I didn’t have any expectations going in to today’s race. I had a great week with family and focused on that. Any running was just an added bonus. When I saw the e-mail for this race the week before I thought it would make a great first family race. So after a week of altered sleep, diet, training, and stress my only goal was to use this as a time trial. On Tues I told Chad that I just wanted to hang on to him as long as I could.
Sandra, Kaitlyn, and I all got up at normal time as this was a 10am start. I was trying to find trials results but had difficulty doing so. All I found out before the race was that Culpepper hadn’t done so hot and that there was still a pretty decent group of the favorites still together at mile 15. I wasn’t able to check on any of the five people I knew competing today.
So off to the race. It was a small race held entirely on the lower campus. The course was a well marked but hilly and serpentine course. It was almost like an adventure run. Sandra was going to do her first race in probably two-years and Kaitlyn was going to do her first race ever (with mommy’s help). At the starting line Kaitlyn was “cheering” for me saying “daddy, daddy”. After the gun went off she started saying “run, mommy.” I think Kaitlyn wanted Sandra to catch back up with me. From the gun there were about 5-6 of us but by 800m in it was four of us starting to string out. This is pretty much how it stayed the whole race. No one really made any moves and I just kept Chad at a respectable distance and was happy with my effort. A BYU red-shirt won the race in the upper 16s with Chad not too far behind also just under 17 with me pulling up the rear just over 17. Nothing stellar but I felt good about the effort on the tough course. This ranked as my 16 fastest 5K since 1998. Sandra and Kaitlyn also did very well for their debut race in 26:52 (Sandra placing 3rd in her age group WITH pushing Kaitlyn).
After getting home I immediately checked for trials updates and was very excited to see how well Paul had done. He is a great guy and I’m glad the day turned out well for him. As far as the others I knew running the race I’m happy they made it and I’m sure getting there was great in itself. Also there is always 2011…
It was great to see such fast results in the race. American distance running is really starting to regain its footing and the new trials record plus such a deep field really make me excited for next August and years to come. As far as the death of Ryan goes that is a horrible tragedy and I hope his family can find out why and get some closure. | 