Leprechaun Lope

I did the Leprechaun Lope 5K today. The race started at the SE corner of the Capitol building, and went up City Creek Canyon, turned around, and then went down to the finish line in Memory Grove.

I was a bit apprehensive about the race because of my sore quads. They were still pretty sore this morning, but I knew they would be OK to race on. Plus, I still have a little bit of a nagging cough leftover from the cold 2 weeks ago, so I was not so sure how I'd do.
I got there early and did a 12 minute warm up, including 4 nice pick-ups, as Sarah suggested. I did some flexibility drills and then I was all ready to go. The race started about 5 minutes late, and it was cold (28F, about -3C? or thereabouts) but I felt fine except for my fingers. By 10 min into the race, that was no problem, as I was plenty warm. I felt like I paced myself really well: 1st mile 9:31, 2nd mile 18:56 (so 9:25), and 27:44 at the finish (so last 1.1 mile was 8:44?!?). OK, something is obviously wrong here. Answer: the race course was TOO SHORT! I surveyed 4 runners with Garmins afterwards and they said 2.93, 2.94, 2.94, and 2.95 miles instead of the requisite 3.11. Hmmmm... crossing the finish I was so pleased at my giant new PB time, but I did think something was fishy, hence the Garmin survey. Anyway, assuming the Garmins were more or less correct, if I had gone for the true 5K I would have finished about 29:20, which seems about right to me. Given the condition I was in, I am VERY pleased with my time and with the result. I think it bodes well for races this summer! The course was also fairly hilly, so that is even better for my time on a flat course. I'm excited!

Darn, though... sure would have been cool to really have been under 28 minutes :).

Oh, and there were only 2 walkers entered; the other "walker" came in at 30 and change. I didn't recognize her name, and so am pretty sure she's not a racewalker. That does make me wonder how much she ran. This is the problem with races that are not judged. So, I came in 1st out of 2 :) and got a nice pretty Leprechaun Lope medal and T-shirt to show for my day.