Deseret News 10K

Lots of fun! We had SEVEN Wasatch Walkers in the race: Cathy, Leah, Carol, Tammy, Sandi, Diane, and Nancy (L to R in top photo, taken after the race in Liberty Park). Bottom photo: Leah, Sandi, and Tammy clowning around before the race. The weather was a little warm, but not too bad; about 70 degrees and only somewhat humid (by Utah standards; everywhere else it would have been a dry day!).

The race is very crowded (LOTS of runners!) but I got off to a decent start anyway. I did have a lot of traffic issues in the first 3 miles or so, but nothing that really impeded me too much. It's fun to be out there w/a lot of people, despite the crowding. The race has a lot of downhill (700 feet total in 6.2 miles!), so my splits were pretty fast. I started very fast, but I was feeling great and breathing well, so I wasn't worried. The first mile was in 8:52, and might be the most downhill of the whole race. I reached mile 2 in 17:42, so that was 8:50 for the 2nd mile; it was not as much downhill, so that's pretty darn fast. At that point I wondered if maybe I was pushing too hard, but I felt all right. I did try to slow it down a little and reached mile 3 in 27:12 for 9:30 for the 3rd mile. Still, probably hit a record 5K time en route to the 10K (not sure where 5K was exactly, but I'm guessing I did in the low 28 minutes!). During the 4th mile the crowd of spectators started to pick up, because we hit the parade route, which is a lot of fun. It's traditional here to camp out on the parade route the night before, so even at 6:30, 2.5 hrs before the parade, there are lots of people in sleeping bags, on lawn chairs, eating donuts, etc. and watching the race (I'd rather be IN the race, but each to his own I guess). I was still feeling remarkably good but wondered if I was going too fast and worried I would crash; I hit 4 miles in 36:39 for 9:27 for the 4th mile - pretty good! Nice consistent pace. I kept on going and wasn't feeling too tired as I reached mile 5 in 46:10 for a 9:29. I realized I was doing really well, and though the last 1.2 is uphill (very slight), I figured I was on pace for an awesome PR. I started to really push to see what I could do, and I was tired, but not too bad. I felt MUCH better than I did last year in the same race, where I just about died the last 15 minutes. The harder, longer workouts I've been doing this year have really paid off. 5x2k is a hard workout, but well worth it when it's race time! I even had a little gas left in the tank for a sprint at the finish, because I looked at my watch and saw 57:21 as I approached the finish line, and knew it would be close to 58 minutes. I thought if I went really fast I might make it, and I did! I finished in 57:57 for a new PR and it felt tremendous. The last 1.2 miles were in 11:47 (which is only about a 9:49 mile, but it's uphill a little, so I'll take it). What a race!

Other race notes: I got the usual fun comments from runners I passed "She's walking faster than I can run" is the typical remark, and I love it! I heard variations on that maybe 10-15 times during the race. And, during the last 0.5 mile or so I passed a runner who was talking on his cell phone about a car he was trying to buy on ebay - unbelievable what people will do during a race.

Thinking ahead, I probably won't be able to go as fast as I did today in Spokane on the track (because that's flat vs. the downhill of this race), but that's OK. I feel like I am as ready as I'm going to be for the races. Two PRs in 5K and 10K within the month before, and I feel in shape and fast. I think I can do 28-28:30 in the 5K and maybe 59:00 in the 10K on the track; I'll be happy with my times if I'm that fast. Only 2 weeks until I'm on the plane to Spokane!

For today, though, I'm going to rest and celebrate my new PR :)!