“Warmed up” by running from home to the South Davis Rec Center (3 miles). It was very cold. Hung out inside the rec center until 15 minutes before the race. Went outside and ran ¼ mile just to get warmed up again and decide how much clothing that I wanted to wear. The sun had come out and it warmed up a little. Decided to go with shorts, long sleeve under armour, my fastrunningblog t-shirt and one pair of gloves. Lined up and noticed a few high school aged kids that looked like trouble. My plan was to run 5:40, 6:15, 6:15 because miles 2 and 3 are slightly uphill. The race started and once we hit the main road after a dangerous, winding start littered with loose gravel I settled into 6th place behind a bunch of younger runners. Moved up to fifth place after ½ mile then into fourth place just before the 1 mile marker. I really didn’t feel that great and knew that my split was going to be slower than I wanted. First mile came in at 5:51 and I felt sluggish. During the second mile, the first and second place runners were moving really well and third place felt just out of reach. I continued to plug along and crossed the 2 mile marker in 6:15. It was right on target but didn’t feel very fast. At the 2.5 mile marker, I started getting the pukey feeling and could hear a runner closing in on me. I started having the negative thoughts and did my best to fight them off. Tried to push a little harder but just couldn’t hit the next gear. I knew that if I could make it to 400 North in 4th place then I could probably hold off the runner behind me because it is just ¼ mile of downhill to the finish. Ran the third mile 6:14 then cruised through the last 0.1 at 4:59/mile pace. Finished in 18:47, which was good enough for 4th place overall and the first old dude. I got beat by a kid from Box Elder High, a kid from Viewmont High and another young guy who said he is going to walk on to USU’s XC team. While my finish time is almost exactly what I expected it to be, I am a little disappointed in my effort. I struggled during the second mile mentally and still need to work on fighting the negative thoughts during races. I won a bag, a t-shirt, a couple of Jamba Juice certificates and a Jamba Juice cup for winning my age division. | 