Started the morning off with an easy 3 mile run in Murray, then met up with Sasha and Steve Olsen and took off in VanGoGo on our way the The Wasatch Back! We picked up Chris and made our way to Logan. Sasha was right on pace driving the van and we made it there in plenty of time, after a short team meeting and some instructions we made our way to the start. Sasha had the first leg and I had the second, so I did a mile warm-up at the park, I guess I was just a little excited, but I wanted to be ready for my leg. The weather was pretty warm at 5:00 pm, around 95 so I didn't need much of a warm-up, but I just wanted to loosen up the legs. Anyway, I guess I better get the worst news of this race over with. So far the guys on the team have been really positive in their posts, but I really set our team back from the beginning by making a wrong turn on my first leg. I was trying to close a gap on a BYU runner when he took a wrong turn and I followed him, the mistake cost us some time as I ended up running an additional .9 of a mile in 95 degree weather at the end of a hard leg. I really was feeling pretty good with my leg, until the confusion of the wrong turn. mile 1- 5:59 maybe a little fast, we were in 3rd after our first leg, so I wanted to maintain that as best I could, knowing BYU was on our tail. (They took a wrong turn the first leg also) mile 2- 6:22 starting to feel the heat mile 3- 6:29 a little shade on this leg, and some water from the team helped, but the BYU runner caught me on this leg and went on by. Still I was closing in on Runner's Corner mile 4- 6:39 this mile felt hard, as I was really feeling the heat, but I did pass Runner's Corner and maintained my distance with BYU mile 5-7:07 a decent hill climb in the beginning of this leg. I felt like I really attacked the hill and ran strong up it and all the way to main street. mile 6-6:46 this is where my Wasatch Back experience became very bad. After crossing the main highway with the confusion of traffic and police officers directing traffic I saw the BYU runner take a left turn, I wasn't completely sure if that was the right way, I even stopped and asked a guy walking his dog if that was the right way and he said yeah just follow him. Big mistake! mile 7:06 Upset, Where am I going? I hate myself? I continued pushing along, as the BYU guy kept taking rights and lefts. I had my Garmin on and soon realized we were off the course, I tried to pick up the pace, finally BYU's van spotted their runner and got him back to main street, luckily I wasn't far behind so I tried to chase him down main street to the exchange .62 3:49- Finally done with this mess. 7.62 miles- 6:36 average, about 30 seconds slower per mile, than predicted.
Looking back now, I was a fool. It was a simple leg, I should have just ignored the BYU runner and stayed on Main Street, but sometimes in the middle of a race when all your energy is focused on running and the race and the guy ahead of your, you lose focus. Still it should have happened, and once again I apologized to my teammates. I did another mile cool-down running water on Cody's and Paul's legs.
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