AM- 4 easy miles as warm up for my race today. Now off to the race!
Race- drove over the Garland with Paul, Cody, and Walter for this nice race- $5 entry for the non-competitive division (i.e. no award or t-shirt, which is fine with me). 2 mile warmup. The course is a nice out and back with one hill- down and then up (it is a highway underpass, mile 1 is right at the bottom). Headwind on the way out, not noticeable on the way back. Nice winding course through farm fields. Last year I ran a 36:17 and was hoping to be 34:30-35:00 this year.
Started out pretty fast- 5:23, then 6:01 for mile 2 (slowed a bit plus the uphill), 6:17 for the 1.1 to the turnaround (5:42 pace). Went through the turnaround with Walter about 15 seconds ahead and with Paul right behind me- he and I had been talking off and on most of the way out. I tried to really work it on the way back- 5:50 for the 1.1 (27 seconds faster than on the way out- 5:18 pace, which dropped Paul), then a 5:36. Finally caught Walter with about 1.5 miles to go (he was running strong and I wasn't sure if I would get him), though he hung within about 10 seconds of me. Pushed it on the last mile and ran 5:29, pretty good supposing there was the uphill. 34:37 for the race, Walter was about 13 seconds behind and Paul snuck under 35:00. Cody was about 2 minutes back, for a 1-4 FRB sweep.
After the race and 4 mile cooldown, we went for the $3 breakfast but they told us it was free- yes! Pancakes, hash browns, eggs, yummy ham, and real OJ. Then the raffle- everyone won something except Paul- poor guy!
I was very happy with the race today. It's a big improvement over last year and is a good indication that my fitness is where I hoped it was. Paul estimates the course is about 30 seconds slower than a flat SLC 10k (between the headwind and hill), so Sasha's predictor gives me a 32:52 Des News 10k and a 2:31:07 at St. George- just about right where I hope to be. Nice course, good time, running with friends, free breakfast, raffle win- great way to start a Saturday! Also, my 5k splits were 17:41 and 16:56, the latter of which is only 3 seconds off my old 5k PR. Maybe I should try to officially break that soon.
768- 120, Tangent 2- 40 | 