1st segment of a three part series
SEGMENT ONE: ADRENALINE JUNKY
I woke with nervousness, not knowing how I should feel for the day. Every time I thought of the race, adrenaline started racing through my veins. That stuff is as precious as gold, so I tried to keep my mind off the race. Our team would start the race at 12:30 p.m. and I wouldn't run until after 6:00 p.m. Jenny wanted to go to a garage sale, so I went with her to that. After Megan needed to go to a softball practice that would take me up to about 11:30 a.m. So I picked up her cousin Lissa first, drove home and got Megan and took them to softball practice. While they were at the practice, I stopped to fill up the Sturgeon (our green Ford Excursion) with gas and head over to the Valley Market, to buy some food for the race and to get me some breakfast of which I neglected to have first thing in the morning because I had been zoning everything out. I thought to myself that there would start to be runners coming by the store pretty soon. The first runners started at 7:00 a.m. in Logan. All the rest of the 650+ teams would be spaced out throughout the rest of the day until 6:00 p.m. They started the slower teams first and sent off the fastest teams last. Our 12:30 p.m. start time meant that somehow we were considered somewhere in the middle of the pack. We actually had been assigned a 2:30 p.m. start time. Our team captain, who's name is Michael Jordan ( now who can go wrong with a name like Michael Jordan), effectively convinced the race committee that we would be finishing in the dark the next night if we didn't get an earlier time. Deep down, it was probably more out of mercy for Me and my friend Darin who were slated to run, the two worst segments of the race the next day called the Ragnar. Actually, Darin's was called the Ragnar. His segment was the top part of Guardsman Pass above Park City, rising 1700 vertical feet topping out at over 9000 feet above sea level. My leg was the first half of the mountain, 1500 vertical feet to get to Darin's starting point (There are no cuss words the adequately describe that hellacious segment). We figured that we would be running those legs at 4-6 p.m. the next night at the hottest time of day during the longest day of the year. The earlier start time would hopefully give us a few degrees respite. The petition was granted and we got our 12:30 p.m. start time.
Back at the store, as I thought about the lead runners making it to this point, sometime 5-6 hours after their start time, the adrenaline started flowing again. It didn't help that there were some racing teams also buying last minute goodies before the race. I banged my head against the ice that I bought for the cooler that I was keeping in the sturgeon for my team's drinks. I hurried and rushed back over to Megan's practice, helped her team with some pitching and hitting practice and then raced home. I was now close to our team's race time start. Each team has 12 runners. They are broken up into 2 vans. My sturgeon was going to be van #2. The six people in my van had decided not to go the the start of the race but go to the start of segment 7, where our runners in van #2 would start. The plan was for our six to meet at my house at 4:30 p.m. and drive to our start.
So as our team was starting the race, I decided to mow my lawn, which usually takes a couple of hours; a good way to take my mind off the race. After the lawn was done, I laid down and tried to take a short nap. Talk about feeling like an over sugared kid waiting to get the ok to get up on Christmas morning to open presents. Finally, my team arrived. I actually only knew two members of my entire team before race day, Jon and Darin, who are work colleagues of mine. As they all got out of the car, my reaction was the same as my kids voiced to me at the time, but I told them to keep it quiet. The reaction was, "man, they are all old." of course this wasn't really a good assessment as I later found out that they were all great runners. So there was me, Darin, Jon, Michael, George, and Lisa. Darin and I are within months of each other at 41 and Lisa (who I hope doesn't mind me mentioning) was the oldest at 51.
We all exchanged greetings, all of them were very nice. Darin broke out a running shoe that his family painted gold and signed their names and well wishes on. Darin tied the shoe to the front of the grill on the sturgeon. I figured that would have to do and I regretted that I didn't decorate the vehicle. We loaded up the sturgeon and headed for Liberty to where our segments would start. By this time the road was loaded with runners. We passed a portion of the segment that I would be running. I got a nervous twinge down my spine. We also saw tons of support vehicles with the most outlandish decorations. My personal favorite vehicle was one that looked like a sheep camp set on a jacked up 4 wheel dually frame, with dead stuffed animals strapped to the side. The name of the team was Road Kill.
Speaking of Road Kill, there were a lot of vans that had road kills written on the side of their vehicles with tick marks. I soon learned that this meant how many people that their runners had passed while running. At the end of each group of six exchange points was a major exchange point. This is where the last runner from van #1 passes of to the first runner in van #2. Then later it is reversed when the last runner in van#2 passes off to the first runner in van #1. The major exchange points are like a party atmosphere. We were able to park right near the exchange point at Liberty Park when we slipped into a slot another van pulled out of. The first thing that I saw when I get out of the van was a guy sitting there with his feet in a bucket full of ice water. This made me a little nervous. The guy said that he had been suffering from shin splints and this was his recovery method. My thought was that he had two more legs to run and it didn't bode well for him if he was suffering this bad after the first leg.
The only way that we had to communicate with the other van was by cell phone. We hadn't been able to contact the other van while driving over, so we were a little nervous as to their whereabouts. Being the anal engineer that I am, I had created a little booklet, that had charts that showed when each runner should start and end his legs based on the pace that the team was averaging. Seeing that the rest of our van was engineers, as well, accept for Lisa, they all seemed to really appreciate it. We made some assumptions and determined when we should see our runners approach. Soon after, we did make phone contact. They were about 5 miles out and we were right on course to have them arrive about 40 minutes later at 6 p.m. So we enjoyed the party atmosphere for awhile. A band was playing, and there were a lot of racers sporting different costumes for the race. My favorite at this location was the men who were all sporting long, mullet wigs. The other thing that amazed me was that there seemed to be a large number of women who were showing off their latest body augmentations. Not that I really noticed.
Lisa was our first runner in our van. She had leg #7, which actually is considered probably the easiest legs of the race. Each of its three legs are 3.5 to 5.5 miles long. The exchange went cleanly. The first van had actually made real good time. They we averaging not much over 8 minute miles. Their legs had contained the grueling up and downhill of the Avon divide, over a 1000 feet up and then down. We didn't find out until later that our runner had passed out after he had handed off to Lisa. He laid unresponsive on the ground for 5 to 10 minutes. He did recover and was able to continue on with the race.
The hand off is made with a timing piece that is a metal wrist band that snaps around your wrist. We all hopped in the sturgeon and chased out after Lisa. She was approaching the first mile marker when we caught up to her. Lisa has a great running stride. Her arms ride high like a fast marathon runner and indeed she was our marathon runner. She has run numerous marathons and has acted a pacer for a runner on a 100 mile solo race. She has all the form of a good runner: slender, tone, and a great stride. I came to learn that she runs a 7:45 minute pace regardless if she is running on the flat or up a steed incline. She was consistently picking off runners in front of her. We cheered her on past the 1st mile and then later on after the 2 mile post. We then drove on to the next exchange to get George ready for leg #8. When Lisa had arrived she had picked up her pace and actually finished averaging about 7:45 miles. All of this started getting my adrenaline going again, and once again I tried to refocus to calm myself down.
The exchange to George also went smoothly and he darted off in what appeared to be a fast pace. In the sturgeon, Darin and I were talking strategies as to how to approach our first leg. The fear was if we headed out too fast, that we would not leave enough energy for our later legs. So we each vowed to rein it in a bit and not to start out too fast. I also noticed that it was very hot, in the upper 80s. I wasn't used to running at this high of temperature. Most of the running that I had been doing was either late at night (9-11 p.m.) or early in the morning (4:30 a.m.) I wasn't sure how this was going to affect me.
We also cheered George on at the mile points. George is short with a muscular build. For most of the legs he was wearing a do rag on his head, making him look like a Harley rider. George has also run in marathons in his younger years. George ended up running a pretty consistent 8:30 pace.
Next was me. By this time the adrenaline was pumping full throttle through my veins. My exchange point was at the top of middle fork run running 3.5 miles towards Huntsville. I called ahead to my family to let them know when I would be passing the corner that turned into Huntsville, so that they could watch as I ran by. I made one last trip to the port-a-potty, as I found that when you get nervous, that your bladder begins to shrink. There was a long dry spell of people before George came in, but a slug of people that was running up the road behind him. I got my MP3 player on and cranked the music. Lisa asked me what type of music that I was listening to. I didn't quite know what to say. The group that was currently singing was Third Eye Blind, but then quickly went to Leanne Rimes, followed by the Beach Boys. When George handed off to me, I forgot all of the planning that I had made with Darin. I took off on what I felt like was a sprint. It was total adrenaline driven. When I hit my fist quarter mile, I had scored my first kill. It felt incredibly good. I then set my sights on the next runner ahead of me who was about 2oo yards ahead of me. He looked like a marine. He was actually running pretty quick and I wasn't closing the gap that quickly. The Sturgeon was waiting for me at the first mile marker. Wow, did that come quick. Barely over the blaring music in my ears I could hear Darin, yell out to slow down. I looked at my watch and was totally amazed that only 6 minutes had passed. I gave them the thumbs up but felt a little nervous. I thought that I better ease into a better pace, seeing that I didn't think that I should be able to maintain that pace for the entire race. The first two miles were a gentle decline, but the final 1.5 miles had a gradual rise. I ran the next mile in a more comfortable pace. The Marine stayed about 100 feet ahead of me. When I hit mile two, the sturgeon again cheered me on. I looked back and could not see anyone behind me. My family: Jenny, the kids, and my parents were waiting for me at the 2 1/4 mile mark. Of course I had to push it as hard as I could when I passed them. Jenny offered me some water, but I declined. I waved to all of the kids and trudged on. Actually, about at this point I was starting to feel the effects of the heat on me. I longed for some cooler temperatures. I was really starting to feel the pain of my pushing when all of a sudden the Marine stopped running. I passed him and kept going. He didn't let me get too far ahead of him. I think that his pride started kicking in. He passed me back at a brisk pace but eventually stopped again. I again passed him. He once again over took me and rounded the corner to the exchange point just slightly ahead of me. Darin was waiting for me at the exchange for his #10 leg. The only thing that he said to me was, "wow, you ran that fast." I looked down at my watch and saw that I had run my 3.5 miles in 23:50 or about a 6:47 pace. Though it was getting pretty painful at the end because of the heat and exertion. I recovered pretty quickly.
We loaded the sturgeon and headed off to chase after Darin. We cheered him along at the first two mile points. The heat was really working on him, but he still was keeping a good pace. Darin, is about 6' 1" and around 200 lbs, I guess. We were high school and college buddies, and both now work for UDOT. Darin had been running consistently for the last 5 or 6 years and will often run in 5ks. At the next exchange, Darin needed to come in before 8:00 p.m. or else they would make out next runner Michael run with a head lamp. Darin slipped in with 4 minutes to spare. Darin's gut was hurting pretty bad and he was sweating pretty heavily. He always has been a pretty good sweater, but I think that he had done a little extra because of the heat. We passed his family along the route as they cheered him on, as well. Darin averaged an 7:54 minute pace.
Next was Michael Jordan on the first of the Snowbasin legs, #11. Machael is also of a smaller frame, with greying, thinning hair, with glasses. You would easily spot him out as an engineer, but not necessarily a runner. He took off, though, like a shot up the hill. The Run was about 4 miles with a vertical climb of 800 feet for the first 3 miles and then a drop of 300 feet for the last mile. Mike chugged along at a great pace up the mountain. He picked off a few people and I think only a couple of people might have caught him, until he got to the down hill segment. This is where Michael's specialty kicks in. He is an incredible down hill runner. It takes some special ability to run fast down hill without killing your knees, and Michael had that ability. He flew down that last mile. I think his pace for the entire leg was 9:15 minute miles, which is incredible with that type of climb (8%).
Jon was our last leg runner doing #12. Jon is tall and skinny. He is an excellent hiker and has climbed places like Mount Hood, Whitney, and the Grand Tetons. Jon doesn't run terribly fast. This is all by design, because I think that he can. He just paces his self very well. He can probably go on forever at a given pace. Jon was our first person that had to wear all of the safety equipment which consisted of a reflective vest, head lamp, and strobing butt light. It was dusk now and the temperature was dropping. Jon plugged along it looked like to me, effortlessly up the mountain. He took a quick drink of gatorade half way up his 800 vertical foot, 3.1 mile run. At the top of his run was the next major exchange where we would hand off to Heidi who was our #1 leg person. The exchange point was very crowded. They had you park at the ski resort parking lot and then walk a 1/4 mile to the exchange point. There were people everywhere in sleeping bags just plopped down anywhere they could find for a quick few minutes of rest. Jon finished his leg at a 10:15 minute pace, which again was incredible.
NEXT SEGMENT: To Sleep or Not to Sleep.
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