Race Report: Running of the Leopards 5K

Starting line

Billed as "The Fastest 5K in Utah!" Running of the Leopards is a fundraiser 5K for East High School in Salt Lake City held every March. The race was created after 2008 when the principal pledged to lose 100 pounds before graduation (he did it), then the school began doing fun runs and created Running of the Leopards in 2009.

The downhill course is designed for fast finishes, and many people break their 5K PR on this course! Each year the race draws an increasing number of community and students. 2013's race had over 800 registrants, and this year's registrations rose to over 1000. Luckily, the weather for last weekend's race was much better than the previous year. 2013 racers faced a snowstorm, but we lucked out with sunshine and mid-fifty temps. Not a bad way to ring in racing season!

Post-race feast

Racers parked at East High's tennis courts and were bused to the start line at This is the Place State Park. Our bus was one of the last to the start line, so we hustled over and made it just before the gun went off. The course wound down Sunnyside, turning at the post office for a brief sprint through Research Park before turning onto Foothill, which we ran along until intersecting again with Sunnyside. From here to the bottom it was a straight downhill shot before turning onto East High's track to finish. Finishing on a track gave me a tiny taste of what being an Olympian must feel like, and I sped up to pass four people in the final .1 before the finish.

After the race, sponsor Trader Joe's treated us to some of the tastiest post-race snacks I've seen at a finish line! Granola bars, dried fruit, fresh fruit, and trail mix were available in nearly limitless amounts, along with Creamies for a sweet tooth fix.

Trader Joe's also donated reusable bags that were used instead of plastic to hold race packets, which also included a race shirt I'll actually wear and hair or body care samples from Landis Salons.

At the finish line

Though not the best race of my running career, I felt good about finishing in 26:32 to place 9th in my age group, especially after mildly injuring myself a few days prior. My racing partner Allan finished in 19:32, which was actually a slower time for him. However, I did learn from viewing the results that chip times were not captured for the race. Sadly, something went wrong with the timing system, so only gun times were available. This meant we both finished slightly faster than our finish times.

Stoked on the bag full of treats!

After the race awards were handed out to the top male and female finishers. Since we didn't fall into that category we headed to catch pond skimming at Canyons, but many stayed after for the big reveal of East High's unveiling of the "We are One Inside Out" project, which depicted photos of students blown up to a massive size outside the school along with free donuts.

To sum it up, Running of the Leopards is a great race that we'd definitely do again, but hopefully next time chip times will be captured and awards will be given out to all age group winners along with overall speedsters.