my makeup may be flaking

This is my third straight year doing this race, making it practically a tradition. I got 3rd (or 4th if you counted a bandit) in 2009 (16:32) and 2nd last year (16:58). The fall of 2009 culminated in my best race ever (a 1:11:15 at Seattle Half) and so I felt that if I could beat that time two weeks after a marathon then I would be really happy.

I knew that there would be some decent competition for this race as the defending champ (Kevin Smith) was running, as well as Andrew Egbert (a new grad student who ran 15:20 in college 4 years ago). Andrew is still adapting to running in Utah and Kevin and I were both coming off recent marathons so it seemed like it should be a fun race.

At the start I took off hard, making sure that my breathing was pretty uncomfortable. The last person to challenge me for the lead was actually Shayla Houlihan (a very fast woman). Throughout the first 400 to 800 meters I could hear maybe 7 or 8 people right behind me but I didn't look back until close to the mile when it looked like the only person close was Andrew. I didn't catch my mile split but I would guess that it was in the 5:15-5:20 range as we had climbed quite a bit. I figured that as long as I kept running hard, that eventually my strength would prevail, however I didn't know where Kevin was and I knew he was likely to come back strong at the end.

The second mile contains a lot of downhill and I remember pushing the downhill sections as much as I could. Each time I did this I was able to open up the lead a little bit (I could hear the footsteps behind me grow softer), but I knew that Andrew was still within striking distance. At two miles I glanced at my watch to see 10:15 meaning that I was setup to run a nice time. In the 3rd mile, however, I started to feel the affects of my lack of preparation and slowed down just a little. It also looked like I was going to win so mentally I probably relaxed a little.

The last 1.1 is tough and I finished in 16:26. The course tool says that I only slowed down a little at the end as I was on pace for about a 16:19 at 2 miles. It also says that this run is the equivalent of a 15:51. This is pretty exciting as it is certainly my best post-marathon-5k and also my best 5k-in-a-win. Combining those two with the fact that I was faster than 2009 gives me a ton of confidence moving forward.

Also, 8th win of the year!

9 mile cooldown run (66:24=7:27 pace)