A coworker said he and his son were probably going to run the Strawberry Days 5K, and Eric and I needed to be in Provo (anyone know of anyone who wants to rent an apartment near BYU to two responsible adults and their non-shedding, non-puppy 10-pound dog?) later that day, so it seemed like it'd be a fun race to run and I was curious to see if I'd be much faster than my 5K in January. At the beginning of the race I did my usual those-people-look-more-fit-than-me-so-they're-probably-going-to-beat-me thing (which is hardly ever accurate...like at the Sapper Joe 15K when tons of people who I thought I could have beat passed me hiking up the hills...oh, and they were doing the 30K...), and Eric reminded me that I was just racing against myself. Then the crazy machine gun/shotgun thing went off, and I started running and felt super hungry. But I knew I could do at least one mile just under 7 minutes, so I tried to do that. Then I tried to see if I could keep the second mile under 7 minutes, and I could. Then I got tired. I knew I was the second woman (it was an out-and-back), but I knew that the first woman was in a completely different league running-wise, and I figured that anyone who passed me deserved to be ahead of me. Only a few guys passed me, though, so when I crossed the finish line I was still the second woman. That was fun. So was seeing super-supportive Eric with his big smile.
Afterward Eric and I went over and met the woman winner and took a picture with her. It turns out she's a fastrunningblog-er too (Allie), but we didn't know it until looking at today's race reports. Splits: 6:58, 6:59, 7:34, 6:55 (0.10)
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