SLC Half Marathon - 2017 edition

Friday: rest day, with some gentle hiking with my friend Lois in Red Butte Garden. Awesome.

Saturday: Salt Lake City Half Marathon!

I woke ready to go and feeling pretty good. Had a banana and grabbed my stuff, but forgot my Garmin. At least I have my fitbit, but I can't do splits on it. Oh well! I didn't mind too much as I was doing this just as a training race. I was excited to get out there and enjoy the camaraderie, and the weather was absolutely perfect. Started off low 40s (~5C) and sunny and calm, and ended at probably 50F (10C).

Took it easy for the first 5 miles (a couple small steep uphills but mostly gentle downhill), and then through mile 6.5 it's a relentless though gentle uphill. That takes a lot out of you, but I took it easy and it was OK. A little more downhill and then one more difficult uphill (hard to racewalk legally near the top) before coasting down to mile 8-9. The kids were supposed to greet me at mile 8.5 but didn't :/ ah well.

I still felt pretty good in miles 8-10; legs got pretty tired around mile 10 but I took a gel and that seemed to revive me a bit (or it was just a coincidence!). Either way, I was able to do the last couple miles pushing it just a little (moderate-moderately hard) and I felt very good - tired, but good. After crossing the finish line I felt fine and recovered well the rest of the day, although it was a bit of a crazy schedule. Church stuff has been super busy with being on the search committee for a new pastor, and we had a lot of stuff to do this weekend, so that made recovery harder, but I am hoping to sleep well tonight.

Oh, and my time? A reasonably respectable 2:21:37 - for out of shape and just enough training to go the distance, I will take that. Fitbit data here. 

I'm definitely sore today, probably from the hills and the extra effort the last couple miles, but it's a good kind of sore. Hoping to hit the gym for some weights this week and do a lot of cross-training. Onward! Need to get ready for Portland to Coast in August, and then still setting my sights on WMA in Malaga, Spain in 2018.