I'll start with the Ragnar Relay, Wasatch Back race. I ran with a new set of strangers this time, but there were a couple of familiar faces for as well (for once). The main bulk of our team was from Southern California who had come out for the race. Utah put on her finery for their visit and didn't disappoint. The oppressive heat that had been lingering broke for the weekend and the mountains stayed lush and green from the more than usual rain we'd gotten.
The first leg that I ran was slow. I walked more than I had wanted to. I still was able to finish close to my projected finish time and even had a few kills. The second leg I ran felt really too warm. At least it was a short 3 mile run. I had to walk only once due to a side stitch that came on about a mile in. Once that passed, I finished really strong, only missing my target time by a few seconds. Strangely enough, my third leg was my best of them all. That hasn't happened to me before in a relay. I didn't have to stop and walk, I nailed my pace right on, and no one passed me the entire leg. I repeat. NO ONE PASSED ME. That has never happened to me before. I hunted one woman down like an antelope on the African plain. Every time I got close to her, she would speed up, just out of range. At the home stretch, I resolved to take her out with extreme prejudice. I could see the exchange and I just kicked it into high gear and took her and another lady out. It was an impressive way to finish my Wasatch Back experience. Like a freight train, baby. Oh yeah.
My team was really fun. Many of them are originally from England and Wales. They were friendly and easy to be around, which is key when you have to spend two days living in a van with them. I will be going up with them again for the Las Vegas Ragnar in November. I'm quite looking forward to it.
Most of our team, one runner is out on her leg.
I had just finished my leg. Ice cream time! Conveniently, there was an ice cream shop right across the street!
Five of van 1's 6 members, by the reservoir.
Enjoying my post race pizza :)
The second race I ran was the weekend after Ragnar, the Provo Midnight Half Marathon. It was run on the Provo River Trail, at night. We started in town and ran down to the lake and back. It was so hot in town. So very very hot. June decided that it had been too nice during the last week and cranked the temperatures up. It was 85 degrees at 10 p.m. The heat got to a lot of people, slowing everyone down. I felt like I was running a strong race, but actually had one of my slower finish times. Darn you heat! I did take fourth place in my division, AKA, the fat girl division. I just hope there were more than 4 fat girls running this race... It's really called the Athena division, but it's based on your weight, so potato potahto,
The medal has LED's in it that flash. It's a fun one :)
The third race to report on is the Hobbler Half Marathon on July 13. It was fun to run 13 miles on the 13th. It was also fun to be running this race for the second time. I felt fantastic through this race and was able to beat last year's time by almost three minutes. I like this race because it's on a route I run often. There are no surprises, I'm close to home, and it's a nice downhill slope for most of it. My friend, Melissa, ran this as her first half. I was so proud of her! I'm trying to talk her into some other ones, we'll see if I can coax her into it. It seemed like she had fun. Upright and smiling at the end equals fun, right? The shirts and medals were much better this year than last, always a bonus.
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| Love me some Roman numerals. |
I've had my ups and downs with my training lately. I went on a vacation that lasted over a week. I tried to keep up with my running, but it was difficult. Also, going down to sea level for over a week made running back home much more difficult. I finally had a really good double digit run today. I'm hoping that will continue. I've bought some new shoes to try out, the Hoka brand. They're very different from all the other shoes I've run in and I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about them... They're supposed to be amazing for down hill running and I've got three predominantly down hill races coming up. We'll see.
I'll do my best to post timely about my next race, the Grand Teton Relay, in a couple of weeks. Until then, happy running!
