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WB Relay - leg 8

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Location:

Spanish Fork,UT,USA

Member Since:

Jan 15, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:

Lifetime PRs:

Marathon: 3:07:59 2013 Big Cottonwood Marathon 

1/2 Marathon: 1:24:30 2008 St. George Painters

10K: 38:39 2008 SLCTC

5K: 18:44 2009 Nestle Art City Days 

55-59 AD PRs:

1/2 Marathon:???

10K:???

5K:??? 

 

Short-Term Running Goals:

2023 plans: 

  • Work on core strength
  • Lose 5 lbs
  • Overcome lingering injuries
  • Have fun!

 

Long-Term Running Goals:

Consistently place in the top 5 of my age division as long as my body will allow it.

Beat Terry Bean at any distance at least one time before I depart this earth.

Take care of mind and body so I can be in it for the long haul. Don't do STUPID THINGS!

Run until I'm 99 with Kim by my side and remember that EVERY RUN IS A GREAT RUN!

Peace of mind by striving to live like this

 

Personal:

I've been married to the lovely Kimberly for 36 years. We have 5 great kids and 5 great grandkids.

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Miles:This week: 5.00 Month: 56.00 Year: 289.00
Saucony Fastwitch #1 Lifetime Miles: 65.50
Asics Gel-Nimbus23 #3 Lifetime Miles: 718.70
Asics Gel-Nimbus23 #4 Lifetime Miles: 561.25
Asics Gel-Nimbus23 #5 Lifetime Miles: 179.75
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
1.406.109.201.0017.70
Race: WB Relay - leg 8 (3.2 Miles) 00:22:33, Place overall: 21, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.500.002.201.003.70

Finally getting around to my running blog after being gone all week following the WB relay with no access to internet.....

Not sure where to start...this is the 1st of 2 WBR related entries, see tomorrow for last 2 leg reports.

I had a great time this year at the relay, I do believe this was the funnest relay for me of all the 3 relays I've done with the 2slow2win2dumb2quit team. Not only did our team win our classification (sub-masters male) and finish with our best time yet with just over 3 hours 16 minutes, but I also had my best personal performance and was for the 1st time ever able to achieve the goal of meeting or exceeding all of my leg time projections. Of course it helped quite a bit that I was running a bit easier set of legs than the past 2 years but I'll take it! It was also great to get to know the new guys on the team this year and especially to be able to hand off to my old high school buddy and long-time running hero and mentor Terry.

I was more than ready to run my 1st leg Friday after tapering for the week and not having run the day before. I had been feeling great the couple weeks leading up to the race and was hoping to be at a peak.

Leg 8 - East of Eden: 3.2 miles, time: 22:33 (7:03 pace)

This is one leg where I was certain I could beat my projected time (23:38) by possibly as much as 2-3 minutes.  My big concerns were the heat and going out too fast. It was still pretty hot when I started but it had cooled down some from earlier in the day. I suspect temps were somewhere in the 80's. Scott looked strong coming in from leg 7 and I was excited to finally begin.

Just before starting my leg I told Terry my plan of going out conservative and running the first mile around 7:00 pace and then hopefully pushing it the last mile or 2 to average around 6:45 - 6:50.  But like an idiot I promptly thru all that out the window and went out too fast. Part of the problem was that I had my Garmin on the main screen watching instantaneous pace but thinking I was looking at my custom screen looking at average mile pace. I think this caused my pace to fluctuate quite a bit the first .75 miles before I realized what was going on and switched to my custom screen. Unfortunately that damage had been done and I finished mile 1 with the garmin reporting a 6:40 pace.

I had actually felt pretty good the first mile and the heat didn't seem to be bothering me. It helped alot that I had soaked my shirt and hat a bit in cold water just before starting. I slowed down some starting the 2nd mile and felt good for about a 1/4 mile when the heat and the switch from slightly downhill to slightly uphill began to take it's toll. I started feeling lousy around 1.5 miles and was not happy I was not quite even 1/2 way done. It certainly didn't help that other than the 1st 1/2 mile of the leg, I was running down a long straight road with the finish line seemingly miles a way. I was hoping to have a few runners nearby to motivate me but ended up only seeing 1 female runner who I passed sometime in the 2nd or 3rd mile. Starting fading by the ending of this mile registering a 6:58 pace.

The last 1.2 miles were awful, similar I suppose to a typical 5K but maybe a bit worse because of the heat and because I went out too fast. After what seemed like an eternity I finally hobbled into the exchange and was very relieved to hand off to Terry running at around a 7:20-7:30 pace. Finished with a time of 22:33 which luckily was still just over a minute faster than my projected time. While I was happy to have beaten my projected time I was disappointed with the way I ran it and thought I could/should have done better.

I ended up feeling a bit loopy after this leg and couldn't think straight for a while. I'm not sure what my teamates were thinking as I kept walking for quite a ways past the exchange trying to cool down. For some reason I thought our van was up ahead a ways when in reality it was near the handoff point. Seemed like I walked around aimlessly for a couple of minutes and almost entered the vehicles of some other teams thinking it was our team van before finally collecting my senses and heading back to the correct vehicle.

Usually my last leg is my least favorite of the relay but in this case this first leg wins that prize.

I enjoyed watching the rest of my van 2 teamates finish out their 1st leg in strong fashion with Will running particularly strong to finish out our first set into Snow Basin. It was also great to enjoy the cool mountain air and scenery as temps dropped significantly off the high 90's of the day to something more in the 50's up in the mountains at night.

After handing off to Van 1 at Snow Basin we made the longer than expected drive over to East Canyon for some Fazollis and an attempt at some sleep. We had been told to drive on the race course as opposed to the main highway and this made for a slow drive with all the Van 1 commotion and such. We finally got to East Canyon and experienced more commotion as this major exchange was especially congested and chaotic with the higher number of teams this year. We finally found a parking spot and headed over to eat and found a fairly long line at Fazollis. I realized that I didn't really have all that much time before I would be running again so I opted to eat some of the light food I had in the van and try to get a little extra sleep.

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Race: WB Relay - legs 20 & 32 (13.1 Miles) 01:33:23, Place overall: 21, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.906.107.000.0014.00

...part 2

Don't think I was very responsive to Scott as he tried to wake me from my 'sweet slumber' at East Canyon prior to running our 2nd set of legs. I think he had to shake me for a while to get any response. Since I wasn't the one responsible for making sure we were awake to run, and remembering the commotion and noise of East Canyon from previous years I had brought ear plugs to try to help me sleep a bit better. The earplugs did help somewhat but it still took me a while to fall asleep. But when I finally did go to sleep I seemed to sleep pretty deep although it was probably for only an hour at most.

Wasn't sure how my legs would feel after the 5K-like run of my 1st leg. However I was pleasantly surprised that once I got warmed up a bit I actually felt pretty fresh. I really think the higher mileage and I've put in this year, the hills runs, and all the 2-a-day/3-a-day runs helped immensely.

Leg 20: Into Henefer, 7.0 miles, 47:00

I was eager and excited to run this leg as typically the 2nd leg has been my favorite in years past with the wonderful cool temps of the early AM hours (turns out that although I thoroughly enjoyed this run I ended up choosing leg 3 as my favorite for this year...see below). I also thoroughly enjoy running down canyons in the dark, the last couple of years during the summer months the Spanish Fork/Salem crew typically does a weekly run down Payson Canyon and I really have come to enjoy these runs. This year I intentionally started running Payson earlier than usual with the hope of being able to push hard on the fairly steep downhill sections of this leg that occur during the first 4 miles or so.

After getting the handoff from Scott I eased in to the run with Rod pacing me on the bike. The evening was beautiful and I was glad I took the time to gaze at the stars a bit and enjoy the night sky and air a bit rather than focus solely on the run. My projected pace was around 6:45 but with a mix of mostly downhill but 2-3 miles of flat to slightly uphill I wasn't sure how best to pace myself. I decided to ignore the Garmin for the most part and just run by feel and try for an even effort.

The first 3 miles felt similar to me as running down Payson Canyon, maybe not quite as steep. I held a fairly steady pace that felt right and ended up being around 6:20. I enjoyed this section quite a bit as the miles flew by and I enjoyed Rod's company and conversation. One dissapointment during this stretch was that there were no other runner's anywhere in sight. I had hoped by this point in the race we would start seeing quite a few of the slower runners that I could focus on passing, but for a while it seemed like Rod and I were the only people in the world. We did finally come up on a female runner who was actually walking down the hill which I thought was strange. I found I didn't derive much satisfaction passing a walker.

During mile 4 some sections of the leg starting flattening out with a few minor uphill 'bumps' as well. My pace slowed to 6:45 for this mile but I at least we started seeing a few more runners ahead and was able to pass 1 or 2.

Miles 5 thru 7 were a bit tougher and were mostly flat to slightly uphill as we came down into Henefer and ran through the town. I was feeling really good at mile 5-6 and told this to Rod. He continually motivated me by pointing out the runners ahead and encouraged me to focus my energy on passing some more runners. Not sure how many more we passed but it was probably around 4-6. Ended up speeding up to a 6:36 pace for mile 5 even though I think it was a flatter/harder mile than 4. Mile 6 started to get a bit tougher and I slowed to 7:00 pace. During the last mile my body wanted to slow down a bit but with Rod's encouragement and with a few more 'roadkill' opportunities I was able to hold the 7:00 pace thru to the finish even though there was a pretty good uphill stretch during this section.

All in all this was a very invigorating, exhilarating run. I ended up finishing right around 47 minutes at an average pace of 6:43 and beating my projected time by 20 seconds.

Don't remember alot about the rest of the Van 2 legs during this 2nd set as sleepiness and post-run fatigue kept me in a brain dead state most of the time. I like how most all the legs of this set are on straight roads with very few curves allowing me to forgo my navigational duties somewhat and rest a bit extra.

By the time we finished up our 2nd legs it was getting light as Will ran very strong again into Rockport to finish up and handoff to Van 1. We got over to Park City as quick as we could and thanks to Van 1's directions were able to find our room pretty quick. As Terry mentioned in his blog, the shower felt great but the sleep was even better except for the crazy drunk guy next door who would freak out any time we would make the slightest noise.

Leg 32: Charleston to Wasatch Mtn St. Park: 6.1 miles, 46:23

I was pleased upon waking up after a short nap in Park City that my legs felt like they still had a little bit of zip, although the downhill run a few hours earlier had made my quads/shins a little sore. I was nervous about this leg that although not nearly as nasty as the 2 insane legs that follow it, it's pretty long for a 3rd leg and has a generally uphill tone the entire way.

I have never been able to come close to my projected time the last 2 years on the 3rd leg but was hoping to buck this trend. Although the weather hadn't yet warmed up to highs for the day it was still starting to get pretty hot. As I had done for the first leg I soaked my hat and shirt in cool water just before starting the leg. I think this helped me out during the first 3 miles until I dried up.

I promised myself I would not make the same mistake as I made in the 1st leg my going out too fast. My intention was to run at close to the projected pace (7:40-7:45) and hope that I would still have some gas in the tank for the last mile or so. I cheated a little bit and ran the 1st 2 miles at a steady 7:36 pace. These miles were a little flatter than the following miles so I think this was about the right pace to run.

What was great about this entire run was that we had finally caught up to the mass of slower runners, so for those of us running a little quicker it was a veritable 'roadkill fiesta'. I lost count but I'm thinking I must have passed 25-40 runners during this run, sometimes passing 4-5 runners at a time as a lot of the slower runners seemed to be clumped together.

But the real fun started during mile 3. While I was having the fun of passing the slower teams I started noticing footsteps behind me that were obviously getting closer! I was fortunate at this point to have not been passed by anyone during the 1st 2 legs and was really wanting to finish the entire relay without being road-killed. Sometime during mile 3 the 2 runners on my tail actually passed me, but immediately after doing so one of the guys immediately slowed down and I passed him easily. I guess he must have used all his energy at this point and had to slow. The other young, shirtless guy who passed also slowed down a little bit so that I caught up to him and we began to run together. Ended up slowing down the pace a bit for mile 3 running a 7:42.

The rest of the way I ran with shirtless guy, both of us enjoying all the roadkill. We talked a little bit but not much as the miles had gotten tougher and the weather hotter. My wet hat and shirt had dried up by this point and wasn't helping me anymore. My splits for miles 4, 5, 6 were 7:43, 7:45, and 7:46 respectively.

As I turned the corner with the exchange in sight and the last .1 miles I finally made my move on shirtless dude and thought I had him, when he charges back strong and as far as I can tell we end in a virtual tie. My/our pace for the last .10 was 6:30. Ended up with a time of 46:23 beating my projected time by 35 seconds and feeling very pleased with the run. I debated which of legs 2 or 3 were my favorites but I have to say this one wins the prize, although this was a very difficult run for me. The roadkill and the battle-with-shirtless-dude make it my #1.

The only disappointment for both me and shirtless dude was that after we charged into the handoff point with some decent speed, neither of us had anyone to hand off to! Turns out with all the heavy traffic it was tough for vans to get to the next checkpoint and Terry was finishing up some work in the porta-potty. I waited for what seemed like forever but in reality wasn't that long. We told Terry he was only 30 seconds delayed but after doing the math it turns out it was more like 2 minutes. This ended up being a very minor delay and had no bearing whatsoever on our overall placing and such. Will and I did agree to punish Terry a bit by giving all of this time to him. This is why the time he actually ran and the time recorded in our final results differ by around 2 minutes. So I hope Terry doesn't feel too bad and he still is my running 'hero'.

Thanks to everyone on the team for a great 2007 relay! Looking forward to next year!

 

 

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
1.406.109.201.0017.70
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