called to serve: Florida Tallahassee

Wasatch practise today. The big WBR is this weekend, it's going to be fun. We did the usual loop today. I was really tired from the race and the weekend up north, driving in the car and getting home late. I was in the front of the group singing with Baker and Decker untel the hill and then dropped back and everyone passed me and Decker up. We descided to take it easier today so we did.

46:14 total    8:01/mile average

XC practise today. My sister came for the first time today and she did better than I thought, I am glad she is doing XC. We did the tortise fence run, out in the desert. I started out pretty fast but slowed down to much. Need to work on that.

1- 7:17  2- 8:41  3- 7:32  4- 7:36

32:36 total  7:47/mi ave

Last Wasatch Relay practice today. We did this repeat kind of work out where we ran race pace for 1 minute and recovery joged for another minute, 16 times. We ran from the church (.70) to the trail to do the run.

I worked hard to stay with Ruth as much as I could. I didn't want to kill myself at the beginning and not beable to finish doing good. Ruth is an amazing runner and smart so I thought if I could stay with her I would keep a good pace and everything would be cool. I did pretty good, after I think aboug 10 or so I started not doing so good at the recovery jog but ok. I think about 14 and 15 I ran more with Decker and the last one I just tried to go fast.

I did the interval training on my watch and it worked awesome. Here is what I have for splits.

1- 5:49/mi .17mi

2- 5:31/mi .18mi

3- 5:36/mi .18mi

4- 5:48/mi .17mi

5- 6:06/mi .16mi

6- 5:51/mi .17mi

7- 5:57/mi .17mi 

8- 6:03/mi .17mi

9- 5:37/mi .18mi

10- 5:45/mi .17mi

11- 5:41/mi .18mi

12- 5:55/mi .17mi

13- 6:00/mi .17mi

14- 5:48/mi .17mi

15- 6:14/mi .16mi

16- 5:10/mi .19mi

 5:48/mi average  2.76miles

XC practice. Meet at the school and ran to coach's house. We did a 3 mile run by the turf farm. I took it easy because of the Wasatch Back Relay this weekend, I was realy tired. The WBR is going to be awesome! I am leg 6, on the Pine View team. Solid running party, lets go.

8:12/mi average  24:38 total 

Wasatch Back Leg 6 (first leg) 6.9miles

My first run was down Avon pass. It was a long run and a big down hill. I got going pretty fast, felt good, and passed one person (I could see only one other person far ahead of me). My team's truck couldn't get to me as much as we wanted because of another truck in the way so I only got water twice, but that was ok. Once I got to the bottom I had about 2 miles of flat road. That part was really hard and I had a hard time going fast. It felt like forever. Finally I turned the courner and the team spotter person told me I was close. Then I could see the end and ran to the exchange. I tried to slap the bracelet on RJ's arm but it didn't work and I ended up infront of him so I just handed it to him. This was a great run, lots of fun and a great view!!

51:05 total time  7:30/mi average  (6.82 miles on my watch)

Leg 18 (second run) 5.6miles

1:30am

This run was in the middle of the night. I felt a little tired but excited for my night time run. We had to carry a flash light and wear a reflector vest (the vest was a little big) to help us not get killed. I got really tired and slowed down. I tried some GU for the first time and I think it helped, I couldn't tell a lot. It was very hard to eat while running but it tasted good. I almost missed my team but I saw them and got a little water, I think Goold ran with me to give me the water with no shoes on, what a nice guy. This run was a lot harder than I thought but I did really good. It was a steady up hill with a big hill at the end but I did better at the end, I even passed like 5 people. I could see the lights at the exchange place and I ran hard and got there. The problem was the next runner wasn't there yet. So I stood there waiting for about a minute untel RJ got there and started running. After that our car got some sleep.

48:13 total  8:32/mi average   

Leg 30 (Third run) 3.6

9:48am

It was getting kind of hot but it was my last run. I was tired but I did better than I thought I could and I ran great. People were handing out ice and spraying water as I ran by them which was nice. I passed a couple more people and had a good last run.

26:27 total  7:24/mile average

After that our car was done we went and got some lunch. It was hard to walk because my legs were so sore and tired. After lunch we went to the finish line to finsh as a team. We waited for a long time but finally Willy came along followed by the other half of the team and we jumped in with them to run to the finish. It was great running with the team, faster than I expected, and then we all crossed the finish line to end our Wasatch Back relay. When we were done some of the team went home and some stayed. I stayed and we went to the awards thing that night. There was not a lot of people there. We were hoping to get an award and we did. We won the high school division (Pine View Panthers, team 280!!) and everyone on the team got a relay cool baton/medal thing. We stayed in the Deckers family cabin that night and came home the next day. I am glad we could have such a great time, it was a blast.