I got a call last night from my brother in Springville. One of his neighbors has been putting on a race for the last few years, and my brother and his wife were helping out this week, so they invited me out to run it.
I was impressed with how well the thing was put on. The story behind it is that one of the race organizers' kids was killed in a car accident a few years ago, and they organized a scholarship fund in her memory. They use the race as a fundraiser - the website is here.
Anyway, the race starts in a little park just outside of Hobble Creek Canyon, and as luck would have it, there was a stiff breeze blowing out of the canyon at the start of the race. Spencer Gardner showed up, and as the race got under way, I tucked in next to him. I remembered his name from some of the state meet results, and he was wearing some BYU gear, so I figured I might have a chance against him if he wasn't in top shape but that he'd blow me away otherwise. Well, I don't think he was in top shape, but he still blew me away.
The first mile was with the wind at our backs, and Spencer took it out hard. The wind was just hard enough that the air seemed dead still around us. I stuck right on his shoulder, trying to test if the pace was his honest 5k pace, or if he might break later in the race. I thought if I could make it to two miles with him I might have a shot. One 90 degree turn to the left about a half-mile in, and the cross-wind was still favorable. I tried to make small talk with Spencer, but got a cold shoulder. A couple other high school kids hung with us through a half mile but dropped off and left us alone after that.
The first mile finished at the top of a lenghty uphill, and he threw in a surge or two as we approached it, and I stayed glued to his shoulder. I knew the pace was too fast for me, but hoped that he would crack first. He didn't. We climbed the hill, maybe 200-300m long, and passed the mile. My watch said 4:54. Probably a bit short, I would have expected something closer to 5:00. He surged again at the top of the hill, and again I stayed stuck to his shoulder. Just after the mile, the course turned left again, this time straight into the wind. I started grunting a little, hoping that he'd think I was done and ease up a bit, but no luck. I tucked right behind him, but he made a terrible wind block, and pretty soon my grunting was just out of sheer pain. We were getting close to halfway, but I couldn't keep the pace and the deadly gap began to form. I tried to close it, but my legs were getting heavy and I couldn't respond. By mile 2 he had 10-15 seconds on me. The watch read 10:29... mile 2 was probably a bit long, but I think the overall distance was close to correct.
By this point, the course had looped back to the first hill, and the wind wasn't bad going down. A right turn at 2.5 put the wind square in my face again, and I cursed it all the way to the finish. The watch read 15:52 at mile 3, and I covered the last bit in 24 seconds for 16:16 final time. I believe Spencer finished 19 seconds up.
I hate getting beat. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Especially when a guy gives me a cold shoulder. The audacity!
But overall I'm satisfied with the run. Obviously the course was a little short; 24 seconds for .1 miles is not quite right. I'm guessing 10-15 seconds overall, which puts me about where I expected given conditions, fast start, etc.
I stuck around for the kids' races after, which were honestly the best part. They had races for ages 2 and up... quite entertaining. Especially for you bloggers with kids, I highly recommend this run next year. As a post script, gmap-pedometer.com measured the course as about .03 miles long. By its measurements, the 1-mile mark was exactly right, 1-2 was long, 2-3 was right, and 3-finish was short. PM - Added 4 super-easy miles. | 