Law Day 5K. This race has taken on a life of its own in the last few years. There is a "Speed Team" competition that my law firm has one basically every year since 1999. In recent years, in an effort to maintain that title, I have expanded our recruiting efforts to encompass some folks that are much faster than me to join the team. This is a race I won in 2006. This year I took 10th, ~3 minutes behind the winner. Clearly, it has evolved (though I have rendered myself obsolete in the process). Each team has 5 people, with at least two women. This year our "A" Team consisted of Lindsey Dunkley, Paul Petersen, Josh Steffen, Jeff McClellan, and Emily Bates. Not bad at all, you say? Our B Team was me, Sasha, Megan Call, Burke Hills and Rachel Cieslewicz. Not too shabby either. It was a good thing the A Team was as talented as it was because Olsen Shaner (Mark Olsen's firm) was clearly out for the win. They brought out Teren Jameson, Nate Hornok, Albert Wint, Sue Nielsen and Devra Vierkant. Pretty amazing group. I ran 17:30 on a new course due to construction in the middle of the U of U campus. I was in no man's land after a kilometer, passed a couple of people about 2k in, and then tried to hang on as the course flattened out and had some downhill. I knew there was a clash of the titans going on a couple of minutes in front of me, but I was nowhere near that race. And with all the twists and turns in the course, there was no way I could see it either. With about a mile to go, I knew Sue Nielsen was hunting me down. She is a terrific runner and I have a lot of respect for her. I knew I would have to run very quickly if I was going to hold my lead. In the last turn, I could see the finish banner and told myself just to hang on for dear life, it would all be over soon, but that for now it had to hurt. Such is the 5k. I could hear Sue's footeps creeping up behind me . . . and they were going very fast. I managed to finish about a half second in front of her. She literally flew past me after I entered the finishing chute. Nice to be done. We've had rain in this race the last couple of years but the weather was spectacular this time. Great day for post-run breakfast and a trip to the zoo.
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