Ragnar Vegas was great. We started this running adventure a little early on Wednesday with the best host/tour-guides in Herriman. Scott and Kelli are awesome! We met them in UT and spent the day sight seeing and learning about the local history. Thurday morning we all piled in the suburban with Jose and Alex and drove through Kolob Canyons to Mesquite, NV, where we met up with Conrad to complete the team."2 beefy 2 run and 5 friends" Conrad is the Beef! He's nearly twice my size and at least twice as tough. 3:30am wakeup to hit the road by 4:30 and we almost made our 7:30 start from the LV Ski Resort. It was freezing up there, but they had a nice warm room set up where we watched the new safety video with the 8:00am group. The video was actually pretty good and most of us paid attention :) I was first up and had a very cold, fast, downhill 11.8 miles. I averaged 6:42 and spent most of the leg talking to Patrick(team Chemo-kazi) about a relay race he started recently in Ireland. http://www.sionnachrelay.com/about/ 6:00pm Stuff just got real! My second run (legs13/14)was12.8 miles with the first 7 steady, steep, uphill, followed by some rolling hills. This leg might have killed me in the heat. I'm thankful that it was after dark and pretty cool out. Smokin' 8:22 avg. on that one. 4:00am 10 miles on horse trails in the hills above the city. This was my favorite leg of the race. It was still dark except for the lights from the city in the distance. The course was hilly and so peaceful it reminded me of why I like running so much. The time alone on my feet with nothing but my thoughts is totally precious to me. Strangely, mixing that up by spending quality time in a van with my favorite people makes it even better. 8:32 avg. The race finished in the pool area at the Red Rock Hotel Casino at about 2:30pm for us, and Conrad was nice enough to slow down so the rest of his gimpy team could cross the line together with him. After the race we celebrated with pizza and a rollercoaster ride at NYNY on the strip. Kym and I are chillin' here until Wednesday with nothing else on the schedule except the Blue Man Group at Monte Carlo. No kids, and no pets to worry about at home. Yep, I'm diggin' this empty nest thing : ) |