Cottonwood heights turkey trot 5K - 18:30 - 3rd place This race is one of tradition, I have run it numerous times mostly as a kid when I lived in the area. This year, it was my first and only road race. I figured it would be fun to run a 5K and be done with a race in under 20 mins. To be honest, I was really hoping to be under 18 mins, but it didn't happen. This course is tough with 220' vertical climbing. Tough for a road 5K. Its amazing it has become so popular. It continues to nearly double its participants every year. This year a reported 1800+ people had sign up (only 1250+ actually ran it). The race is not really that special. The course is cool, but that is about it. No turkeys for prizes, they ran out of shirts and have to order more (including mine). I won my age group and third place overall and all I got is a ribbon. Actually 2 since they give you a ribbon for beating the mayor (who got about a minute or 2 head start). The race itself turned out fine and I was happy with how things turned out. It was scary cold and the roads were far from dry and clear. That said, it could have been much worse. The race began and I quickly found myself in 20th place or so. I picked up the effort to near 5 min pace and was still in 15th or so. Crazy. I settled into 5:30 pace for the first third of a mile and was slowly passing a few more. Once the first hill hit, I really started to pass people. I found myself moving real well on the uphills this race and hanging around for the downhills. Right before mile 1 I found my family outside my childhood home cheering and taking pics. (I will post some later). Mile 1 was over before I knew it. 6:01 I was in 5th place at this point. It took until the next hill at 1.4 to pass the next 2 guys. Once I hit the end of the loop at mile 1.5, I was glad to feel the wind at my back rather than in my face. The only problem was that now the 2 guys in front of me picked up the pace on the downhill and I didn't have a faster gear. I just maintained my position and worked on staying as warm as possible. My hands were totally numb even with 2 layers of gloves on. Somewhere in there was the 2 mile marker, but I missed it so no split. The third mile has one more hill than downhill to the finish. I was close enough to watch the battle for first, but didn't have a chance to mix it up with them. I hit the 3rd mile marker and was amazed I was almost done already! Crazy. I could get used to these short races. 11:59 for 2 miles :30 for the final sprint to the finish. Pretty even splits I suppose. The highlight of the race was catching up with an old friend who ran the race as well. We ran the course again as a "cooldown". I spent the majority of the time getting life back into my hands. Turned out my "injury" wasn't a factor and my head cold didn't mess me up too much either. Results are here
Enjoyed the rest of the day eating.
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