Since I was going to be in Utah in September for a week long vacation with my family, I wanted to find a half marathon to run in Utah. The Cedar City half marathon happened to be the Saturday before my vacation and it was only an hour from Zion National Park- perfect!
I got to Cedar City a day early and found it to be a charming little town. There were several cute coffee shops in the little downtown area- I love checking out local coffee shops! I got my mocha and looked up some hikes. There are a lot of hikes near Cedar City that looked really cool. I wanted to hike to Kanarra Creek Canyon but I needed a permit and it was sold out for that day (I ended up doing it later with my family- it was awesome!)
I hiked the Spring Creek Canyon trail, Cascade Falls, and Red Hollow. I think I ended up hiking around 10 miles. Normally I wouldn't do so much the day before a race, but since I've been training for the half Ironman, I'm used to doing back-to-back workouts.
Packet pick-up was easy since it's a smaller race. The next morning I got up early after barely sleeping (I accidentally got a tea that had caffeine in it at like 8pm), and took the shuttle to the start of the race. The race started in the canyon, so everyone had to take the shuttle there. It was cold in the canyon! But there were a couple bonfires that I sat close by to stay warm.
The race was a net downhill through the canyon. As the sun came up and it got warmer, the canyon walls continued to provide some shade for at least the first 2/3 of the race. There were pretty views of the canyon along the way. Most of the race was a gradual decline, but there were some stretches with a steeper grade and I had to be careful not to run too fast down the steep parts so I wouldn't tear up my quads. (As I learned at the Lake Tahoe half, a down hill race can be brutal!)
The last 2 miles levelled off, and there were even a couple very small uphill climbs. It started to get hot, but I was feeling pretty good and picked up the pace the last few miles. I ran miles 11 and 12 at a 7:58 pace, and mile 13 at a 7:46 pace! A lot of people started off too fast and slowed down a lot in the last few miles, so I passed a lot of people. The people at this race were so friendly, and were saying "great job" and "good pace!" as I passed them. After the race, a guy came up to me and said, "Nice jets at the end! I tried to catch you and I couldn't!"
I ended up getting a new PR! I was pleasantly surprised the race went so well, since I wasn't feeling well with a sore throat that week, and I'd been getting burnt out on Ironman training and running slower paces than last month. My plan was to start out slower than I thought I needed to (first mile was 8:41) and not try to go too fast on the steep downhill sections. I guess that strategy worked!
Official Time: 1:46:50 (8:09 pace) F 30-34: 2/61 Females: 43/453
I got second place in my age group!
