Update: It appears it was a win after all! Thanks for everyone's help with verifying and helping me out. Guess we'll see if the official results mirror the situation. **************************** Again, this was compiled on my phone, so be gentle with your grammatical criticisms:) What a fun, low key and organized race! I traveled up to Pocatello, Idaho to visit a friend, celebrate my father in laws birthday and of course race! I spent the night at my friend, Doni's house. We spend the majority of the night stewing over the race, wondering about the conditions and laughing till our eyes closed from drowsiness. My thoughts going into the race were good. I knew I had a good chance of placing but really wanted to balance a good time while not pushing the limits on any old injuries. I knew 1:24 would not be overkill, but challenging at the same time with my current training. The race started at 10:13 sharp! Lots of people started out very fast. As I made my way through, I couldn't help but to over here some of the conversations, "wouldn't it be cool if we could really keep this pace up the whole way?" and " look how far ahead we are of everyone else already!" and " Whoa! This is fast! Oh well let's just keep going until we die." And last but not least, " This is my first half! I should have trained." As you may guess, by the first mile most had settled into a comfortable pace. I was in third, with the first and second ladies quite a bit ahead along with a handful of guys. Miles 1-6 (6:09, 6:17, 6:37, 6:30, 6:27, 6:31) The first 2 miles were by far the steepest. Then the course works its way down the canyon with rolling hills. The most difficult part about this course was that it was very difficult to get in a good rhythm. The rollers were very apparent and felt abrupt all the way down. Although there was traffic, for the most part, I was able to catch the tangents. I felt very relaxed but anticipated my legs would start to fatigue. Then the wind started. You know it's windy when it's hard to hear your music. I could feel my splits slipping despite my efforts- at least we were going downhill for the most part. When I was off 40+ seconds by the 10k, I realized I needed to reevaluate my time because I couldn't control the conditions and the course was only going to get more challenging. I passed the two ladies and was in first, or so I thought (more on this later) and the same handful of guys up front. Looked down at 6.1@ 39:09. Miles 6-13 (6:31,6:49, 6:31,6:32, 6:37,6:52, 6:55) These were somewhat uneventful miles. The aid stations were great, at mile 11 there was a temptation table with liquor,water, gatorade ,and pastries. I went with out. Once out of the canyon, the wind disappeared as we turned directions and headed to the finish. The last 2 miles were buggers. The rolling hills continued, however they were rolling up this time- to finish. The last two hills we're pathetic for me, but I managed to stay close to pace. I finish and get congrats from others stating I was the top female. I also believed I was first so I was happy :-) The awards start and I was awarded first place. I was given a pitchfork and 150 dollar gift certificate. Then, there was some confusion about the results. Somehow, it went unnoticed that an OVERALL second place finisher was a 39 female finishing in 1:18. She never showed up to the awards or alerted the director she would be gone. No one around seemed to know who she was or noticed her. It's clear she exists, there just may be some question as to whether she ran or had given her number to a male. I surrender back the prizes and in exchange for second and was given an engraved baseball bat and 50 dollar gift certificate. Still so great to win and happy with how I did. They plan to mail her the prize money. I was curious to know who this woman was. A 39 year old from Caldwell, Idaho who ran a great time, on this course who shatteted the female course record from Lois Keller. Lois was my teammate in college. She went on to run in the Olympic Trials, USA's, various sponsorships etc. Her record was shattered by 3+ minutes yesterday! Who was this outstanding lady? I looked her up. Athlinks is not familiar with her. She has a sparse race history, if any. I felt like I was being challenged so I put on my stalker cap and find her daily training log. Her last run was several days ago. 3.1 miles in 36:XX. Huh. Everything appeared to match up to a woman with 12 minute miles who often speed walks for cross training. Where did this woman come from? So strange. Regardless, congrats to her with an impressive time! Aside from base miles as usual, thanksgiving 10 K up next! | 
