Woke up at 5:45 and jogged two miles to see how I was feeling. I had some stomach issues yesterday but really wanted to run a 5k to see where my fitness is. Luckily, I was feeling good so I headed to downtown SLC.
I arrived at about 6:50 which was way too early. After getting my bib and my bag of goodies, I basically stood around and waited. My mom and Jing both came to check out the festival and watch me run. It was nice to have them there, I'm no good at pinning the bib on so my talented mom took care of that for me.
The race started at 7:30 and there were about 150 people there. A couple of guys looked like they were fast, they were from Oregon and told me that the altitude here was killing them. There were a few high school kids, some xc runners but others in wife beaters and full length shorts.
The course started on 300 South and 300 West. From there, we headed to 200 South and over to 200 West, then due north up past 700 North .There was a water station and a turn around. My first out and back course. I had planned to go out at 5:30 pace and see how I felt.
The gun went off and I was immedidately at the front with a couple of high schoolers. I was on pace (checked my garmin at .25) but after running under the tunnel on 200 West, my garmin was worthless. I just ran by feel. Hit the mile in 5:28(people at the mile markers shouting out the time), there was only one kid within 100 yards of me at this point. I held steady but was surprised when I hit the 2 mile in 10:40, it felt short but I had no way of knowing. By now, I couldn't see anyone behind me and relaxed a little. Lots of friendly runners encouraged me to keep it up. The out and back course is good for providing motivation.
When I hit the tunnel, I surged and picked it back up to the finish. I was happy with my time, about where I thought I was. Hopefully it was a legit course or pretty close. I throw in quarter mile pick ups in lots of my runs and usually average 80 seconds for those so the time made sense to me. I'm working to get under 16 minutes and think that more track work and threshold workouts will be key in helping me get there.
All in all, it was a fun course and a great day to run. Did a 3.15 mile cooldown.
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