My Wasatch Back report
 

It wasn't always a great time during the actual relay, but looking back on it now that I've caught up on my sleep, I had a blast. We've already signed up for next year, and we're going to try and keep the team together.

We started the thing on Thurs night at my family's cabin in Liberty. We were joined by fellow CG'er ThatSportsFan, who turned out to be a hell of a nice guy, and a decent table tennis player, too.

Car one took of for Logan about 10:30 am on Friday. Car one was guys from my ward, and one of the guy's brothers. I'm the guy on the far right.
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Anyway, our first 6 legs went by pretty uneventful. I ran leg 5, which is a little over 7 miles on a trail up Avon Pass. It's a tough leg, but manageable. My mistake was wearing trail shoes that I've only worn once before, and I ended up with a blister covering the entire bottom of my right little toe. I popped it at the cabin and tried to wrap it as best I could, but the fetching thing hurt.

My second leg was started at about 2:30 am. It was ok, but by this time all of the really fast teams that started after us began to catch up and pass, which is a blow to the psyche, but whatever. At the end of my leg my foot hurt so bad I just wanted it to be over.
http://wasatchback.shaneb.net/images/2.jpg

We ended up sleeping in the van for about 3 1/2 hours before it was time to go do our last legs. We had kind of a weird stomach thing that went through our team, and everyone was a bit sick to our stomachs. I think a big part of it was just fatigue. I finally got the baton from James to start my last leg. I wish this pic had been taken about 3 seconds earlier, because as he was finishing, the big guy did a perfect cartwheel, which was pretty cool.
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FINALLY DONE!

http://wasatchback.shaneb.net/images/4.jpg

I swear I wasn't checking out the chick stretching out in front of me. :p
http://wasatchback.shaneb.net/images/5.jpg

We did kind of a funny thing at the finish. Our team name was "Our Wives Think We're At Work", so we wore shirts and ties to finish the race. We had a few people ask to take our picture and we got a lot of laughs, so I guess it worked out.

http://wasatchback.shaneb.net/images/6.jpg


My bro in law was in charge of car 2. We were both glad it was over.

http://wasatchback.shaneb.net/images/8.jpg

Anyway, it was fun. Overall, we finished in 28 hours, 7 minutes. Some 11 hours after the BYU team, but still in the top 43% of all finishers. For a hodge-podge of weekend warriors, we did pretty good. I was talking to a guy on our team last night, and our goal for next year is to take 3 hours off the time. We'll see what happens.

I loved leg 5. Going up Avon pass was the hardest part. I wore my heart monitor and my heart rate was at 168-170 almost the whole time. I averaged 11:30 minute miles.

My "midnight run" was amazing. I couldn't believe how hard I was pushing myself. I'm not the fastest guy but i did 9:30 minute miles and to me that's pretty fast. I kept telling myself "I can't keep this up for the hour," but I did.

The third leg was worth running the first two. That downhill was awesome. I really pushed myself and ran the fastest miles of my life. When it finally flattened out I was still keeping a pretty good pace.

I'm already signed up for next year. So much fun.

Sounds like the worst thing I could imagine. Waking up and running for a long time in the middle of the night.

Avon pass was tough. I had a hard time not falling over afterwards. I've gotta work on doing hills better. There was a film crew that stayed with me for almost a mile, taking pictures and video. I'd like to see that video to see how bad I looked.

My second leg was not good. The guys in my van told me it looked like I was limping while I ran. My pace was 9:46/mile. It felt like someone was stabbing my foot with every step I took. I wanted to die.

The third leg was the best, I agree. I got down the mountain at 7:12/mile, which is beyond ridiculous. It sucked when that leg flattened out. I don't know if you noticed, but on that leg there was a campaign sign for some politician and it looked just like one of the Ragnar signs that pointed which way to turn. When I got to that sign and figured out it wasn't telling me to turn and I still had three blocks to go, that sucked.

So did he run with your team as well?

Ahh, so that's where your foot is.

Yes I did run with them, and I will paying the entry fee on monday and joining them again for next year. I can't wait.

I just want to thank Runner Coug again for the opportunity because I had a blast, and it was great to know everyone on our team even if you are byu fans. ;-)

He did, he was in car 2. From all accounts, he did awesome. Dude has lost 43 lbs, too.

I forgot to tell you, you weren't alone in your utefandom. Brian ran his first leg in some hideous socks with the ute logo on them. The only Cougar in the van besides me was Matt.

It might be fun to do a road bike things like this.

I think in Utah they have a mountain bike version, take turns doing laps.

I know there is a road bike 24 hour race or something as well, take turns doing laps.

A friend did it, and it sounded CRAZY.

One of the cooler things about the Wasatch Back that I took home was the abiblity to push myself during my runs. I've been averaging 9:00-9:16 minute miles since the relay ended.

I figure, if I keep my heart rate between 150-170, I'm doing a pretty good job pushing myself and not going too slow. Which has been the case.