Well, I went into this race with lofty goals but I guess I wasn’t as ready as I thought I was. My goal was to hit 40 minutes and I believed I was in good enough condition to do so; however it was not to be. The race was a bit confusing from the beginning since they changed the course since the last time I ran it. I showed up at what I thought was the Start/Finish line only to find out that the start line had moved to the street that runs on the high side of the bowl that forms Kiwanis park. I was OK with this held my breath about what other changes the course had for me. One thing that could have been better is having sports drink and/or water at the start. I really could have used a drink and there was none to be had. Another thing that became a concern was the fact that the temperature was already in the mid-seventies and a bit muggy. It would only get worse.
My plan was to go at 6:45 pace up the 900E climb and then pump it up to 6:00 as we made the descent onto University Avenue. After arriving at University Avenue I would try to hold the pace under 6:25 for as long as possible. Well, the climb up 900E was shortened since we exited Kiwanis further up the street. This was good for dealing with the uphill at the beginning but it also meant that we would have to make it up somewhere else. I felt good going up 900E and was able to maintain pace. The descent down to University Avenue also went as planned. The first mile felt a bit labored but then I settled into a pretty good rhythm. Halfway through the University Avenue stretch I started to struggle a bit mainly because it was so stinking hot. However I was able to maintain pace.
I hit a 5K PR right after we left University Avenue. I hit 5K at 20:xx, which is better than my previous PR of 21 which I ran at a very tough course. One of these days I have to run a fair 5K just to see how fast I can really do it. It was at this point that I started to pass a lot of people including some that I thought would be good pacesetters for me. It became increasingly difficult to maintain pace. I started wondering where we would make up the lost distance on 900E. We ended up making up the distance on an uphill at a new loop on the course in between miles 4 and 5. This hill came at the wrong time and my pace at one point went as low as 7:30. Luckily I still had enough left to get back on pace on the downhill back to 900E. I started to pass people again on this stretch and soon made it to 900E. The road soon went uphill and I started to pass even more people. However, my pace started to suffer. The hills and the heat caught up with me and it became increasingly difficult to maintain sub-7 pace. I went back and forth fighting to maintain pace and then the hill was over. At that point I had about a third of a mile left and I decided to crank it. I saw my 11-year old daughter Sofia and my brother-in-law Adam finishing the 5K and I gave them a shout-out as I ran by. Sofia was looking strong and she had a smile on her face. Cranking up the pace was difficult because I had to fight my way through a ton of 5K runners still on the course. I saw Jolynne, Nikki, Alex, and Jen cheering me on. I pushed it as fast as I could and finished the race at 42:09.
I was deeply disappointed since I had missed my goal by over 2 minutes and this was a PR of only 31 seconds. I decided to quickly get some drink, which was not easy, meet up quickly with Jolynne and the kids and then head back out on the course to get my brother-in-law Conrad. I promised him that I would come get him once I finished my race. He had been injured for a long time and was not in shape but decided to run anyway. He’s a gutsy fellow. I re-fueled and met up with my family. I was very happy to hear that my 13-year old son Alex had set a huge PR by running the 5K in 26 minutes. He was very happy and I very proud. Nikki and Jen had run together and went slower but had a good race and had smiles on their faces. We took some pictures and I was off.
I had to backtrack about 2 miles until I found my sister-in-law Kristy with her daughter Rachel who had stomach issues and was having to stop frequently at the port-a-potties. Not far behind was Conrad who was struggling big time. His legs were killing him and the pain was evident on his face. I stuck with him and we took it one step at a time. I was very impressed with Conrad. I challenged him to run the hill and he cranked up the volume on his iPod and did it. Once we made the turn onto Kiwanis I told him the finish line was around the corner and he gave it all he could and finished strong. Sofia and I ran it in with him. It was very cool.
Finally I was able to relax and properly re-fuel with fruit and bread and more drink. I met up with the rest of my extended family and we started to debrief the experience with each other. It was fun. I then spotted where they posted the results and to my surprise it looked like I had placed in the 35-39 age group. By my simple count it looked like I came in 3rd in my age group and 42nd overall. I was shocked since my time had been so slow and this 10K is fairly large (over 1,200 people). So we decided to stick around for the awards ceremony to see if I had actually placed. To my surprise I placed third. When my name was called my family cheered and laughed since the announcer totally massacred my name. I received a nice “paper weight” with laser engraving of the race logo and my placement. The guy that came in 2nd beat me by about 28 seconds and the guy that came in first came in about 2.5 mins faster than that.
One funny thing that happened is that Sofia and Rachel volunteered to sing a song for the chance to win free shoes form the 26.2 Running Company. They didn’t win but were cute and funny. Sofia even did the “worm” break dancing move on-stage. Very funny.
I was disappointed with my performance but very happy I placed so well at such a large race. My age group alone had 102 people. It definitely has been my best competitive result to-date. I think the toughness of the new course and the heat combined to turn times slower for everybody in the race. I need to run a less hilly10K to see how I can do. Deseret News maybe? We’ll see... | 