I travelled up to Logan, UT, to again run in the First Dam 10k to help celebrate Jim Kern's first running anniversary. A year ago, by chance I met my childhood buddy at this race and he embarked in getting fit and starting to run. He's had a good year and made amazing progress. His health is now much better. It was great to spend the morning with him.
I love coming up to Cache Valley. It is really an amazing place and the people are so friendly. The race is put on very well and I was impressed to see how many people stayed around for the awards. Ribbons six deep in the age groups helped that. They help encourage kids to be race and it was nice to see so many happy youth involved in running. Well done!
As for my race, I had not run a step in six days since finishing my 100-mile race. So this was an interesting experience to do a 10K as a recovery run. It had been a few months since I have even run a sub-7-minute mile.
This course is somewhat challenging because the first three miles are uphill. My lungs really get a workout. I was breathing hard the entire race. I really need to do more tempo runs as part of my workouts.
One thing I really enjoy about this race is that it runs down Crockett Ave. I am able to run by my ancestral home, my great-great grandfather's house.
My mile splits were: 6:38, 7:27, 7:24, 7:01, 7:05, 7:10, and 1:28 bringing it in for a 44:11 18th overall out of 112 starters. This was my third fastest career 10k. I beat my last year's time on this course by 18 seconds and won the old-man's division, 50-59 (11 guys).
It was a fun morning, ideal temperatures, and nice to be running again. I noticed that for my last five races including this 10k and four 100-milers that I finished in the top 17% or better overall. Good consistancy.
Davy Crockett, Jim Kern, Spencer Francis, Laura Francis |