This morning I raced the Spanish Fork Speedy Spaniard. I use to run this race every year while in High School and college but have not for the past 6 years. It's funny, becuase my time is still the same for the most part give or take 20 or so seconds. The race started at Canyon View Park and it was cold and windy! I sat in the the car and only warmed up about a mile before starting. That was a mistake because I felt very stiff and sleepy for the first mile....like I could have laid on on the road and fall asleep. Since my Garmin decided to bail on me again I had to race by feel. It also made me to all of a sudden not want to race but just run it like a tempo workout. That's stupid. So I went out pretty slow and felt like I might have done around 7:30 pace for the first mile or so. Lots of wind, but helped at times too. There was a slight down hill around mile 2 or 3. I was so curious to know my time and spilts! I saw a bunch of girls ahead of me. I was not in the racing mode for sure at this point, just lazy. Felt very easy and relaxed till mile 4 when I saw my mom. She was confused what my racing tactic was and told me I was 7th in women and to step it up. What was I thinking? This is a race! Disguisted with my very lazy start and groveling over my Garmin, I decided to start charging the women. I passed 3 at around mile 5 and made ground on number 3, but waited too long to surge. 594 male and female runners finished. I placed 22nd overall. Out of the 325 females, I placed 4th overall and 1st in my age group (25-29) with a total time of 40:26, good for 6:30 pace. I ran better today compared to 3 weeks ago (about a minute), but this course was easier too.
After seeing my time I was very surprised. I learned something from today's race. 1. Don't let Garmin ruin your day 2. I realized I can pace myself just fine without it. 3. I wouldn't have done any better had it been working, and I think I felt better during the race because I found that when I go out very relaxed, I have lots of energy. Duh! Good reminder though. And last, 4. This made the race enjoyable and it didn't feel tough, except for the last half mile.So overall a good day. I can see improvements each week:) Received awards and talked to lots of old friends. Cooled down and iced. Good day:)
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