This was a fun small town 5K. There were only about 60 runners. My 5 year old was planning on doing their 1 miler but they didn't have any interest so they didn't do it- so once again she ran the 5K. I ran the race- pretty hard. I got a bad start because I was in the back with my little girl so I had to weave around the other runners. By the first turn I had only 6 runners ahead of me. At about 1/2 a mile there was a pretty big hill. I was able to pick off 1 guy on the hill. The other runners seemed to stay the same distance in front of me. I knew there was one girl ahead of me but she was the second runner. I tried for the a while to try and cut the lead of those out front but couldn't seem to make up any ground. The guy I passed on the hill overtook me again about a mile latter. I tried to keep with him to the finish but couldn't quite hold on. It wasn't a great race for me. The girl who one finished in 21:28- only 2 seconds faster than my last 5K. After I finished I waited a while to catch my breath and see who was behind me but no one came- so after about 2 or 3 minutes I headed back to find my little girl. When I got about 300 yards away I finally heard them cheering in the next runner. As I was heading back all of the runners were very cheerful and kept telling me I was going the wrong way. As I approached one group they told me I was heading the wrong way- when I told them I was headed back for my daughter they knew exactly who I was talking about and told me how she had beat them up the hill and how great she was doing. I found her and helped run her in. She (and her dad and brother) were the last runners. The Kamas police escorted us the whole way in- it was awesome. As we got to the last turn, she stopped and took a drink and then ran the rest of the way in. As soon as the group caught sight of her they started calling her name and cheering for her. Her dad and I held back and let her run in by herself. It was the most amazing thing. I think every runner had stayed to see her finish. I don't know if I have ever been so proud in my life- I cried (and so did her dad) as she crossed the finish line. The little town of Kamas, Utah knows how to put on a great race. After the race was done and all of the give aways were over my husband wanted to run it again and see if he would have one his age group if he hadn't run with our little ones. So we left the babes with Nanny and took off. This time we finished in 24:20- which wasn't great but he would have won his age group (by two minutes). Later that day we ran in to the race promoter. She said they like to keep the race small (they had talked about advertising in park city but had decided they like it the way it is- I agree). She also asked if we had a picture of Jocie finishing because she wanted to use it on the flyer next year- how cool is that.) P.M.- Hiked two miles up to a lake and back with the 15 month (25 pounds) on my back. I'm going to count 1 mile for it.
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