A little late getting this entry out. Haven't had time to sit at the computer and type anything up. So the race course I was really happy with, yes definitely aided but I like how the course brings the down hill in sections so you are not completely blown by the end. With that... I woke up at 2:25 in the A.M. to meet Riley and his mom at the South Weber park and Ride to make our journey to Salt Lake. Caught the bus and we were off to the start. Got to the start line around 4:30 so we had ninety minutes to sit and chill up there. I ended meeting Josh E on the blog. Around 5:20 Riley, Josh and I ran a mile up the road to the secret bathrooms. These bathrooms were in great condition! Heated seats, warm towels just fantastic, could've fallen asleep right then and there. Jogged back down to the start and was ready to roll. Ended up talking to Brandon at the start and the plan was to shoot for 74 minutes and I was like sure. I had know clue what my fitness level was at. First half marathon since the beginning of last September and I figured if I could even run 75 minutes which is goal marathon pace I would be ecstatic. Gun went off and the masses headed down the mountain. I quickly found Brandon and Josh and we formed a 3 man group. We took it easy to get our legs underneath us and people were passing us like crazy. I just had to stay patient and know that 95% of the runners would come back to us. Around mile 3 we picked up Taylor Monson a good buddy of mine in North Ogden and he ended up running pretty much the next 9 miles with me. Around mile 6ish I remember a slight up hill part of the course and tried to stay relaxed and keep the same pace as if I was running down hill and as the next down hill portion came I felt good and relaxed. I was like this is what it feels like to be in a race again and to run hard! It was euphoria for me, it has been way to long!! After that I told Taylor that we are sucked in and it is go time. Anyway around Mile 8 I could see Kevin up in the distance and I just kept an eye on him and hoped that I could catch him by the finish. Around mile 12 I caught him and I could see Trevor Baker up ahead bit unfortunately I was running out road to catch him and he finished a little over 30 seconds up. Good Race for me I ended up 1:12:05, so better then I thought. I still have some work to do to get to that sub 1:09 half by the end of the year. But this race was the confidence booster that I needed. Also good to meet so more blog members. Its always nice to put a face to the name. Splits for the race- 5:29; 5:27; 5:35; 5:27; 5:32; 5:22; 5:20; 5:31; 5:20; 5:37; 5:26; 5:26; 5:42 and last .15 was 47 seconds 5:15 pace. avg pace 5:29 min/miles | 