Had a great pizza party with the girls and their freinds until about 10pm and ate a lot of pizza. Curious how that will affect a run.. It was snowing here in Logan and I was also starting to get worried about the drive to Salt Lake in the morning, but the girls were so excited to go see the Murphys and their cousins that I knew I had to do it.
Did some warmup with Rob Murphy and his wife took our kids to see the race which was real nice since the kids love seeing these things. I was excited to also see Steve Ashbaker, Dennis S, and Neil G since this year is shaping up to be a great year for some Master competetion. The race started off in a mess since there were a bunch of younger guys elbowing everyone around. It reminded me of indoor track days for a few minutes. Just before the gun went off a guy stepped up to me and asked if I could move over so he could start with his friend and in about 100 feet after the start another guy actually grabbed my elbow to pull himself ahead. Good times..
The pace felt good the first mile, I had Dennis just ahead of me but was more interested in holding a 4:50 pace to shoot for that elusive 15 minute time. I passed the guys with the gifted elbows and my Garmin beeped a 4:50 so the pace was fine. I got ahead of Dennis and tried to catch the lead pack for a bit as the course was doing it's only uphill and then Dennis came by me on the left. The second mile was 4:52 and I realized this was almost over and couldn't believe how quick these short races are. I tried to pour it on but there was just nothing left in my legs and Dennis actually gapped me a bit more. ( He said after the race he was being gapped by the lead pack and was trying to catch them) The last mile was about the same pace even though it was a steep downhill. My lungs were hurting after the race pretty good, but it felt like I had a lot left, maybe not. No idea how to run these, that is as fast as I have run a mile in six months. I didn't get either goal of mine, a master win or a 15 minute 5k, but very happy with the time and even more with how training is going. The kids just loved the whole morning. They were upset to see the Murphys go, and that made the day for me.
Thanks to Bill for a fun course and now on to some marathon training | 