I wanted to do a half marathon before St. George and I found the Huntsville Half which fit in to my schedule. It is also where I used to live before my family moved to St. George 13 years so I thought it would be fun to go and visit my grandparents and get a decent race in. The half marathon goes on a lot of the Ogden Marathon course. It is a honest course with absolutely no downhill. It is flat and rolling. The goals for this race were to initially hit marathon pace miles (5:20-5:25) but I decided on the drive up last night to just use it as a decent workout and not stress that much about time. I wanted to get the win and not be that sore after the race. Those were the two bigger goals. I did a 3.6 mile warm up before the race in the wonderful 39 degree weather! I was a little tired from the drive but oh well. I met up with Ben VanBeekum and talked with him for a little bit. I didnt see anyone I recognized so I decided to sit back and see what would happen at the first of the race. Some college kid went out blazing fast at the first so I decided to sit on his hip and see how long he would last. About 1 mile in to the race he was sucking a lot of wind so I decided to go around him. I just relaxed and by about mile 3 I couldnt hear him at all. I decided at about mile 4 I would shut it down and not worry about time. I relaxed and enjoyed running by my old house and all the old stomping grounds from when I was younger. I did look back at mile 10 to see if anyone was close and I was totally running solo. I was feeling great and happy that I knew I had more in the tank. I got back to the park and ended up finishing with a time of 1:13:08. Nothing spectacular but I was happy with the run. I didnt want to overdo this race due to the big one in a couple weeks. Happy to get the win and get some decent awards. My favorite thing about the race was the tech shirt. The race went by the Huntsville Monastery so the shirt had a picture of a monk on it. One of the best shirts I have ever got from a race. I did a 4 mile cool down with Ben and then called it a day. Spent the rest of the day with family enjoying the cooler weather. We had fun taking Norah to the park and pushing her in the swing. It really felt great to get out of the heat for a couple days and see family again. Just a few more weeks!
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