Great race. My brother and I were the top 30 year olds. I like this race cause you get younger people and it's fun to mix it up. Thought I was going to need a hat but it cleared up and the race was cold but great. Wore shorts and a long-sleeve. We thought the race was an hour earlier than it was but that meant a good long w/up, probably 2.5m. The race starts with a very deceptive uphill and my legs were immediately shock-tired, I felt like I was huffing and in 80th place. We hit the downhill though and I started to feel good, it was funny to see the pink flamingo in 3rd place toward the start, a marketing ploy, no doubt. I really started to cruise on the downhill and was pushing it, eating people up. I ran into a few Runner's corner girls and some other uniformed girls, BYU JV? I passed them and heard some talk about going with me, which I guess a few of them did. Once we hit the flats and the turns I was dogging it, still trying to run strong but I felt like I had slowed down. A few of the girls passed me with 800 to go and I tried to latch on to them. A 50s guy even passed me before we hit the track. We ran on grass and made a U-turn (a little course change?) and I picked it up, full-sprint around the 200 turn and passed the girls and older guy, ran into an Army Nat'l guard guy who was encouraged to sprint and I didn't catch him, I slowed down a bit toward the end but I was really happy with my gut-busting kick. I had to recover for a few minutes, it's the hardest I've pushed myself in a while, I was really happy with that. Saw Sasha up ahead, knew he was just jogging it, turns out he was pacing a 13 yr old James. Also met Mike West after who was running with Sasha.
Race results : http://www.runnercard.com/runner/data/1825/1558/result/Mens_5K.htm
Nate got prize $ since a few BYU guys had to opt out, talked with them, Batty and Robison after. Batty's matured a bit, he told me Bienlien transferred to Kansas (actually Bethel, though I couldn't find results). Nate was happy with his race, a little slower than he wanted but the course was maybe 1/20th mile long. Some cooldown with Nate
Sun - lovely winter night run. Visited Pet Center, slow til bathroom break at Pavilion, then in neighborhoods S down music road, 7th w, got turned around a little so know I went long, felt great, love it. 6m |