Hogle Zoo 5K/10K Report (Salt Lake City)
I had my first in-person race in 18 months today! Our local zoo hosted a family-friendly 5K/10K this morning at 6am. I signed up for the 5K.
They had a quick and easy packet pickup yesterday afternoon at tables set up outside the zoo. Bibs and shirts, and they had a timing mat with a screen to test the bib and make sure it worked (that was new, but not a bad idea). I got up about 5, dressed, made a coffee to take, grabbed a Gogo Squeeze apple sauce, and drove myself the 20 minutes from home. I arrived about 5:45, sat in my car sipping coffee and eating my breakfast, trying to get my earbuds to pair with my phone (fail). Oh well, no tunes. I can better check in with how I'm feeling.
The 10K was to start at 6 am and the 5K at 6:15 (same start and course), so I made my way over from the race parking about 6, popped into the zoo bathrooms, and came back out to the main parking area where the start was set up.. They were just starting the 10K, which had about 100 participants. they then asked the 5K folks to come line up at the same start line and we started roughly on time. There were probably 150-200 of us, and LOTS of families with kids.
Temps were in the low 70s at the start, with slightly high humidity (for us), but we had a great breeze and the sun really didn't pop out from behind the peaks and light cloud layer until I was finishing my race. The course was one-mile loops into and around the zoo, which is located up on the bench above the valley (elevation about 4900 feet), and hilly! Hills are not my friends, and having visited before I knew to expect them. The course was winding and laid out well, weaving around the exhibits and backstage. Sadly, most of the animals weren't out yet. There were lots of staff and at least one course photographer, and one aid station in a spot where you could hit it twice each loop. Poweraide and water were available, prefilled in cups on the table (no passing cups). There was no real entertainment or music on the course except for the start/end of each loop, which was fine.
My last race was the full marathon at WDW in January 2020. I took pretty much the whole of 2020 off and I've been running entirely on the treadmill basically since January. I did start the Dopey training plan on time and am in week five, which calls for a 3-mile "long" run this weekend. The first half was mostly downhill, which was nice. But I knew what was coming and I tried not to go out too fast. I kept a reasonable pace for almost the entire first mile, but a steep section toward the end of the loop did me in and I walked for about the last quarter mile of each loop. I took water the first two laps at the second side of the stop. There were lots of people walking either in spurts or the whole thing (and virtually no race etiquette, but I've done Disney 5Ks enough to watch for weavers the those who stop and spread out). Thankfully the course was nice and wide, and there weren't enough people on it to be crowded in any section (even with both 5K and 10K participants on the same course).
I finished in 38:02, which is reasonable for me. My 5K PR is 34:50 so I wasn't entirely disappointed. (I didn't run it as a race anyway, just a training run.) The medals are super cute and SOLID (also, someone at Hogle Zoo marketing is a big fan of AK, as you'll notice from the pattern on the ribbon - which was also on the bib). There was a refreshment area in a large covered pavilion, and at first when I walked up I thought "wow - a lot of people are drinking beer at 7am!" until I noticed the Dasani was in cans.
D'oh! They had that, chocolate milk and bananas. I took one of each, found a picnic table and stretched while I ate and drank. Took a few photos with the medal, texted my husband, then walked over to my car and put the drive down for the lovely trip home!
Overall, it was well organized and a fun, family race. I've been doing some incline training on my treadmill, so the hills weren't as killer as they may have been for me previously, but I had really hoped to run this without walking. It was good to feel the road miles and to know all my treadmill time hasn't affected me there. BUT Orlando won't have those hills OR the altitude, so I'm feeling good about going back to rD for Dopey!
Happy to answer any questions, and sorry for the novel.
(The blue areas are uphill and the yellow/red downhill.)
Maybe I took it a *little* easy on my recovery intervals between R paces 
A bunch of B or C goal races in the fall but the A race for this plan is the Philadelphia Marathon in November. I may have gone a little overboard registering for races now that stuff is coming back!
