Artichoke's Running Blog (Ken Spence)

Wasatch Back Relay, legs 24 and 36.  Running at the start of day from Rockport reservoir up gradually through Peoa and into Oakley.  Starting at 5:57 a.m. and finishing right at 7:00 a.m.  Grabbed some hotcakes at eggs at the exchange and drove to South Summit High School for a little shut-eye.  I slept in the hallway for about 3 hours.  Then headed to Heber for Gina to start her final leg, running down into Charleston.  Ryan absolutely killed the Ragnar Hill!  He's amazing, not sure how a smoker can do that, but he did great!  He ran 7 minute miles on his first leg, including picking up our huge foam pencils that flew off of the Einstein van.  He carried them for over a mile.  The kid spent time in Iraq, so it was just a military drill to him.  A great guy.

Final leg no. 36.  Leg was extended from 6.9 to 7.3 miles.  Running mostly on trails that I thought were going to be wonderfully paved cycling trails.  WRONG.  After a mile or so we were on this steep downhill in Park City running from one residential area to another one below down some jeep trail that was so steep you could barely run on it.  Later out in the middle of the sage brush running on dirt roads.  Good thing the rain held off, or this leg would have been a mud run.  Felt the very best on this final leg, especially on the downhill slide into Park City High School, meeting the Einsteins team on the track in their nerdy professor coats and eyeglasses and finishing and getting our huge medals and the badge of honor window stickers at the finish line.  Treated to free pizza at the end.  A great event and whole different dimension to running.  Lots of folks made comments and felt that we should win the best decorated van award, something I did absolutely nothing to help with.  Thanks so much to the team.