This is my fourth Pioneer Day since moving to Utah, but first time racing the Deseret News Classic. We've been out of town on vacation every time. This year we strategically scheduled vacation for after the race (leaving for Jackson Hole as soon as I finish typing this out). Rob called the other night to give me some good advice ("be ready to run faster for the first couple miles than you ever have in your life"). Yesterday I read a few older race reports; Paul's recap from 2010 gave me a good idea of how to dial in my race "strategy": "...Not that you can really 'target' much at Des News. You more just load and go, and hope for the best. It's not a cerebral race." AKA no strategy, just run hard. My only real goal for this race was the get on the podium. I figured it would take something ~29 minutes or under to crack the top 3. I wasn't quite able to accomplish the "A" goal, but I still had a pretty good run. I got out well and ahead of the masses off the start. Probably was somewhere in 6-8th place down the bottom half of Wakara and hit the mile in 4:29. A little faster than I wanted. I passed Seth Pilkington and another guy and moved up to 4th during the second mile (4:27). Miles Batty, Patrick Smyth, and Josh McCabe were packed up about 5-7 seconds in front of me. I'm guessing they were under 8:50 for the first two miles. Brad Osguthorpe caught up to me on the small climb up to South Temple. He passed me on the hill and I evened back up as we started going back down. I was fortunate to have him make that move, because we were able to work together the remainder of the race. Having someone right on your shoulder keeps you from mailing it in. I think it worked out great for both of us. Mile #3 was 4:53 and we came through 5K in ~14:18. I was starting to pay the price for the quick start. I really wanted to be ~9:05-9:10 for those first two miles, and 8:56 just put me in enough of a hole that I couldn't recover from. Miles 4 and 5 were 4:48, 4:54. John Coyle passed us, but Josh was slowly coming back. I think we caught him somewhere early in the 6th mile. The last 3/4 mile is a bear. It felt like running in sand. Brad, Josh, and I all made "surges" to the front, each of us got reeled back in by the other two. With about 100 meters left, and Josh and Brad both in front of me, I found one extra gear. I was finally able to outkick someone. I moved past Brad, but wasn't quite able to catch Josh. The last 1.2 miles was 6:12 (5:09 pace, kinda pathetic!). There's another gear that I know I have, I just haven't been able to tap into it yet. I feel like its more psychological than physical and I know I'll get it. The final order was Miles, Patrick, John, Josh, me, Brad, Bryant, and Seth. Results. After the race I ran a bunch of miles cheering for the marathoners. I was sad to see Rob walking off the side of the road after he had to drop out, but watching Allie really crush it and win the marathon in ~2:51 really made the day. I made sure she didn't get hit by the TRAX. First mile
 Around the 3.5 mile mark with Brad
 Final stretch before Andrea yelled at me to "KICK FOR ONCE!" :-)
 More photos that Andrea took. 
I feel like I need to put down my thoughts on the course, since I always do that when the courses are hard. Its only fair! The net drop (feet) of the downhill half-marathons I've run in Utah are: SLC (564), TOU (625), UV (721). Those are all around a 1% gradient, which is sort of where I draw my internal line for race times being "realistic" and giving me a best-case scenario for what I might run on a flat, oxygenated course. This 10K (670) is about double that drop (2%), which is why I look at this as more of a "cross country" style race. For me, Des News is all about competition against a field of really, really good athletes. Time isn't quite as relevant as placement and where I stack up relative to the other runners in the field. And ultimately, that's a big part of what racing is about, right? So, I thought it was a great race, and I'll be back as long as I live here. Its a thrill to run that fast; its challenging to stay focused and keep your legs turning over so quick. I'll be honest, I thought the course was going to be a breeze. It wasn't. The final 1.5 miles are brutal after all that downhill. And I love the high level of competition. I'd say I'm actually approaching the level of fitness I had when I ran 30:03 on the track last June... close, but not quite there yet. I'm still planning to run the Snow King Hill Climb this Saturday in Jackson.
Altogether, a great morning. Not as great as Karl Malone's first Pioneer Day, but close. | 
