Elite Jogging For Dummies

These miles are from Monday 6/16, but not posted on that date due to technical difficulties:

 AM: 10.6 with Josh and Megan.

PM: 2.5 pushing Jack in the baby jogger from Steiner Aquatic Center to our house.
 

Worked out a decent new route this morning that I think will work with a few little permutations.  Headed out toward TiTP as usual, but looped back around Research Park, then up into Red Butte to the fence, down the trail to Shoreline. Headed north on the upper Shoreline trail and then back south on a new section of trail that begins at the switchback behind the JCC.  Then return via the U/Fed Heights, etc.

 Tons of wildflowers out this morning. 
 

I met up with Josh at 5:45 on 3rd Ave. We ran essentially the reverse version of the route I did yesterday, except that I steered us off course in a couple of places. Easy pace as we were both not feeling totally awake (not that we would have been running fast anyway). Running the trail gives you plenty of reasons to keep the pace moderate anyway. Plus, we were distracted by the fauna.

AM:  I ran the Holladay Canal/Mansion route with the Holladay crew.  Nice, relatively cool morning. Easy pace, 1:13 for the run.  The legs felt better today than yesterday.  On the return, I saw Bill Cobler driving on 2300 East. Funny, I thought he ran everywhere he went! 

My first leg of the WBR started at about 7:20 pm.  It was a 7.4 mile climb up to Avon pass on a dirt road.  The uphill grade is a challenge, but it's actually quite runnable. It's also shady, which was a change from the first four legs, which looked like a hot death march.

At the end of mile 2, I noticed what appeared to be some kind of tan colored wild beast lurking in the grass next to the road up ahead of me about 150 yards. A Cougar? Bobcat? Wild Boar? Wolverine? Sabertoothed Jackalope? I was not feeling like I wanted to get close too to find out and slowed down considerably and even stopped briefly for a moment. I thought it might just be a dog, but I didn't see any humans anywhere nearby.  When our van pulled up along side me, I pointed it out, they drove up and saw the fearsome creature. It was a dog. And not a particularly wild or fierce one.  It was just enjoying the early evening, snitffing the flowers and watering the soil.  I lost at least a minute in this adventure.

So I kept climbing, and despite my not-quite-Wild Kingdom hiatus, I started to pass a few runners and finished the leg fairly strong.

Here are the splits: 1) 6:40; 2) 7:40 (dog mile); 3) 6:40; 4) 6:35; 5) 6:40; 6) 7:00; 7) 7:34.

So total time was 51:34, which was a little more than a minute off of my projected time. I would have hit it pretty easily without my slowing at mile 2.

I handed off to Jon who took off at a rabid pace and tore down the backside of Avon pass toward Huntsville.

I'll give myself a mile of easy running for the little warmups and cooldown in this section.

WBR Leg 17.  I started this leg at about 1am.  The route winds along some rolling hills toward East Canyon.  I felt very good through most of this leg, although I was not always hitting the splits exactly where I wanted them. This is, ultimately, an uphill leg--and fairly long.  In fact, both Sasha and I measured it as over 6 miles (it was supposed to be 5.9).  But the moon was out and the cool temperatures were ideal.  I passed many runners.  I was a shade over 37 minutes overall.  Here are the splits: 6:09, 6:05, 6:03, 6:00, 6:07, 6:23.  The last mile had the most climb.  My stomach did not feel great, but otherwise no real complaints.  I tried to run as hard as I could.

Leg 29: We had about an hour or so of sleep at exchange 24 before it was back on the road for us in Van 1.  My leg, 29, starts at the overlook above Jordanelle reservoir and drops down into Heber.  It's a 4.1 mile downhill cruiser, with a very steep 8% grade.  My projected pace was 5:11 per mile overall.  I knew that sounded way too ambitious, especially given that the last 1.5 are fairly flat and there is even a little hill in there.  But I wanted to give it my best shot.  I wish I had started faster, I think that's where I lost the most time.  I didn't really feel warmed up until I was into the second mile.  Splits: 5:21, 5:02, 5:17, 5:40.  

And then I was done! We had a great race overall. We were competitive, but mostly it was just fun to be with some great runners and great guys.  Thanks Paul for driving us around! My Van 1 compatriots were Mitch Zundel (who ran amazingly), James Barnes (who beat all his projections), Dustin Ence (who also beat his projections), Jon Allen (who smashed his projections) and me and Steve Hooper (who had to balance out the other guys by merely "looking good" even if we weren't running as fast as projected.