This was my first race in a long time, so I didn't know what
to expect. I had the choose to run a 2.5 or 6.1 mile run. I chose the 2.5 mile
run because the 6.1 mile course had a huge long hill in it. I wanted to use this as a confidence builder
and to see where my fitness. I wanted to run just under 5:30 for a sub 13:45.
This time would have won any other year. Both race started at the same time.
There was huge turnout ~3500 participant.
The race started off with a hardy Ho Ho Ho. I didn't want to
go out to hard so I held back. At a 1/4 mile I was in about 25th place. I was
slowly picking off people. Mile 1 (5:28) I was in about 6th or 7th place. The leader was way out ahead (he was ran for
Boise State). The rest of us were spread out about 10-15 meters. At this point I still didn't know who was in
my race or the other one. At about 1.2 is where the 2.5er made right turn and slit
off. Here I could see that I was in 4th place.
There were two high school kids about 15 sec ahead of me. Also, here on
out was were the wind really pick up. At 2 miles (5:30) I was making some
ground on the 2 hs kids. I passed one of them just after 2.0 miles. I almost
caught the second one at the line. He beat me by about 2 sec. I ran the last .5
in 2:42. I felt pretty good with this race since I started running in Aug. I felt like I could have sustained
that pace for another 0.6 miles for a sub 17:00 5k. I just could not have gone
faster. I also feel really good about this race because I felt sick and had a fever earlier in
the week and have this nasty cough (hence the lower mileage this week). I
think that I have a good base, but just need to do more speed workouts to get
faster. My end goal is to run a 6:06 pace at the St. George Marathon this
coming fall.
The YMCA fairly good job putting on this event. They had a
Christmas Consume contest and Elvis won that competition. There was hot chocolate,
chocolate milk, and soup at the finish and. This race was clearly not put on by runners. Here
comes the worst part. When you register for the race, you pay the $30 (kind of
a little pricey) which included a long sleeve t-shirt. On the registration
there was a box that said check here and pay $3 to have your race chipped so you can get your official time. Well I didn't want
to pay $3 to get my "official time." Well because of this I didn't
get my 3rd place Christmas Ornament . The second place guy didn't get his
either. From talking to other runners in
both races, many people didn't get awards who should have. Also they said in
past years, there was the option to have your race chipped, but those that
deserved the awards got them. Just a little frustrating for paying $30 for a race and
not getting the award you earned.
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