A.M. Deseret News 10 K, 32:31.7, 30th place. Yes, 30th, and triple-chicked! Last year I would have been safe. So I thought sub-33:00 will preserve me from the embarrassment. But this year we had two Kenyan ladies - Hyvon Ngetich and Caroline Rotich, and then Lindsay Anderson and Lindsay Dunkley had break through races as well. I barely beat the slower Lindsay, so 4th place among women. I suppose I can use running Five Fingers as an excuse, but in all honesty if it did make a difference at all it may have saved me the disgrace of local chicking (32:22), but Ngetich would have still chicked me with this effort. My only defense is that I did not get chicked from behind - the speedy ladies just took off and I could not catch them all. The reason I ran the 10 K this year was that I did not want to run in shoes, and did not feel confident I could handle the marathon course in Five Fingers. Plus I did not want a marathon in my legs at this point in my training. Running in Five Fingers presented a problem with the chip. Sarah solved it for me by sewing a special ankle velcro strap with a velcro-locked pocket. It worked out perfectly. Did not bother me at all, the chip never was under any threat of falling out, the strap stayed on. We did have to call Kurt Black to find out the exact dimensions of the chip to get it right, though.
At the start everybody took of like a bat out of a hot place for sinners. Maybe because it was rather warn - temperatures in the high 70s. I found myself in mid-pack of sorts through about a quarter mile. That is not too abnormal. However, one mile into it I was still into heavy mid-pack in spite of running 4:51. Downhill, but with the adjustment it was probably worth about a flat 5:15. In a 10 K! And then I did not pass a whole lot of people in the second mile in spite of running it in 4:52 (probably 5:15 flat equivalent). 9:43 at 2 miles.
Then I could not believe my eyes. After that effort I see what looks like a girl about 100 meters ahead of me. It was really a girl, not just some weird high school runner with a ponytail that is trying to send some sort of a weird message. She turned out to be Lindsay Dunkley. I did not recognize her. Now that is embarrassing. Not only are you getting chicked, you do not know who you are getting chicked by! Putting things in perspective - a mom of three kids just put a 100 meter gap on me in the first 2 miles of a 10 K while I had just run an equivalent of a flat 10:30 2 miles! Third mile had a net down with some significant up. I ran it in in 5:24, 15:07 at 3 miles. Probably worth around flat 5:30 . Made zero dent in the gap with the group ahead of me. However, some high school runners have been falling off the pace and I was passing them here and there. However, there have been a couple of smarter ones that have started a bit slower and were now passing me. 5:17 in 4th mile, 20:24 at 4 miles. Probably worth a flat 5:30 again. Gradual downhill, no up. Happy that I found another mile at sub-5:20 in me. Reduced the gap in about half. Not looking forward to the next two miles fearing that I would slow down a lot. Trying to relax and not go into neural red zone. I know very well what happens when I do. When you are limited by oxygen, you go into the red zone, then you ease off for a minute or two, catch your breath, and you get back to pace. If you go into the red zone neuromuscularly for as little as 40 seconds, you never get back to pace, and you have absolutely no kick. This took some self-control, as breathing wise I feel like I am bumming it, and when racing I prefer to breathe on the verge of vomit. In the fifth mile I came up on the group I was chasing, which by now had caught Albert Wint. A small consolation - I might get chicked, but at least I will beat Albert today. No split, missed the mark. In the last mile I ran with Brad Perry - a Box Elder High runner, and Lindsay Dunkley. I saw a Kenyan woman - Caroline Rotich - fall off pace and start coming back to us. And further ahead there was another white woman - turned out to be Lindsay Anderson. I did not realize the woman's leader was a good minute ahead and was hoping to unchick myself completely. So I pushed as hard as I could, but so did everybody else around me. Alexander Thomas appeared out of nowhere, and passed us slowly. That was odd. He must not have been having a good day, he should have been about 2 minutes ahead. A couple of high school runners came from behind and demonstrated with their kick that they could with some training run this course under 30:00. Ben Van Beekum passed me, but then I was able to gain on him and almost outkick him, but he edged me out at the finish. Caroline kicked pretty hard knowing that if she got passed she'd be going home empty-handed, and was able to stay in 3rd. That kick was also good enough to keep me from reducing my chick count.
Hyvon Ngetich got 31:30, then Lindsay Anderson 32:22, Caroline Rotich 32:28, and Lindsay Dunkley 32:37, a major breakthrough. It is odd that I am reporting on the women's race today, but, hey, I report first on the one I watched! In the men's we saw 27:46 from an Ethiopian runner Alene Reta. To give you an idea of the depth of the field, Teren Jameson finished 8th with 29:24 (or maybe 29:22 depending on which version of race results you believe). Jeff McClellan set the blog record for the course with 30:13, but that was good enough only for 12th, and 6th Utahn after Seth Pilkington (29:07), Kyle Perry (29:20), Teren, Brad Osguthorpe (29:39), and Jon Kotter (30:07). Previous record was held by Paul (30:27).
Afterwards Jeff and I watched the marathon backwards, and then I paced Mike Warren from about mile 20 to the finish. Then ran back to my car at the start of the 10 K. Had an interesting incident. I felt thirsty so I decided to try some grape juice. Drank to much of it. Started feeling sick. Threw all of it up, it even went through the nose. Then I felt a whole lot better. P.M. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:55. Julia ran with Sarah (1.5 in 14:42). Jenny and Benjamin ran ahead and did their usual 2 miles. Benjamin 17:41, Jenny 17:50. Ran 0.5 with Sarah in 4:55.
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