I decided at the last minute to head up to Ogden and test my elderly speed against the competition in Northern Utah. The Striders Winter Racing Circuit 5K is held at Dee Events Center at Weber St. University and winds through hilly neighborhoods. Hills is what this race is about.
I arrived in time to drive the course which helped to set my expectations mentally because I didn't want the hills to suprise me and wanted to know when I should back off or open it up. I then went back to the start and ran in the neighborhoods for a mile warm up and did some sprints and stairs. I think my warm-up helped.
Looking at the results from last year, I thought a top-3 finish in my age group was very possible and a top-30 finish overall possible.
I toed the start line with 458 runners, a big event for the winter. Off we went and I started off sprinting like crazy with the top-10 pack. After a quarter mile, I found a more sane pace as my breathing became labored. I didn't want to burn my lungs out like last week, so I concentrated on good breathing. Next, we hit the long hill. At first I was able to pump the legs fast and re-passed several runners, but then just fell back to a nice even pace and was again passed by several others. My quads started to burn, a result of my hill workouts this past week. At the top, as the downhill came, I kicked it into high gear for several hundred yards and cruised by about five runners pretty fast.
Back on the flats and rolling hills, I again slowed. I missed my split at mile 1, but at mile 2 I was at 14:19. I hoped to be close to 14:00, so I was happy with my progress. I noticed a guy about my age pass me. It was Steve Haslam. I was motivated to stay close to him. I passed him on the downhills but he passed me back on the flats. On the last hill, he pushed ahead by about 50 yards. I hoped to find a kick on the final downhill to catch him. My third mile split was 6:30. Not bad. I tried hard to find a kick to catch Steve, but it didn't happen. He finished 11 seconds ahead of me.
I finished up in 21:32, 34th overall among 458 runners. I placed 3rd among the runners age 50+ (64 runners). Not bad, I was pleased. It was a tough course and it felt like I had a stronger race then last week when I finished in 20:23.
After I returned home, I went out and ran 4 fast miles with the dog. I was very impressed that this little dog, less than a year old ran a 6:30, and 7:00 mile with me. | 