We did it. My team finished the Back, faster than we thought we would. We finished in 29:57:31.8 averaging a 9:55 min mile. It was hot, it was cold, it was long, it was short. It was 30 hours of fun and exhaustion. As Oldest would say, it was "AWESOME".
HOT
Was it hot! My first leg started at 2:57 pm. I don't know what the temperature was, but it was mother hot. 90-95 easily. This leg was 4.0 miles through farmland and the small town of Eden, UT. Some residents of Eden put on sprinklers to cool runners down and other teams had huge water guns and spray bottles to help too. Sportsmanship was running high! My leg was relatively flat and I finished on pace.
The rest of the runners from my van continued the legs up to Snowbasin. It was beautiful. But the 2 runners who ran up the mountain just said it was hard. We increased our overall time to -35 minutes, handed off to Van 1 and headed to our next exchange point, East Canyon State Park.
We got some food, tried to sleep, but the call that Van 1 was close came an hour early. Time to get ready to run again, this time uphill in the dark. I put on my reflective vest and head lamp and started up to the exchange gate. I didn't know what it would be like to run at 11:30pm, but it was peaceful and cooler. The low overnight up in the mountains was in the 30's. It was during this leg that my bosses team caught up with us. They cheered me on and gave me encouragement. Many of them have worked in our office and they have become my friends. Ashly was the runner of that leg and she did pass me on an uphill. They went on to finish in 26:51:19.5.
This was my most difficult leg. 3.9 miles with a 600+ft elevation gain already at altitude, but I loved it. The rest of my vanmates ran through the night. Through small towns and by resivoirs. Our last runner said he felt his run was spiritual. He finished at 5:00 am with the sun starting to come up over Rockport resivoir. THe frogs were croacking and the birds were chirping. He was at peace.
We handed off to Van 1 -1:30. TIme for a shower and some sleep. The van was quiet as I drove it to Heber City. We got there at 5:30 and I proceded to find the shower, get some breakfast and crash on the westling mats the school put out on the gym floor. Sleep came slowly and went fast. At 8:30 the call came that I would need to run in 40 minutes. We were now -2:00.
This was my hardest run. I was tired. I was slow, very slow. It was 4 miles that just wouldn't end. But it did, and I was done. We had 5 more runners and we were done. Unfortunately the hardest legs were still ahead of us. UP and OVER Guardsman's Pass. Very hard legs straight up then straight down. But, my warrior friends made it look easy. I'm very proud of us.
We were all slower this morning, but everyone did incredibly. We were glad to be done and get some food and rest. My Vanmates Jason, Rebecca, Bonnie, Jenneifer and Colby are amazing people. I'm glad I got to know them. I hope I get to run with them again.
At the finish line, we got to run across as a team. My family met me there and Oldest ran across with us. I let him get my medal.
The team is registered for next year. Count me in.
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