This morning I woke up nice and early to test my knee out. It was a little stiff and sore, but nothing bad. So to get to the Running of the Leopards 5k, I jogged up to East High School then up to the Hogle Zoo. Arriving a good twenty minutes ahead of the 8:30 am start, I decided--for old times sake--to run up Crestview Drive and a little ways down Wasatch Drive. It seemed like my right knee and stride became more normal with each mile. However, on the way to the This-Is-The-Place-State-Park starting line, I realized that my right knee was not too fond of running downhill (i.e., my stride just became choppy and short). After my 8.5-mile warm-up run, considering the Running of the Leopards is a downhill race, I was a little bit nervous. However, this 5k is for a good cause and just for fun, so before the starting gun went off, I began to relax.
I started off a little bit conservative, but after the first half of a mile I started to gain my range of motion with my right leg, which started to feel a lot more comfortable with running downhill. At the one-mile mark, the best part of the race, at least for me, happened. A runner that was on my six yelled out “LOUDER!” at the volunteer reading off the split times. I have no idea why, but these types of remarks (even just a single word) from passionate, vocal, and slightly stressed out runners just crack me up. For some reason, I just find them way too funny. So my mind began to race about why doesn’t this runner wear a watch and this is just the front half of the main pack of a Saturday morning 5k. As a result, while leaving Research Park I was just trying to keep my composure. Seriously, these runners and their level of passion just make running fun and entertaining. The good news was that my mind was not continuously thinking about my sore right knee and I eventually refocused on picking up the pace the rest of the way. I finished with an official time of 16:47 with the following splits: 5:28, 5:23, 5:16, and 0:40. Also, the first place woman just dusted me on the track; it was a pretty awesome closing kick!
By the way, Fast Running Blog was well represented with Allie, James, Rob, and Steve who all ran solid races. It was great to finally meet and talk to Steve and I just have a feeling that the D-News Marathon is going to be extra fast this year with so many strong runners participating. I cannot wait!
Finally, it was totally my day because I won a raffle prize at the race (this never happens). The prizes seemed to be all Utah Jazz related (needless to say, my favorite team) and of course, I did not win the Jazz t-shirt, but a huge Jazz blanket that was folded up and compacted into a plastic package that was the size of a kid’s backpack. Hugging the blanket with my right arm and with the red tote backpack of race goodies slung over my left shoulder, I jogged down to the City Library to pick up a few books before jogging back to home for a total of 9.1 miles. I dropped off everything then went out for a 6.0 mile errand run up to the Holladay Library to pick up a few more books then I stopped by Great Harvest to cash in my free bread punch card before returning home and calling it day running wise.
My non-running workout consisted of 300 sit-ups and a 100-second wall sit.
Five-Minute Plank Challenge: 2:00
Trying-To-Go-Out-Of-My-Way-To-Eat-Healthy Challenge: a serving of mixed fruit
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