Every Race is an Adventure!

AM. I ended up running alone this morning. Some company would have been nice, but I've always been able to enjoy solo runs. It was a beautiful morning with perfect temperatures.

As I've been recovering from injuries and building my mileage I've been cautious and haven't done much speed work. With the 5K this weekend, and the WBR less than 3 weeks away, I think I'll try a few faster miles this week and see how it goes.

This morning my mile splits were 9:25, 8:21, 8:02, 7:29, 7:31, and 9:18. I warmed up, gradually sped up, did a bit of a tempo run for miles 4 and 5, then cooled down. I didn't look at my watch except when it beeped the mile splits. I was sort of hoping that first tempo mile would be closer to 7:00 than 7:30, but I wasn't really going all out. I knew I had to save something for the noon run today.

When I went to blog this entry today I saw the empty month of June with no entries yet. It was a bit intimidating to think of all the miles I would have to run to match the 180+ miles I ran in May. I wondered if my old body would hold up for another month. I thought of the Nestle 5K this Saturday, and of course the Wasatch Back Relay in a few weeks. We never quite know what's going to happen, but it's alway an adventure and, to use a basketball analogy, you miss every shot you don't take.

I don't go to the library much, but Karen does. I went with her Saturday and ended up renting and watching the movie "Without Limits", a movie about Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine. I didn't care for some of the language, and I wouldn't recommend his lifestyle, but his mental toughness and courage while running was truly inspiring. I used his quote, "The only good race pace is a suicide pace" to inspire me to finally break 20:00 minutes in the Nestle 5K last year. Maybe watching the movie will inspire me to break my 19:53 PR at this year's Nestle 5K this weekend. I know my old body has limits, but it's a fun hobby finding out what they are.

PM. I went out with Tom, Nathan, and Bill at noon. The weather was pretty warm, but there was good breeze. We headed east toward the mountains and did the modified Eagle View course that heads north and includes the longer (but not as steep) uphill. Tom turned back as planned at 2.5 miles. Nathan, Bill, and I went to 3 miles before turning around. By unspoken common consent the pace gradually picked up on the way back. Near the end both Bill and Nathan pulled away from me, Nathan significantly. My mile splits were 8:46, 8:14, 8:53 (the hill), 7:40, 7:19, and 7:21. Nathan went sub-7:00 the last mile. Overall average pace for me was 8:01/mi for the 6 miles. Good company, good run, and a good workout for me.

Another beautiful morning. I ran just short of two miles before meeting Larry and Wayne. We ran the 2000 N hill and loop through Lindon then added a 1/2 mile loop around the block get our six miles in. The conversation wasn't so good today. For some reason we started talking about how bad we all were as young men. We didn't confess too many awful sins, but it seems we each made our fair share of bad choices through those difficult years. Looking at where we are now, all I can say is we are walking evidence of the power of Jesus Christ to make bad men good, and good men better. We're still far from perfect, but there's been significant progress, and hope for more to come. So maybe the conversation this morning wasn't so bad after all.

AM. I ran a little over a half mile then met Wayne at Larry's. Larry never came out, even after knocking. Wayne couldn't see their car in the garage. We finally decided to head out for the Wednesday run up the water tank hills. The light rain got a little heavier during the run, but was never real bad.

We both commented how it would be nice if the hills got easier after doing them so many times. They didn't seem very easy this morning to either of us. It was encouraging when we reached the top to realize that we had run the 2.5 miles from home to the top of the hills 4 minutes faster than last week.

I'm planning on some more miles at noon, but the weather doesn't look too favorable.

PM. Tom and I ran 5 easy miles in the rain on the modified Eagle View course. We didn't focus much on the running, just had a nice conversational run. My Garmin showed an average pace of around 8:21/mi. I might have preferred to hear laughter in the rain walking hand in hand with the one I love (Karen)...or I might have preferred to be singing and dancing in the rain...but running in the rain with Tom was pretty enjoyable, too.

It turns out Larry and his wife Jolene were in Park City yesterday for her birthday and that's why Larry didn't run. He had texted both Wayne and me, but neither of us looked at our phones before the run. Maybe it's Wayne's wife's birthday because he didn't show up this morning.

I ran 0.6 miles before meeting Larry and Kevin. They both wanted to do the water tank hills (I did them yesterday but they missed out) and we were headed there, but then Kevin suggested we run to the mouth of the canyon instead. It was a good choice. We added a little distance on so we could run down to the gas station and back up just to get the hills in. Kevin pushed up the hill and left me behind. We ended up with 6.5 miles. I pushed the last 1/4 mile or so at around a 6:30 pace and it felt pretty good. Overall pace was 8:45/mi.

Since school is out now, and my morning schedule is not so tight, I was able to join my adult son Andrew for basketball with "the old gang" this morning. The core members of the group have been playing regularly together for 25+ years. I haven't been for months and the participants had changed a little. Until Dean, Lex, and Nate showed up, I was 25 to 35 years older than the other 8 or 9 people there. I wanted to change my mind and go home and run a few easy miles instead, but I was Andrew's ride and he wanted to stay, so I stayed. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and I didn't stink it up too bad. It was great to talk with Andrew on the ride there and back and we had a good conversation in the kitchen after we got home. I don't get much time to talk to Andrew and that opportunity was the key consideration in choosing basketball over running this morning. I would have only run a few easy miles anyway as my legs have felt a little sluggish as I've boosted my mileage, and I wanted to rest them a little before the Nestle 5K tomorrow.

I was torn between running the Nestle 5K this morning and helping with our stake service project to prepare Camp Shalom for Young Women's camp. I'm the stake clerk so I was in stake presidency meeting early last Sunday morning when we first found out about this urgent, last minute assignment. The stake that was originally assigned to open the camp the week before couldn't get in because of too much snow, and they couldn't do it this week because of some other big stake event they already had planned. So the camp director asked our stake if we could please help out. This was a big assignment that would require at least 25 volunteers, generators, shop vacs, snow shovels, etc. President Yeates, the stake presidency counselor who was given this assignment, left the meeting and he and a high councilor started calling bishops to ask them to get 5 volunteers from each ward.

I contacted President Yeates yesterday and he said they had 28 volunteers, but they expected some no shows. I decided to do the race, but late last night I was still conflicted and couldn't find peace in my decision. It seemed to be a decision between service and selfish, and I was choosing selfish. I count on the Lord's blessings to help me with my running, and I wasn't feeling worthy of asking for that help when I was unwilling to help him. More than once I nearly decided to just skip the race go help with the service project, but that didn't feel right either.

It finally dawned on me that I could do both. I'd have to go down a little late, and drive myself, but that was a small price to pay for peace, for being able to do both good things. Unfortunately it was past midnight before I made my decision. I had prepared my things for the race, so I then proceeded to pack another bag with work clothes. When I got up this morning I grabbed gloves, tools, my shop vac, and generator and loaded them in the Suburban and head to the race, a little late, but with peace in my heart.

Well, I was mostly at peace. I was a little disappointed at the heavily overcast skies and steady rain. I knew there was a small chance of rain, but I had expected a beautiful morning anyway. I felt a little hurried before the race but managed to get my number, hit the bathroom, and get a little warm up in. I didn't feel quite warmed up enough, but things looked like they were getting serious at the starting line so I headed over and worked my way to the front. I actually started on the sidewalk to the side. I did not want to get stuck behind a bunch of slower runners like last year.

It was only a minute or so before the race started (a few minutes early by my watch). I started quickly and successfully avoided getting stuck behind too many runners. I was breathing hard pretty quickly and began to wonder if I was mentally and physically ready. I mentally reviewed the targets splits I had come up with yesterday: 6:35, 6:15, 6:20, and 0:30 for 19:40. I chose to not wear my Garmin this morning and just ran with my Ironman watch.

1-6:35 I was a little surprised that I was exactly on target. I was breathing a little hard, but the legs were feeling okay. I was staying even with most of the runners around me, and passing a few who had apparently started out too quickly.

2-6:29 At this point I pretty much knew 19:40 wasn't going to happen in the rain today, but I thought sub-20:00 might still be possible. I was still pretty much running even with most of the runners around me and didn't feel like I was fading or backing off the effort. I was still working pretty hard.

3.1-6:55 I didn't see the mile 3 marker so I don't have the third mile split, but my target was to run the last 1.1 in 6:50 and I ran it in 6:55. I feel like I held on pretty strong, and only a few runners passed me. As I rounded the last curve on the track I heard footsteps then Hal Amos passed me. I thought the finish line was going to be at the end of the next straightaway but then I saw it just after the curve. I fired the turbo thrusters and zipped past Hal to finish in 19:59:67 (by my watch), barely under 20:00. I wish I wouldn't have misjudged the finish line and started my kick a little sooner.

I was surprised by how much kick I had left. While I feel I was fairly tough mentally during the race, I think I was a little off my game. I didn't feel ready at the start, and I think the rain (especially not being able to see clearly through my wet glasses) prevented me from focusing and leaving it all on the road.

I finished 5th in my age division, same as last year, even though my time was 6 seconds slower. I think with the rain the conditions were slower this year. I ran this race so I could compare my fitness last year to this year. Overall I feel like I'm at least where I was last year, maybe slightly ahead since I didn't feel like I raced my best, the conditions were slower, I had too much kick left, and I still had a comparable performance.

And I guess it was my lucky day, too. I called a neighbor who was participating in the service project to see how many showed up this morning. He said there were 38 people and that my help wasn't needed. I would have enjoyed the service project (I always do), but standing wet and cold under the bleachers as the rain continued, I have to admit that I was quite happy to not be driving 90 miles each way and working in the rain, mud, and snow. And during the drawing for prizes (lots and lots of awesome stuff) I was talking to Darin when I heard my number called. I hadn't heard what it was for but I hurried up for my prize. They handed me a big bag of Laffy Taffy and Sweethearts and a small white box from Costco. As I walked back to Darin I wondered aloud what I had won. Someone then said something like, "If you don't want that iPod Nano I'll take it." It turns out I won a 4GB iPod Nano. Cool! Of course it now belongs to Karen (my idea, not hers). She just stopped by and I need to go help her download songs.

Not only is every race an adventure, life itself is a pretty incredible adventure. We all have bad times now and then, that's why it's so important to enjoy the good times...like today.