2nd Leg We were running well after the first leg and were about as far behind the white team as they were behind BYU's stud team. I actually like the times of day that I got to run on this leg. My second leg started at 12:08 am. It was the opposite of my first leg, dark, cool, and tons of people. I felt decent in this leg and had around 40 roadkill. This leg had a lot of rollers and because it was so dark and the moon wasn't up yet I couldn't tell if I was going uphill or downhill sometimes. I averaged right around 6:00 pace for every mile on this leg. It went by quick too because of all of the people. I have never had that many people to pass in a relay before. I would come up on another roadkill every couple hundred yards. I lost count after 30 roadkill but figured that I passed another 10 or so after that. This leg was longer than it was supposed to be. Paul seemed pretty concerned that my Garmin read it as 5.24 miles when it was supposed to be 4.9 miles. It worked out though because Dustin's next leg was about as much short as mine was long. I think that Paul does a great job with the maps, but they seem to throw those exchanges wherever they want and it knocks the legs off a bit. 31:06 for the 5.24 miles (5:56 pace, right on projection). (Tangent-239 miles)
After my second leg I was feeling pretty tired and my stomach was all kinds of messed up! We did get about an hour and a half of sleep at exchange 24. It was cold at night which was better than 95 degrees. I hit the potty a couple of times and chewed some gum to try to get my stomach to calm down before my last leg. I was glad that I only had one leg to go and that I would get done early, but I sure didn't feel like doing anything but sleeping. My body was done! But I knew it would be over soon and I could tough this one out no matter how crappy I was feeling.
3rd Leg 6:41 am- This one started in Kamas and ended by the Provo River going to the Res. The first 3 miles was a gradual uphill where I was averaging 6:20 pace. I passed several people on this leg as well, including a hand bike that was struggling on the lond uphill. I was struggling myself with some nasty stomach cramps and trying to relax and work them out. When I turned along side the river with just over two miles to go the downhill started and I was grateful, although my stomach was not. I went from 6:20 pace to 5:25 pace for the last stretch. This was where I got passed for the first time ever in my 6 relays. The guy on the hand bike that was struggling on the long uphill came down the downhill at 40 MPH and left me in the dust! Not much I could do about that. I finished strong, and even had some people trying to out kick me to the exchange, which was not going to happen! I handed off to Dustin and was done. 5.2 miles in 31:10 (6:00 pace). It felt great to be completely finished by 7:30 am. I cooled down for almost one mile before I got in the van and we headed to aid Dustin. (Fastwitch -88 miles)
Everyone on both teams did well. I felt apart of both teams because I was captain and had done all of the logistic and organization for the white team, but was running for the Blue team. I was glad I was in the van I was because we had a lot of fun. All of my van ran well but I'll let them tell the tales. Paul, Jon, and Mitch left early right after Jon ran his last leg, so Steve, Chad, Dustin, and I hung out together until the finish. I saw a lot of friends and people I knew along the course and at the finish and had some good visits. BYU came in 34 minutes ahead of white and blue came in almost one hour after white. Our second van had some struggles but still ran great on their last leg. I think that both teams did their job, BYU just had an almost unbeatable team this time. The blue team rocked as well. To put it into perspective, we ran 25 minutes slower than last year's team with guys like Paul, Sasha, and Clyde. With the added mileage to the course this year we probably ran better than last. Not too bad for being the supposed "B" team, as some people were calling it! 3rd overall with that many teams and we sewed that place up pretty easy, I'd say that is a good showing. I know that some of our legs were actually better than our white counter-part's, so some guys have some bragging rights, you might say. Good times once again. Big thanks to our volunteers and drivers. Also to Paul, Steve, and Sasha for their sponsorship, and Cody for helping me with the logistics for two teams (which is not an easy task). Everyone that ran with us was an absolute stud! Another relay in the books and another batton on the shelf.
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