Woot! I received a medal. My first since I was seventeen.  It was the “Fly With the Flock” 5K at the Ogden Nature Center.

I came in 30th overall, and 3rd in my age division (3rd out of 19).  My playlist started with “Beautiful Day” by U2, but I added “Donnybrook Affair” by Carbon Leaf in front, to listen to while waiting for the race to start.  But then I wanted to listen to it while waiting for the crowd to thin so I could go faster.  I finished my playlist with “Lucky Country” by Midnight Oil followed by “Merry Mac” performed by Carbon Leaf.  Just before my name was read for me to claim my medal, a Coldplay song came to mind: “You might be a big fish, in a little pond, doesn’t mean you’ve won, ’cause along may come a bigger one”.  The second place finisher was 7.5 minutes ahead of me.

The course was fairly flat, mostly on dirt trails through the nature center, with a few ups and downs to be expected when trail running, but the total elevation gain/loss was probably no more than 10 feet.  It was a two lap course, and it was also a long course.  My Garmin Forerunner 305 reported 3.24 miles, while RunKeeper on my Samsung Galaxy SIII reported 3.33 miles (which was a bit unusual, as my Garmin usually reports a longer distance than RunKeeper).  My Garmin had my pace at 9:01/mi and RunKeeper had me at 8:51/mi.

Shortly after I came around the last corner on the second lap, some phlegm slipped down from my nose into my throat, as I had not been clearing my nose, only my throat.  This was rather unfortunate, as my phlegm started to try to kill me.  I had to stop and clear my throat while also dry heaving as a result.  Some of the runners who passed me during that moment probably were thinking it was worse that it was: just some phlegm trying to bite the hand that feeds it.  The nice upshot of this was it gave me a good reference point to look at when I got home.  As fortune had it, this was when I reached the 3.1 mile mark according to my Garmin.  So, I can report that my 5K time was 27:26, as opposed to my official result (this would of course also mean I finished better than 30th, as those who passed me at that time would not have passed me).