Funnest 5K of the year. We started with a much larger group than normal, looks like the coach gave the Salem Hills Track Team the choice of doing a speed workout yesterday or running the Yeti today. First mile was passing all the bikes and the guys who thought they could bomb it up the hill. This left two track team guys out front and three bikes or so by the end of the short flat bit at the last of the mile. (7:14, 275 feet climb) Mile 2 is the serious hills, I walked a lot more than I wanted to here because I thought powerwalking would be faster. I added 20 seconds to the time though and got passed by Jen Hughes. The two other guys were long gone. (11:37, 585 feet climb) For mile 3, less intense hills with a nice flat bit in the middle where I almost got back down to a 6 flat pace. I could see Jen off in the distance about to finish but I had to stop and tie my shoe. (8:29, 300 feet climb) I blazed the last .12 into the transition and Jen was still there! I slammed on the snowshoes and quickly caught her. One of the track team guys did not do the snowshoe portion, but Cody was 3:18 ahead of me at 5K finish. Jen was keeping me close so I had to push and I found a sweet spot in a trotting zone. I gradually pulled ahead of her on the 7 switchbacks and saw Cody, now less than 1:30 in front, coming down. You are mine! (16 flat pace, 1245 feet climb) Now the descent. I quickly found a nice speed, but I was throwing snow all over my bare legs and it was very painful,until it suddenly stopped hurting. Oh well, not going to take much more than 15 minutes to get down anyway. I could smell victory though so I kept going faster and faster, achieving a 6:29 mile on snowshoes. As the human snowstorm passed the people going up, they kept telling me I was closer and closer and finally I saw him on switchback 3! Two more switchbacks and onto the flat, then he made a mistake and stumbled and I swept past him. Then I hit the last little hill, and we both crawled up it, but he crawled faster and got 10 seconds ahead of me. Finally we were at the top and in the downhill, and I started up the snowstorm again. He had seen my style though and was copying it, and even with stumbles I was only able to gain 2 seconds on him. Across the street and into the final field, in full view of the finish line, I turned on everything I had but he still beat by 5 seconds. If I had known he was going to get the Yeti head from the standing 3D Yeti cake, I would have tried much harder in the 5K!
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