On a busy stake conference day (stake split day), at the last minute I found a gap between meetings which would let me go to Provo to run in Mary Ann's URC/FRB St. Patricks 10k that runs along the Provo River Trail to Utah Lake and back. I was surprised to see how many people were in the park when I arrived, so I jumped in and just started helping people register. Mary Ann is going to need more help as her races grow.
I’m in taper-mode, getting ready for Moab 100 next Saturday, so I was going to just treat this as a tempo run and enjoy the beautiful day. Several runners introduced themselves to me at the start. That was great. I heard “twinkies” in yellow (Matt)talking to a friend about his finish time goal and it registered to me that we would probably run about the same pace.
Away we went, running down the beautiful trail by the river. For the first mile, I hung with the two leaders, one was running the 5K, and the other was the 10k leader, a tall runner in black. After awhile, I was passed by a runner in green. I noticed that my splits were about 6:40 for the first couple miles. The trail splits at a turn in the river and the runner in green took the wrong turn. I didn’t pay attention and followed him. We probably went an extra 100 yards. Oh well. No one passed us, and probably a few followed us.
As we neared the lake, I was very surprised to see the leading 10k runner already returning. That was impossible because I knew he was only a minute or two ahead. I asked him if he went along the lake to the right. He shouted back that he turned around at the parking lot. I shouted back, “No, that’s wrong.” Oh well. He had cut off about a mile or more. I continued to try to keep up with the runner in green. We finally reached the turnaround and I noticed our time was over 22 minutes. There would be no PR today. It was fun to see and greet all the other runners.
So, I was running in 2nd. I looked behind me and could see a couple runners on my tail, including the runner in yellow. My legs were feeling great, but my lungs were breathing hard. I didn’t want to push it too hard. The runner in green again took a wrong turn, same place as before, but he got on pace again. Funny how he was making it easy to stay up with him. But he pushed it ahead and eventually disappeared.
Once the other runners caught up to me, we leap-frogged several times. A few times I cranked it up, pushing ahead of both to see if they could keep up. But I would quickly fade and they both would indeed catch up and pass. I noticed a mile split of about 7:08.
Finally with the turnoff to the park in sight, I kicked it in hard and passed them both. I thought I heard the runner in yellow let out a groan. I kept the pace going this time, but the other runner in white caught me and had a nice fast kick going. I didn’t have the motivation or the speed, so I watched him go ahead. I finished in 3rd overall (assuming the runner in black was DQed). 44:38 or so. I jumped right in the car and rushed back home, and back to stake meetings, back just in time to see a new stake president come out of his calling interview with a glaze in his eyes. Ha, ha. We had a good conference attended by more than 5,600 people, broadcast over the Internet to 10 buildings on Sunday. | 