Speed only kills if you don't have it!

I got out of class early tonight so I went on a run about 7pm.  I didn't feel much like running, but after the first couple of miles I felt really good.  I ran up to the mouth of Dry Canyon and looped through River Heights on the way back.  I ended with the Old Main stairs, and added a block at the end to make it a full 15k.  I felt better in the last 2/3s of my run tonight than I have all year.  I am glad that I went out tonight, I needed to run off some stress from today.

1:04:22

(Hurricane-50 miles)

6am run, nice weather, warm, and sprinkling rain.  I ran an easy River Heights bench run, and came back up 800 North hill. 

36:45

 (Omni-83 miles)

I ran again at noon and went on my canal trail, 1st dam, HillCrest loop.  It was chilly and raining pretty good.  I felt good and kicked out a great run.  The last 1/4 mile is down 1000 North by the cemetary, and it is a screamer, so I ran the last mile in about 5:40.

32:24

(Adrenaline-32 miles)

We met at Paul's for an easy run before the BBQ. It was me, Dave, Paul, Jon, Cody, and Dan. I ran with everyone at some point and it was nice to visit. I mostly ran with Dave and visited with him, I have miss running with him a couple of mornings a week. It was cold and raining on the run but the company helps me not think about that. We ran a nice easy pace most of the run, and looped around River Heights and Providence. It was a nice fun run. Cooled down to make it an even 7 miles.

51:10

We had a BBQ after the run and just socialized and talked about Del Sol a little bit. I met Ryan, Chris, and Dan's wife Emily, Allison and Jaren came over too.

Del Sol We started the race at 6pm with four other teams. Dave stared us off followed by Clyde, Sasha, Dan, Paul, and Jon. My van was second and our order was: Laud, Chris, Me, Ryan, Andy ,and Cody. We started the race off with the team and after being pulled over for having a brake light out and fixing it, we went to the first major exchange to chill until it was our turn. When we passed by our team we couldn't tell where we were, but the other two teamms were way behind Google, and Clyde. Google was pretty much running away from us at first but I figured we could hang with them overall. I was excited for the competition, I love to make it a race, especially when the other team thinks they will blow us out.

My first leg was late at night, probably 11pm arizona time. We were in the middle of no where, and my leg was 7.1 on a long gradual uphill slope. The uphill was gradual enough that I didn't really notice it. It was light because of the moon so I only used my head light when people were coming. I felt good and ran well, but was fairly conservative. I ended up graining over 3 minutes on my Google opponent. I made sure to cool down good after bcause I knew we had a long night and a tough close race still ahead.

When I got the wristband we were down by about 8:40 and when I finished we supposedly down by around 5:30insh.  I had no idea what my pace was or how far I had went, but I ended up being almost right on where Paul had predicted I would be.  I found out later from the Google guy that I was running against that I had actually done better than what I had thought I had, because instead of it being 6.8 or 9 like it was supposed to be, it was a bit longer 7.1.  I ended up running it in 42:28 according to my watch, 5:58 mile average, and I gained a lot of time on my guy. 

My van ran pretty strong in the first leg.  I was a bit worried about Laud in his first leg because he rolled his ankle warming up and was swearing and all pissed off.  Andy assured us that he is like that before and after every run whether he does good or not, and he was right.  Laud lost a couple of minutes to his guy but ran well.  Chris ran good on his leg and didn’t lose too mush time.  He had to run through a flooded part of the road and got soaked, and I felt bad about it because it happened while the van was dropping me off at my exchange to warm up.  Ryan ran great his first leg and lost some time but not tons.  Andy picked up a couple of minutes on his guy, he ran good.  He kept talking about how he always blows up in races from going out too hard, so I was worried after he took his first leg out hard, but there was no need to be, because he was strong the whole relay.  Cody ran well and closed about 1:20 on his man.  By the time we exchanged to Dave we were down by about 4:40ish, so between going up and down with our legs we still gained close to 2 minutes over all.

Del Sol continues on Saturday

We tried to get some spaghetti at exchange 12 but everything was pretty much closed and out of food by the time we would get to it, that is what happens when you start so far behind everyone.  After our first legs were done we drove to the next major exchange to try and get some sleep.  We ended up in a parking lot with nothing but vans and gravel, that is where we started to catch other teams. There were a whole bunch of vans at that exchange. We tried to get some sleep and ended up all crunched in the van,  I got about 45 minutes worth of naps and that would be all I would get the rest of the time.

This is where the relay got exciting because our other guys had gotten behind until Paul gained 5:00 back on his guy on a long uphill stretch, and Jon gained some more time on his guy.  Instead of being down by 6:30 like we were at exchange 6, we end up down by 2:50, and Google went from really cocky to very concerned!  We knew we could come close to making up the time on the second Google van.  We all had shorter legs this time too, so we figured we would give Google something to be worried about, and it worked because they started getting our splits from then on, throughout the race.  Laud only lost seconds to his guy and Chris held fairly even with his chick.  When I started my second leg we were only down by 3:35. 

It was still dark on my second leg but this time there was no moon.  I took off and felt great, I had an easy leg, pretty much downhill to flat, probably a 2% grade at most.  Perfect course for just flying, and I knew could make up some ground, even with a 3.8 mile leg (which ended up being 3.9 miles and Ryan’s next one was .1 short, it all evens out).  I ended up running my leg in 21:24, a 5:29 mile average, and a 5:24 last mile if their last mile marker was correct.  I gained about 50 seconds on my guy.

Ryan ran the race of his life and actually gained about 40 seconds on his guy.  Andy ran hard again and picked up another 45 seconds on his guy.  Cody had the longest leg of the van, and ran really well, and his guy was dying.  By the time we made the exchange to Dave and van 1, Cody had closed one minute on his guy and we were down 20 seconds on Google.  I was feeling pretty confident that we would pull it off, but wished that Paul had a longer leg to make up more time on his guy again; I was hoping that our guys would take the lead.

We went to exchange 30 and all of us except Laud got adjusted by Dr. Stucky.  Cody and Ryan had never been adjusted before; I don’t think they were too sure about it at first.  Stucky fixed me up good and I felt ready to go other than my knotted up stomach.  I think that is the worst thing about the relay for me, I seem to hurt in the last leg and I could feel cramps coming on again.

Van 1 ran good but got back behind by 3:40.  Laud had a tough leg and struggled, losing more time.  Chris ran hard but his chick came alive and ran away from him.  I was 10 minutes behind my guy when I started my last leg.  I was hurting for the first mile or so from stomach cramps but I pushed through.  My last leg sucked because it was getting hot, I was in pain, we were way behind, and I had to stop at eight traffic lights!  I was so ticked!  I ran through the first two lights and almost died so I stopped at the rest. My leg was 6.1 exactly just like it was supposed to be.  I ran the leg in 38:49, but my actual running time was 36:03,  5:54 average per mile, so I was stopped at lights for a total of 2:46, it was ridiculous!  I wanted to take Tanner Bell and throw him in front of every car that almost killed me.  I know that it was the first year and they will improve, but I wasn’t impressed with a lot of things in their relay management, and stopping at light when the race could be on the line really pushed my buttons.

I did make up a good chunk of time but we lost it all to lights and in Ryan’s next leg.   Andy ran hard again and made up a chunk of time himself, but we were still down by just over 11 minutes on the last exchange to Cody.  We missed Cody at his second mile because we got stuck in traffic, so we ended up finding him to give him water with a mile to go.  We had to fly to the finish to beat him there.  The team, - Sasha, ran in with Cody for a second place finish.  Cody made up a few seconds on his guy again. 

We all had a good chat with Google after the race and they acted like our best buddies, I think we gained some good respect from them.  They even stayed at the last exchange to make sure that they had the win sowed up.  They were talking about coming up to WBR, and I agree with Clyde that I would love to get another shot at them. 

The team ran so good!   Even though we had a couple of bad legs, most of us ran better than predicted and we were probably 45 minute faster than our predicted time.  It was a lot of fun and another good relay experience.  I was glad that I was a part of it and I am happy with my contribution to the team.  I gave myself a crash course to get ready for this relay in two months and I am pleased with how I did and how the team did.

(Tangent-77miles)