Fast Running Blog

Mik'l has graciously agreed to be the web-caster. She will be posting updates as the race progresses. Stay tuned Friday June 20th from 5 PM MST to Saturday June 21st 11 AM MST.

Thanks Mik'l my wife and mom I'm sure will both be staying tuned!

 ;) Thank you all. I am now officially registered. Wooo! Wooo! You can do it!
 I will be virtually cheering you!

Adam's Mom

White Team legs, times, projections:

1   1   Jeff McClellan   5:00 PM   0:29:08
2   2   Hayden Hawks   5:29 PM   0:39:30
3   3   Tyler Cannon   6:08 PM   0:33:30
4   4   Walter Brown   6:42 PM   0:31:37
5   5   Sasha Pachev   7:13 PM   0:48:40
6   6   Jeff Shadley   8:02 PM   0:37:21
7   7   Taylor Price   8:39 PM   0:22:33
8   8   Dave Holt   9:02 PM   0:18:03
9   9   Adam Wende   9:20 PM   0:18:40
10   10   Seth Wold   9:39 PM   0:18:43
11   11   Logan Fielding   9:57 PM   0:24:27
12   12   Clyde Behunin   10:22 PM   0:21:47
13   1   Jeff McClellan   10:44 PM   0:44:59
14   2   Hayden Hawks   11:28 PM   0:16:34
15   3   Tyler Cannon   11:45 PM   0:28:45
16   4   Walter Brown   12:14 AM   0:17:31
17   5   Sasha Pachev   12:31 AM   0:34:18
18   6   Jeff Shadley   1:06 AM   0:33:48
19   7   Taylor Price   1:39 AM   0:23:46
20   8   Dave Holt   2:03 AM   0:38:31
21   9   Adam Wende   2:42 AM   0:38:15
22   10   Seth Wold   3:20 AM   0:35:38
23   11   Logan Fielding   3:56 AM   0:25:15
24   12   Clyde Behunin   4:21 AM   0:31:16
25   1   Jeff McClellan   4:52 AM   0:33:49
26   2   Hayden Hawks   5:26 AM   0:30:12
27   3   Tyler Cannon   5:56 AM   0:28:23
28   4   Walter Brown   6:24 AM   0:30:49
29   5   Sasha Pachev   6:55 AM   0:20:55
30   6   Jeff Shadley   7:16 AM   0:19:52
31   7   Taylor Price   7:36 AM   0:22:24
32   8   Dave Holt   7:58 AM   0:36:25
33   9   Adam Wende   8:35 AM   0:30:48
34   10   Seth Wold   9:06 AM   0:30:19
35   11   Logan Fielding   9:36 AM   0:35:15
36   12   Clyde Behunin   10:11 AM   0:27:49
Finish         10:39 AM   17:39:35

Leg maps are available at

http://www.ragnarrelay.com/wasatchback/coursemaps/

That's pretty impressive. It is also a good barometer for guestimating how fast one could or perhaps "should" run. Might be kinda disheartening if you run slower though.

Still, very neat. I like it.

Steve, we have the same predictions for our team- you can see them at the start.

Are they based off of PR's? I hope I can hold my own against my expected times...

Who is all on the blue team?

I am

Blue Team
Mitch Zundel
Steve Hooper
James Barnes
Dustin Ence
Chad Derum
Jon Allen
Steve Olsen
Kory Wheatley
Hayden Hawks
James Moore
Stephen Cuttitta

That's all I have on them although I know they have a similar schedule to that of the white team above.

I would just like to say that James has done an awesome job as captain. He has been very on top of things!

I will be unavailable for the first hour or so of the race, so if anyone else has updates, feel free to join in. I will post what I hear from the guys as soon as I can.

Hayden is on white.  Wildbull and Andrew McClellan are on blue.

Dang - I'm on pins and needles here just waiting for the start!  I'm assuming that since the start is only about 10 minutes away there won't be any updates for a while - but go teams white and blue!  I'll be checking the discussion forum later this evening for updates to see how they are doing against BYU.

At the first exchange BYU had gapped us by 2 minutes. I just got home so I'll call Sasha for more info.

Jeff ran the first leg in 28:28, 40 seconds ahead of his projection. Hayden ran his leg in 39:44, 14 seconds behind his projection. They are currently in 2nd place behind BYU by 4 min 37 seconds and Tyler is running the third leg now. BYU's first three runners were superstars...Kyle Perry, Nate Ogden, and Iain Hunter.

7:30 No one is answering their phone...sorry.

Did you mean Kyle Perry?  Any other updates?

Forgive my noobness, but I don't know what WBR is? is it like the Del Sol Relay you all did? Sounds exciting! Wish they had something like that up here!

Yes, like Del Sol, in fact put on by the same group - Ragnar Relays.  WBR stands for Wasatch Back Relay.  I think there is a link in this topic to the web page where you can see how challenging it is . . .

Yep...it is run by the same group, Ragnar. It is (I think) 188 miles from Logan to Park City. Our 2 FRB teams are trying to win it and there are over 550 teams!

8:30 MST: I just talked to Sasha. Tyler ran the 3rd leg in 34:42, 1:12 behind Sasha Science. He struggled with the heat. Walter ran 31:00 and was 37 ahead of SS, and Sasha ran 47:59, 41 sec ahead of SS. Jeff is running now and they are about 8 minutes behind a very strong Van 1 for BYU. The rest of their van consists of Aaron Robison, John Cotter, and Tyrel Jensen. Most of their van is the BYU traveling squad. The blue team was about 8 min behind the white team at the third exchange. More updates after Jeff finishes and hands off to van 2! (I told them to pick it up!)

8:47 MST: Jeff ran in 39:06, giving Van 1 a total time of 3:40:54 when they handed off to van 2. They are about 1 minute behind SS. They are 12:42 behind BYU and in a secure 2nd place. They haven't seen the blue team yet. Sasha mentioned John Cotter ran Sasha's same leg in 43:44!

8:55 MST: The blue team hit the first major exchange (van 1 done, 6 legs completed) 13:05 behind the white team and 30 seconds ahead of Runners Corner team.

Oh, thats jon Kotter! He served a mission in Rome while I was in Sicily. We were in the MTC together a long time ago. Good to see him running strong again!

The night is young!

9:30 MST: Taylor ran 23:23 and Dave ran 19:05, both just a little slow from their projections. Adam is running and BYU has already handed off at the next exchange, so they don't know how far behind they are. Come on guys!!!

10:30 MST: Adam ran 19:19 a little faster than predicted and Seth ran 17:11, just a tad slow. Logan should be finished so Clyde is running now. More updates in a bit. Is anyone still checking?

yep, still reading.  These guys are AWESOME!!!

11:22 Last update until morning...
Van 2 passed back to Van 1 16:10 behind BYU, so van 2 lost less than 3 minutes to BYU. Kyle Perry ran 43:33 for BYU on leg 13. I haven't even heard from Clyde to see how they are feeling, but I'll give them a call in the morning around 6:30 to see where they are. Jeff is running right now. Goodnight!

Just heard from Clyde. He ran 22:00 on his leg, just a few seconds slow from SS. They are headed to the next major exchange to get some sleep. They passed Hayden running and were all yelling at him and I heard someone say, "He's bookin it!" Now goodnight for real.

I finally got to talk to Sasha this morning at 7:30 or so. He said they were about 40 minutes behind BYU and about 40 minutes ahead of the 3rd place team..so a solid 2nd place. Approximate numbers of course. Sasha also said he got a record amount of sleep on one of these relays...1 hour 10 minutes!!!

8:26 update: The white team is on their last van. They are about 10 minutes behind projected schedule and Sasha thinks they will come in second to BYU by about an hour. We should come in about 17 hours 50 min. Sasha was pumped about Jeff M's second leg, where he was only 32 seconds slower than Kyle Perry on that leg. He ran 44:05 for about 8 1/2 miles. Hayden beat his projections on his 2nd and 3rd legs. Tyler and Jeff S were a little slow due to heat on the first leg for Tyler and killer downhill for Jeff. Sasha was slow on his second leg but made up for it on his 3rd leg. He got down to 4:36 pace on the 8% grade downhill. White was beating Blue by about 35 min halfway through.

I just talked to Cody who is with the Blue team. They are about 3 minutes ahead of 26.2 and Runners Corner. Our van 2 has been better than theirs on both legs, so we should be a solid 2-3 for the FRB teams. He said Blue is about 40 min behind White. Blue is about 6 min behind their projections. The Wildbull is running leg 31 right now. I guess he's even managed to get a couple numbers on this trip! ;)

Thank you for the updates MikL.  You can tell we are watching!

I would consider that to be very good, considering BYU brought several of their current scholarship athletes, including both Kyle Perry and Tyrel Jensen, who were both indoor all-americans!

I just talked to Clyde. Logan is running now and will pass off to Clyde who will finish for the white team. They sound tired! Clyde said he hasn't been running very good...typical relay stomach issues. Seth ran the Ragnar leg and beat the record he set last year on that horrible uphill killer! They are having fun but I'm sure ready to be done and get some sleep! He'll call back when they are finished.

10:20: Sasha called...BYU finished in 17:19:34. He projects us to finish around 17:54-55. Not bad. Seth ran Ragnar in 29:12.

Well Sasha was right. 17:54:16 for the White team. 5:56 pace overall, 2nd place. Good job guys!

Woohoo!  Sounds like they made up some time on the BYU team - finished 34 minutes behind them.  Congratulations to the White team!

12:03 MST: The Blue Team just finished in 18:54:03, 3rd place! 6:15 pace. Almost exactly one hour after the white team. They had a wrong turn on the last leg and Steve Olsen was injured (foot) at some point so the Wildbull filled in for him! They still haven't seen 26.2 or Runners Corner come in. There was another team that started at 4:00 p.m. yesterday that came in just before them, but they beat them by enough that they kept 3rd.

Good job to both teams. That is an awesome showing for the FRB! I'm sure everyone will have fun stories to post after they take a good, long nap!

Congratulations!  You guys are awesome.  Now get blogging!

Ooo drama for the blue team! I did not know the result, so am sorry to hear of the wrong turn and injury, but glad to hear we pulled out third. As driver of Van 1 on Blue, I will vouch that the guys ran their hearts out. Here is our van breakdown:

Leg
1. Mitch Zundell - 29:40 (5.14 miles, 5:46/mile) **Hot!!**
2. Steve Hooper - 44:08 (6.73 miles, 6:33/mile) **Hot!!**
3. James Barnes - 36:22 (5.65 miles, 6:26/mile)  **Hot!!**
4. Dustin Ence - 32:35 (5.09 miles, 6:24/mile)  **Hot!!**
5. Chad Derum - 51:30 (7.41 miles, 6:57/mile) **Avon Pass, big climb, gravel rd. Lost 1.5 minutes due to "animal attack"
6. Jon Allen - 39:03 (6.92 miles, 5:39/mile) **steep, difficult gravel downhill**

13. Mitch Zundell - 45:41 (8.47 miles, 5:26/mile) **700' climbing, 2200' drop**
14. Steve Hooper - 19:08 (3.00 miles, 6:23/mile) **gentle uphill**
15. James Barnes - 31:07 (4.95 miles, 6:17/mile)  **Leg "long", garmin read 5.24 miles, so pace actually faster**
16. Dustin Ence - 17:37 (3.05 miles, 5:40/mile)  **Leg "short", garmin read 2.92 miles, so pace actually slower**
17. Chad Derum - 37:04 (5.87 miles, 6:19/mile) **rolling climb.
18. Jon Allen - 33:33 (5.23 miles, 6:25/mile) **climbing leg**

25. Mitch Zundell - 35:29 (5.57 miles, 6:22/mile) **climb**
26. Steve Hooper - 34:13 (5.26 miles, 6:30/mile)
27. James Barnes - 31:17 (5.09 miles, 6:09/mile) 
28. Dustin Ence - 32:31 (4.99 miles, 6:30/mile)  **tough climbs, followed by puking**
29. Chad Derum - 21:39 (4.07 miles, 5:19/mile) **awesome downhill leg
30. Jon Allen - 20:18 (3.60 miles, 5:38/mile) **flat leg, some gravel, sub 4-minute mile pace for start**

Blue Van 1 Time Warrior: Dustin Ence - 3:28 combined time ahead of schedule
Blue Van 1 MVP (Most Volatile Puker): Dustin Ence
Blue Van 1 Quote of the Race: "That $5 Fazoli's ended up as $2.75" - Dustin Ence (paraphrase until someone sends me the real quote).

Wow! all you guys are awsome.  It makes me want to do it, hearing about the animals attacking, wrong turns,  and pucking.  what could be better?  But really my hat goes off to each and every one of you for doing such a great job.

I was privileged to drive Van 2 for the Blue team and it was great!  The guys did great!  Here are the stats.

Leg
7 - Bill Campbell -24:32 (3.96 miles) - 00:13 behind prediction ****Put 3:30? On Runners Corner
8 - Steve Olsen - 19:50 (3.43 miles) - 00:45 ahead prediction ****Headwind
9 - Kory Wheatley - 19:19 (3.46 miles) - 00:53 ahead prediction ***Flying
10 - Steve Cuttitta - 18:44 (3.48 miles) - 1:37 ahead prediction ****Flat and Fast
11 - James Moore - 25:42 (3.84 miles) - 00:34 ahead prediction **** 3 miles up 900 ft then .9 down 350
12- Andrew McClellan - 22:00 (3.15 miles) - 1:48 ahead prediction **** 804 feet up
5:24 ahead of prediction for this set!

19 - Bill - 27:52 (3.89) - 00:06 behind prediction ***Big hill
20 - Steve O - 40:00 (7.04) - 1:12 behind prediction ***Stomach issues
21 - Kory - 36:32 (6.21) - 1:26 ahead prediction **** Was really pumped up!
22 - Steve C - 38:50 (6.44) - 0:05 ahead prediction ***Just put it in cruise control
23 - James M - 27:10 (4.59) - 00:28 ahead prediction **** much more friendly leg than the last one
24 - Andrew - 32:54 (5.2) - 0:02 ahead prediction **** right on the money
43 seconds ahead of prediction for this set of legs

31 - Bill - 26:00 (4.1) - 00:38 behind prediction ***Not too shabby for an old guy!
32 - Steve O - (Bill 2.5) - 39:05 (6.13) - 1:18 behind prediction ***See notes for what happened here
33 - Kory (YHGTBKM) -29:49 (3.59) - 0:34 ahead prediction **** Blew past everyone.  Very good run
34 - Steve C (Ragnar) - 34:30 (not sure exactly- awaiting actual #) (3.99) - 00:34 behind prediction.  *****VERY GOOD RUN!
35 - James M - 41:20 (6.9-7.1) 5:07 behind prediction ***** Very difficult leg
36 - Andrew - 32:16 (5.04) 2:44 behind prediction **** Took a wrong turn on a trail
Van 2 lost 9 mins and 47 seconds to the prediction during this set of legs.  Not bad considering what all has happened in 19 hours.

The big drama was when Steve Olsen pulled up lame during his run.  He is just recovering form a stress fracture and unfortunately, it did not behave.  He ran through some severe pain.  Lets all hope it will heal soon.  He was about 3.5 miles into his last leg when he pulled the plug.  We made a quick decision to have Bill (wildbull) run since we needed everyone else fresh for their tough! legs coming up.  I don't think we really had a choice  as he was out the door and running before we even knew what happened.  What a guy!  He somehow kept the losses to a minimum only losing a minute off the projected pace and with only 20 mins recovery from his previous leg.

Van 2 ran their guts out and had to do their best when the heat hit and the cumulative effects of a relay combined with altitude, heat, and little sleep set in.  I am proud and I think they did awesome.  (I will write more about everything in my blog soon).

Team Blue final placing
3rd overall
18:54:03 (6:15 pace)

Bill takes the MVOG (most valuable old guy) for his heroic save and for teaching us youngsters a thing or two about dating!
Kory easily takes the win on the Time Warrior arriving ahead on all his legs to a combined time of 2:53!

Congratulations FRB WBR WAB (white and blue)!!!  You guys are ANIMALS!  Speaking of which, could we get more details on the animal attack?  Way to go Dustin, saving the day!  Wow, Kory!  Great job all. 

The animal attack really wasn't an attack.  Chad was a mile or two into his leg, which is a dirt road in the middle of nowhere running up Avon pass- very pretty and isolated.  He saw something just off the road that looked rather large and gold/yellow in color.  He slowed down and stopped, waiting for the van.  His was not sure what it was but thought it may have been a mountain lion.  When we caught up to him, we pulled ahead to scout the scene and determined that the animal was actually a dog (though very far from any civilization).  Not sure how it would act, Chad ran by the van for a minute to keep the animal away, then continued on his run.  So no real attack, but it did cost him about 90 seconds.  Better safe than sorry, though.

Chad may be able to give additional insight.

Congrats to both teams and thanks to the drivers as well!  You'll did great and posted some stellar results.  Great job and hope to see you guys at Ragnar Del Sol 09.  Or maybe another race if I can ever get a team together!

Thank you all for your support. These relays are really fun and I will update my blog today on my specific experience. People ran hard and I have to thank the drivers for their unsung support we couldn't do it without them!

WOW! Just logged in from DC Congratulations Everyone! On to Adam's blog now

Sasha, can you post the times for White team like Cody and Paul did for Blue?  That would be fun to see!

Wow!  I am impressed by the fan club we have going on for these relays. 

I need to spend some time with the wildbull to pick up some of those dating tips.  Finding out the secret to his running improvement over the last year would be nice too.

I think the Bull's improved running goes hand in hand with his improved dating!

I think in addition to roadkill we need to have a count of numbers pocketed, just for Bill.

I just wanted everyone in van 1 to know that I got kim on this blog and his name is brother so watch for him and give him a welcome and dont forget to thank him for driving for us so we could sleep!   Sort of.  He had alot of fun and has gone through alot this year with a blood clot in his leg and bummed knees and all the ailments that runners usually go through. 

I was in Wasatch Back for my first time this year, and I was amazed when I heard about the FRB team. My team, Corporate Chaos, finished a distant ninth behind both of the FRB teams. We did see both the blue and the white team when we drove ahead. We had to drive pretty far in front of our runner to find them, though...

If anyone has some of the group photos that they could send me as .jpg attachments that would be great!

Sasha, I'm pretty slow sometimes. When did your name get the little "hero member" underneath it?

I'm guessing after 500 posts.  You still have a little ways to go, Adam.

Jon, I'm just hoping to make the big 200 this week. How are your aches and pains (feel free to respond on your blog I don't want any "cheap" posts counting towards my 200 :)...

Very minor muscle pains, but one very strange, acute pain in my right foot.  I'm being very cautious with it- not sure what it is.  Ice and rest.