Race #1 of the Season: Salt Lake City 5K

... or maybe it's the Salt Lake City Marathon 5K. Not exactly sure. 

Regardless, I was supposed to run the half. Some Skirt sisters from out of town were coming in to run it and I thought it would be fun and a way to check out the local race scene ... and then I bruised my tailbone two weeks into training. And then messed up my thumb. And I didn't really run.

So, down to the 5K it was, and B decided to run it with me.

I found out the day before that Jessi and Kim also dropped down to the 10K from the half (and that they didn't realize I had actually signed up - oops), due to training fiascos of their own - I think time with Kim and an Achilles or calf flare with Jessi. In any case, we all decided we'd try to meet up beforehand for a photo (along with Anastasia, another Skirt sister who actually lives south of SLC).

Race morning comes and B and I drive down to the city. Since we were doing the 5K and not the half, we had a loop course as opposed to a point-to-point, so that made our lives easier. And we were thinking no gear check, but thankfully Anastasia cleared that up for us (which is good, because sweatshirts were very nice to put back on post-race).

We all figured out where we were and then met up for a photo.

From left: Kim, Jessi, me, Anastasia. Yes I'm tall.

After the photo, we split up since I needed to go to the bathroom and hit up gear check, but we got back in time for the start of the 10K (we went off 10 minutes later).

B and I decided we'd run together. He was maybe thinking sub-:10 per mile which I was realistically thinking was NOT going to happen (and it didn't). But still, we kept the walk breaks to a minimum and ran as best as we could.

A little over a mile in, we ran past Jessi and Kim who were walking the 10K (due to the aforementioned leg thing for Jessi) - I came up behind and hugged them and then ran off ... and Jessi got a picture in the process.

Oh B and his calves ...

A little after this point, the two race courses diverged and we did a little lollipop loop around a park before heading back from whence we came. We were getting passed by people who did the bike tour (cold morning for that), but it was going pretty well otherwise. I had to do one last walk break right before the finish, but I was also able to kick better than B at the end, beating him by a whole three seconds.

Final Stats:

Time: 32:28

11/40 AG (F35-39)

57/425 gender

202/749 overall

Not our best race, definitely not our worst ... and a fun way to spend the morning. 

Clearly after we got our sweats back.