St George Half Marathon - Race Recap

♠ Posted by Paul Naylor at 10:09 PM

First race of the year is in the books, and the St.George Half Marathon was a great race to bring in the New Year.

This is my second race in St.George, and I love the scenery this city has. I love running along the red rock.

Now that I have ran this half marathon, I’m now guaranteed in the St. George Marathon this October. Its awesome knowing that I won’t have to deal with the lottery for the race. The City of St. George has a racing series where many races take place through out the year. They have a few select races that if two are ran before October, then select runners can enter the St' George Marathon without the lottery. So I was really glad to be able to run this race. I've already ran the Snow Canyon Half, and this is my second qualifying run.

I was a little worried running this race, I have not been able to train for race since spraining an ankle muscle back in mid-November. Since then, I have ran a total of 11 times due to resting my ankle.

I had my sister-in-law pick up my packet the night before because I got to St. George later in the evening.

It was a cold morning on race day. the start time was at 9:00AM. The sun was high, so no worry about where you were headed during the race.

The only thing I could think about during the first three miles of the race was; ‘This is where I belong, [running]’. I have never felt so good and right in my element during the first part of the race. I have been running for many years now, and this was a rare moment where I [knew]I was doing something that I truly loved.

I kept the pace consistent during the first 9 miles, I felt good, my ankle felt good, and the weather was crisp and amazing. I started to feel the affects of the limited training during the last four miles. My legs were feeling sore, and my ankle was starting to feel tight.

About two miles to go.

I was able to finish the race with a decent time, it was actually 5 minutes faster than the first half marathon I ran last year. Even though in the back of my mind I knew this race was to help get me to the Marathon in October, I still wanted to give my best effort.


This was about 1.5 miles to go, my legs were feeling it.


Coming in on the home stretch



First race of 2015 completed.


This was a great race. I loved the course, the weather and the support. I just really love running in St. George. I'm so pumped to come here in October to run the famous marathon. This was the race to help get to the marathon, and I'm glad that I got to run both the Snow Canyon Half and St. George Half.