This morning marked the 4th year I have run the annual Pony Express 5k, in my home town of Eagle Mountain. This year was different, as I was able to serve on the committee. Every year, the proceeds have gone to help different charities and organizations. This year, our local Cupcake Charity, which helps families in need in our area, was in charge, and I was honored to be able to serve on this committee. Quickly, I want to mention some of our sponsors as huge THANK YOU!

Sweeten Your Day Cupcakes for providing the amazing toppers that went on the cupcakes!

Here is one of the cute little toppers she made for us!

Matt Ward from the Dirty Dash for donating some free enries

26.2 Running Company for the hundreds of gift cards and coupons for the swag bags

Great Harvest Bread Co. for the free bread coupons

Oiselle for 10% off coupons.

Utahmountainbiking.com for providing many things including these awesome socks that my 5-year-old has already claimed…

We really do live in an amazing community!

THANK YOU!!!

So, here is some quick background on this race…

I first ran it in 2009, and was 5 months pregnant with Azure (baby #5). I took 2nd with a 20:50

2010: 1st place; 19:15-ish

2011, 1st place; 18:27

I like being able to look back on my times from years past, on this same course. It helps me to measure my improvement.

So, here goes the  race re-cap…

I signed up to run it waaaayy back when the price was $10, and I thought Adam had, too. He let me know this week that he hadn’t signed up. He is so finicky about races because he holds himself at such a high standard, and gets really worried…about what? I don’t know? He is one of those athletes that just shows up and runs insanely fast times. I REALLY wanted him to run it with me. Running races together brings us back to where it all began (awwwe)…Needless to say, he gave in to my pleading. So, we got our “go-to” babysitter’s little sister, Emily to come watch the kids bright and early. You know you have a great babysitter, when even the mention of them coming the next morning, is enough of an incentive to get them to go to bed, and when you get back, they are bummed that you are home. We are so lucky!

Here’s their cute family. Their youngest is on Anderson’s club soccer team, so we get to see a lot of them!

So, just as we have done the past few times we’ve run this race, we parked 1.5 miles from the start, and did our warm-up run to the start. I really like doing the warm-ups and cool downs with him…It is actually my favorite part of the whole race experience :).

This year, there were cash prizes for top finishers ($100 for 1st, $75 and $50). This attracted a lot of fast runners, which is pretty cool. I have never seen this race have such a deep field. I met up with 2 ladies that I have raced in many races with, the past year. I was excited to see some fast times on this course!

The race started out super fast, as the first mile is a good downhill. Last year, I went out way too fast, and had no legs left at the end. This year, I wanted to play it conservatively…not too conservative, though…if there is one rule I follow while running downhill, it is to let gravity do it’s job :).

Here’s the downhill part. Adam is the buff one in the red…rrrrrr 😀

The last 2 miles are pretty flat with a little gradual down as well as a little hill and neighborhood wind-through at the end, to keep it interesting :). I wanted to get a sub 18, so I tried to make sure that I kept it below 6 minute pace. It wasn’t as hard as I thought, and I got into a good groove. I was checking my watch a lot, and then decided to stop doing it, because it was getting annoying. I actually forgot to even look at my watch the last mile, and then, with about 1/4 mile to go, I looked at it, to see that my battery was dying, and I couldn’t even see my time! Then I rounded the corner to see the finish, with the clock reading 17:45. I knew I had to sprint it in to make my goal, so I did! I finished 1st overall female with a 17:58!  Results here. Leave it to me to cut it that close. I felt great! There was never a time where it hurt! That is a huge confidence builder going into my 1/2 marathon this weekend!

Rounding the corner, about to wind through the neighborhoods. Yes, I run with my eyes closed…

Adam did really well, too! He finished 4th overall, with a time of 16:34. Not bad for someone who runs maybe 3 times a week!…(He does a lot of biking and P90x-ing 🙂 ). I was so proud of him!

It was a lot of fun! I can’t wait to do it again!

P.S. Thank you to my friend, Mikki’s husband, Ben for taking the pictures! She ran it, too and took 3rd with a PR of 19:06! So awesome!

Mikki with our cute cupcake mascot-for-the-day, James