Utah Half Race Report

I was very excited for this race mainly because of the competitors that were racing. Going into the race B.J. Christensen was definitely the guy to beat. He has established himself as the top over all Utah triathlete. He wins almost every event he enters and is close to untouchable at the Ironman and Half Ironman distance. Also in the mix to win were Heath Thurston and Dantley Young who both have their pro cards and race professionally. My buddy Casey Robles is another competitor that had a shot if he had a good day.

I swam as hard as I could, when I came out of the water my boy Grant told me I was 9:30 behind Heath. That is a LOT of time to make up on the bike. Heath is a strong biker. (The only other time I have raced Heath was at Ironman Florida and over that 112 miles on the bike I only gained 5 minutes on him.) I got out on the bike and started pushing it. I was surprised to catch Casey within about 5-6 miles. I caught Dantley just before the overpass at about mile 9-11 then I didn’t see a soul until just before the turnaround I caught B.J. I was happy with that. I know that the only way I had a chance to beat B.J. was to have a huge lead off the bike and then have a fast run. I didn’t catch Heath until I got back into town. I caught him on the last turn with just a mile or two to go. He had a faster T2 and so we basically started the run together. We were running right about my planned pace. I ran a 1:27 last year on this course averaging 6:40. I wanted to average a 6:27 and be under a 1:25 this year. Unfortunately I just couldn’t hold that pace. After about a mile I watched Heath steadily pull away from me as he held a 6:33 average and ran a 1:25. B.J. caught me around about mile 8 or 9 on the dirt road. At that point I knew that I wasn’t going to catch Heath or B.J., I had a tendon in my right calf that hurt and I knew that no one else was close to catching me so I didn’t want to risk that tendon so I saw no point in pushing hard to the finish. I ended up having a disappointing half Iron run split averaging 7:00 minute miles. I finished 3rd 5:45 behind the winner which I thought would be B.J. but when I crossed the finish line I found out Heath had been able to hold him off and win by a minute.

The win was great for Heath. He has been a good friend of mine and has helped me with my swim and given me some valuable advice. He raced a smart race and had a lot of grit to finish with his fastest career half Ironman run split. He also had his fastest overall half iron time. It shows that he is improving and is doing some things right.

I wanted to win this race real bad but…..oh well.