Salt Lake Half Marathon winner: Allie Scott!

Another win for a Utah Elite athlete this past weekend at the SLC Half Marathon by Allie Scott shows the quality of our athletes and sets a great tone for the prime road racing season this summer for the whole team.  Allie was asked to share her experience over the weekend:  

This was my first experience running the Salt Lake City Half Marathon, and my first attempt at the distance since August of 2009. My goal going into this race was to go out more aggressively than I normally do for this distance. I tend to fall into a marathon mindset when it comes to running the half, and consequently I have always been too conservative with my pacing. I was also after a PR, but I was unsure if I had the fitness for that at this point in the season. 
The course is set up to be very fast, starting at the University of Utah and following a gentle downhill grade into downtown. The first few miles of the race felt great -- my legs were fresh and the pace felt sustainable. I continued to feel strong throughout the race, and just hoped I could maintain the pace to the finish without breaking down. Near the end of the race I realized that I was going to be very close to breaking 1:20. I slowed a bit during the nice gasp-and-wheeze mile up the hill on State Street, which meant I had to make up ground in the last mile if I had any chance of running under 1:20. Unfortunately, my legs were rather tired at that point in the race, and I could not get them to turn over fast enough. I crossed the line in 1:20:00. This was a new PR for me, and I was happy with the outcome and grateful that my body responded well to the pace and held up in the last few miles. Overall the race was a lot of fun -- the weather was perfect and the volunteers and spectators were very supportive. My next attempt at the half will be the Utah Valley Half Marathon on June 11.