Speed only kills if you don't have it!

I woke up super early and struggled through a run. I still don't feel very good and have a bit a cough now. My pace was slow, around 7:50 miles. I planned on working out with my kids after school but as the day went on I felt progressively worse. I ended up with a nasty headache, so I showed up gave them their workout and took off. I feel like a loser coach for doing that, but I just can't run tonight. I have to kick this thing soon, so I will be recovered for Del Sol, and can have a good experience down there.

(Omni- 354 miles)

Early morning run into Alpine and back.  I felt very weak on my run, but still tried to push the last mile in the dark at 5:50 pace.  At least I know I can at least do that when I feel like death.  Last night I was pretty sick.  I woke up two times in the night totally drenched with sweat and freezing.  I must have had my fever break.  I went to bed at 8:00pm but it still wasn't close to enough sleep. 

I ran over to Loan Peak and back early this morning.  I felt better than yesterday, but I now have a cough.  I was at school for parent teacher conference until 9pm last night, it really sucked.  I missed our parent meeting for track as a result and hardly saw my family.  Tonight will be similar, so no other runs for me.  

I was up half the night coughing, miserable!  I ran into Highland along 200 East and back.  I felt fine after the first 4 miles where I coughed up a lung!  Hopefully that warm weather will help me out.  Don't worry guys I will still hold my own at Del Sol for the team.

Logan, Adam and I drove down to St. George on Thursday evening and met up with Dave, Clyde, Nick, and Steve Hooper. We drove to Vegas that night and stayed in a hotel. I didn't sleep very good because of being sick and coughing all night. I was wondering if I should have come or not and didn't know if I could even run very well. I was hoping to kick this flu thing days ago but it has seemed to get worse instead of better.

We got up this morning and did a 5 mile run in downtown Vegas. I coughed a lot and was quite miserable on a run that was supposed to be easy. I was getting more worried about my performance in the relay. I was also bummed because this was something that I had been working toward and looking forward to for months. We traveled to Boulder and ate breakfast and then went on to Wikkenburg.

We made it in plenty of time to hang out for a few hours at the start.. I still wasn't feeling any better but had told myself that I wouldn't let the team down even if it killed me. It was a beautiful day and had to be in the 80s. I was hoping the warm weather would help me out. The rest Steve and I checked the team in and switched Sean for Walter. The rest of the team got there an hour os so early and all hung out until the start.

Google was was back with a similar team as last year, minus their two Ringers. A running store from Southern Arizona looked like they had some really good runners and might give us some competition. Dave started out the first van, which I was part of, and the rest of us went ahead to the next exchange. After the first exchange the running store was neck and neck with us, but no worries because Logan and Nick were running back to back legs. Logan dropped his guys pretty good, followed by Nick, Clyde, and Walter all running solid legs. By the time I was on we had a lead of over 4 minutes.

I warmed up for 3/4 of a mile and coughed my head off the whole time. I had a bad headache because of the coughing, and the headlamp didn't help my cause either. Walter came in strong and handed me the wrist band about 8:30pm and I was off.

My leg was supposed to have some good up and down (mostly uphill) in it. My first mile started down but finished starting a big climb (5:52). I wasn't coughing, so that was good, but my head was killing me. The next mile was a big climb up the mountain, and the shoulder to the road disappeared (6:24). The next hill was the killer (6:41), I was slowing down but my effort was maxed out, it seemed like it would never end. The next . 9 was also hard, started to drop at the end (6:10). The last mile was mostly downhill into the state park and exchange, but I had a hard time switching gears (5:38). I muffed the exchange with Adam because I ran into the left shute and he was in the right, but nothing too bad. I went and hacked my left lung up after the run, and felt like I was going to die for a few minutes. I was happy to find that I ran the pace I was supposed to run, and that I actually put a whole minute on my guy from the running store. We were up by 5:40 on the running store when our van was done. We drove down to subway for dinner before heading out to the next major exchange. I was just hoping to live through my next leg which I knew would be the toughest.

(Tangent-233 miles)

We tried to crash at the next major exchange on the gravel and pavement, but didn't get much sleep. I was still coughing a lot and that didn't help my sleep. I was able to stay hydrated though because I was drinking so much water. Van 2 did a great job on their legs other than the phone/potty break, and had gained another 2 minutes on the running store.

Our van ran awesome on the second legs and we had some funny experiences from them. Mostly of the funny things took place because of everyone losing their foot-long sub along the way. Logan had a killer second leg where he averaged 4:55 per mile and put another 4:30 on his guy form the running store.

I started my run at about 3:35am and uphill I went for over 4 miles. I climbed around 600 feet in this leg. The climb wasn't that bad when I didn't have a killer head wind. The first mile was 6:36 and I passed my first and only runner of the whole relay. After a mile I turned right, into a headwind, and everyone I passed from then on was walking. Mile two was a killer 7:20. Mile 3 was better because I turned out of the wind half way and picked it back up to 6:46. The next mile came and went in 6:10 (pushing hard to be done). This leg was supposed to be 3.9, and when I hit 4 I began to worry that I had missed a turn or something. But I think what happened in th exchange was moved back 3/10s of a mile because everything was right on with the map except the first mile or so. I finished the last .25 in 1:08 (pretty much a sprint at this point). I dropped the ball a little in this one running 28:11 for the 4.25 miles, 6:45 ave., when I was supposed to average 6:34 pace. I hacked my head off again for 20 minutes when I got done. We waited to see how far back the running store was and they finally made it in 18 minutes back. By then we knew Adam had already made his exchange and we were a whole exchange ahead, so we never worried about them after that.

The hard stuff was done and I only had a very short 2 mile leg left, for which I was very grateful because I was feeling pretty sick. The key to relay success is learning how to eat and sleep at random times, something I am getting better at. The problem with being sick was I could do neither because of stomach problems and coughing. I knew no matter how sick I was I could go two miles. I didn't get any food or sleep between my last two legs. The other van had short legs so we were on quick again. Everyone ran great again and was glad to be done. At the beginning of Clyde's last leg we caught the final team and from then on we were on our own.

My last leg was at 8:29am. Walter came in looking great and I was excited to run a short leg, especially since I had bad stomach craps before I started. I had heard that this leg might even be shorter than 2 miles so I hung on. The first mile was very rolling and I was in pain (5:59). The last mile got a little easier and I pushed hard know I would soon be done. The 2nd mile beeped on the Garmin right at the hand off with Adam (5:27). I was done, yes! I have never been in the first van so it was nice to leave to the other guys for a change. I hacked and hacked when I finished and almost puked too. It was all good though because I had done my job being sicker that a dog. My average was 5:43 per mile, only 5 seconds off my goal pace of 5:38.

 (Fastwitch -65 miles)

We headed over to the finish line and waited for the 2nd van to get done. There wasn't anyone there when we arrived so everyone thought we were volunteers. The beers guys ever asked us all to help them set up the beer tent and kegerator. We sat around and laughed at some of our adventures until the other team called to say Ashbaker was on his way. The finish line was empty and Tanner and Dan had to hurry and find their equipment so they could announce our finish. We all ran in together, as follows tradition. Our final time was 17:04:37, a course record by almost 2 hours!

We went over to James and Lybi's home and they fed our tired and worn bodies. That was extremely nice of them. After a quick shower we decided to head out. We drove to Flagstaff and got a room. We ate IHOP and had a Fudrucker's experience similar to last year, for those who know what I am talking about. If our waitress wouldn't have been a nutcase herself, we probably would have gotten arrested. Good good times! We did what we went to Del Sol to d and had a great time doing it.