Provo City 5K

Last Saturday Julie and I decided to get out May 5K right out of the way.  The annual Provo City Half-Marathon/Relay/5K was on 1 May, and we were sure the weather would be perfect for a Spring race, right?  Wrong!

The morning started out mild enough, and since we were running late we decided to drive the half-mile or so.  After a slight difficulty registering (they couldn't find Julie's number until we discovered that somehow she had been registered under her maiden name), we joined the surprisingly large crowd near the starting line.  The half-marathon runners left first, which diminished the crowd considerably.  The wind started to pick up a little, and the rain started to fall, but there was a good energy and it still wasn't too cold.  Around 375-400 5K runners took off a few minutes later.  The course was nice, fairly flat throughout, and seemed to go by pretty quickly, even when the rain continued to fall, then pour, then turn to snow and hail, and then it turned really cold.  I crossed the finish line in pretty good time (just about 20:17, 6:33/min) and Julie followed soon after, and then we began the waiting game.  It was a fun atmosphere (or it would have been if it had been a nicer day) with were free massages, booths with samples of energy drinks and snacks and free French toast from Magleby's, but we were shivering and just wanted to hear the results.  As much as I love the rain and snow, I don't remember ever (yes, ever!) having been that cold, teeth chattering and freezing to the bones!  They finally posted the results, and since neither of us were quite in the top 3 for our age group there seemed little reason to stick around for awards, even if they did happen to call our name for the raffle (which they never do) or throw a t-shirt in our direction (and they gave us really nice t-shirts anyway).  (For the record, I placed 17th overall, 4th in my age group.  I was surprised to find that the overall winner was also in my age group, at about just over 15:00.  No way I could keep up with that pace!)

We soon discovered, unfortunately, that our car, along with over a dozen others, had been towed in the duration of less than an hour that we had been parked, leaving a large number of us stranded without transportation, cell phone or wallet.  We were the lucky ones, living relatively close, though at that temperature the walk home seemed much longer.  I was furious, quite sure they had simply been laying in wait (early on a Saturday morning when both the company whose lot we had parked in, as well as the towing company were not even operating anyway) because they knew there was a race going on, and felt taken advantage of, but we worked it out--I gave my piece to the towers and the manager, paid their exorbitant fee and drove away with Julie's car.  They sure made their money on a day they're allegedly not even open for business...  (This editorial by Eric Snider helped me to feel better about the whole situation...)  We spent the rest of the day resting and trying to restore our internal body temperature.  I swear I can still feel the cold in my bones.

So, it was kind of a rough morning, all things considered.  It's always nice to have a morning run, and it's good to get our May run finished, especially since the May weekends are starting to fill up... Details to follow.

We were unable to take pictures at the race, since our camera was in the car and by the time picture taking would have taken place, the car was gone.  It seemed kind of fitting that such a bizarre and scattered experience should not be thoroughly and officially documented, but I did manage to find a fairly good photo from the race photographers.  No way I was going to pay for it, but here's the thumbnail, which I think is also kind of fitting.

Heck, it even has the website on it.  That guy behind me was trailing me the whole time, but I was not about to let him pass me by.  Hopefully you can see how very wet and cold I am.  I just love crossing that finish line.