Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Got up at 5:30AM, commuted to Denver. 4 hours of meetings. Commuted back to Utah. Got home at 10PM. I hate commuting, especially the airplane kind. I'll be glad for my 4-block walk to work tomorrow. I managed to squeeze in 5 miles when I got home (Gym-to-gym loop), despite just wanting to go to bed. But it felt good to work the travel out of my legs.

Did 5x4-minute CV fartlek (2:30-minute rest) on Mendon Road.  Pace was 5:20-5:30/mile for all the intervals. Did a mile at "brisk" pace (6:20) before and after the fartlek session. Finished off the workout with 4x100m strides. I didn't feel very sharp today, but still gave myself a good workout without wearing myself out too much. Kind of a "blah" week this week; I'll be glad when it's over.

Long run with Jon and Cody. Long and slow. And cold! It was about 0 degrees when we started, and 10 degrees when we passed the Providence bank near the end at 9AM. My hands and other certain appendages were in a fair amount of pain. We finally caught the 8-minute guy by the end. I needed slow today, it's been a long week with both work and running. I look forward to tackling a good week of training next week.

70 miles total for the week, the same scheduled for next week. 

Easy run to First Dam and back. 6:52/mile pace for run. Did a block with the dog afterwards.

12-mile run (Millville-Providence Loop) with 7-mile Tinman tempo within. It is a rolling course with a lot of uphill in the middle and downhill at the end. Tempo splits were 6:03, 5:54, 6:18 (uphill), 6:45 (uphill), 6:14, 5:51 (downhill), 5:38 (downhill). I threw in a couple hill surges before the tempo, and a few 100m strides afterwards. Stopped at gym toward end of run and lifted weights and ate free pizza before waddling home. Gotta love free food. All-in-all, felt very good today, better than most of the past week. 6:28/mile pace for the entire run. Ave HR 163.

(Adrenaline orange: 94 miles)

Easy 9-mile run (North Logan Out-and-Back). I had passed the 7-minute guy near the end, but with two blocks to go, some lady about hit me in her car. Why is it Logan drivers are incapable of looking for pedestrians, runners, and cyclists? The end result was me stopping abruptly, and then manuevering around the car. In the meantime the 7-minute guy passed me back, and I ran out of road before I could catch him again. Oh well.

(Adrenaline black: 319.5 miles) 

AM - Easy 6 miles. Went and ran on the paved river trail, and bumped into Cody on the way back. We ran together until the end of the trail, then I diverted off to the new Macys. They are having their grand opening of their new store, and mailed out coupons for free eclairs, free sausage, and free deli salad. I hate Macys almost as much as Walmart, but love free stuff even more, so I decided to check it out. I managed to get the sausage and some seafood salad, but they were out of eclairs and wouldn't have more until 10AM. Seeing as to how is was 6:45AM, I wasn't about to wait around, so I took my other plunder and ran back home 2 miles carrying a bag of meat and salad. Al Gore would have been proud, especially since today is a Red Burn Day here in Logan. It's too bad, though, because I really wanted the eclairs. I was looking forward to eating a six-pack of them at work this morning with multiple cups of coffee. Oh well. Oatmeal it is.

My SI joint had been bothering me for the last two weeks, but I went in to the chiropractor for my monthly appointment last night, and he got my hips rotated back into alignment. Running felt much smoother today. It's always great to get the ol' body fixed up and tuned correctly. Running has been "blah" over the last week or so, mostly because of SI discomfort and feeling biomechanically "off". This morning was very enjoyable, and I had more hop in my step. Hopefully it will stick and not immediately slide back.

(Adrenaline yellow: 416 miles)

I just had a good laugh. I clicked on the "real age" banner ad out of curiosity and annoyance (I'm kind of sick of seeing it), and I took the "real age" test. Although my calendar age is 27.7 years, my RealAge is 18.5! That's funny to me, since that's exactly how old I look. Whenever I fly with my boss for business trips, the ticket counter people assume I'm his son and ask me if I even have a drivers license. It's one thing to get carded at the bar, but another to be asked if you're even 16-years old! Anyway, click on that banner ad for a good chuckle to give Sasha a little ad revenue.

PM - Did 8 miles (Landfill Loop) at 6:48/mile pace. 8x100m strides near the end. Nice day, other than the inversion.

(Adrenaline orange: 102 miles)

For those interested in the Striders 10-miler this weekend, I've posted my thoughts and some analysis of it on my personal blog.

Ran an easy 10 miles in the evening around River Heights and Providence, most of it with Jon. Beautiful day.

(Adrenaline black: 329 miles)

I've posted a map-making tutorial on my personal blog, and some screenshots of the WRC 10-mile course. Check it out if you're interested.

Easy 8 miles out to First Dam and back along 10k course. Did some very short striders too.

(Adrenaline yellow: 424 miles)

Striders 10-miler. Dee Events Center (again). Weather was overcast with an occasional ray of sun. Light breeze, enough to be noticeable as a headwind at times, and cool temperatures, in the lower 40s. Pretty good racing conditions, and just warm enough to go with the singlet and shorts (and gloves).

My goal today was to back off a little at the beginning and then race very hard the last half. This would ensure a quality workout, a good overall finish, and faster recovery. I also wanted revenge on that last hill of the race from the 10K, and going out a little slower would help that cause.

The field was good, but a little less dense that the 5k and 10k. I think people are a little tired of racing every other week, and are tired of painfully difficult courses. Plus, 10 miles is not a popular distance. I suspect that those not committed to the entire series just stayed home.

Right at the gun, Joe jumped out to a lead, and no one bothered going with him. I soon found myself running with Bob, and by the end of the first mile, we had separated from the rest of the pack. Joe was already was out ahead by that point. I did not intend to get out this fast relative to the pack, but I had someone to run with and the pace felt good, about MP. However, the first couple miles were downhill, and although it felt very easy, I was a little worried about coming back up them the other way and wondered if I should have stayed back with the others. But for now things were good, and working in with Bob was helping. First two-mile split was 10:55 (missed the 1-mile mark), 3rd mile was 5:53 (long?), 4th "mile" was 4:19 (short; apparently the race cut off a block).

Things got hard around Mile 5, where the course climbed a bit more steeply before it went back down toward the Ice Sheet. Bob dropped me temporarily here, and I went a little bit anaerobic up the hill. This made me uneasy, since there was still over four miles and a really big hill left. But I recovered on the downhill and caught back up to Bob right before we started the "real" climb during Mile 7. Joe, meanwhile, was somewhere out there still, a distant speck. He looked strong, but seemed to have stopped pulling away at least. Mile 5 was 5:43, Mile 6 was 6:17.

Bob and I worked up the big hill (which I've nicknamed "Stairway to Hell"), and again, Bob pulled away toward the crest. But I was still feeling okay and knew that I would be basically home free at the top. I crested the hill and started hammering back down, made up lost ground on Bob, and caught him before Mile 8. We then started working together to try to catch Joe, who seemed to finally be coming back a little. I started to struggle a little, and Bob took over and blocked the headwind for me, and also started surging pretty hard. I was able to work in with him and stay tucked in. But unfortunately Bob's calf went out right before 9 miles, so I went on solo. It was really too bad, because I was just starting to remember how to work with a teammate again. Two people working together can always pull more load than the summation of two individuals working by themselves. Basic rule of pack running, and something I haven't done much since college. It gives me hope for marathon pack running with teammates though. Mile 7 was 6:26, Mile 8 was 5:01, Mile 9 was 5:16.

Regardless, I was feeling good enough with a mile to go to make a good charge up that final hill (a big goal for me) and then have a very good kick during the last 800 meters. I still finished about 25 seconds behind Joe, so some ground was gained, but he ran a very strong, complete race. Final time was 55:20. Last mile was 5:28. Final results are here.

All in all, I was quite happy with this race. It was definitely better than the 10K, and maybe a bit better than the 5K. I still struggled on some of the uphills, but I think there was some improvement, and I seemed to be able to recover and surge well on the downhills. Looking back at the splits, perhaps my uphills were a little better than I originally assessed, but I can only gauge at the time by how I feel (hurting a lot) and by the competition around me (Bob and Joe). So maybe I'm an okay uphill runner, but Bob and Joe are just really good at it, I don't know.

Talking to people with Garmins and to Bill, we generally agreed that the course that was run today was a little short, probably about 0.12 miles, which is exactly one block. Bill said that a block was cut off from the certified course, so there you have it. Regardless, even with adding a minute or so, I'm still very pleased with my time, as I didn't expect to run much under 58:00. The course was pretty fun, and seemed to allow more recovery than the 10K course. It's no wonder that times were relatively faster.

(Burn: 66 miles)

Day off. Went for a long walk with my wife and dog to enjoy the nice day. My legs are feeling pretty good after the race yesterday, with less soreness and fatigue compared to the 10K. I think this is due to:

• The 10-mile course was slightly more forgiving (particularly the first half)
• Threshold pace is easier to recover from than V02Max (at least for me)
  
• The previous races have stressed my body in a positive way and promoted good adaptation
  

Gorgeous, wonderful day. About 60 degrees and sunny. I ran the the North Logan-USU loop and did 6x100m striders in the middle. 6:54/mile pace for the run. Felt good, with little soreness or fatigue from the race. I'll try a workout tomorrow.

(Adrenaline black: 339 miles) 

Yet another awesome day out. I did an 8-mile tempo today on the Young Ward Loop. I didn't have a GPS, so used the grid system wherever I could in order to get splits. First mile was about 5:55. The next couple miles I couldn't get because of irregular-spaced roads. The next four miles I was hitting MP, and was locked in on 5:40/mile. The last mile I scaled it back some and tried to hit about 6:00-pace. The 5:40's felt very comfortable, and I was very happy with this workout. It's nice to run on something pancake-flat, rather than those hills in Ogden! 6:10/mile pace for the overall run.

Did some running with the dog to round out the mileage.

(Adrenaline orange:  115 miles)

Ran from work to the canal trail and met James. We then ran out to 2nd Dam and back on the River Trail. The trail was free of snow and mud in most places (not all though). In a few days it should be totally dry. Easy pace today, but picked it up on the way back.

(Adenaline black:  350 miles)

Did a bit of a "fun run" today. I was supposed to do 8x1000m on the track, but I lost my spirit when the the LHS track was in use by a bunch of high school kids. Go figure. So I ran 2 miles at "brisk" pace in the grass field around the school. 6:30/mile pace on the grass. Then I took the shoes off and did 4x200m barefoot strides in the grass. Times were in the 33-34s range. It felt good to go barefoot again. Then I headed up toward USU's campus to try to hit their track, and surged up every hill I hit along the way for a bit of a hill fartlek. Once I got to the track (thankfully it was empty), I did 800m to calibrate the Polar RS800 I'm testing. Then I did a 3200m tempo in 10:40 (5:22, 5:18), which is my goal half marathon pace. It felt pretty solid, but I don't think I could have held it for 11 more miles...Ran down the hill back to my office to finish up. 13.5 miles total for the day, a good overall workout with a lot of variety.

Some Polar RS800 stats:

Ave HR: 149, Max HR 180 (during tempo); Ave HR during tempo: 172

Ave stride length: 4ft, 2in, ave stride length during tempo: 4ft 11in

Ave Cadence: 89, Max Cadence: 103 (during tempo); ave cadence during tempo: 98

It's evident to me that I can waste tremendous amount of time playing with this thing.

Still having some SI irritation. It often goes away by the end of the run, but I just need to keep stretching it, and the chiro will help too. Also, the ball of my foot (just underneath my big toe) has been hurting lately. I need to keep an eye on it, but I'm not sure what it is. It has been going on at very low levels for several weeks, or even months, but became more pronounced after the 10-mile race. Maybe it's time to ditch the orthotics...

(Adrenaline orange:  129 miles)

Easy distance. Ran around Providence and then on paved river trail, then back home. Nice day. I ran today without my custom orthotics, just my OTC PowerSteps. It felt a little weird, and definitely a lot lighter. And my head didn't explode, nor did the sun crash into the moon because of it. The reason I tried this is because I was hypothesizing that the ball of my foot was hurting because of too much pressure due to the heel lift of the orthotic. Today the ball of my foot felt a bit better, a good sign, but more runs will prove this or not. It's possible that I've worn out the orthotic (I've already put 1400 miles on them, which is probably beyond "typical" use), or my body has changed since the pressure test, thereby making the orthotic ineffective. Or both. SI joint felt a bit better this morning as well, and stayed good during the run.

7:30/mile pace. Ave HR 141.

(Adrenaline black: 359 miles) 

Went to Lava Hot Springs last night, and then soaked in the springs most of this morning. Needless to say, when I got home I felt more like taking a nap than doing on long run, but fortunately I had Jon, James, Cody, and Dan to run with today. We ran from the canal trailhead (dugway) and ran to the end of the River Trail and back (Guivena Malibu). The trail was icy and muddy in some spots, but much of it was in very good shape. Another week like this last week should melt the rest of the ice. Conversation abounded and pace was slow (8:15/mile). Just what the doctor ordered for today. Plus the soft surface was good, and I broke in my new Brooks Cascadia's. They are now completely covered with mud, so no longer tennis ball green.

Ave HR 139

Ave Cadence 89

Ave stride length 3ft 7 in (much shorter strides on the slippery trail)

(Cascadia: 20 miles) 

Easy run to end of paved river trail and then to LHS rec fields to do a couple laps in the grass and then 4x200m barefoot striders. Ran home and then did a few blocks with the dog. Didn't bother wearing a watch today, so no idea of pace.

The ball of my foot has been feeling pretty stable, and seems to have even gotten a little better since Thursday. I still feels a little bruised/inflammed when I push down on it, but doesn't bother me much while walking or running. I think switching to the lower-heel OTC insert has helped. So far no complications from not wearing my custom orthotics, now for the third day in a row.

(Adrenaline yellow: 430 miles) 

Workout day. I ran up to the USU track, and did a 2-mile tinman tempo along the way (6:00/mile pace or so) to warm up. On the track, I did 8x1000m at CV pace (~5:15/mile) with 200m rest (1:10). I took 600m (3:00) after the 4th interval to break it up into two sets. The workout felt very good, and I hit my time goals. The ball of my foot was rather tingly and swollen-feeling by the end, but not really it any pain. Ran home afterward, iced the foot, drank some gatorade, and ate couple cookies before going back to work. HR peaked at 187 on the last interval, when I cranked it up a little bit the last lap. Feels good to be on a track!

(Adrenaline orange: 143 miles)

Interval	Time	Ave HR	Cadence	Stride Length
1	3:14.5	171	102	4'10"
2	3:16.3	175	100	4'10"
3	3:16.0	178	100	4'10"
4	3:15.6	179	100	4'11"
5	3:15.6	177	100	4'10"
6	3:16.3	178	99	4'11"
7	3:15.1	181	100	4'11"
8	3:11.8	181	101	4'11"

 

Easy 9-mile North Logan out-and-back. 7:08/mile pace. Ave HR was 146 (a little high), perhaps not as easy as I thought...some recovery is needed from the workout yesterday. Ball of foot felt pretty good. SI feels decent.

Ave stride length: 4'0"

Ave cadence: 91

Easy distance (Landfill Loop), plus 4x150m barefoot striders in the grass. 7:06/mile pace. Ave HR 150. Over cast and cool, a nice day for running.

(Adrenaline yellow:  439 miles)

For anyone interested, I've posted on entry on my personal blog about the potential effects of taking days off. The entry stems from a message board discussion here, so mostly other people's ideas, but an interesting topic.

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Ran up to Dry Canyon, then did the Deerfence/Bonnville trail over to Millville Canyon. No snow, very little mud, and generally good footing (for that trail anyway). I tried to work the hills up to the trail and then work hard on the trail itself to get a good aerobic (and occasionally anaerobic) workout it. Kept the HR above 160 for most of this run and averaged around 7:30/mile. Once I got off the trail, I tried to keep a 6:30 pace for most of the rest of the run, which put my HR in the mid- to upper-150s. All in all, a good medium-long run and a good workout without being too format about it.

(Cascadias: 34 miles)

9 miles, easy pace. Ran up to 1st Dam and came back on canal trail, then ran south to Stewart Nature Park, did a loop, and came home. Feel a little beat up from the hills yesterday. Ave HR 143.

(Adrenaline black: 377 miles)

AM - Easy 8.3-mile run with Cody this morning. Ran up to USU track and did some 100m striders. Hit a nice pace going back down. 7:15/mile pace overall.

(Adrenaline orange: 151 miles)

PM - Ran 11.2 miles with Cody and James down Blacksmith Fork via 2-car shuttle. I wanted to get a good downhill workout in preparation for the Ogden half and the Ogden marathon. The plan was to warm up for a couple miles and then do a 4-mile tempo at half marathon pace. I would hoping I would be able to run 5:15-5:20 pace on the downhill and have it feel easy. Unfortunately, a strong headwind damped both my spirits and my stride. I ran 22:20 for the tempo, so a 5:35/mile average. HR was in the upper 170s (88-89% max) for the bulk of it. I felt like I could never get going and that there was never "enough" downhill. Still, it was a good workout, and my pace was very steady on all the splits I got. I actually felt pretty good afterwards during the rest of the run (aside from being very hungry), and the 7:00-pace was comfortable. So that was good.

Ave HR for entire run: 152

Max HR during tempo: 181

Ave pace for entire run: 6:30/mile  

I feel like I don't really have a great indicator of my true race potential right now. All of the Ogden races have been so hilly that times are meaningless. I was hoping this workout would give me an idea of where I'm at, but the headwind made it hard to correlate to the Ogden course. My body got the workout it needed for sure, but my mind is still wondering. I'm pretty sure that sub-1:10 should be doable though.

81 miles for the week (yea!). 79 miles scheduled for next week. 

(Burn:  77 miles)

Easy run out to the end of the canal trail and back. Didn't wear a watch. Glorious morning out.

(Adrenaline yellow: 445 miles)

Ran the landfill loop with Dave. Dropped Dave off and did a couple extra miles with 6x100m strides. Averaged 7:05/mile pace for the run. Ave HR 143. Felt very good today.

(Adrenaline orange: 153 miles)

Rainy, nasty day today. Unfortunately, I needed to do a longer workout today, weather good or bad. I ran the first 7 miles with Dave, averaging around 7:10/mile. It rained pretty hard on us, and my shirt was soaked, plus I lost feeling in my hands. I dropped Dave off at home, changed my shirt and shoes, and put some gloves on, and then ran over to the gym. I ran 6:20/mile pace on the way to the gym. The rain let up a little bit too, which helped. At the gym I jumped on the treadmill for 40 minutes, and started at 6:30/mile pace, and bumped up the pace every 5 to 10 minutes -- 6:15, 6:00, 5:52, 5:45, 5:39. So it was a nice progression up to marathon pace. At 5:39 pace my HR was steady at 168. Ave HR for the run was 150. Ave pace for the entire run was 6:45/mile.

I wore the Polar foot pod while on the treadmill. Its pace measurement was dead on up to 6:00/mile pace. Then as I ran faster and faster, and the pod drifted, displaying slower speeds. I found this same trend while doing track intervals last week; the pod was accurate at normal pace, but not at CV interval pace (5:10-5:15/mile). This is because (I suspect) that the my stride is different enough at higher speeds to invalidate the calibration, which was performed at lower speeds. For this one reason (in my mind), GPS is superior to foot pods: it works at any speed and any stride.

(Cascadia:  41 miles)

(Adrenaline black: 387 miles)

Ran with the del Sol team through Providence before our pre-race meeting and BBQ. Nice easy pace. It made up for the nasty cold, wind, and rain. It's fun running with a pack. Makes me feel tough. I fly to PHX tomorrow.

(Adrenaline yellow: 454 miles)

Nice easy run with Dave and Clyde in Phoenix. We found a very nice paved trail to run on near our hotel on 44th and McDowell. Ran near 6:30 pace and slower. Did 4x100m strides.

(Adrenaline orange: 162 miles)

AM - Easy 5-mile pre-race morning run with Clyde and Dave. Pace around 7:30/mile. Similar route to last night.

(Adrenaline orange: 167 miles)

8 PM - My first leg of Relay del Sol (Leg 5). Borrowed Sasha's Garmin and warmed up for 1 mile. Since AZ doesn't do daylight savings, it was quite dark by this time. Temperatures were in the low 60's, and very little wind. Dan came in to the exchange and we had a clean handoff, and I took off. I basically wanted this to be a good threshold run. The leg started on a gentle downhill, and I did the first half mile in 2:30, 5:08 for the first mile. Everything felt very good, and I could feel the lower elevation difference. There was a gentle climb from Mile 1.5 to Mile 3.5, and my pace slowed to 5:30/mile on this stretch, but still felt very strong. From 3.5 to the finish (5.8), I had a nice gentle downhill, and I opened it up along this stretch and averaged 5:00/mile, including a 4:58 mile near the end. Average pace for the overall leg was 5:15/mile. I was very pleased with this, as I felt like I could have kept going at this pace for another 5 miles or so. Good start to the relay. Cooled down about a half mile afterwards.

Team-wise, at this point we were running very well. Dave, Clyde, Dan, Jon, and I all exceeded our projected paces by quite a bit, and Sasha was right on his projected pace. We started the race with 4 teams in our wave (the other 70 teams started in waves earlier in the morning and afternoon), and it became apparent after the first couple legs that it would be a two-team race between ourselves and Google; the other two teams were way back. Google, however was putting distance on us with most of their runners. They have a very good team, including a 3:39 1500m runner who has run Oly trials. They also had very nice matching warmups and uniforms. We had a scruffy-looking bunch of people and a van without working doors. It had all the makings of a really bad sports movie.

To be continued.

(Burn: 84 miles)

Day 2 of Relay del Sol

Caught a couple hours of sleep at Exch 12, on the wrestling mats in the high school gym the exchange was at. It wasn't the best-quality sleep, but I definitely dozed a bit.

Van 2 came in around 12:30AM. They too were exceeding their projected times, and they managed to close the gap on the Google team by a few minutes. I can't remember exactly, but I think we were about 4 minutes behind after 12 legs.

Dave, Clyde, Sasha, and Dan all ran exceptionally well again, to start our next series (leg 13-18), but Google ran even better, and by the time I got the baton for Leg 17, we were slightly over 10 minutes back. I could be wrong here, as my memory is fuzzy. I'm sure Sasha will know.

My Leg 17 was around 3:30AM, so it was still, and around 50 degrees temperature. No wind. Good conditions for fast running. This leg, though, was 7.3 miles and on a steady 1% uphill grade that gained 384 ft over 7.3 miles. I was a bit concerned about it, but once I started running, it didn't seem very bad at all. I guess all those Ogden Striders races have served a purpose in that I can't feel hills anymore until they are over 6% in gradient.

I wanted to get another threshold workout out of this leg, and just let my body guide my pace and the garmin report it. For the first half of the leg I was running consistent 5:40 miles. I was feeling very good, so I pushed it a little harder on the second half of the leg to 5:35 miles. I lost 15 seconds slowing down and even stopping for various stop lights, but other than that, no mishaps. The leg ended up being about a block long, as exchange 17 was a bit further than my maps had it. Oh well. Ended up averaging 5:40/mile for the leg. By this point in the race, we were passing teams that started before us, and I mananged to pass 4 other runners during this leg. Better yet, I was able to close the gap on Google by 4 or 5 minutes. I was very happy with how it went, and felt that I would have enough juice for a good V02Max workout on the final leg.

Jon ran very well on his leg, and we gave the baton to Van 2. Time for another siesta. This time I didn't have much time to sleep, but did managed to close my eyes for a few minutes in the van while sitting at the Exch 24 parking lot.

Van 2, meanwhile, ran the legs of their lives and amazingly closed the gap on Google to 20 seconds by the time they handed the baton back to us. Over 110 miles into it, we had a true race on our hands! We thought that if we could just keep things close during our final leg set, we could at least give Van 2 a chance to win it. Google's Van 1 was definitely faster than our Van 1, but we hoped to do some damage control.

It was light again by this point. Dave, Clyde, Sasha, and Dan all ran their hearts out, and when I received the baton, we were about 4 minutes back. This was a lesser spread than our previous sets, so we were "outperforming" them in a way, by reducing the relative difference.

My last leg (28) looked to be quite fast, judging by the profile. It was only 3.4 miles and mostly downhill, with about a 2.5% gradient. This is somewhere between Top of Utah and St. George, as far as downhills go. I've been running downhill well so far this year, and hoped to hit 5:00 miles or under for this last leg, and leave whatever energy I had left out on there on the road.

Temperature was about 70 degrees, so a little warm, but not too bad. However, there was a noticeable headwind, not a total killer, but big enough to slow me down a bit. I averaged 5:06/mile, which I was happy with considering the headwind. I mananged to dip under 5:00/mile pace during the last half mile. Plus I closed the gap on Google by about a minute.

Jon maintained the gap, so Van 2 started their last set of legs only 3 minutes behind. However, we did not have our cheesy, stereotypical sports movie ending. Google pulled away from our rag-tag bunch during the last 6 legs and won by about 10 minutes. They ran 18:59:39, which is 6:05/mile for 187 miles. We ended up around 19:10:57, which is 6:08/mile. We finished 45 minutes ahead of our original projected time, meaning everyone ran incredibly awesome as a team. Third place was an hour and 40 minutes behind us. Results are here.

Not only did the race end not end like a Hollywood sports movie, but Google did not turn out to be the Hollywood sports movie villain either. They did not cheat, try to sabotague us, or wear evil mustaches. Rather, they were very nice, were great competitors, and gracious winners. We enjoyed talking to them throughout the race and afterwards at the finish line. Great job Google!

Cody and James (who were in Van 2) may write about this to verify, but it seemed like we gave it our all during the middle of the race just to surge up to Google and stay as close as we did. By the very end, Google had a bit more gas left in the tank for a knockout punch. But this is how to race, whether it be a relay or individual event. Sometimes it's necessary to take a gamble and surge hard just to stay with someone, and they pray that either you can do it one more time or that the competitor is hurting worse than you are. But races are often won by taking chances like that. And there was certainly nothing to lose.

I also think that one reason (besides altititude reduction, nice weather, and good training) that we all ran so well is that during events like relays you can relax and run without pressure. You can try things you wouldn't normally try, as there is really no consequence. Yes, we competed with Google, but really it was a big game, one that was fun to play. Being able to relax and "play the game" without worrying about PR's and such I think helps people to run faster in some cases. Just my opinion.

Check out the blogs of Cody, Dan, Dave, Jon, James, Clyde, and Sasha for their personal experiences and thoughts about the relay.

(Burn: 93 miles)

(Adrenaline orange: 166 miles)