It was still dark and pretty cold (42?) when I
started my second leg about 5:00am. I wore a long sleeve shirt over my short sleeve shirt and wore my knit gloves. This was Leg 24
- "Very Veyo", a 6.9 mile "medium" downhill leg. Actually, it's basically the first 7 miles of the St. George marathon from Central to Veyo, with a detour at the end to get to the van exchange. Shortly after I started I noticed a relay bracelet (the one passed from runner to runner) that someone had dropped. I stopped and picked it up. I shortly caught the next runner in front of me, but it was not his. I proceeded to catch the girl in front of him. She was wearing headphones so I showed her the bracelet and loudly asked if she had hers. She nodded and held up her arm to show me, only to discover that it wasn't there. She was grateful and asked me to "slap it on". I did and moved on to catch the next runner. I chased one young guy for miles. I think we passed 7 other runners before I finally caught him. When I passed him he said something like, "Wow, you're really movin'." I soaked it in, and pulled away.
There were a lot of runners along this leg, but about half of them were not in the relay. With three weeks to go before the marathon, many local runners were starting early in the morning to get in a long run along the course before it got too hot. I passed 24 people, but I think only 12 were part of the relay. Again, I was not passed by anyone (relay runner or otherwise).
Avg. pace: 7:20/mi It looks like 7:20-7:30/mile might be good goal pace for this section in the marathon in 3 weeks. My third leg was leg 36 "Zion Finale", a "hard" uphill leg of 7.5 miles. The uphill was tough enough, but between my 2nd leg at 5:00am to my 3rd leg at 2:40pm the temperature went from cold to hot. It climbed 50+ degrees from 42 to 94. I was feeling a little pain in my hip and knee, and felt more like taking a nap than running, but I figured that would pass once I started running. What concerned me was the heat and the uphill for 7.5 miles. Fortunately (for me not them) it was also very hot for Kevin and Curt's legs and we were prepared for my leg. I say we, because my pit crew took perfect care of me. As I requested, they stopped 4 times for me. At each stop they had two cool cups of water for me, one to drink and one to dump over my head. At 3 of the 4 they also had a paper towel soaked in ice water that they stuck into my shirt on the back of my neck. Each stop was perfectly timed to prevent a melt down and re-energize me. With two miles to go I sent them on to the finish and pushed on up to and through Springdale and on to the finish. I was thrilled to average 8:20/mi for the first 4 miles in the heat with the uphill. My right foot started to feel uncomfortable, like there was a bunch in my sock on the ball of my foot. I've got blisters there before when running on hot roads. I stopped twice to quickly pull off my shoe and take a look, but I found nothing wrong with either my sock or my shoe so I continued on. Then either the hills got steeper (I know they did at the end), the heat got hotter, or I just plain ran out of gas, or a combination of the above. My mile splits slowed to 9:02, then 9:17, then 9:45, then 9:40/mi for the last (steeper) half mile. I was very glad to see my teammates and the finish line. There weren't many runners to pass, but I did chase down four. I managed to finish the relay without getting passed (mostly because the fast teams happened to pass us during other teammate's legs).
Avg. pace: 8:49/mi
One of the best parts was Wayne and Deeks being willing to drive from Springdale to Payson. I was in no condition to drive for a while. That cheeseburger at Carl's Jr. when we stopped for gas at Cedar City was pretty enjoyable, too.
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