I ran the Steeple to Steeple race today--from the Oquirrh Mt. Temple to the Jordan River temple. They said it was 5 miles, and at first some of us were thinking that it wasn't that far, but then it turned out to be a little over 5 miles. I started out with no warm-up--looking back I wish I had put in a little warm-up, but oh well. I took off and there came Michelle M. and Dean running the wrong direction, then they turned around and joined the race. My goal was to stick with them or at least not let them get too far ahead, which I did pretty well. I would say they were no more than 10 seconds ahead of me at any point before the last mile. Becky Christensen was close behind me pretty much the whole way, so I was trying to keep Michelle and Dean in reach and keep ahead of Becky. I got stopped once at 9800 So. and Redwood Road by the traffic for maybe 5-10 seconds; Michelle and Dean did not get stopped, and it was then they opened up a gap I was unable to close. They seemed to get faster once they turned onto 1300 West, so there was no hope of catching them. I think I finished about one minute behind them. In my mind, I thought the finish was a church south of the temple, when it really was a church north of the temple, so the finish was there before I expected it. I wasn't able to put on a finishing sprint like I wanted to. I think my time was 36:50 (started my Garmin late, one of these days I'll get that Garmin right). I was second female, behind Michelle. Becky was third, and I think the BBKs can claim her, so we finished 1-2-3. Walter won for the men, so we swept this race. Avg. pace was 7:09--that may sound pretty good, but remember this was a nice downhill race. I really liked it. |