I signed up for the Uncle Sam 5k on Sunday because I saw an ad for it and thought it looked fun. I got there a little after six and picked up my stuff. It was pretty cool because they gave us these red-white-and-blue top hats and shirts and these long white beards. I didn't have much time to warm up because the race started at 6:30 so I got in a quick 1 mile warm up then jogged over to the starting line. I got to the starting line a little late so I couldn't get a spot up front, so I had to just sit back at the start for a little bit and weave my way through a crowd of people. The leader was a guy from Redrock that I think I've raced before at the Children of Hope Academy 5k. He took it out way fast and when I finally got through everyone and was in 2nd, he already had a good 20-30 yard lead, which he kept almost the entire race. Chase Leavitt from Snow Canyon caught up with me with a little under a mile to go and I think he pushed me to go faster. We caught up to Redrock with .1 miles left and it was an all out sprint Chase and I from there. After that I did a 3 mile cool down. It was a pretty fun race and a good course. It was about the same pace I ran in the VO2 Max test last week so that was good. It wasn't way fast, but it was a lot faster than I ran last Independence Day, so I think there is still a lot of improvement left for this XC season. Happy Independence Day!!! | 