Nestle Springville Art City Days

Hello,
My race this weekend was a quick 5K to prepare me for the Utah Valley Marathon this next week.  I decided that the Nestle Art City Days Race in Springville, UT, would be a great choice and an opportunity to run a great time with some great competition.

The race itself, not including the competition, is an excellent race and a great opportunity to win some sweet swag.  I have a buddy that jokingly said you can almost retire off the winnings that they raffle off at this 5K, and while he was joking, there is some truth to this.  They give out bicycles, golf bags, gift certificates, money, mattresses, big screen TVs, and even a grand prize of a vacation package to Disneyland.  Pretty cool huh?!  The atmosphere is really fun as well, and really family friendly and focused.  It seems as though it has become a family tradition in the Springville community to support the Art City Days 5K.

As for the race, there was some good things and bad things.  The good things were I was able to run with excellent competition (mostly from the Sojourner's Racing Team), which really pulled me to a great time.  The bad news was that I had less that ideal conditions for the race as my allergies flared up and made hard for me to breathe.  All in all, I wasn't affected too bad, and ran with Sojourner's teammates, Trevor Baker, Derek Moody, and Spencer Evensen.  Going into the third mile, it was a three man race between Trevor Baker, Spencer Evensen, and myself.  With about half a mile to go, Spencer Evensen fell off the pace because he felt sick, and I threw in a surge to get break away.  Unfortunately, I didn't know the course sufficiently well, and I thought the race ended once we made it to track, and I didn't push the lead, leaving a a wide open door for Trevor Baker, my good friend and Sojourner's teammate to use his much better speed and out kick me on the track.  I got second over all with a 16:08, just nine seconds off Trevor Baker's time of 15:59.

Altogether, it was an excellent racing experience and it gave me vital speed to prepare for my marathon next week, and it taught me a lesson, that I always need to know the course before hand and that I should prepare for allergy issues.  I would strongly recommend this race to others.