The course said it would turn left on Campus Dr. and go down Ft Douglas Dr to Mario Capecchi. Instead, it continued and went up toward Red Butte Canyon and then left on the parking lot that takes you toward the cancer institute (I guess its called N Campus Dr). You then turn left on N Medical Dr. and descend from just west of the Cancer Institute parking. It gets back on track where Mario Capecchi meets Medical/N Campus Dr. So that was more hill than expected to ascend up to N Campus Dr. I think they compensated a bit by starting the race right at the big bend of Emigration Canyon rather than up Pinecrest Canyon Rd. That swaps some downhill for some uphill. Overall though the distance was 13.09 on my Garmin so just about right. Also, the time as I ran across was 1:26:08 which was too fast and my watch said 1:27:28 when I crossed. I believe my official time was 1:28:08 so I'm not sure I'm confident about the timing for the race. With that intro, I did pretty much as planned. I resisted the urge to sprint down Emigration and kept right on pace through mile 7 averaging 6:29 through those miles. Then miles 8 and 9 hit with the hills running across the U and those were 7:17 and 7:20. It wasn't much better through Federal Heights and up to 11th Ave as I recovered from the hills and the next two were 6:41 and 7:00. By this time my legs were starting to cramp, particularly my inner calves and I didn't feel too zippy for miles 12 and 13 which I wanted to run in an average of 6:27. They were 6:50 and 6:22 respectively and then 31 seconds to the finish line. Overall an aided PR on my third half of 1:28:08 officially I think, so I am happy. My splits are Garmin. Now for winter base training! Goal is consistency and building to 50 miles and six runs per week. Unless I learn to get up early, I will never be able to run much more than 50. So that's a big goal going into next spring.
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