I thought this was going to be easy...and it was, until it became really hard.

The premise was a 3000 ft decent from the mountains east of SLC with that last few miles flat in the city streets starting at 5:30am.  I figured I would be finished by 9:30am which is an ideal time to finish, especially in the desert, but it got hot quick and a different kind of heat than I was prepared for.

The start was deceptively easy.  Really easy.  I was barely in the bottom of my heart zone and running at 1:30 faster /min pace.  Somewhere between 7:30 and 7:15 min/mile for the first 10 miles or so.  Really unbelievable.  What I thought was no effort because I was barely breaking a sweat, and my heart rate was so reasonable.  It wasn't until around mile 15 that I realized I was in trouble.

The dry heat was deceiving me to think I was cool, but in actuality my core temperature was rising faster than I was aware and I was loosing more water than I realized.  At around mile 15 I started trying to cool myself down with pouring water on me and that's when I noticed how quickly I was dry again...and I should have been sopping wet.  By mile 18 I was starting to feel fatigued and at mile 20 the heat of the city streets and being on flat roads caught up to me and I felt awful.  I had to stop running to keep from getting too dizzy and nauseous.

At every water stop I was dousing myself and if they had I hose I was spraying myself down.  I had to stop running several times.  Probably close to 15 minutes worth of walking between mile 20 and mile 26 just to keep from being carried off the course.

That last stretch in I rallied a bit and had a good show, but after crossing the finish I rolled into the grass and proceeded to throw up.  First time being carried into the med tent.  They iced me down and in a few minutes I felt fine again.

I had such high expectations for crushing my last pr that I got carried away and didn't stick to my pace plan.  I was on target with my heart rate plan, but didn't care much for the pace.  Had I been more strategic and kept my pace plan, I would have still crushed my last pr and felt much better.

Something for next time.