Ogden Valley 50 Miler - Nope, I didn't run it. I paced Jon for the final 16 miles of it. Its much easier running a mere 16 miles than 50+. Plus you get to join in 4+ hours into the race and with your runner already 35 miles into it. I woke up 4 hours later than Jon and headed to Ogden Valley to the base of Old Trapper's Loop to pick up with my pacing duties. I was a tad early still so I drove the course backwards to check out how the race was panning out. I found Jon in the lead around the marathon mark with the 2nd place guy a half mile behind him and 3rd only another half mile behind. Not bad. I drove back past Jon to tell him his gap but I apparently just missed his puke-fest. Not a good sign, but it seemed to work in his case.
The pacing duties began at the hardest part of the course. ~2000 feet of climbing immediately followed with ~2000 feet of falling on your face all in ~16 miles at the end of a 50 miler. Will he even be running at this point?? Yep he sure did. I split my time with Jon balancing the fine line between running him into the ground and being too nice and us losing too much time. We did some walking yes, but for the most part, he ran his butt off. Together, we experienced rain, hail, sun, wind, cars, noisy semis, and plenty of roadkill (the actual dead animal kind). Jon finished with a first place finish, a 14 min course record and even doubled his lead on 2nd place after all the climbing and descending. Congrats on a great race. I finished with no blisters (probably a first for me), tired legs, and a great appreciation for those crazy ultra runners and what kind of punishment they bring upon themselves. By choice.
Fastest mile: 6:51 Slowest mile: 12:08 T- 2:22:06 (9:01) 15.75 miles
| 