Leg 18 for me started just before 1:00 am on Saturday morning. The weather was great and the temp was a perfect 53 degrees. The fun thing about this leg was that we met up with the Road Crew van and I was able to chat with Mark and Kathie for a few minutes before starting. Kathie was also running this leg so I am interested to see how it went for her. The other cool thing during this leg was that Mark jumped out of his van a couple of times and cheered me on. It was so dark out there that the first time I saw him I was thinking it was someone from my van until I got right up to him. The second time I came up to him I knew who it was. Thanks for the cool little pick me up Mark! It was really great to see you guys!
As I said before, this leg of the race was very, very dark for me. There seemed to be very little van traffic for the first 3-4 miles of this leg and no street or house lights. As I came up to the first turn in the road I had to run right up to the sign so I could see which way to turn....dark, dark, dark. I was quite happy as I came upon other runners and when vans would pass so I actually knew I was on the right road.
The first 3-4 miles of this leg are pretty mild rolling hills and slightly uphill. Things start to get a little ugly around miles 4-6 as this road make a really steep ascent to the exchange point. I really struggled with these last few miles and my pace showed it. My pace on the last couple of miles was well into the 9:00/mile range and I was passing lots of walkers, it was pretty brutal. Just before the last climb I ran right next to a couple of mule dear just off the road and I had to yell and clap at them to get them out of the way. That was a nice little wake up call before the last really steep climb and then it was over....whew! Oxygen please!
We then headed off to North Summit HS where I shoveled in the rest of my pasta salad and bread and then slept on some mats on the gym floor for about 2 -3 hours. It felt great to actaully get some sleep this year.
In the morning we had a bit of a struggle getting our first guy to exchange 24. We thought we were where we needed to be but as it turns out we were at exchange 23. Talk about panic city as we had already unloaded our runner and had to get him back in the van and get to 24. We made it with about 3 minutes to spare and took a little crap from the guys in van 2 about getting too much beauty rest at our last stop.......nice.
Distance: 7.96 miles Time: 1:08:12 8:33/mile
I started my last leg at 9:45 Saturday morning with overcast skies and nice temps. I was starting to feel the fatigue at this point and knew this last leg was going to be a bit of a struggle. As it turns out I got chiced and I also got passed by another guy, but I think I had about 10 other kills during the run so it wasn't a complete loss. The fatigue and elevation killed me on this run and I struggled extremely hard to keep the legs moving. In the last mile or so of the leg there was a section where we had to cross a major road and they had no traffic control. I was a little peeved standing there waiting for the light to change but when I started running again, I realized that the little breather helped me to feel much better. I was able to increase my pace for each mile of this leg and finished the last quarter at a 6:45/mile pace.
When I finished and was able to chat with the guys from Van 2 I began to feel a bit guilty and sorry for those guys who had some of their toughest legs ahead. It also looked like a major rain storm was just waiting to drop on them. With that thought in mind we went to a really nice home in Park City where these guys had stayed on Thursday night and we showered and then went to lunch and hung out. Then we headed over to the finish line where we ran in with our last guy and got dumped on big time by a passing thunderstorm. We took the best pictures we could, collected our medals and then I jumped in the truck with my wife and girls and we drove to St. George.
I drove to Nephi and then Meg took over because I couldn't keep my eyes open any more. When I finally got to bed on Saturday night I don't think I moved all night. Today I am feeling it in my quads pretty good, I guess we'll see what the damage is during tomorrows run.
Distance: 3.25 miles Time: 23:44 7:18/mile
I would definatly like to do Ragnar again. I think some of the funnest things about this race are the great company, good laughs, team spirit, excelent scenery and the test of your endurance and will power. | 