A clydesdale no more!

Lake to Lake Relay

A couple of the guys in our running club (South Davis Road Runners) wanted to put together a team for the Lake to Lake relay.  Since it was one of the Runner’s Series races I thought I may as well join them.  I’ve never been a big fan of relays but I thought it would be fun to go down and enjoy the run.  After realizing that we would have a shot at placing, I knew that it was not going to be fun.  When you are racing for yourself and run poorly it is easy to deal with because you are only accountable to yourself.  When you are part of a relay and do not run as well as you expect then the disappointment is much worse because you feel like you let everybody down.  Of course me being me, I tend to focus on the potential bad instead of the good.   I figured I would just go down and run hard and deal with whatever happened.  Drove down with Jim and Juliann to a house that Jim secured (amazing home in Snow Canyon).  We finally got around to eating at the Pizza Factory at 7:00.  I did not eat lunch because we left a little late and I was unsure of the plans and just did not get around to it.  I also did not pack any food because I made the assumption that we would stop at a grocery store to stock up for the race.  I was worried about not having enough fuel for the run but since it was only 10 miles of racing I figured I could deal with it.  I was able to mooch some food from the team during the race which turned out great. 

On the way to the race, Jim got pulled over for speeding.  Luckily he was let off with a warning but we were really pressed for time to get to the starting line.  Was able to see Smooth, Kathie, Kimmie and Marcie before the start.  Also saw Craig, Dustin, Bill, Steve and Clyde along the way.  The order of runners for the first 5 legs were: Jim, Trevor, Jake, Jeremy, me.  After the first leg we were in 4th place.  Trevor got us close to 3rd when Jake took over.  He was our ringer (averaged 5:45 for both legs) and passed 3rd place and built quite a lead over 4th for us.  After Jeremy took off we went to the exchange for my run.  Did a little warm up and ran into Teena.  Was able to chat for a while which was nice.  Jeremy got us within eye sight of 2nd place.  Since I could see the next runner I ended up going out way too fast.  I was able to keep him in sight until the top of the hill where he hit the gas and was gone.  I think he was just toying with me.  I felt decent going up the hill but it wiped me out.  Going through the neighborhood felt slow but the average pace on my Garmin was right where I wanted it to be.  A couple of times I had to remind myself that I had another leg to run and should save some energy.  This is what I do not like about the relays.  You run the first leg too fast because it is a race and it is so hard to hold back.  You do not leave enough in the tank for the next leg.  My splits were: 5:56, 6:13, 6:37 (hill), 6:12, 6:24, 3:15 (6:08/mile).  I averaged 6:16 for the entire leg.  I was shooting for 6:25 so I was happy with the time and the best part was my Achilles tendon did not hurt at all.  I think that the lower heal of the racing flats puts less strain on it which is why it did not hurt. 

The order of our next set of legs was: Trevor, Jake, Jeremy, Jim, me.  Jim wanted to run the Dirty Climber (leg #9) and we thought it would be good for that runner to have a little extra rest.   Trevor made up a little ground on 2nd place but they were still 3 or 4 minutes ahead of us when he passed off to Jake.  We drove to the exchange and were shocked to see him coming in 2nd place.  The high school boys took back second during the next leg and Jim did really well on the Dirty Climber.  We had no idea how far ahead of 4th place we were but figured we had a good.  As Jim approached the last exchange I was feeling good and ready to get this over. 

The last leg starts off with a decent climb for about ½ mile then flattens out and has a slight elevation gain the rest of the way.  The wind had picked up and was a cross wind for the first 2 miles.  Took off at a good pace up the hill and it took about 0.2 miles to realize that my legs were fried.  I definitely ran the first leg too fast.  First mile was 6:27 which is the pace I was hoping to maintain through the leg.  Next mile came in at 6:33 and I started looking behind me and doing calculations of how fast the 4th place runner would have to run to catch me.  I have a nasty habit of focusing on what is behind me and running in fear of being passed instead of just running hard and focusing on what is ahead.  After turning into Sand Hollow state park we pass the finish line and head out 1.1 miles.  It is pure torture to see the finish line and know that you still have 2.2 miles to go.  What was worse was the headwind that I was now running in to.  Third mile split was 6:53 and I felt completely sapped of all energy.  During the out and back I saw that Clyde was able to move back into first place (no surprise there).   It was all that I could do to keep my legs moving and the 4th mile came in at a blistering 7:05.  Are you kidding me?  I checked my split at the turn around so I could gauge how much of a lead I had on 4th place.  All I could think about was how bad I would feel if I got passed because I did not think I had the energy to respond if I was caught.  After 1:40 I saw the 4th place runner and knew I had at least a 3 minute lead on him.  That helped me relax and I was able to push the pace.  The tail wind didn’t hurt either.  The last 0.8 was at 6:25/mile pace.  Average pace for the 4.8 miles was 6:41.  Our team averaged 6:22/mile for the 50 miles and finished 3rd overall.  Ten minutes behind 1st and 9 minutes behind 2nd. 

We hung out to watch the ladies from our running club come in.  I was glad that they were a little slow because I really wanted to stay and see Kathie, Smooth, Teena, Kimmie and Marcie come in.  Was able to see Teena running leg 10 and she was running incredibly well.  On the blog we all offer words of encouragement with not really having any idea how well people run.  Seeing Teena run in real life I can now attest to what a great runner she is. 

The weekend was a ton of fun.  The banquet that they had after the race is a nice touch.  I definitely think the shorter relay is a lot more fun than the Ragnar relays.  You get the same satisfaction without the sleep deprivation.

**I'm removing my rant of negativity.  I needed to vent and it served it's purpose.  I compared my splits to Clyde's and they were not as bad as I thought.  The wind was a huge factor and I did not give it enough credit.