Over 700 people ran in this race. The start was at 22nd street and Washington Blvd in Ogden at 4:30 PM on a chilly Saturday afternoon. The street had been closed for the race. The race director had everyone line up at the starting line 15 minutes prior to the start time to do warm-ups. About every minute or so the race director would announce how many minutes were left until the start. I was starting to get nervous. Before the race I ran into a couple of people from my triathlon team. We chatted and discussed what time we wanted to get for this race. I decided that I wanted to beat my previous 5K time of 24:30. I'd set this goal for myself to accomplish by the end of 2012.
The course was 2 1/2 laps of four city blocks. It started at 22nd street and then the turnaround was at 26th street. The race started and off I went. 700+ Santas rushed down the street. I wasn't a quarter mile into the first mile before I realized I was overdressed. I started burning up. I wore my normal winter running gear and didn't account for the fact that the Santa suit would add so much heat. Wearing the Santa hat made my head hotter than the inside of an oven.
About a mile into the race I picked out a woman in front of me that I wanted to keep pace with. She looked about the same height and weight as me. I would get bursts of energy and get ahead of her, then she would pass me. Back and forth it went. Towards the end I decided it was time to make my final move and sprint past her to get to the finish line. My heart was racing as a pushed myself harder and harder. I passed her. I then realized that I wasn't as close to the end as I thought I was. I thought I had to turn on 25th street where the finish line was a 1/2 block in. In reality I had to run down to 26th street and turnaround for the 3rd time and THEN run to 25th street to the finish line. I still had 2 1/2 large city blocks to go and I had spent all my energy. The woman passed by me and got 1/2 block ahead. For a brief moment I was kicking myself that I'd done such a stupid thing. I then dug a little deeper and decided I'd try to pass her one last time. I sprinted again and passed her 1/2 block away from the finish line. I was about to cross the line when I see her out of the corner of my eye. She beat me by two whole seconds.
After I crossed the finish line I found the woman who beat me and congratulated her. I asked her how old she is...25... dang it... she's in my age group. We talked for a bit. I found out she's training for her 5th marathon so I didn't feel so bad about her beating me. I found a guy handing out cards the final times on them. I told him my name and he handed me my card. Final time - 22:55. I beat my previous personal record by 1:35. I placed 3rd in my age group (out of 69) and 10th overall female (out of 421).
They had cold milk, hot chocolate, cookies and candy canes available after the race. I ran into a woman I went to high school with. She ended up placing 1st in our age group. There was only six seconds that separated her time from my own. What a close race. I had so much fun running with so many Santas to kick of the 2011 holiday season. What a blast! For more information about this race visit runsanta.com.
