16.25 miles in 2:02:37 (7:33). First 10 miles was on the roads around Sugarhouse Park and East Salt Lake. Last six on the wood chip path at Liberty Park. Saw Utah Jazz center Mehmet Okur running at the park as well rehabbing his ruptured achilles. Jogged with him for about 50 yards and wished him luck.
My girls did a good job at Bob Firman considering the circumstances. They were up at 2 am for the six hour bus ride to Boise. Barely got the the meet in time to pick up packets, hand out numbers and chips and get in a short warm-up. No time to check out the course. Meanwhile, our chief competition all traveled up the night before, lounged around the hotel until 9am, had a good breakfast, and were at the course in plenty of time to relax beforehand. Still, the girls finished 5th out of 18 teams in the Varsity Elite race. Counting the teams in the two other varsity races, they were 5th out of 84 teams. Ryan Fuller ran a 17:04 in the boys elite race after a week of battling bronchitis.
It occurs to me that some people might think "what kind of stupid coach gets his team up at 2 am for a 300 mile bus ride to compete against some of the best teams in the country when those teams went up the night before and are rested"? See, the thing is, our school district allows each team only one overnight trip per year. We are using ours for the Nike Southwest meet in Tempe, Arizona in November. Other districts (Davis, Park City, Ogden) don't have those restrictions.So, if I want my team to race the best teams from out of state, I have to deal with these restrictions and hope for the best.
We didn't get home from Boise until 1 am this morning. Very tired today. Now, to enjoy my one day weekend. | 