Top of Utah 5K this morning. This was a monumental race for me, as I can now say I've completed every race on earth with the name "Top of Utah ...". The TOU 5K is our little local side event to the TOU Marathon. It's only about 100-150 people or so, but it is fast loop course with just a couple small hills, and supposedly it is certified, so we can trust the distance too. I was looking forward to running, simply because I haven't done a 5K in over a year (which showed during the race). My top tier goal was 15:50, but I would be fine with anything under 16:20. And I wanted to win, 'cause that's usually fun. After eating a pear and a homemade no-starch energy bar, I jogged the dog around the block, and noted that it was very humid and rather warm. It rained last night, so the roads were wet. I hoped that wouldn't be a problem with my new flats. Before I left my house, I ensured it would at least be a two-star race.
Then I got my gear together and ran out to the start line, just under a mile from my house. Earned another star, then started my warmup, running the course backward. I saw a guy from behind who looked like Cody, and I ran him down, and indeed it was Cody, so we warmed up together, about 2.5 miles. Tried to earn a 4th star after the warmup, but failed. Right before the race started, I met Joe Furse, a blogger from Hurricane who is now going to USU. We have now adopted Joe into our training group, whether he wants it or not. They started the race right on time (thank you). It felt like I got out hard the first mile, but I had no gauge on 5K speed, since the shortest intervals I've done lately is 1000's at 5:20/mile pace. Joe, Cody, and I were all right together for about half a mile, then I think Cody got sick of us, and backed off a little. There were no mile markers on the course (at least visible ones), so I wore my garmin. I finally looked at my garmin at about 0.9 miles, expecting to see 4:50 pace or something close, but was surprised to see 5:10. Hmmm. I picked it up.
When through the garmin mile in 5:09, and tried to pick it up more as we headed down a fast flat stretch toward Main Street. Joe was still right with me, but as I dialed the pace up, he dropped. I was sub-5 pace at the half mile when we turned the corner up Main, but then hit the only real hill of the course, around 100 S, and obviously my pace slowed. I tried to pick it right back up when we crested at Center St., but never really got the wheels moving. I was feeling very strong, and felt like I was going fast, but was not actually going fast. My second mile split was 5:08. Sub-16 was not looking good, but on the other hand, I felt pretty good. I kept trying to push the pace, then I hit the last little uphill when making the turn onto 300 N. The uphill only lasted a block, and again I tried to get the turnover going on the flat stretch, but couldn't get back under 5-minute pace. I finally hit the little downhill stretch at 100 S, but it was not quite enough. 3rd mile split was 5:05. If my garmin was right, I would at least be close to 16 minutes, but unfortunately all of the sharp turns and tangets threw my gps off. It read 3.17 at the finish, and my official time was 16:17. Cody's garmin read 3.13. Since the course is certified, I will trust the official time over my cheap little GPS. So I managed to hit my baseline goals, and it certainly felt good to win. (Cody took 2nd, and Joe was 3rd, so 1-3 sweep by bloggers). Sub-16 would have been a great confidence booster, but on the hand, I felt so good and fresh after the race, and that in itself is a confidence booster. I think the problem is just lack of leg speed. I felt like I could have kept going and ran 33:00 for 10K. Oh, and I got virtual-chicked by the virtual Meseret Defar, who won the TOU 5K with 16:00 back in 2006. But she is a world record holder, so I can live with that. Cody, Joe, and I cooled down for a couple miles, then hung around for the awards. I got a really cool metal plaque thingy for winning. It's actually cooler than the marathon moose trophies, much better than what I expected for a little 5K. Trophies are nice mementos. I don't know when or if my body will completely break down and I won't be able to run ever again, so I don't take wins for granted, even little races. But the day was just getting started at this point. After awards, Cody, Jon, Joe, and I ran out on the marathon course, took all the shortcuts, and found AndyB near Mile 20 in Providence. We paced him in the rest of the way. Andy ended up catching a half dozen runners or so, and no one passed us, so I considered it successful. And fun too. He did well. Overall, Ezekiel Ruto (a Kenyan) won the race with ~2:22, Nick McCombs was 2nd with 2:28, and Sasha rounded out the money with 2:33. Steve Cuttica 4th with around a 2:41 or so. So a good day for bloggers. It was a very humid morning, with spotty off-and-on rain showers. I imagine the rain and cloud cover helped out the runners some, because if it had been sunny and humid it could have gotten pretty bad. ****************** After the morning run, I took a nap, worked for awhile, and then headed up Logan Canyon to Blind Hollow. I had "adopted" a portion of the Bear 100, and needed to mark the route for the upcoming race later next week. Stacy dropped me off at Temple Fork, and I ran up the Blind Hollow Trail to Tony Grove Lake. Starting elevation was 5700', peak elevation was 8500', and end elevation was 8000'. So it was mostly, um, climbing. My garmin measured 7.4 miles, but I took short wrong turn, so the actual route I marked was just under 7 miles. 2:17:30 for the total time, which included stopping, eating, walking, wrong turns, and other non-running activities. I probably actually ran about 2/3 of it, so I'm giving myself 5 miles for the excursion. It was a beautiful fall day on single-track, can't be beat. I got rained on a few times, but it was all in good fun. Saw a few rainbows. Stacy and Seth met me at Tony Grove, and we had a little BBQ. A very good, but exhausting day.
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