4 easy miles around noon to get the legs loose.
Met the WBR team at Paul's house at 3 pm, headed over to Merlin Olsen park at 4 pm. Sasha started at 5 pm and it was hot!!! 95 deg or so. I was in the second van with Dan, Walter, Drew, Clyde, (I was runner 11, so this is my spot) and James. We drove to Liberty and waited for van 1 to finish- they showed up around 9 pm, 15 minutes behind Weber (thanks to a wrong turn), 2 minutes ahead of BYU. I had to wait until 10:15 pm for my leg, by which time BYU had a 6 minute lead on us.
My first leg was very hard, climbing 900 feet in 2.9 miles before dropping 360 feet in the last mile, half the road up to Powder Mountain ski resort. I took the baton and immediately passed a team, then did not see anyone else the rest of the way. The uphill climb was lonely, hard, dark, but a good temperature. I felt like I was moving too slow (I was supposed to average 7:00 min/miles for the whole leg), but was borderline anaerobic so knew I could not go any faster. After what seemed like an eternity (just over 22 minutes), I reached the top and the 1 mile left sign. I absolutely flew on the downhill- my team could see my little headlamp and thought I was a biker, I was moving so fast. They and the exchange volunteers started cheering me on from 1/2 mile out. My last mile was under 5 minutes (probably 4:50 or so). My running brakes had given out, so it was a good thing there was a small rise right before the exchange to slow me down and hand off to James. Total time 27:05 (12 seconds slower than projected) and rather tired. It is hard to not get your first leg until after 10 pm. | 