Pioneer Day 10K Race Report

My friend Jessica had planned on running the Deseret News Marathon. She had some unexpected illnesses and decided to switch to the 10k. I'd been going back and forth about entering it as I couldn't get the day off work and wasn't sure I'd want to work all day after an early morning race. Jess doing the 10k clinched my decision to run with her. I've been training for a half marathon (2 little weeks away!).

I've never run a 10K and was excited to try out a new distance. I still wasn't so excited about the 6am start time. Jessica lives in Sacramento so she stayed with me the night before the race. I was up at 4:30 am as we planned on leaving my house around 5. I am not a morning person and it was rough getting up so early. Jessica and I made it to the start about 10 minutes before the gun went off. There were well over 1000 people and that's a conservative estimate. That's something that always amazes me about races, the variety of people who run them. There is no cookie cutter shape for a runner.

The race start was at Research Park at the University of Utah. The course would take us to downtown Salt Lake and finish at Liberty park. A 10K is 6.2 miles. Jessica and I had decided we wouldn't actually run together as I have a faster pace. My goal for the race was to average an 8 minute mile. Most of the first half of the course was downhill and my 3 mile time was 23:15. The course leveled out after that and it felt as if the last couple of miles were even at a slight incline.

I was mostly with the same group of runners throughout the race. I was listening to my music during the run, but the music didn't drown out the grunter running next to me off and on. I was seriously worried about the dude with the noises he was making. I finally realized that was just the noise he made while he ran. It just sounded like he was in pain and about to keel over.

I started feeling the pain about 4 1/2 miles. With my limited time available for training, I don't do any pace work and just try to get the miles in at whatever pace I can. For my long runs, I usually average 9-9 1/2 minute miles. I was really pushing myself for the 10k. The last couple of miles were along the parade route and there were lots of people who had camped out the night before and were there to cheer us on. Some preferred to taunt us. One guy was offering donuts to the runners and another yelling only 5 miles to go.

I could tell my pace had slowed a bit and I wasn't sure if I'd make my goal or not. The last 2-300 yards were uphill and it hurt. I was trying for that last kick at the end. I didn't have too much left. I was actually concentrating on not wetting my pants in front of the crowd at the finish. I'm not that serious of runner just yet! My finishing time (by my watch) was 49:56. I was really pleased with that. That was an 8 minute mile average.

I grabbed water, relieved myself in an appropriate place, got a bagel, and was there to watch Jessica finish. Jess did great as well, finishing just under an hour. There is such a great energy about a race. It's hard to explain, but I love being apart of it. I survived work that day and I think I may make the 10K an annual event. I don't have any pictures to post. I'd lost my camera the day before so I didn't have it with me. I luckily found it! I'm waiting to see if there are any pictures of me online. They take pictures of most racers so I'll post that if I can.

Gabby was in Montana with her dad all week vacationing. It was nice to have some time off mom-duty but I'm so glad to have her home. She's such a great girl, I really missed her!

UPDATE!! The official results posted. I finished 670 over all out of 2262. My chip time was 49:45.2 and the gun time was 50.19