Philippians 4:13

I ran the Grand Teton Relay as an Ultra 6 person team with some guys from work and other friends, we are Tough As Nails 2 Ultra.  We gathered at 9am to get to Ashton for our noon start (last starting time for the race, first teams took off at 6am).  We each are going to run 6 legs (every 6th leg) in the following order:  me, Matt, Dave, Craig, Rex and Dean.  Fun times in the van (thanks to Ron who could not run due to work) and we missed Delynn (whom we dedicated our race as he had to drop due to medical issues).  Great guys to run with and very thankful that Rex and Dean could join our team at the last minute this week.  We had fun getting to know each other and support each leg as we had the one van only.  Think I enjoy the intensity and always being in the fray aspect of the 6 person team vs. the downtime of the 12 person relay.

Leg 1: 4.11 miles in 25:12

Went out pretty hard to get away from the other 11 teams and then settled into an easy pace on the rollers out of Ashton.  Starting to get hot and wished that the clouds would roll in to give some cover.  Nice start to the race and gave us a bit of a lead.  We would end up racing another Ultra Team from Boise the whole race and do our best to stay with the top 12 person team (returning first team from last year) for the entire 178 miles.  I ran comfortable hard to set a good tone for our race. Handed off to Matt and we were on our way.

Leg 7: 9 miles in 58:40

Longest leg in the heat of the day.  About 2.5 miles on the road, then the rest on the forest service roads.  Started off about 0.75 miles behind the first place 12 person team but ahead of the other ultra team.  I ran steady and consistent just to stay strong for the rest of the legs.  Passed about 5 runners including the first place 12person team runner right before the transition (he was not happy).  Ran with a hand held water bottle and not quite sure I liked it but it was nice to have the water to drink and put over my head to cool off.  Felt consistent and strong not pushing too hard on the cobbly dirt road.

Leg 13: 3.8 miles in 23:20

I just got out of the PoP then headed to the transition area and got the hand off from Dean just before midnight and ran on a dark country road.  Wasn't sure it was him coming in so my GPS was not fully acquired so I ran slow for the first 0.25M to get it to catch. Saw the biggest shooting star I had ever seen!  Kind of a rolling leg and caught 6 runners including a young kid who was yelling out to the van pacing him that "he was not going to be caught!".  As I ran by and encouraged him he started sprinting so I ran with him a spell before pulling away.  Pretty funny!  Ran hard on the downhill finish to pass a couple more runners.  Now I am starting to get a bit tired and really hungry.  Dean had an extra Subway sandwich...great!  The guys gave me a hard time for bringing potato chips...then they devoured the bag to get the salt!