My goal was to PR today. I reached my goal, but still wish I would have done better...never satisfied. I knew my former PR time of 43:08 was very soft. At Ogden with downhill aid, my 10k split was 41:24, so I knew a big improvement was possible.
The weather was great. I did a nice warm up and felt ready. The ankle was behaving. I saw two in my age group that I knew I couldn't beat, oh well. Off we went. I fell in behind Maryann and Michelle. It was fun to watch them duel for a little while. Maryann led first, then Michelle past her. By mile 1 they started to disappear from my ability to watch.
Mile 1: 6:14. Good start.
Mile2: 7:05. Bad mile. Slight uphill and I could feel the quads complaining from all my hill work this week. But after a turn and slight downhill came and I felt better.
Mile 3: 6:25 Finally warming up
Mile 4: 6:47 Still OK
Mile 5: 6:35 I think this mile was short. I thought things were going great and I just started to get lazy coming in
Mile 6: 7:28 Lazy, lazy. I had plenty in the tank for a fast sprint for the last tenth. Almost plowed over a teenager (finished the 5K) crossing the course not looking. I had to let out a scream in order to not collide with him.
Finish time: 42:04. I PRed by 1:04. Not bad. But the PR still feels soft. One more chance July 5th and the Freedom Run on a tougher course. But I think more hills actually help me. My legs just get lazy on the flats. They need something to wake them up using different muscles.
4th in my age group, but the age groups were messed up, non-standard. 46-54. They let the youngsters in. Still, with 11th overall, that means there were four old guys in the top 11. Pretty competitive. 161 finishers.
So, for 2010, so far I have PRed at 5K, 10K, 1/2 marathon (twice), full marathon (twice), and 100 miles.
Next up. Squaw Peak 50 next Saturday in probably about 5 miles of snow. Should be fun. No PR there, too tough. Course PR is also unlikely wth the snow and gimpy ankle. It will be a nice training run for Bighorn 100 in a few weeks. Oh, also Utah Valley half thrown in before Bighorn....a quest for sub 1:30.
After returning home, I didn't rest, I went and hit the hills. Took the dog. At a steep hill with some ground cover, half way up, she refused to follow me. She just turned around and started to head for home. I've never seen her do that before. I called for her to wait, picked her up and carried her up the steep hill. Once on a bare dirt road she was fine. Pretty funny.
A non-running interesting experience after the run. I've been working on an time-intensive family history project. 15 years ago a very distant relative (now dead) sent me rare pictures of some ancestors. Somehow those pictures got misplaced during our move to Utah 11 years ago. I've searched many times for them. Finally last night I did a two hour search of the house and came up empty. I was ready to give up and conclude that they were thrown out by mistake. Then, last night I had a dream reminding me of what the envelope was like that the pictures were in. It was so clear that I woke up, now remembering clearly what I was looking for. After my run, I searched in a couple new places that I hadn't checked. Within ten minutes, I found the treasures! Amazing!
And, even more thilling, near these treasures, I found another missing treasure that has bothered me for years. I thought I gave away this treasure by mistake 11 years ago. But I found it! It was a copy of a book on the pioneers I wrote. This copy traveled on the Mormon Pioneer trek reinactment on the wagon train in 1997. It is signed by Elders Ballard, Huntsman, Christensen, Holland, Pinnock and other digitaries who visited the wagon train. I was thrilled to find it again. It has been a wonderful day! | 