Kerry's Running Blog

Started off a little bit sluggish, but started feeling pretty good heading into the park. There was a beautiful full moon just about the lake. I wish I'd had a camera right then. My legs felt good heading up the hill out of the park, so I picked up the pace. As I made the turn onto 48th, my legs felt light and springy. I pushed the pace along the trail just because it felt good. I'm not sure how fast I was going, because I let Laureen take my GPS watch this morning so she could figure out how fast she and Janet were going.

Started off easy to wake up and see if any of the little aches and pains really amounted to anything. Picked it up a bit after hitting the first mile and started pushing it on the hill at two miles. Felt great until the last of the uphill section when my legs were starting to tire a bit. Saw some deer at the side of the road by the high school and a couple of cars coming the other direction. Motioned for them to slow down and about one second later one of the deer darted across the road. The car just barely missed hitting it. Good run today.

Took it kind of easy today. My calf and ankle were kind of sore when I woke up. I'm not sure why since they weren't sore the day before. Felt OK after a mile or so, but not as good as yesterday or the day before, even though I got to bed a little earlier.

Ran after getting home from work as I was too tired to get up at 5:15 (sleep over at our house). Didn't feel particularly energetic, maybe because it's usually kind of a low time of the day for me.

Ran the Strawberry Days 5K in Pleasant Grove. What made it especially fun was meeting up with Verdon, Paul and meeting Kevin Jessop who will be joining us at the WBR. The highlight of the morning was Paul winning entry to the St. George Marathon. It could only have been better if Kevin had won a spot too.

Finished in 21:40 which works out to a 6:59 average pace. The first mile is a nice two percent downgrade which I finished in 6:22. I deliberately held back a bit as I felt that maybe I didn't warmup enough (I really didn't get into my normal breathing rhythm until we were about a mile and quarter into the race). It's always hard to know if you've held back too much at the beginning, but I felt great at the two mile mark (7:20 pace) and started picking it up. As the course heads east after rounding the south end of cemetery, it's a slight uphill. I slowed to around an eight minute pace, before turning at 2.6 miles and heading towards the finish. I felt pretty strong at that point and gradually accelerated (the downhill helped) and hit the three mile mark at 6:29 pace (7:15 average) and dropped to 5:45 pace by the finish. Placed 52 overall and third in age group behind Gordon Hullinger (17:11) and Dionisio Carroll (who was exactly 10 seconds ahead).

Talked to the Schvaneveldts and Millers after the race. It was nice to see them and talk to them about the race and what they've been up to.