Well, i was pretty disappointed in the whole experience for the 5k on the track for the Utah Summer Games held in Cedar City.
Start time was at 5.45pm. I left St. George a little before 3pm to drive the 52 miles to Cedar City, about a 45-50 minute drive. Unfortunately, the drive took almost 2.5 hours!!! I had my two daughters, Stefani and Sydni with me, and also my good friend Eric Larsen. When we got to the 22 mile mark on I-15, still about 37 miles to the exit for the race, the traffic was completely stopped. It was crazy. It took us 35 minutes to drive the next MILE. It took 1 hr and 16 minutes to drive 3 miles!!! So at this point, i figured i would not be running in the race. I received a call from Aaron Metler, who was also trying to get to Cedar, he was also stuck in traffic.
We arrived at the stadium at 5:25 pm, so i had 20 mins to check in, warm up, take care of bathroom issues, so it just wasn't looking real good for a solid performance. Aaron showed up after I did, so he had less time! The temperature was great, probably 85 degrees, but there was some wind on the homestretch, probably 18 mph. My race was terrible, but i cannot really pinpoint what it was. I did not wear my watch, which was a mistake, i was disoriented out there on the track, trying to figure out how many laps had i run, or how many i had left. The scoreboard usually has the time on it, but it was off. Aaron Metler took off real fast, and then there was another runner, and then Ryan Neuman, and i settled into 4th place. There were probably 20 runners on the track.
My laps were horrible, they were 42 secs for first 200, then 89.65, 87.98, 92.53, 90.37, 94.10, 93.09, 92.89, 92.29, 94.08, 95.24, 93.37, and 80.63. I had my laps because Stef took them for me, i don't know what i was thinking not having my watch on my wrist. I could not hear the race officials saying the time, until the first time i heard someone say "11.22", and it took me a minute to figure out what lap i was on at that point. My finishing time was 18.58.64, but on the results they had 19.00.00 (?). It almost felt like they didn't record my time, but thought i was around 19 mins, so that is what they put me at. Either way, I squeaked out the 40-44 record of 19.03, but still, I should have been 30 secs faster at least.
Aaron ran 16.47, and Ryan ran 18.48. I could see him as i was finishing, and i was pleased with my effort, as Ryan is a great runner, and i was only 10 secs behind him.
Because of the traffic, I decided to take a pass on repeating the 3 hour drive on Saturday for the 1500, and will plan on doing this again next year to replace this poor effort.
Cheers
Mike | 