We met my parents at the race start this morning so my dad could watch Elliott, and we were all able to make our potty stops before the race began. I remembered that I hate weaving through all the people at the beginning, but at least I wasn't stressed about it like I was two years ago - my goal was just to be faster than last year, so losing a few seconds around people wasn't going to make a big difference. Once the people spread out, I had a great couple of first miles. My first mile was 6:32, so I made a goal to keep the same pace for the second mile (6:29). I had a gel at 2 miles because I think they really do make me feel less tired (I swear I felt it kick in at 4.5, but that's also when I was running slower so who knows). Then we were on some flat and uphill parts, so my goal for the third mile (7:34) was to keep my overall pace under 7:00. Then I wanted to see if I could have a fake 5k PR, but I was about 15 seconds off. I did my first-ever running water grab at that aid station on South Temple and it was intense. My next goal was to have the first four miles under 7:00, and I got it with a fourth mile in 7:19. Then I told myself I just had to stay at that pace until 4.2 so that I'd only have two miles left. I didn't really stop trying for the last two, but I gave myself some slack for the slight uphill (7:34, 8:12, 7:47 for the last bit (0.18 on my garmin)). I was pretty confused about the course toward the end; at some point on 300 E I asked someone next to me if we weren't supposed to be on the parade route, because I remembered always turning onto that from South Temple, but he said that we'd merge into it. So for that whole stretch I was trying to think of reasons why they wouldn't have wanted the runners to do that whole part next to the parade-watchers (my best guess was that the race organizers were afraid of runners slipping or tripping on spills or garbage). Then when we did go down to 200 E there were people running on the other side of the cones, and I was afraid I had gone the wrong way. But there were tons of people around me, and someone asked the people on the other side what they were doing, and they said they were 5K runners. Except that the 5K shouldn't have started yet. So maybe they were confused about which race they were in. After reading people's race reports it sounds like someone messed up and sent some people the wrong way at the beginning? I'm glad someone figured out how to fix the distance problem by the time I came along, but I'm sad for the people whose races got shorted. After the race Eric and I and Elliott saw RAD and Glider Girl and met JD and someone else? (I'm sorry for forgetting who). We hung out and saw Fritz win (remember when the race talker made him run back onto the course after he was finished?) and Allie do awesome and Sasha say "CROCKS!" and had an accidentally long walk (and fun talk) with Glider Girl back to our car. I'm happy with how my race went. I'd like to get stronger/have more endurance so that my pace doesn't blow up, but I'm glad that my legs could go as fast as they did at the beginning (even though the hill helps so much). I was surprised that my first two miles were so similar to two years ago. And for sure the endurance will come if I just run more consistently. Also, overall I'm happy with where I'm at. The FRB (and, you know, Des News articles about women who win races after having a c-section 4 months ago) makes it easy to compare one's self to other people. Sometimes this can be bumming, but most of the time it's helpful to see how A leads to B, and people don't get to B without A. And some people get to C, but those people have pre-A. Or something. Anyway, maybe I should chide myself for not trying to be excellent, but right now I'm enjoying running and am glad for its place in my life. 2009: 55:32 (pre-garmin, no splits) 2010: 43:49 (6:28, 6:31, 7:20, 7:16, 7:10, 7:29, 7:32 (0.2)) 2011: 57:01 (8:33, 8:11, 9:05, 9:07, 9:37, 10:14, 10:54 (0.2)) 2012: 45:04 (6:32, 6:29, 7:34, 7:19, 7:34, 8:12, 7:47 (0.2)) 
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