There is Hope! American Fork Half Marathon 2014-06-21

The American Fork Half Marathon last year was my favourite race all year long and I hoped this year would hold up to the same standards again. The previous year it had been the Timp Half, but with free photographs and excellent everything else it was a winner in 2013. The Timp course and AF are about the same route with slightly different starts and endings so for speed they are very similar, fast, but not as fast as Mt. Nebo and maybe Run Elevated. 

In 2014 I ran AF in 1:51:51 and was hoping to better that this year by a little bit. The last number of races I've done I've been quite disappointed, some I've been sick, others I just couldn't get the speed, always something it seemed.  It also seemed like I was slowing down since my first year of running. I decided I would try a few things different in this race. I did a lot of 3 mile downhill speed runs on the treadmill the weeks before the race, I didn't carb up the day before, but did the carbing two days before the race, I wasn't going to carry any fluids with me, and would walk through the aid stations when getting drinks. I also would try to spend some quality time in the porta-potties prior to the race.
Once again it was a crazy early start. I ended up leaving work around 11:30, was in bed and I think sleeping by 1am and two hours later was up getting ready to head out the door.
Got to the American Fork High school about 3:58, my friends were going to meet at the tennis courts but I had no idea where they were so figured I'd just get on the bus and meet them up the top.
I was on one of the first buses and visited with a guy Jonathan Robertson who I thought was my age, but turns out he was in the 60-69 age group and is 68 years old, but has run tons of marathons. I think around 150 and at least two in every state. It was interesting visiting with him and learning a bit from an experienced runner. Saw Paula getting on the bus but couldn't find her

when we were at the start area.
I wandered around a bit, used the porta potties, then by scanning the heads in the crowd was able to find Josh and the others. He's a head taller than most people so easy to pick out of the crowd. We visited in an area that confused a lot of people because they thought we were lined up for the toilets but weren't, well, until we decided we were.
I was hoping to win one of the prizes for being on the early buses but once more failed with that. One of these years I will! 

While we were visiting before the race Ty asked me if I was going to race it today, I said I have a month before the next race so I don't care if I hurt myself in this one as I've got time to heal so I will be pushing it.
Used the toilets again, and within a few minutes of doing that the gun went and we were off. I had my virtual partner set at 8:00/mile and was going to try to keep that pace for as many miles as I could. hopefully 9 anyway, and if I slowed to a 9:00/mile pace for the final miles I'd be very close to beating last years finish time. I had worked my way up to the 1:45 pacer and thought I'd try to stay with her and Rendi who was also using that pacer.
The first mile is usually a little slower as there's shuffling for positions, dodging slower people who were too far up the start group, and trying to get out of the way of faster runners trying to get around me but it went pretty good for mile 1, a 7:41 pace. Mile two and three were a bit slower but still okay at 8:02 and 8:05 even though there was an aid station that I walked through. I passed Jonathan Robertson before the first aid station, and again shortly after it. He was confused how I could be passing him again, but there was an easy explanation. Soon after mile three I was getting pains in both my knees so popped 3 Ibuprofens which soon fixed that problem. Mile 4 was 8:39, I had fallen behind the 1:45 pacer and lost track of her, but then we got into some nice downhill portions where I seemed to fly.  7:37, 7:31, 7:29 and 7:52 minutes per mile. I had covered 8 miles and only used up just under 1 hour and 3 minutes. This race was flying by and before I knew it it would be over with!

A classic Josh picture!

I didn't know if I could keep this up and knew the last 5 miles were going to be hard especially seeing there's very little downhill after mile 8 and even a bit of uphill.
Coming out of the canyon we were now in the sun and I did another thing I've only done once in a race. I pulled my shirt off and tucked it into my belt and ran the rest of the race shirtless.  Something I'm going to do a lot more of in the future.  I find when I'm running in the sun I get over heated very fast so figured it should help me stay cool, even though it was only about 7:10 a.m. by this time.
I had slowed to a walk in every aid station through the race and drank either water or water and gator aid every time. Something I hadn't done in any other race but was still keeping a pace I was happy with.  I had 48 minutes left to cover 5.1 miles, I needed to keep a 9:25/mile pace and I would beat last years time.

Every now and then I'd get a glimpse of the 1:45 pacer sign ahead of me so I knew I was doing okay. And the 1:50 pacer wasn't passing me! The miles were hard and I kept pushing hard, mile 9 was 8:27, mile 10, 8:49, I was slowing down but still doing (for me), a great pace. Mile 11 was the first mile over 9 minutes with 9:06, the last two were going to make or break it for me but I still walked in the aid stations thinking that short rest may help give me strength to keep kicking at the time.

Katheryn crossing the finish line.

Mile 12 I was back into a faster pace at 8:20, I was thinking I'm going to do this! I was passing a lot of people who were walking by this time, the crowds were getting thicker cheering the runners and you could hear the announcer at the finishing line calling out names and such a few blocks to the east. A few more corners, and there's the High school. Cow bells clanging, people lined up on both sides and finally the finish line, I gave a final kick and passed 4 or 5 more people going down the finish chute glancing up at the time I knew I had done well!

I heard my name being called by someone as I went under the finish arch, glanced around and saw Christy and Delphinea so stumbled over to them, they wanted my picture so I said I'd get the medal first, then be right back. It was great seeing those guys. They asked how I had done and I said pretty good, showed them my watch which was showing a finish of 1:46:55. My second fastest half marathon ever! I had beaten last years time on this course by almost 5 minutes and was within 3 minutes of a PR on a course I never thought I'd get that close on. I was so excited, finally I had a finish time I was happy with. In 2013 my two fastest times were both 1:48 at Mt. Nebo and Big Cottonwood, five minutes away from my 1:43 PR in Mt. Nebo in 2012.

Johnny wanted a picture with me,
but he had to take his shirt off first!

What a great group of friends!

 I've been worried the last while that I had peaked in my short running career, my age had caught up to my training level, but today gave me hope that I will get a PR this year, either in Run Elevated in August, or Mt. Nebo in September and if I don't, I'll know I gave it my best shot at least!

Also next month I'll be able to do this course again and see if I can trim my time a bit.
My placing in the race was excellent, in my age group I was 6th out of 33, overall I was 452nd out of about 2300 people. Not too bad for an old guy!

After the race was over a lot of us got together over the following hours took pictures and just visited. I finally got to meet Nick Bernard. Also met Lisa Loosle for the first time.  When I'm with these people I feel like I'm in awe of their speed and accomplishments, maybe, just maybe a bit will rub off on me!