Deseret 10k Race Recap + Had to Happen

Another race in the books for the year!  Race #7 of 2019 and it took first place as my sweatiest race ever.

PS Skye dropped her water bottle on Andrew in just the right place;)

Always a fun time to set your alarm clock;)

I’ve kept my 50 miler race alarm caption on my phone since March because it reminds me when I’m waking up at a crazy hour that I’ve done harder things (like chase buffalo for almost 9 hours;) and I can do hard things again.  I definitely prefer sleeping in my bed the night of a race but the hotel was great too because we were about a quarter mile away from the start.  I had a jam and white bread sandwich and my nanohydr8 before we set out for a 1.5 mile warm-up.

When my friends and I first walked out of the hotel yesterday morning we realized we were kind of in trouble.  Utah usually has a little crispness in the air most summer mornings before it gets hot but yesterday was different.  It was 81 degrees when the race started and really humid which we are definitely not used to.  We were sweating just standing there ha… I really respect July races now.

Utah is pretty gorgeous!

The race started right at 6:05 and there was a huge group of people running the 10k.  This race also has a 5k, half-marathon and marathon option and those that ran the longer races… WOW.  Doing a marathon in those conditions would have really killed me.  This race also brings a lot of the fastest people in the state which is awesome because it can really help you to push yourself to the next level.  There is a big (for Utah) cash prize for the top 3 males and females so it brings out the competition.

I  heard before the race that the first two miles are pretty downhill (which they were) but they also included some uphills too.  During mile 3 I started feeling dizzy which isn’t a fun feeling while running and I’m guessing it was partly from going out too fast and also from the humidity.

Emilee and I stayed pretty close to each other or side by side for the first 5.5 miles and then she went up ahead and I just tried to hang on.  The last mile is uphill which I’m pretty sure I closed my eyes for most of those 6 minutes and 37 seconds and just kept counting my steps.

How not to run a race ha… but as far as how the course is set up I’m pretty sure everyone had positive splits:

Nothing left in those legs at the end, they felt like they were completely drained and on empty!

Going into this race I was greedy for a PR.  I felt like I had gained some really great fitness since my last 10k and that there was no question I could go faster on a faster course.  Our coach reminded us leading up to it that we had had a really hard previous week but my brain just thought I would for sure be recovered 4 days later.   Afterwards he told us that yesterday was really just a building block.  He wasn’t expecting killer times but to have a wake up call:). St. George is the goal and we were not recovered for this 10k… it’s all part of the chess game we are in to get to an amazing marathon time.  <— That made me feel really excited for October (and to not do another 10k for a long time ha;).  Realizing all of that made me feel very proud for the day and excited for all of the building blocks it will take to get there.

Costco cookies, grapes, popsicles and bananas at the finish.

I told Andrew there was no way I was going to ask him to be at the race with the girls but he said he wanted to be there no matter what so he got them up and to the race… he is the best and the girls both took great naps afterwards.

None of my friends had the race they were hoping for either and I’m guessing that is a combo of the heat/humidity and not being recovered from last week’s hard workouts but we love doing these hard things together.

It was so great to meet so many internet friends at the race.  Sorry I was so sweaty:).

I ran a few miles to cool down nice and easy and then packed up and we left back home.  I hit 12 miles for the day.

Random race thoughts:

*It’s kind of funny to me how I went 10 years thinking I could ONLY race one way and not even attempt to try a different option until my friends convinced me to try it.  I loved racing with music but at this stage in my life, I love racing without music more now.  I am really enjoying having nothing with me during a race (besides some gels if it’s longer) but that does = less pictures:(.   Try something new with your racing… it’s fun to experiment and see how you like it.

*Not sure I’m a fan of doing a race course along the parade route… there were a lot of people that camp out there to wait for the parade to start after the race and there was a lot of people smoking cigarettes and weed along the way which just made me feel super nauseated when trying to run that fast and breathing.

*I’m not sure how to get good at racing in humidity since we rarely have it here ha.  Put a treadmill in a sauna?  How do you guys do it?

*I love with running how we get the chance to do the same course at the same time as OLYMPIANS.  We saw Jared Ward and a few Olympian girls just a few people in front of us at the start.  It’s cool to be running behind them knowing they are doing the same thing we are… just a lot faster.

*Also, I’m even more of a fan of Jared Ward than I was before after the race.  I saw him in the beginning and he was smiling at EVERYONE, talking to people, wishing them luck and so friendly.  He brought such a positive vibe to the start.

We spent the rest of the day at home getting some things done and napping and of course a donut had to happen….

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Tried anything new with your running/racing lately?

Do you ever push snooze on your alarm clock?  Do you set multiple times to go off?  Do you get up and going right when it goes off?

Would you rather run in humidity or a crazy headwind?

How many more weeks until school starts in your area?