I had to place a hand on one of the volunteers shoulders to not fall over. She mentioned something about getting the medical team. I told her that wouldn't be necessary. I finished with a time of 1:12:08 and 4th place overall--I was happy with the effort for the day.
Fritz came in right behind me and Kevin was right on his heals. Nice PR for Kevin who is just getting stronger and faster all of the time. We ran to Brandon's car, switched shoes, and jogged out to Kevin's camp site as part of our cool down. We met Amiee at the campsite who was kind to share some of her healthy snacks with us. We all ran back to the finish of the race together. Fritz and I got in several more miles to hit over 20 total for the day. By the time we were done running, I was ready to eat an elephant I was so hungry.
The rest of the day was super enjoyable; a great lunch, a nice nap, and a fantastic car ride home with very cool stories. I really admire Fritz and Brandon and spending time with them made me appreciate what top-notch guys they are even more.
Here is how the race looked on the Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/285831703
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