SLC WINTER SERIES 5K
AM: I had a terrible attitude going into this race. I didn't want to drive an hour on snowy roads to get there, and I didn't want to try to run fast on snow-covered roads in a blizzard. But, like a good soldier, I went anyway. I drove down with Amy and her friend Angie road back with us.
We got there pretty early (we left early to ensure we'd make it on time with the snow). I warmed up a little over three miles with a few strides. I exchanged greetings with Fritz and the Pachevs, and before I knew it we were off. Garek, who I'd never met before, and I were side by side leading the race. After 400 meters or so, I couldn't hear footsteps behind us, so I assumed it was a two-man race.
My number one goal coming into this race was to negative split. I have been absolutely terrible the last two years at going out way to fast in 5ks and then holding on for dear life at the end. Today, I was quite pleased with my pacing, just not with my finish (but we'll get to that later).
We came through the mile in 4:59, which wasn't bad for 1-2 inches of slick snow. At the turnaround I slowed to almost a complete stop and STILL slipped and almost went down. After the turn we could see the others, and we had a pretty decent lead on Nathan Peters in 3rd and Fritz in 4th. Mile 2 was also 4:59. Garek, got about 2-3 seconds on me just after mile 2. Then there was a guy coming the other way and running on the wrong side of the road. He was headed straight for Garek. Garek tried to dodge him without making too drastic of step that would cause him to slip. But the man also dodged the same direction. Result? Collision. The man went down. Garek stopped and helped him up. I managed to pass by without running into anyone. I slowed down and waited for Garek to catch back up. This cost both of us several seconds on time. Looking at my run on Strava, I ran a slower pace here for 25 seconds or so before getting back to sub-5:00 pace. But I didn't want to keep going without Garek. Sportsmanship is more important to me than winning.
I could tell that Garek was a little shaken up by the collision and felt bad. I said, "Don't worry about; he shouldn't be running there". We both finally got back up to speed and the race was back on. I thought about throwing in a surge but felt kind of bad doing so right after all that, so I didn't. With 0.4 miles or so to go Garek sped up and I didn't match it. I ran mile 3 in 5:01 (but I assume it was closer to 4:55 effort minus the slow down waiting for Garek to catch back up). Then I ran 30 seconds for the last tenth to finish 2nd in 15:31.
After I cooled down with a good group of guys.
PM: Once I got home, Sariah Long called me asking if she could borrow my microspikes to attempt the Malan's Peak Catch Me If You Can Contest. I told her sure, and actually ended up running it with her. She broke the women's record in 51:57 after taking first in the 5k, pretty impressive.
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