Deseret News 10-k. I'm doing all these races in SLC this summer for the USATF LDR circuit. Living in Logan, it means that I have to get up around 4AM, drive 85 miles, run for 15-30 minutes, and then drive home, all before 9AM. Sometimes things go wrong. Such as today, when I couldn't find the start of the race. I haven't lived in Utah very long, and definitely don't know SLC very well. I drove back and forth on Foothill Dr., trying to find this "Research Park". It didn't help that it's still dark. I even stopped at a gas station to ask, but the person behind the counter had no idea what I was talking about. Well, I finally found some skinny people in tank tops jogging around in the dark, a sure sign that I am near a race start line of sorts. I park my car and followed the skinny people, and sure enough, ended up at the start line. The bad news is that I had about 15 minutes before the race started, and I still had to get my number and do various pre-race "rituals" (ie potty). No warmup today. I got in line for my number, and then was told that I was in the wrong line. I'm quite agitated at this point. Finally get my number, and have 5 minutes until the race starts. Still have to go poo though, and portapots not an option because of long lines. I dashed over to the nearby hotel and found a bathroom with thankfully no one in it. Take the fastest, most thorough poo ever, and sprint over to start line. By the time I elbow my way into the line, they are counting down from 10. Needless to say, I have a LOT of adrenaline in me and I was in mental disarray when the gun went off, which is unfortunate because the field is quite fast and the race starts downhill, so I was doomed to go out too fast. So in a nutshell, the first 4 miles of my race were quite fast, and then I crashed and burned a bit on the last two miles, where the course flattens out. Pretty grueling finish, slight uphill. It wasn't pretty. But I ended up with a pretty nice time of 31:09, probably an equivalent to 32:00 on a track at sea level. Mile splits/HR: 9:42/176 -- 2-mile split, missed 1st mile 4:36/180 -- hauling, finally passed the top women 4:58/186 -- still moving good, but slowing down 11:57/190 -- missed lots of splits, this is the last 2.2 miles, so 5:33 pace. Very painful death. | 