Catch me if you can

I met the group at Riverton High School. I ran 6 miles with Cheris and Peggy.  Then I drove to the trail by my work and went out 2 miles and back.  I ran 2 of those miles on the dirt trail off to the side.  Average pace under 9:00.  My shins are sore to touch, but didn't hurt at all when I ran.

I ran at about 9:20 this morning at work.  It was hot but luckily there was a little breeze.  I got off work early for my Dr's appt.  I'm off until Tuesday.  YEAH!!!  I need to start getting my stuff ready for Ragnar this weekend.  

The group was meeting at O Roi Hardy Park.  Cheris, Andy and I were the only ones who came.  We ran North on the trail for 2 miles then turned around and ran back.  The next 2.5 miles were supposed to be tempo run looping through the neighborhood with a few big hills.  Cheris and I ran a faster pace, but it was still slower than my marathon pace.  I came home and waited about an hour until Taylor was ready.  I ran another 3 miles with her.  Average pace 8:38.

I swore I would never run this race again, but was talked into it after Dean died.  Originally Jameson had put together a team of fast master's runners called the Mangum Masters PR.  We decided to run in honor of team IronDean and our van consisted of all original BBK runners.  The bad thing was we had a 3:00 pm start time.  We started with the super fast high school teams.  It didn't take long before we were the very last runners.  It was nice to have the exchanges basially to ourselves for awhile, but I missed the competition.  

I was runner 6.  I started this leg at about 8:00 pm.  It was 6.9 miles.  I finished off the 1.5 miles uphill of Avon Pass.  Then I had 3 miles of steep downhill until it flattened out for about 2 miles.  It wasn't worth me getting injured on the uneven dirt road with switchbacks, so I was pretty cautious.  I finished that leg in 57:33.  I didn't see any other runners on this leg.  Average pace 8:21.   

I started my second leg #18 at 3:25 in the morning.  I hadn't had a any sleep yet.  At this point we had passed a few teams.  This leg was 8.2 "very hard" uphill miles to East Canyon Reservoir.  I started off feeling like I was running in my sleep.  It was pitch black and I was a little nervous being out there by myself.  There wasn't a lot of traffic, but there are a lot places where you can't see cars coming around the corners up the canyon.  I had to jump off to side once when a tow tuck driver came quickly around a corner.  I felt pretty strong running on this tough uphill climb.  I didn't walk until I got to the very steep parts at about mile 6.5 and even then I only walked a for a few seconds at a time.  I passed the only 2 runners I saw during this leg.  Average pace 9:16 with 944 ft of elevation gain.

After we handed off to the 2nd van, we drove about 40 miles to the next exchange at a high school.  We started seeing a ton of teams at this point.  We slept in our sleeping bags on the grass for about 2 hours.  

My final leg was #30.  I started at 2:06 pm.  It was pretty hot by this time and I was exhausted.  This run was only 2 flat miles.  I passed 4 girls on this leg.  A guy with an Ironman visor passed me at about 1 mile in so I just stayed about 10 feet behind him for the next mile.  Average pace 8:11.

I was so exhaused that night.  I had a lot of fun, but I probably won't do this again.