Striders 10K Race The weather was ideal in Ogden today with no chance of slipping on ice. It was shorts and singlet and gloves. Sweet! Jon, Andy and I warmed up for 3.25 miles and then we got started. The course was much better than last year, both in time and in turns. Last year, the hairpin turns stunk and this year those were gone. It was still a challenging honest course with big hills though. The race started out as predicted with the same group as the 5K minus Walter (@ Del Sol Relay). 5:32 first mile (half up, half down). No one was pushing the pace, it was just fast. Jon and the crew flew the second mile down the hill and I was a few seconds behind trying not to pound my legs too hard. We averaged 4:50 a mile for that half mile before it flattened out. 5:12 second mile and we are all still together (minus Chad 10-15 seconds behind). The third mile turned tatical and the pace slowed as everyone tried to settle into a comfortable pace. That helped Chad out as he caught up quickly. 5:47 third mile and roughly 17:00 5K split. Now the fun starts. We more of less stayed together as a group (Chad, Jon, Tim, Ben, and myself) until the big hills started. We did have more steep short rollers along the way though that I didn't remember. 6:00 for mile 4. I was hurting and knew the worst was to come. I slipped into 5th and tried to stay with Ben (currently in fourth). The big hills mixed things up again as we all suffered (minus Chad as he pulled away) up them. We were now all single file with a few seconds between us. 6:40 5th mile and I was up to 4th overall. I worked the top section of the hill to try and drop Tim and it worked. I picked up 5 seconds or so on him by mile 6. 6:35 mile 6 and I kicked the whole .2 to hold off Tim. I knew I wouldn't catch Jon, but wanted a FRB sweep. 1:05 for the last bit. 36:53 (official results showed 36:49) 3rd overall and 3-4 seconds behind Jon with Chad ~15 seconds ahead. I feel good about it as it was a tough course and to run a sub 19 min 5K ALL uphill is nice. Cool down with Jon after chatting with Ben and Tim. Cool guys and they were a great motivation during the race. They will be there for the whole circuit which will be nice. Chatted with James and got the Del Sol updates. Super good job by the team down in Arizona. Sounds like a lot of fun.
T- 36:53 (5:56) 181 ave 185 max PM: Ran with Paul (5.2 miles) just as the weather turned for the worse. Rain, wind and snow. Far cry from the 50 in Ogden this morning. He was able to crush Lybi's PR (as that was the whole goal of the run). We only live 1.5 miles apart, but we haven't run together in over 3.5 months.
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