Today I ran the City Creek Cold Turkey 6k which has always been a family tradition on Thanksgiving. This was the 10th year I have run the race. I won the race two years ago, a week before CIM, but last year was a disaster because I was still dealing with some lingering injuries and the post SGM funk. So this year had to be much better. I warmed up with Josh then ran the inaugural kid's 1k with my nephew Nicolai. He got off to a blazing start and soon found himself sitting in 4th place. 2nd and 3rd went out way too hard and obviously weren't in Nicolai's soccer/hockey/swimming shape so he caught both of them right before the turnaround. From there he turned on the burners again and started closing the gap on the big kid who was in 1st. The big kid saw him coming with a worried face and picked up the pace. Nicolai finished the race 2nd overall and probably ran around a 9 minute pace, which for a 5 year old 45 inches tall has to equate to a sub 4:30 mile. :) He was the champ today.
Shortly after his race we got going and lucky for us Miss USA was the starter. Typical of every year a few young guys got off to a quick start but I caught up and passed them at the half mile point. At that point I could hear a few other footsteps but after we turned up City Creek all I could hear were the big footsteps of BJ Christenson. BJ and I had went back and forth up City Creek and we went around the turn around together. BJ immediately picked up the pace a bit and gapped me by about 200 ft. I thought he would continue to break away but I managed to keep that gap until we hit the top of Memory Grove. From there I was trying to surge more down the steeper sections and I noticed that I was slowly gaining ground feet by feet. With a half a mile left BJ was only a few seconds ahead so I knew if I pushed it I might have a chance. I finally caught him right at the gate to the park with about 300 yards left to go. I started sprinting which I probably haven’t done since playing football in high school and amazingly it worked. BJ ended up falling off and finished about 4 seconds behind. For the win I got a pre-cooked smoked turkey that will have to wait until summer to be eaten. Splits were 5:28 (+123 ft), 5:48 (+95 ft), 4:52 (-184 ft.), 4:32 pace for .8 (-188 ft.). BJ always kicks my butt in anything less than a half marathon so it was great to finally beat him. He hasn’t really done any hard workouts since Kona in October so I can understand why he didn’t feel great.
Josh and I cooled down another 4 and we barely made it back for the awards. Then I had to get on a Black Friday call for work which was dumb because I missed all of the post race festivities in the nice weather. Overall a good workout and prep for CIM. I was also glad to get in a few fast downhill miles which I haven't done since St. George.
Happy Thanksgiving!
| 
