I think Grant started off our second set of legs a little before midnight. He ran through La Verkin and then handed to Deeks who ran through Hurricane. Lyle then headed south around Sand Hollow Reservoir. Kevin finished the loop around the reservoir and back to Hurricane. His 4.9 mile leg ended up being 5.6 miles, but he stuck it out despite the rain. I think all of these guys joined Jonathan and me in the "rained on" club during these legs. Jonathan's leg along the highway to Washington was also longer than advertised. About 2:34am I began my 3.2 mile moderate-rated leg ran along Telegraph road to the rec center in Washington. My mile splits were: 7:40, 6:39, 7:19, and 8:22/mi for the last 0.2. There was a mix of uphill and downhill in each mile, with an uphill finish. I don't believe it was raining when I started, maybe a sprinkle, but it was raining pretty hard when I finished, so hard that everyone had fled from the exchange to their vehicles and Larry was not waiting when I came in. Matt, the race director, smiled as I yelled for Larry who, about 30 seconds later, finally noticed I was there and emerged from his dry truck across the street. (It's okay. I was exhausted, wet, and a little annoyed at first, but I quickly forgave my good buddy and awesome team captain. Nobody's perfect...especially not me.) It was about 3:00am when we headed to the Elders Hostel in St. George. Deeks had arranged for us to have 3 rooms with two twin beds and a bathroom/shower each. It was awesome, but we only had about 2.5 hours to sleep before getting up at 6:00am. We got up and out on time and headed to the next van exchange at Gunlock. It was along the relay route so we watched for our other van along the way. I started getting a little nervous when we reached the last exchange before the van exchange without seeing them. I was relieved to see Jessi, their last runner, about 2 miles into her 6 mile leg. It was interesting to also see a bunch of bibbed runners running the opposite direction. Apparently, there was both a 1/2 marathon and 20 mile race going on. As we waited for Jessi to come in, Jeremy explained he knew some members of the Do or Diers team. They started the same time as us and we had seen them all along the way. Jeremy said they were our rivals and we needed to beat them. As we talked with them we quickly discovered they were awesome people, but the friendly rivalry was definitely on. Grant started with a tough uphill leg as we headed towards Veyo. The woman on the Do or Diers started just behind him but could never close the gap. Deeks continued the climb to Veyo. The young female runner from the Do or Diers managed to pass him, but he didn't make it easy and she didn't get too far ahead. Lyle then took on the tough climb up the Veyo hill and the climb through Dammeron Valley that are the toughest part of the St. George marathon. He lost very little time to the (once again) younger female runner from our rivals. Both Deeks and Lyle were probably 25 to 30 years older than their rivals. Kevin then faced a long 6.1 mile run against Lex, the tall, young, fastest runner from the other team. Kevin ran strong and hung tough, but he didn't stand a chance. I think Kevin met his goal time, but Lex stretched their lead to about 10 minutes I think. We had our two strongest runners to go, but their runners were also strong. They went on to beat us by about 14 minutes I think. The runner from a team that started 20 minutes after us passed Kevin just before the exchange. This was a new challenge for Jonathan and he easily distanced himself from that team as he raced down Snow Canyon, even though he lost some time trying to find the right way to go. The organization of the Snow Canyon leg needs some improvement in the future. We found out that we had to pay $5 to drive through else drive around. We decided to drive around but it was way farther than we thought. Luckily we had a Garmin to lead us there in time to meet Jonathan. Another team we talked with wasn't so lucky and their runner ran an extra two miles before his van found him. I began my last leg, "Grand Finale", a moderate 5.6 mile leg from Snow Canyon to the finish, at 10:24am. It was about 3.5 miles of gradual downhill followed by 2 miles of uphill to the finish. I had been commenting on how I had expected the relay to be very hot but so far had run mostly in rain and cooler temperatures. I guess God heard me again and granted me a heat experience. I was fine for the downhill (6:38, 6:54, 7:09) but then the 80+ heat and the uphill combined to make me work for the finish (7:24, 8:42, 7:25/mi for last 0.5). It was great to meet my team and finish together. We mingled with family, took team pictures, and finally got to talk to our team mates from our other van. We also took a combined team picture with the Do or Diers. It was great fellowshipping with them throughout the relay. It was definitely a friendly rivalry. We even gave ibuprofen to Lex (his hip was sore) who then went on to slay us on his leg. We hope to see some of them at the St. George marathon. I think Jonathan even set up to be Facebook friends with some of them. We stopped at In-n-Out where I got a Double-Double cheeseburger (tasted so good!) before we headed home. Deeks and I shared the driving and both managed to stay awake. We made it home in time for me to watch BYU beat Oklahoma. What a great ending to a great couple of days.
| 