Summer 2012 5Ks

(This post has been a long time coming.  I meant to post it in June after the first race, but then it took forever to get pictures, and then I was going to post about the two in July, but then it was only a couple of weeks until the August race, so I thought I would consolidate.  Anyway, I don't want to weigh you down with too much exposition, so...)

Running!  We like to do running.  It's fun in the spring and fall and I even like it in the winter, but the summertime always has some fun running events.  We had one each month this year!  Here they are:

23 June:

The American Fork Canyon (Half Marathon and) 5K!  We did this for its inaugural race last year, and we all enjoyed it so much we decided to do it again.  The course changed a little to accommodate for some construction, but it worked out all right (there's a hill either way, so it's pretty much a given).  I placed 1st in my division and 5th overall, which came as a surprise to me -- I couldn't quite see the people ahead of me, so I wasn't even sure I was in the top 10!  But I was.  (21:10, 6:49/mile, so a little faster than last year.)  Julie opted out of this one last year, but was ready to go this year, and she did great!  Top ten in her age group (7th) and just about at her goal time.

They have poster stuff!  I made one for Julie while I waited a couple minutes for her to finish.

Yay for us.  Everyone who placed came in first!  The others didn't place came in first in our hearts.

Just standing around forever waiting for stuff to happen.  There were some logistical issues this year.

21 July:

Then on July we had the sometimes-traditional Pioneer Day Classic in Provo, one of our favorites.  We usually get a few out to this one, though it's a tad expensive.  In researching times for this, I have discovered that the same guy who beat me in the AF race also came in a few places ahead of me in this one.  We even have the same first name, though not quite the same pace, HA.  It was a pretty rough race for me for whatever reason, but I still did pretty well, a little faster than the June race (21:00 even [gun-time of 21:04], 6:46/mile, 11th overall [so close to top 10!], 4th in my division).  Julie had a slightly faster time than her June race, and also placed 6th in her division!  She's a top-10 runner!  Way to go, love o' mine.  This race usually has good shirts and treats, though they took their sweet time with the awards (I guess most do).

Woot.

I don't know.

11 August:

And then just last Saturday we all met up for the annual Alpine Days 5K.  It's always a low-key (and inexpensive) event, and we always enjoy it, and this year the weather was wonderful and cool.  The course and the crowd are pretty fun, though there seemed to be a LOT more runners this year.  The more the merrier, I guess!  There were so many runners that I was quite surprised to learn that I came in 2nd in my division (21:45 [though it should be noted the race was .10 over 5K length], 6:50/mile, 2nd in my division, maybe top 10 overall. *shrug*), after Jonny of course, ha.  Perhaps the most notable thing to mention regarding this race is that in preparation of this race Julie and I filled out the names on everyone's bibs and we wrote Melody and Jonny's last name phonetically so that the race peeps would have no trouble pronouncing them when they undoubtedly would have to in order to call them up for their awards (and the guy was still so proud of himself for "getting it right this year," ha ha...  little did he know!).  They even gave out medals in gold, silver and bronze for each of the places.  It was all very Olympicsish.

Wait wait wait, I take back what I said before, the most notable thing about this race is that Julie had a GREAT time, and a new PR!  It was amazing!  I was just running back after I was finished to do the last bit with her like I sometimes do, and she surprised me by being much closer than I expected.  She was well under her goal at 28:28 (and don't forget it was about 3.2 miles), about 7:53/mile.  She placed 5th in her division, which meant she unfortunately didn't get a medal, but she may as well have, I was ever so proud.  Way to go again, love o' mine!

The kids ran their own little Toddler Trot too and had a great time, especially when they were handed suckers at the end.

Cami, Melody and Mom doing their Olympics thing.  Don't worry, Cami, bronze is still a winner!

Yeah, again, I don't know.  we just want to do different things in these pictures nowadays.

Running!  We have a few races planned for the fall, but we've sort of fallen out of our one-5K-a-month habit.  We figure we can do our own 5K with our morning run and save the cash for when an exciting run comes up instead of just finding random ones just for the sake of doing them.  I can almost feel fall in the air when we have our morning runs now!  XD