Got up this morning and did a 7:30 pace run with Paul and Dave. Then Paul and I hit the hot tub (only for a short time). After the hot tub we all went to a great breakfast provided by The Embassy. Now we just have to try and relax until 1 p.m. When we check out and head up to the starting line. Our team starts at 6 p.m. and I run the second leg this round. I'm putting it all here. Del Sol Relay Friday morning Paul, Dave and I work up @ 7 to get a run in around 7:30 so we could be done in time to eat a free full breakfast. The run was easy-Paul wanted it to be around 8 min/mile I think we ended up around 7:30 pace. We made it back to the hotel and indulged ourselves with breakfast (my last real food for over 12 hours. I would go on to consume health bars and Gatorade….more on that later. Then we relaxed at the room until the afternoon when we left and headed out to the starting line. First run Leg 2-Race begins and I’m the 2nd runner on the team so as Dave (first runner) goes out I’m trying to get physically and mentally ready to run a race that starts @ 6 p.m. and not 6 a.m. When Dave got to me he had only lost around 25 seconds to the Google team so I thought I could run them down and show my stuff. Well that didn’t happen. The first mile was downhill and we both took off at about 5:15 pace and then worked into a hill that lasted for around 3 miles. At this point I calculated that I was about the distance from one delineator to another away from the Google runner. We both worked out tails off pounding out the hill and then finished with around a half mile of flat before the hand off. I ran hard and pretty well but the Google guy held his lead and when I handed off to Sasha we were now 40 seconds back. Second Run Leg 14- By this time it’s around 1:45 a.m. and we are in the middle of suburbia. We are floating around 3-4 min’s behind Google so there really isn’t a race going on between me and my guy. I take off and have to navigate through a maze of turns and dirt roads. But it wasn’t that bad. The whole leg was essentially uphill so it made me work- I kept pushing it trying to pick off the slower teams along the way. Third Run Leg 26- Final run and not without drama. By the end of our overall second leg we are now back to 20 seconds or so behind Google. We’ve decided that we can win if we put the second van as close as possible. So Dave takes off at around 7 a.m. and is hunting down his Google man. Meanwhile I’m trying to get ready to run and two of our guys are nowhere to be found. Finally locate them sleeping on the stage of the school and we get going to my start point. But a bathroom stop is coming. So when we get there I run to the port-a-potty and there is a line… however the girls let me go first and I get in and am taking care of business when I here “Clyde, he’s coming!!! He’s here…” So I sprint out of the John and across the parking lot to catch Dave and the hand off for the most part unprepared to start racing. The first 3 miles of this leg are all down hill. Good downhill to. So I’m thinking I should be dropping 5:10’s or so. But I just couldn’t get going and ran 5:23, 5:27, and 5:30 to the bottom and then it was 3.5 miles of the same type of hill back up the other side. Wow this was killer- I just felt like I was working like a dog and the Google guy just stayed that 20 seconds ahead and I never could close the gap. He later told me that I worked him to death pushing him, and that if I had caught him going up that final 3.5 he would have slowed from 5:40 pace to below 8 min. Anyways the race is over for our van and now it’s a waiting game. We don’t win- in fact Google opened up a 10 min win on us. But the rivalry made things way fun. What a good race. I had a blast despite going through my worst allergy attack of ’07. It was good to meet everyone and I’m pumped for the Wasatch back. I dare Google to show- | 