Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay - This is the 4th (consecutive) year that I've done this run. Kind of hard to call it a race as it is more of a social event than a race. The first two years I participated (2010 and 2011), I ran with my work team. It was a lot of fun. But my friends convinced my to defect over to there team and that's what I did last year and this year. We were by no means in it to win it. The team consisted of some good buddies of mine and their spouses and a few other extended family members of those folks. We qualified as a co-ed team meaning we had a lot of girls. Our team name was "Wish We Were Runners"... Very dumb name and not very representative if you ask me, but someone picked the name long before I joined the team and it has just kind of stuck. This was my first year being in Van 1 and I was 'Runner 1' (Legs 1, 13, and 25). My leg involved running the most miles of any of the 12 runners (~21 miles total), but my legs weren't necessarily the hardest or most technical.
Leg 1 - 7.7 miles (rated "Hard" in the Ragmag for the relative length, I think?) - My team had a 6:45 A.M. start, so we were one of the first teams out on the course. The earlier start times are generally given to the slower teams, so you can see that neither we nor the race organizers had high hopes for us pulling out a competitive time. I was happy to have the 6:45 start. It meant I could run my first leg close to the same time I'd usually be doing my normal morning runs and I'd get to run before things started getting two warm. The gun sounded and everyone in my start group of ~30 runners headed northeast out of the USU stadium. I didn't go out real fast, but took the lead before we even reached the end of the track. Knowing that our team was never going to be competitive, similar to prior years, I didn't want to approach my Ragnar legs as an all out race. Any fast running I was going to do would just be negated by some other team members' slower pace, so why kill myself? So, my strategy was to run reasonably fast, but not go all out. At the same time, there wasn't any excuse for me to get passed by anyone as I didn't expect anyone real fast to have started the race the same time we did. The fast runner teams would all be starting later and I theoretically wouldn't be running against them unless they caught up to us which wouldn't likely happen, but if it did, it wouldn't be until the late stages of the race. For my first leg, I knew the first 1.5 miles or so would be the most difficult as they were mostly uphill heading west to the Bonneville Shoreline trail. Once on the trail, the route would continue to ascend for the next ~0.5 mile and then start dropping off the face of the earth for the third mile. Miles 4 and 5 were on the road and almost all downhill. Mile 6 flatted-out and had a pretty decent little climb. The last ~ 1.7 miles were mostly flat with little up at the end. I felt good and ended with an average pace of 6:03 for the leg. Total time of 46:42. I think I had ~57 kills on the leg (all of people who had started in earlier heats) and didn't get passed (Kinvara).
Leg 13 - 8.5 miles (rated "Very hard" for the relative length and steep decents, I guess). We took over the race again at about 3:30-3:40 in the afternoon up at Snow Basin. Temperatures were quite warm at this point (low 80's I believe). The first 0.25 to third-of-a-mile starts by running a steep incline underneath some chair lifts. There was a faint trail, but not much of one. I wasn't able to move very fast through this section. Once at the top of the lift, it was virtually all downhill from there. You make your way out of a little parking lot and onto the road and then its just a drop off the fact of the planet for the next 7+ miles. There were a few flat and slight uphill spots, but for the most part, it was steep downhill. Additionally, there was a bit of a tail wind. I just let gravity and the wind carry me and had several splits well below 5:30. The only negative factor was the heat. I felt very hot. But I tried to hydrate at each aid station and averaged 5:28 for the leg. I measured it as actually being 8.5 miles compared to the stated 8.2 miles. I passed 52 people and didn't get passed. My body would later pay a little bit (but not too bad) for all the pounding downhill on this leg (Kinvara).
See Saturday entry for my report on Leg 25. | 