Smile Center Memorial Day 10K

Andrea bringing it home for the win and new course record. She doesn't look quite as happy as she did after the half-marathon a few weeks ago! ;-) But, she's still undefeated on the roads this year!

We ran the Smile Center Memorial Day 10K down in Orem this morning. The plan was to get in a hard effort that would make the pace at Utah Valley in 2 weeks feel a lot easier.

In the ladies race, Andrea had some great competition in the race against Emily Jameson, and pulled ahead in the last mile to run 37:10 for the win, and broke the previous course record by 22 seconds. If you read her recap below, you'll see that we woke up to some bad news. Gathering the energy and focus to race isn't easy when you are dealing with a personal loss, so I am really proud of her.

In the dudes race, Teren Jameson (who beat me in the half 3 weeks ago) and Jon Kotter (who ran run 14:00 for 5K and 28:43 for 10K on the track for BYU) jumped out quick and gapped me in the first mile... I never really made a strong enough effort to close the gap, but still ran 31:55 (3rd place). That's probably worth low-31 at sea level, so a PR type effort.

FULL RESULTS

I've cross-posted our race reports from Fast Run Blog... here they are, and then a few more pics...

Andrea's Recap (Click for the report on FBR)

I woke up this morning and found out that my uncle Stacy passed away. He had been battling cancer for about a year and a half. He was a great guy, and I loved him very much. Every time I talked to Stacy, he told me to have more fun and enjoy life more. And I feel like I have really done that since I graduated college. I’m really going to miss him, but I’m relieved that he’s not suffering anymore.

That being said, I wasn’t really feeling pumped up about the race this morning. I know that Stacy would think I was chickening out by not doing it, so I decided to just do the best that I could today. Running has always been my way to gain some perspective anyway.

I have never run a 10k before. After this race I have to say - it is a hard distance. I’m definitely not used to running so fast for that long. My goal was to run 5:54/mile with very even splits (that is what McMillan calculator said I could run based on the Provo Half). I came in the first mile at 6:00 and then hit a headwind and uphill for mile 2. My watch said 6:25, and I really got discouraged. Mile 3 was nice with a little downhill, but when the watch said 5:10 I realized that the mile markers were completely off. Quick rant – this is a major issue for me. Mile markers need to be a top priority for race directors and misplaced ones can really make or break participants. If they aren’t going to be correct, there is no point in even putting them out on the course! Anyway, miles 4 and 5 were pretty uneventful – I was trying to stick with Emily and was definitely feeling the pace at this point. She seemed to slow a bit at mile 5 so I took over and just tried to push through. The last 1.2 seemed LONG. I finished in 37:10, so I was a little disappointed with my time. I know that I ran hard and did the best that I could today. I honestly thought there was a girl ahead of me for the entire race. I was surprised and excited to find out that I had won!

Now I’m heading to Tennessee to see my family for the next few days. Although it is only at 1000 ft or so, the temperature is going to be in the mid-90s and humid! That will definitely be a shock for running. But I’m excited to see everyone back home.

Jake's Recap (Click for the report on FRB)

Teren took off quick from the start, shadowed by a BYU guy who I don't know... I hung back, but really wish I had just gone out a touch faster and put myself in the mix, because we turned east and ran into the wind for the second mile, and it would have been nice to be latched onto somebody for that part. According the the mile markers, I was 5:15 at Mile 1, and then 5:33 for Mile 2, and 4:19 for Mile 3! Haha I don't think so! I don't know why its so difficult to get mile markers in the correct spots! Anyways, at that point Teren and BYU guy were pretty far ahead, and I had no confidence in any of the splits, so I resigned to just run steadily hard the rest of the way. Not by any means an amazing performance, but I did what I set out to do, and felt recovered almost immediately afterwards. I'm definitely in much better shape for longer races than shorter races right now.

The national anthem singers had some problems.... maybe it was the speakers?!?! But you can tell how it sounded by the look on my face!

And we're off...

Finish line... most of the hard work for the marathon is done now...

Our plan from this point forward is one more longish run, one more tempo run, and then a little 5K race in SLC next weekend to get the nerves out. Then Utah Valley on June 11th... can't believe its so close.