my makeup may be flaking

First ran from my house to catch the front runner, then ran from the front runner stop to the race start.

This is an interesting race. It's a road race, filled mostly with high schoolers. It is primarily a time trial for Corbin Talley's Davis High School team.

The race went out pretty fast and I position myself just behind the leaders. I was breathing very hard and it was difficult for me to maintain contact, but I wanted to maintain contact, hoping that they were struggling just as much as me.

Before we got to the mile, a group of 5 had broken away from me and I was leading the chase pack. Four of the five were wearing Davis HS uniforms but it would turn out that one of those guys had already graduated (Logan Petty). I remembered the same group of guys passing me in Des News and they didn't come back, so I was a bit worried. I was pleased to hit the mile in 4:57 as that justified how stretched I felt. I knew that this was too fast for me.

At this point, a guy in a Utah State singlet (Austin Costely) passed me and we went back and forth a bit. Some of the leaders were coming back to us, which helped. At about the halfway he dropped me and went to catch the leaders. I was starting to feel pain in my shins, which happens when I'm not used to running this fast for this long. A younger guy (also on Davis) passed me just before we got to 2 miles.

My second mile was only 5:21 which wasn't too surprising as I'd been dropping back and my shins were cramping. I managed to find an extra gear and quickly passed back both the younger davis runner and Austin, followed by two guys that had fallen off the front pack. At this point, I realized that I didn't know how much was left and that also I'm just not very good at pacing myself for a 5k. A couple of the Davis guys passed my back, but once again I surged and this time I dragged them along. We were gaining on the third place runner and it looked like we would get him. In the end the all beat me because I started my kick too late and didn't really have enough confidence in the last 800 meters. This is the best 5k I've ever run at altitude and I really think that I can go faster than this.

After the race, they were appreciative that I dragged them along in the last mile, as they ended up recording some of the best times ever run by members of the team on the course. The top Davis runner (Austin Neuner) stayed away to get second in 15:49. Their next two ran 16:05 just ahead of me in 16:06. Logan (who had just graduated) ran 16:00. He was 9th in state last year and ran 16:11 in this race. Austin Costely ran 16:23 last year and was 10th in state. The fourth davis runner (who was ahead of me at 2 miles) ran 16:09. I told them that they had a pretty sick XC team lined up.

As for me, I'm happy as it was my best ever 5K at altitude. It also shows that I'm very close to my best 5K times ever, while doing training more geared towards a half and also while doing peak mileage.

After the race I decided to run to the front runner stop in Farmington. I ended up going in some silly circles, but I eventually made it.