Overall Place: 1st
Age Group Place: 1st
This race has become a family tradition for us. This year we had my brother come along and push our daughter in the jogging stroller and my wife and I ran as well. There is over 2000 participants and is a great family event. Usually competition consists of a lot of UVU alumni and current athletes and the locals who want to do a fun race with no prizes for placing. We got there in enough time to feed Sierra, get her in her stroller, get our packets, and I warmed up for maybe 1/2 a mile with a stride or two. Felt awful at the starting line as I only got like 3-4 hours of sleep the night before cuz Sierra didn't want to sleep in a new place. We drove down from Idaho at 6 after I got out of the clinic and just felt wiped. My training has been inconsistent the past couple weeks so I wasn't expecting much today. Originally I wanted to run a fast time, break the course record and make a smooth transition into the Marathon cycle. I was the two time champ at this race for the past 2 years so I decided to compete for the win again and not worry about times today. Mike Felix, Derrick Moody and Spencer Evensen were the main competition and I knew all of them could run fast today. Race starts out up hill for the first 1.5 miles and it stretched out into a small pack with all 4 of us up front. After a steep hill, Spencer Evensen pushed the pace and Mike, Derrick and I covered it. About a half a mile later, Derrick fell back a little and it was down to Mike, Spencer and I. With about 3/4 of a mile to go Mike and Spence put a little gap on me and I just was trying to hang on at this point knowing I could finish strong with a good kick. with about 1/3 of a mile to go spencer pulled off and threw up which was a bummer, cuz he was running so strong and it's always better to have people to compete with in the end. I started to go after Mike with 400 to go, pulled even. As we entered the track I made a hard move to the front with 300 to go and was able to hold on for the win. That was the hardest I've pushed this year even though the time doesn't show. I was happy to win it for the 3rd time straight and run sub 16 at least. Mike finished close behind in 16:08 and Derrick 16:14 and Spencer right behind him. So the Runner's Corner/Sojourners Team had a great showing today.
I closed the last mile in 4:50 and the last 300 in 45.3. Afterwards they do the raffle drawing of the century and for the first time our family won a prize. We came home with a queen sized inflatable mattress which we actually can put to good use.
Really happy to come out with the win against some old team mates and decent competition. It wasn't the day where you feel completely "on" and ready to run a fast time, but happy to maintain some fitness through this couple weeks of change with my rotation in Idaho. I adjusted my goal and will likely go for a 5k/10k PR prepping for SGM in the fall. For now, I'm kicking back and just training for the fall. I want to do big things and am looking forward to the trial of miles this summer/fall.
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