I ran this race in 2011, running ~5:45 pace for the 8.9 mile "15K" course. This year I was actually aiming to go a bit slower; just get a good workout without wearing myself out. I've upped the mileage and intensity (on purpose) over the past two weeks, so I wanted this to be a fun cap to the mini-cycle. I thought I saw Ken Richardson in the parking lot and figured I'd probably end up running with him, but then he wasn't there at the start (turns out he missed the gun and started late). Some other guy I didn't know (John Tribbia, I learned afterwards) started off ahead of me at a good clip, so I just went with him. I was more than willing to do my share of leading the race, and tried to move ahead 2-3 times during the first two miles, but every time he surged back ahead. Apparently he got the (outdated) memo that I'm not a threat in the latter stages of a race and was fine letting me run on his shoulder? :-) Anyways, I didn't want to get into a game of surging so I just hung back a bit for the first half of the race. John would extend the lead a little on the downhills, then I would catch back up on the flats/ups. Around the halfway point you go up a long (~1.5 mile) hill on somewhat narrow singletrack. We went REALLY slow up this hill compared to how I ran it last time. I was getting anxious to get moving but just rolled with it because I saw no major benefit in pushing it. I decided to just wait until we went down the twisty/technical trail on the other side before taking the lead once and for all. After the downhill (where I didn't fall!) we hit the 7 mile mark and I decided it was time to get moving. There was a short, steep hill right around 7.25 mi and I knew the terrain opened up afterwards (more runnable) so I sprinted up the hill and that was that. Picked up the pace a bit as the trail turned back into a jeep road. Cruised in and ended up averaging~6:00 pace for the whole thing (definitely at least a full 15K this time with the course changes) so pretty much right where I wanted to be. Good workout, fun course, and great day with friends. I highly recommend checking out this race series. Its always fun to go up to Park City and the race organizers do a great job. Rob and ESPECIALLY Amiee ran well. That really made the day for me. Rob also wanted me to point out that I needed to run a trail race to finally win something. I'll show him! :-)
More photos. Splits - 5:42, 5:41, 6:12, 5:46, 6:19, 6:58, 5:46, 6:03, 5:27, 2:20. Had 0.5 for the last stretch so my auto-splits were clicking a little short. AM - 13 miles (2 up, race, 2 down) PM - 6 miles on the PC rail trail (2 w/ Andrea).
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