Wrapped up the Salt Lake Track Club Winter Series today with the 15k. When I went to bed last night I was doubtful that I would run today. Lots of snow and very windy and I didn't want to race if it wasn't possible to get a quality time that I could compare to previous efforts. When I woke up this morning it was still snowing but the wind had calmed down quite a bit.
Met Steve Anderson at the start and warmed up with him. Also saw Dennis Simonaitis once again so it was a loaded masters field. OK, the race...
My time was 54:50 which was 29 seconds faster than last year with this years race being run in vastly inferior conditions. The course is out and back and there was a strong headwind the first half and I was, as usual, all alone. I was pretty fired up about having the wind at my back for the last half of the race though. But when I hit the turn-around I was bummed to discover that it was more of a right to left crosswind. Oh well.
Splits: 5:46, 5:54, 5:56, 5:52, 5:54, 5:59, 5:58, 5:51, 5:53, 1:47 (5:36 pace).
Enjoyed a nice 4 mile jog after with Dennis and Bill Cobler. Always nice to talk shop with a guy like Dennis. The snow and wind really picked up during our cool down jog and, as bad as the conditions were during the race, we were all happy that the race didn't start an hour later when it would have been way worse!
Times for the last 3 years in this race:
2009 - 56:48
2010 - 55:19
2011 - 54:50 | 