Fastest 5K in Salt Lake

[Jesse]

A lot of runners have mentioned that the latest Winter Series 5K was one of the deepest in Utah recently. I'd agree, but I can't help but remember a Draper Days 5K that was really competitive. I know the race was won in 14:50 and it seems there were at least 10 people under 15:15. I know it was a downhill course, and it must have been 10 or so years ago. I've been trying to find results online but haven't been able to. Teren Jameson, Dennis Simonaitis, several other Utah Univ. runners, Sasha, Joe Wilson?, Nate Hornok. Can't seem to find results but I know it was fast. Would love to compare it to the present.

[Sasha Pachev]

In 2003 the Draper Days 5 K was fairly deep. I ran 16:06 and was 11th. I believe Trevor Pettingil was out of money with 14:55, which means 6th place. Joe Wilson ran 14:49. I believe Dennis ran 14:45 and won. Paul Petersen ran 15:38. Top woman was 16:20, I believe it was Susan Nielsen, a recent BYU graduate.

The old Draper Days course was on the fast side, but not ridiculously fast. Probably equivalent to the track of a good track runner, and around 10 seconds faster than an ideal flat course (meaning absolutely no rises or falls) at the same elevation. Its redeeming quality was the first mile which was very fast. Second mile was uphill, and third rolled, so without that first mile the course was not much better if better at all than the current Draper Days course.