Philippians 4:13

Nice double run... sometimes your body just wakes up with aches and once you get moving everything flows, just like car in cold weather.

Last year when you ran the Poky marathon did you push the top hard, and struggle the second half. I'm just trying to come up with a strategy. I think if I stick at marathon pace in the top half I can get a negative split the second half. I did this last year in the marathon, but I was only using it as a training run then.

Last year, I had to change my strategy for the race at the last minute when I saw that Chuck Engle was running. So, during the ride to the start, sat by him to get an idea of this man and try to develop a strategy. So, 6:30 sharp, the gun goes of at the start. This race starts at 6100 feet and drops down hill for the first 14 miles. After talking

with Chuck, I decide one chance I have is to push him at altitude since he said he was feeling it on the bus. So, I push the pace hard for the first 10 miles, leading the pack of Chuck, Nephi (the Poky paper had this fact wrong and gave credit to Daniel Harry and not

Nephi) and myself. Thru 10 I have Chuck behind but he catches up and gets ahead at about 11 miles. By the half, he has about a 30 second lead, but I caught him again at 15M. At this point, we are off the hill and into rolling terrain and I start feeling the results of our

1:18 split (but so does Chuck). I start struggling a bit and feeling tight, especially in my calves. At 20 miles, Chuck is up on me by about 2 minutes and the biggest uphill on the course looms. The hill, while short, was pretty good incline and killed me for a short while. As I hit the 23 mile mark, I could tell I couldn't catch Chuck even as I tried to pull my pace back down to a 6:30. So, I put down what hammer I had left and shot for the PR. As I came around to 25M, my calves started to tighten a little, but no cramp. At 26M the finish line was in sight and I just put my head down and powered (so to speak) to a new PR.

So overall I was very happy with the race. My strategy worked for a

while, but my legs gave out a bit earlier than Chuck's did (he

struggled the last few miles as well and slowed down to, but not

quite as much...I chock this up to his training and conditioning for his goal this year). If it weren't for Chuck, I would have tried to run a more even split race, using the hill to come in more at 1:20-1:22 easy, then with fresher legs try to even split the second half. Based on my training this year, if I were running I would like shoot for a 1:18-1:20 even split time. My recommendation is to try to even split and not hammer the first half because you end up paying for it on coming out of Inkom and into Poky.

Watch that IT band thing, those can sideline people for a while. Make sure to stretch it out and massage it good. Also, stretch out your butt, that is where it comes from. David Nelson and Chad Derum can tell you about nasty IT band stuff.

I have a left achilles that has been bugging me for the last 3 weeks. It sucks becasuse I am just getting ready to bump the miles up a bit but I don't dare until I get it under raps.

When is your next race?

My friend Pat Bragassa (awesome runner - 16 min 5k, world championship biathlon athlete) had a bad achilles injury that he is just recovering from. Thanks for the suggestions on the ITB.

My next race is likely the Pocatello HM, unless I make it back into town by next weekend to run the local HM or in Driggs for a HM or marathon.