LEG 3 (5.5) - 4:40am
After finishing my second leg, it was a whirlwind for awhile as our next runners all had very brief legs that were mostly between 2-3 miles, giving us not much time to linger at exchanges. I kept wondering how the fast teams with 6:00 milers ever got it done during this part. Complicating matters was the fact that the course meandered in a confusing criss-cross pattern during this time, without very clear van directions. Many a U-turn was made and one of our runners was left waiting around for a minute or two, but everyone got where they needed to be in the end.
After finishing our second legs and arriving to our next major exchange at around midnight, we attempted to get a few hours of sleep in the van. Between fretting about feeling crappy and not being fueled enough for my last leg, (not to mention cramped van quarters) sleep was hard to come by. Shortly after 4am, I left the van and jogged around for a few minutes, along with some dynamic and static stretching to try and loosen up. I felt sluggish, but still awake. I was not at all enthusiastic about the 5.5 mile leg, the second half of which would be all uphill. Fortunately I was given 55 minutes as a target for this leg, which I thought was still doable, though not by much. I planned to keep it relatively relaxed at the start, not be concerned with splits, and just do what I could on the hills.
I took the handoff and was on my way in the early morning darkness. This is a neat time of the race; teams are pretty scattered by this point and the rest of the civilized world is asleep, so it's a quick shift from the hustle and bustle of the major exchange into the quiet night, with the occasional light of a fellow runner bobbing in the distance. Even though you're dead tired at this point and your body is often protesting, this is one of the most spiritual 'feeling alive' parts of the race for me. I was very glad to have experienced it. Fortunately for me, my body was also feeling surprisingly good at this point (relatively speaking of course). We were in a more remote area during these early miles, but the considerable police presence was reassuring, despite the one patrol car that kept driving back and forth around me (granted I'm more suspicious looking than most).
I had what seemed like a pretty decent clip going and worked on staying relaxed before the hills. I was fortunate to have a few bobbing lights in front of me to key off of and managed to pass about a half dozen people in these early miles. My van stopped to cheer shortly before the 2 mile mark, which was another nice pick-me-up. At around mile 3, we began to start going uphill. I definitely felt fatigued by this point and tried not to think about the miles still to come. There was a substantial clump of runners just ahead of me which also gave me a bit of an adrenaline surge as I began to play the chasing game. Many people were walking by this point, so just by keeping myself going, I managed to pass all of them. Shortly after the glorious '1 mile to go' sign, the hill somehow became even steeper. I was pretty well spent at this point and forced to take a couple brief walk breaks myself. Finally the terrain leveled out and even sloped downhill for the final quarter mile push into the exchange with a spirited kick. I was pleased to see 49:31 on my watch, which put me at over 5 minutes ahead of target, even with the walk breaks.
Splits: 8:31, 8:31, 8:56, 9:18, 9:49, 8:59 pace (.5) Avg: 9:01
For my third hard run in 24 hours on hills after little to no sleep, fine. Overall I was very pleased with my part of the race, having hit my targets on all legs and not falling off the cliff too much at the end. I was also grateful for awesome, low-key teammates and a drama-free van. Looking forward to more events with this crew.
Now maybe my hamstrings will stop throbbing in the next day or two...
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