My sister that lives in Lehi has a tradition of inviting the family over for 4th of July eve and to sleep over in the back yard and then have breakfast at about 8am and then play water kickball. We had hotdogs for dinner and left our older kids to sleep in the back yard and the rest of us drove home for a good nights sleep. On the way home I figured out a way to run a 10K and still make it back to my sisters on time. Riverton has a 10K at 7AM and the race is only about 6 miles from my home. So I got up and biked over to the start. It would have been a much nicer ride if I wasn't riding my 10 year old $59 Huffy 15 speed and the wind wasn't blowing from the south.
My idea was to go out a little slower than my potental. I saw my South Jordan rival and it got the adrenaline going a bit. The 1st mile felt good so I kinda stick to my plan with a 6:17. Two great runners took off and left a pack of about six of us that I was tucked behind as we ran south into the wind. The pace was what I was hoping for. The pack started breaking up so I followed the 3rd and 4th place. We left two college aged guys and I followed a young balding guy and a high school aged youth. Mile 2 was in 6:28. On mile 3 we only had to go into the wind half the time and we did it in 6:16. I decided that 3rd place would be cool to get and passed 3rd and 4th runners with a mile 4 in 6:16. Mile 5 had a couple of very small hills and I didn't push them hard. As I was finishing the last hill all of a sudden I heard footsteeps coming quick. It was one of those darn college kids I left a few mile back. Mile 5 was in 6:25.
I was in race mode and I wanted 3rd place. I shifted gears and decided that if that college boy was going to beat this old man that he was going to have to feel a lot of PAIN. After another half mile I could still hear his footsteeps. I figured he would out sprint me if I couldn't shake him but it was I who was feeling the PAIN. I didn't let up and he slowy faded so I couldn't hear him any more. Mile 6 was in 5:42. I then snuck a peak to see if there was a chance of him catching me but he was out of reach. I finished the race in 3rd with no family there to see. They hadn't quite made it there yet to take me to my sisters for breakfast.
It was a great day. Breakfast was wonderful, we played kickball, and went to a movie and to a parade and did fireworks. | 