Ok, the race goes on. After leg one complete for Van 1 we had a about a 5 minute lead and then when we handed off to Van 2 we had about a 7 minute lead so we were able to add a couple minutes to the lead Van 1 gave us which was a good sign. We were still not comfortable at this point though becasue a 7 minute lead is not impossible to overcome. So we headed off to exchange point 18 and tried to get some rest while we waited for our tunrs again. I ended up getting about an hour of sleep on the ground sharing a couple of sleeping bags with Adam and Jeff. When Van 1 arrived and handed off to Adam this time we found out that they had run very fast and now handed us a 17+ minute lead. This was lead by an incredible performance by Logan where he PRd at 5 and 10k during his 7 mile leg splitting a 10k in 30:30 at about 2:00am on his second leg. So after Adam took off it was time to drop me off. I was still very concerned with how I would perform as things had not really improved as far as how I felt. During my warm-up the legs were dead and the throat was still swollen. This leg for me would be 3 miles of gentle down, about 1% with a flatter section in the middle of mile 2. So I figured just go out hard and survive again. My predicted pace was suppossed to be about 5:30 so anything clsoe to this would be great. The first mile I just dug deep and focused on forum and leg turn over and hit the split at 5:15. I was pretty happy with this and although it flet hard I still thought I could at least maintain sub 5:30 if I just kept pushing. The 2nd mile started to flatten out and feel tougher but I still hit a 5:25 split. With 1 mile to go the pain was pretty bad and I felt like I could barely breath but just kept hammering knowing the finish was near. At one point I lost track of where I was running in the dark on the road and the next thing I knew I was in the middle of the highway on the double yellow line. Good thing no cars were coming at the time. The leg was only suppossed to be 3.1 miles but when I hit my 3rd mile split in 5:20 and the exchange was still aways off I knew it would be long. So 3 miles in 16:00 and handed off at 3.2 miles in 16:59 and under projected time again averaging 5:20 per mile. This was a great leg for me in the condition I was in. At the end my head and stomach were spinning and I dry heaved a few times and jumped in the van. The stomach hurt for some time after this leg. Now it was time to move on. Everyone else continued to run well and we handed off to Van 1 again this time with a 22 minute lead so we added another 5 minutes to our lead. We were now off to our last resting point. After a verys hort rest, probably less than 30 minutes of sleep, it was our turn to run again. We had no idea what our lead was at this point but we were now focused on a new goal to try and break 17 hours. I am off to the airport for another trip and will continue later the rest of the story. Ok, after a week away I am back in town and might as well finish the story for the last leg. My last leg started on a pretty steep incline for the first mile, although I was glad I did not have Adam's leg as he had over 3 miles of grueling uphill to hand off to me. I was feeling very trashed by this point and just wanted to get through this last leg as best as I could. During the warm-up te knee was very stiff and I was concerned as it did not seem to loosen up much. I figured I would just hammer the uphill mile as best as I could and then put it in cruises control for the 2 down hill miles to the exchange. There was a bit of a headwind as well so that did not help much along with the fact that the heat was now becoming a factor. So overall not a fun leg at all but I held it together ok. My splits were 6:01 on the uphill mile which was faster than I expected. Then the down started and I was able to hit a 5:37 2nd mile and a 5:31 3rd mile. A little dodging traffic across the highway to get to the handoff but I was very glad it was over and also happy that I was only 3 seconds off of predicted time so I held together. Overall this was an awesome experience and I had a blast. I will pay with a bum knee but it was worth it.
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