Cody, you owe me breakfast.
Chad invited me to celebrate his birthday with him by running the 1st annual Bear Lake 10k. It was a nice course- out and back with a small loop. Less than 200 runners, so not huge, though there were 200 more doing the marathon and 200 on the half marathon (both started out around the lake). Course was almost flat with a few gentle inclines and a slight head wind the second half.
We started off at an ok pace- 5:36 on Chad's Garmin. Jake Rushton slowly pulled ahead, Chad was just behind him, and I was a second or so back. The turn around was ~2.5 miles (no real mile markers), and I counted that Jake had the lead by ~6 sec over Chad, and I was 6 seconds back from Chad. Headwind on this portion, though I timed one mile at 5:44. Chad extended his lead to ~10 seconds by mile 4 when I decided to make a move to catch him. I closed the gap in about half a mile, then hoped to just hang with Chad. Actually ended up pulling away from him and started closing on Jake. We began to have doubts about the course when we started the 1.5 mile loop at about mile 5.5. I think I averaged ~5:40-5:45 min/mile for the midpart of the course and passed the "one mile to go" sign at 35:26. Last mile based on their markers was 5:47, though I know I slowed down a fair amount and used up my whole kick trying to keep my pace for the extra mile. Finished 2nd overall, about 30 seconds behind Jake and 30 seconds ahead of Chad. I figure on a legitimate course with a good ending I could have pulled 34:30-35:00 or so, maybe a bit faster. The whole race felt fast but not uncomfortable- I probably should have gone a bit faster miles 3-6 and tried to catch Jake. I have trouble "racing" anything shorter than about 10 miles- I just can't get started fast enough and it ends up feeling like a decent tempo run.
Definitely a first time race- 1 mile long, no water on the course (they were starting to set up an aid station at mile 4). But I'm sure it will grow into a nice race. Beautiful area, nice course.
Chad and I ran the course till we saw Walter go by on his way to the win for the 1/2 marathon (which had started 30 minutes late). The marathon must have started at least an hour late, because Nick McCombs still had not finished by the time I left. Just over 8 miles warm up and cool down.
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