Leg 18 - 5.2 Miles - Hard - Difficult uphill road climbs to East Canyon Reservoir.
I started this leg about 1:52am, with cool temperatures, a nearly full moon, and a strong headwind. The leg climbs from 5300' to 5800', with some ups and downs along the way. It was a perfect run...if you subtract the hills and the headwind. Similar to the first leg, I felt like I ran this leg pretty strong. I think I passed 8 runners and was passed by 2 runners from elite teams (one was from the Runner's Corner team). I caught right up behind a 9th runner just before we climbed the last big hill. He didn't seem to want to let me by and we both pushed hard up the hill. I think the sprints into the exchange point are a little dangerous, and usually meaningless, so I was content stay behind him as we both pushed hard to the finish.
Splits: 7:56, 8:04, 7:55, 9:11, 8:22, 7:15/mi for 0.2 (Avg 8:17/mi) == Leg 30 - 3.6 Miles - Easy - Flat leg through green pastures to Middle School
I started this leg at 10:23am. It had started to get pretty warm, but I knew Van 2 would bear the worst of the heat today so I didn't complain. The first half of the leg is on a narrow dirt road with team vans parked along the right side. I started out pretty fast and was soon zipping past a slow moving team van on its left side, both of us going the same direction. There was about 3 feet between the van and the left side of the road. Just as I was approaching the driver's door she apparently spotted a parking spot and felt she needed to swing left a little before entering it. I yelled "Hey!" (not very informative, but I didn't have time for "Excuse me! I'm running here and you are about to push me off the left side of the road and into a fence. I would rather not have that happen. Would you mind letting me pass?") I fired my adrenalin-fueled thrusters and tried to squeeze past the mirror and escape the danger before becoming a story for other runners to tell. I'm not sure if it was my "Hey!" or the sound of my shoulder striking her mirror, but she finally noticed me and stopped. Luckily the mirror was movable and it didn't really hurt me or even slow me down much. I still managed a 6:40 split on the first mile (maybe adrenalin-aided), but my tired legs couldn't hold it. I slowed a little through the middle part of the run but still managed to pass other runners and not get passed. I fired the final fuel in the thrusters for a pretty good kick around the final curve past the crowds and into the exchange. It felt very good to be done.
Splits: 6:40, 7:04, 7:39, 6:57/mi for 0.6 (Avg 7:07/mi) == My overall average pace was 7:22/mi (8.1 mph) for the roughly 15.7 miles. I feel good about my efforts and performance and think I performed about as well as I could given the race conditions and my current conditioning. My legs are pretty stiff, especially my quads.
Our "2 Slow 2 Win 2 Dumb 2 Quit" team finished 35th out of 545 regular relay teams. We took 2nd place in our Men Sub-Masters division. The 1st place team finished nearly 3 hours ahead of us, well out of our reach, but the 3rd place team was only 5 minutes behind us, with four other teams within 40 minutes. It took the combined efforts of each team member to give us the final edge.
I'm still trying to figure it out, but even with everything going so well some of the magic of past years seemed to be missing for me.
I had awesome van mates and team mates. We got along well and worked well together. I thought things went pretty smoothly logistically. We had a couple of hiccups (as usual) but we responded to them well.
I think I ran pretty well. I passed a lot of people and only got passed by 4 or 5 elite runners that were obviously out of my class. As a team we finished a little slower than last year, but the course was a little longer. We finished 2nd in the Men Sub-masters division instead of 1st, but it was still a very respectable performance against so many quality teams.
I thought the race was well organized, especially for how big it was this year. It was cool seeing so many runners and teams spread throughout the entire length of the course.
The weather was hot at times, but not really too hot during my legs, and it was hotter last year. The nearly full moon for the night legs was nice.
Everything went pretty darn well. Still, at various times during the relay I felt like I was just going through the motions. I wasn't feeling the excitement and fire, the "Spirit of the Wasatch", that I've felt in the four previous relays.
One thing may have been that I overestimated my 10K pace, resulting in all of my projected estimates being beyond what I was capable of doing. Even though I think I actually ran pretty well for me, I was always slower than my estimated pace. Tom did the same thing, and he beat himself up pretty badly for not performing at the very aggressive level of the estimated paces. He ran very well, but seemed to feel like he'd failed. I think his disappointment may have affected me more than my own. I think in future years we both need to estimate our "flat 10K pace in Salt Lake City" pace as a "flat 10K pace in Salt Lake City when running three 10K's in 24 hours with very little sleep". It might result in more reasonable and achievable targets.
Another thing was that I didn't seem to feel as much camaraderie with the other teams in the relay this year. I'm thinking this had to do with there being so many teams this year. In past years it seemed like we'd chat more with the other teams at the exchanges, and even with some of the volunteers. This year every exchange seemed to be so crowded and busy. It was more of a "busy big city" feeling than a "quiet rural run" feeling for me...the being alone in a crowd sort of feeling at times. Everyone else seemed to be having a good time though, so maybe it was just me.
Every time I kiss my wife Karen it isn't magical (most of the time but not always), but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop kissing her, because when it is magical it's...well...magical. Rather than kiss off the relay, I think I'll embrace it again next year and keep the love alive. (Insert your own relationship metaphor here.)
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