This has become my favorite 5K in the whole world. One dollar entry fee, a cotton t-shirt, flat fast loop course with no traffic, great local race atmosphere. And turkeys for the age group winners!
I talked Allie into running this with me in the quest for sub 18 minutes. She spent the night in Tremonton with friends (she has friends everywhere) we met at 9:15, signed in, and ran the course once to warm up. Perfect weather, sunny, not too cold, no wind, day was looking good! Got to meet blogger Melody and her husband (Jim I think, or John?) right before the race. Melody was running with a baby on board, very impressive. My wife Karen joined me for this race, fighting a cold, bummer. My friend Gina from Tremonton ran for the second straight year as well, it occurred to me I met her exactly 30 years ago next Saturday (November 20, 1980) when we entered the MTC in the same group heading to Norway. But I digress.
The race started and Allie and I went out in 2nd place with some guy I didn't know ahead of us but pulling away. The bear river x-country kids were not here this year for some reason. I was supposed to be a model pacer in the quest for sub 18, but I got too excited about trying to see if I could stay in striking range of the unknown guy in front of me so came through mile one in 5:30. Ooops. Allie was running strong, just a few seconds behind me. Alas, I couldn't catch the guy in front as he increased the gap. I am the world's worst pacer, I should have run the first mile in 5:45, what an idiot I am, making Allie go out too fast, she must hate me. well, Mile 2, 5:50, dang. Mile 3, 5:55, double dang, positive splits are the story of my life. Last 0.1 miles, 5:50. I finished in 17:47, exactly matching my old man 5K PR of 17:47 set at the TOU 5K two years ago. Well, at least I am as fast at age 49 as I was at age 47. The guy who won ran 17:20. Allie came in shortly after me to set a new 5K PR (big congrats!), followed by blogger Melody finishing in just over 20 minutes with a 6 month baby boy on board. Amazing! And all three of us won turkeys for our age groups, turkeys for all the bloggers!! Lots of fun.Pictures to follow.
After the race Allie and I went back up the course, paced Karen in to a strong finish, then Melody, Allie and I ran a couple mile cool down. Great day, great race, looking forward to another fun 5K in Farmington with bloggers in a couple weeks.
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