kodi
Well-known member
Ragnar Relay
I?m not quite sure where to start on this report. I had several issues going into this event and a few more once I got there. First, still recovering from the recurrence of plantar fasciitis, I shouldn?t have run. Second, because of the PF, I didn?t run for over four weeks. My only runs prior to Friday were a four and six miler on Tuesday & Wednesday respectively. Living at about 1000 ft then running anywhere from 5500 to 6800 feet isn?t necessarily fun, especially when you?re not even in shape to run at sea level. Finally, I?m prone to exercise induced asthma and don?t function well below 60º. Now that I got all the excuses out of the way?.
I got into Logan late Thursday PM and my van mates came by the motel to pick up my stuff that went into the van. It was the first time I met any of them in person. Danette the team captain, is on the St. George running forum and that?s how I ended up running this year. We were van #1 and I was runner #1.
Our start time was 7:40 AM so you know we were going to be a little slow. I got to the start line, met the rest of the group and moved to the start line. One the way I ran into Maynard and chatted a few minutes. The start area is really exciting to see the teams being sent off. When we went out I quickly became the slowest runner in that group and watched them all pull away from me. Of course, compared to me, they were all kids. I was actually feeling pretty good until the first little hill when all of a sudden I started having a hard time breathing...gee, up to this point the thought of the asthma never even occurred to me. DUH! After about a half mile of struggling my breathing settled and I comfortably ran the rest of the 5.1 miles. My time was about 30 seconds per mile slower than I predicted.
It was fun riding in the car and catching up and waiting for our runners seeing if everything was okay and if they needed water, gu, etc. Not your ordinary relay where you get planted at a spot and just wait around for a long time. Our exchanges all went well, we were there ahead of time for every one of them.
My second leg started at Snow Basin at 4:37. I said we were slow, but actually ahead of our predicted time. The idea of starting a run in the middle of a steep hill isn?t particularly what I like to do but it was there. I thought running uphill for 300 feet over about a mile wouldn?t kill me, but I will say I was sucking wind big time. I will admit I did have to stop and walk two times. I figured if the younger guys who passed me stopped to walk then the old guy can too. When I got to the top of the hill it was all down for 7.5 miles, with a few little ups. This is the part of the race I was looking forward to since I like the downhill, but this is also when I came to the realization that the altitude was working against me. I worked hard to maintain a decent pace. I didn?t wear my monitor but it probably was pretty close to my max. My time for this segment was also about 30 seconds per mile off my prediction.
We spent a few hours trying to sleep at exchange 21, mostly because it was indoors. We got there about 12:45. I didn?t have a sleeping bag so laid on a foam pad and covered with a jacket. Didn?t sleep real well with people coming and going all night. The other two guys in our van and I went to seek out some real food, being tired of pop tarts, clif bars, gu, etc. They had spaghetti with sauce and bread. I was real food but not very good real food. I only ate about 1/3 of mine.
We were on the move again at 4:30 to get to exchange 24 and me ready for my last leg. I thought it would be a piece of cake since it was basically flat only varying about 150 feet up and down. I started at 5:17. Little did I know it was going to be so cold. I didn?t put gloves on, had on a long sleeve jersey and by the end of the 4.8 miles, my hands were still cold. This was my worst leg and about 2 miles per mile slower than I hoped. I think it was the combination of the cold, being tired and definitely undertrained.
When we went to the exchange to pick up our last runner from van 1 I saw the every smiling and happy Smooth(she is a friend from St. George marathon, too). Van 1 was finally finished and headed to Park City and some warm showers. We were lucky because Danette?s parents rented a room at the hotel across from the shuttle pickup area. They were very gracious and invited us all in to shower and cleanup while waiting for van 2 to finish.
Because of the rain and having to drive back to St. George Saturday, I opted out of going to the finish line. I?m sure I missed some excitement there.
Overall, I?m really glad I did this event. For a while I thought no way would I ever do another one but I changed my mind. Our local running club is putting a team together for the new Las Vegas race and even though it?s only one week after St. George Marathon, I?m going to plan on it. I never met any of the runners in Van 2 but I enjoyed hanging out with the ones on van one. They were a lot of fun to spend a lot of time with.
Since our team had 7 men and 5 women, we were categorized with the Men?s Open division. Our finish time was 32:50:20. Our place in our category was 159 out of 162. Slow but overall we were far from last.
There was an article about me in the Salt Lake City Tribune the week leading up to the race. If you?re interested here is the URL:
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12602977?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com
This would be a good event for the CA relay teams.
I?m not quite sure where to start on this report. I had several issues going into this event and a few more once I got there. First, still recovering from the recurrence of plantar fasciitis, I shouldn?t have run. Second, because of the PF, I didn?t run for over four weeks. My only runs prior to Friday were a four and six miler on Tuesday & Wednesday respectively. Living at about 1000 ft then running anywhere from 5500 to 6800 feet isn?t necessarily fun, especially when you?re not even in shape to run at sea level. Finally, I?m prone to exercise induced asthma and don?t function well below 60º. Now that I got all the excuses out of the way?.
I got into Logan late Thursday PM and my van mates came by the motel to pick up my stuff that went into the van. It was the first time I met any of them in person. Danette the team captain, is on the St. George running forum and that?s how I ended up running this year. We were van #1 and I was runner #1.
Our start time was 7:40 AM so you know we were going to be a little slow. I got to the start line, met the rest of the group and moved to the start line. One the way I ran into Maynard and chatted a few minutes. The start area is really exciting to see the teams being sent off. When we went out I quickly became the slowest runner in that group and watched them all pull away from me. Of course, compared to me, they were all kids. I was actually feeling pretty good until the first little hill when all of a sudden I started having a hard time breathing...gee, up to this point the thought of the asthma never even occurred to me. DUH! After about a half mile of struggling my breathing settled and I comfortably ran the rest of the 5.1 miles. My time was about 30 seconds per mile slower than I predicted.
It was fun riding in the car and catching up and waiting for our runners seeing if everything was okay and if they needed water, gu, etc. Not your ordinary relay where you get planted at a spot and just wait around for a long time. Our exchanges all went well, we were there ahead of time for every one of them.
My second leg started at Snow Basin at 4:37. I said we were slow, but actually ahead of our predicted time. The idea of starting a run in the middle of a steep hill isn?t particularly what I like to do but it was there. I thought running uphill for 300 feet over about a mile wouldn?t kill me, but I will say I was sucking wind big time. I will admit I did have to stop and walk two times. I figured if the younger guys who passed me stopped to walk then the old guy can too. When I got to the top of the hill it was all down for 7.5 miles, with a few little ups. This is the part of the race I was looking forward to since I like the downhill, but this is also when I came to the realization that the altitude was working against me. I worked hard to maintain a decent pace. I didn?t wear my monitor but it probably was pretty close to my max. My time for this segment was also about 30 seconds per mile off my prediction.
We spent a few hours trying to sleep at exchange 21, mostly because it was indoors. We got there about 12:45. I didn?t have a sleeping bag so laid on a foam pad and covered with a jacket. Didn?t sleep real well with people coming and going all night. The other two guys in our van and I went to seek out some real food, being tired of pop tarts, clif bars, gu, etc. They had spaghetti with sauce and bread. I was real food but not very good real food. I only ate about 1/3 of mine.
We were on the move again at 4:30 to get to exchange 24 and me ready for my last leg. I thought it would be a piece of cake since it was basically flat only varying about 150 feet up and down. I started at 5:17. Little did I know it was going to be so cold. I didn?t put gloves on, had on a long sleeve jersey and by the end of the 4.8 miles, my hands were still cold. This was my worst leg and about 2 miles per mile slower than I hoped. I think it was the combination of the cold, being tired and definitely undertrained.
When we went to the exchange to pick up our last runner from van 1 I saw the every smiling and happy Smooth(she is a friend from St. George marathon, too). Van 1 was finally finished and headed to Park City and some warm showers. We were lucky because Danette?s parents rented a room at the hotel across from the shuttle pickup area. They were very gracious and invited us all in to shower and cleanup while waiting for van 2 to finish.
Because of the rain and having to drive back to St. George Saturday, I opted out of going to the finish line. I?m sure I missed some excitement there.
Overall, I?m really glad I did this event. For a while I thought no way would I ever do another one but I changed my mind. Our local running club is putting a team together for the new Las Vegas race and even though it?s only one week after St. George Marathon, I?m going to plan on it. I never met any of the runners in Van 2 but I enjoyed hanging out with the ones on van one. They were a lot of fun to spend a lot of time with.
Since our team had 7 men and 5 women, we were categorized with the Men?s Open division. Our finish time was 32:50:20. Our place in our category was 159 out of 162. Slow but overall we were far from last.
There was an article about me in the Salt Lake City Tribune the week leading up to the race. If you?re interested here is the URL:
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12602977?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com
This would be a good event for the CA relay teams.
