This morning I drove down to Orem, UT for a 10K that was put on by the Hale Center Theater. My wife and I really love going to shows there, and I found out they were giving season tickets to the top three finishers in each race. Plus it had been 2 months since I did a race and wanted to do one. I saw that last year's winning time was 41 minutes, so I thought I might have a shot of placing in the top three. Here's how the race went. A few guys started out pretty fast, but I didn't want to go quite that fast. Then it thinned out quickly. I was in 4th place for the first two miles and averaging about 6:15 pace on this flat-downhill portion. Then a guy passed me, so I was in 5th place. But I felt good and wanted to just run relaxed and not get carried away. I was still in 5th place around the 3 mile mark when the lead runner turned around and started running towards us, even though he was supposed to go right. I figured he was a bandit, so that put me in 4th place. During the next mile I passed two guys, which put me in 2nd, and I could see the leader. I felt bad for him because he kept having to ask which direction to go, so eventually I made a push to run alongside him. For miles 5-6 the three of us battled back and forth. Then with 1/2 mile to go, I threw in a surge. With about 1/4 mile to go, I started to die and thought I would lose. But then I got a final bit of energy to push me through in 1st. Then I saw the earlier leader who I thought was a bandit. He said he went a different route that was the same distance and that he hoped nobody noticed. His time was really good, so I figured I really was 2nd place. When they gave the awards, they announced me as the winner, so I guess that other guy was disqualified. So basically, I wasn't the fastest runner but I got first place. To be honest, I didn't care about winning and don't consider this a true win (because I wasn't the fastest), but I was very excited about the prizes. Season tickets to the Hale Center Theater and a Family Pass to Thanksgiving Point!! I was so pleased because these gifts I could share with my wife and kids as a small token of appreciation for how much they support my running. And on our tight budget, we wouldn't have been able to do these things otherwise. I met a really nice guy named Ben who was doing his first road race. He got excited about doing more, which is cool. Congrats to the other runners! I hope I didn't cut anyone off or doing anything I wasn't supposed to. But if I did, I didn't mean to. Anyway, this race was really well run, and I would highly recommend it. Sean Murphy did a great job organizing it.
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