Part 2
Our team ran great leading up to my second leg. Clyde had a very hilly leg with lots of turns- something I would have enjoyed. Paul closed a lot on Google and I was only about 3 minutes behind them at the start of my leg. I was slightly confused for the first half mile because I thought I missed a turn, but actually didn't. My leg was 4.1 miles, with a constant ascent the whole time. I pushed myself and passed 2 teams (the only ones I saw), finishing about 4 minutes under my predicted time (just under 7:00 miles again). I was tired but happy.
The race got real exciting after this. Van 2 ran great and closed the gap with Google to 20 seconds. It's amazing that you can run 120 miles and be within 100 yards of a team. Google pulled away a bit before my leg. My leg was very short (3.3 miles) with one decent uphill, a steep downhill, and then some flat and gradual up. I ran hard but was very tired. I could definitely feel some fatigue in my legs on the downhill pounding. I also thought the second half would be flatter and even some downhill rather than up, which was hard. But, the "1 mile to go" sign came a lot quicker than I expected and I finished 2 minutes ahead of schedule (~6:16 miles). I was glad to be done and was very hopeful would could catch Google. Alas, it didn't happen, but we still took second place, 10 minutes behind Google and 90 minutes ahead of 3rd place. It was very fun to have a team to race and they were great competitors and good sports.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable race. I met some nice new people, saw some beautiful country, and had a great time. I will make sure to start training earlier before future relays so I can pull my own weight rather than dragging down the average time. It shows you how great my teammates did when our average time was 40 seconds/mile faster than my time. They were great runners and enjoyable teammates. Thanks, guys.
Looking towards the future, I'm not sure if I will do this relay again. I enjoyed it and am very glad I did it. But I think I want to run some other relays (other Ragnars, Hood to Coast, etc) before I would consider repeating this one. If they change it to run from Flagstaff to Phoenix, though, I would be back in a heartbeat. |