What a morning! I was up by 3:30 and at the start line by 4:30. Great. I sat and talked with Laura and Emily for an hour. Then I ran .5 warm up, stretched and did a few strides. I started out right with the lead girls. My first mile was 5:25 and the next 3 were around 5:40. It was faster than I was expecting to run but I wanted to keep contact as long as I could. Just past the 4 mile mark, I got gapped and was by myself for the next 9 miles. I felt very focused and fine until I turned onto Foothill Drive. I used to think it was downhill, but it definitely was not. I had slowed down and was fighting just to keep a good pace going. I finally made it to South Temple and just tried to keep it low 6's. My legs were really tired and dead and it felt really long. It helped turning onto the parade route but it felt like the longest finish of my life. I am happy with how I did. A little disappointed I couldn't hang on longer but I did what I could. The gu at mile 4 and 8 helped me so I didn't crash as bad the last 5K as I did in my last half. But I got my goal of running under 1:20! I ran 2 miles at the race with Tomy and another 2.5 at home. | 