Wasatch Back Race Report!

I picked up Lyn and Amy at the airport around noon. We came back to my house, where my mom had made us lunch, and hung out for a while. It was the end of our first week in the new house, and while Lyn and Amy were here, we had someone over adding a phone jack in the basement and two other people outside fixing our air conditioning. I was leaving my mom at home in charge of the kids, and she was expecting at least three more service calls while I was gone. Moving is so much fun!

After a couple of hours, Leilani arrived. Then our chariot (Linsey's Yukon) appeared. We somehow stuffed eight women, food for 30, at least ten bags and a whole bunch of sleeping bags into the van. A couple of hours later, we showed up at the Olive Garden in Logan, where everyone chatted for dinner, and against my better judgment I ordered Alfredo Sauce on my pizza. I know I can't eat cheese or ice cream the night before I run, so why do I always do it? I'm just dumb, I guess.

That evening we had a team meeting (where I only got called out a couple of times to put out fires at home) and decorated the cars. I was worried about falling asleep at the hotel, but miraculously I fell asleep quickly and managed to stay asleep all night (or at least until our wake up call came at 5:30). We went downstairs, got the vans loaded (ours felt much less squishy than last year, which was nice) and went to the finish line.

Last year I was runner 1, so I was the one who kicked off the race. It was a little strange to be the last runner in the van. I watched Lyn, then Arlynda, then Marinda, Marie and Megan all hop out of the van and rock their legs before I got my chance. A little aside: our van got along really well, which made all of the hours fun and Cara was a great driver. So huge thanks to Cara! My first leg was about a mile up to the top of Avon Pass, then about six more down the other side of the mountain. Last year I had a similar leg as runner 1, and I felt the familiar dry mouth feeling as I began my ascent. But I just tried to turn my head from the dust of the passing cars and soon found myself at the summit. The rest of the leg was amazing-- I felt like I was flying. It was a serious adrenalin rush to go down the side of a mountain on a dirt path as fast as I possibly could. I finished that leg in around 49 minutes, I think, and it was 6.9 miles. Alfredo's revenge hit after that leg of the race, and I was happy to get some immodium in my system. Ugh.

Then we had some time up at Solitude. We staked out a quiet spot and I think I dozed. I know I drooled on a leather bench. Marinda farted a lot. But we love her anyway. By the time we got on the road again I was sunburned. I brought the sunblock (heck, I bought the sunblock) but I did not put it on. Now I'm peeling in an oh-so-lovely way.

As the evening wore on, I watched Lyn rock the leg that kicked my butt last year, Arlynda meander through the twilight, and the rest of the girls make their way through the darkness. I was most nervous about my second leg, an 8.1 mile climb that started at 11pm. Actually, it turned out to be a fantastic leg. It was dark enough that I couldn't anticipate the hills that were coming up, and I've never seen such bright stars. I had promised myself that I would walk when the hills got hard, but I found that I didn't walk at all until after mile 6, and then only a couple of times to catch my breath. When I reached the exchange, I was feeling a little giddy-- the hard part was done!

After that, we returned to Morgan where Arlynda had arranged for us to sleep in her aunt's basement. I'm not sure if I actually ever slept, I was still feeling high from my last run, and I had decided not to take off my clothes and sweated all night. When I woke up at 4am, I decided I'd rather take a shower than sleep for an extra 15 minutes, and I think a shower was at least as refreshing as the night's sleep. Pretty soon we were on the road again.

By the time we started our last legs, we were pretty punchy. We started playing the "hide the dollar" game where our van would hide a dollar along the route and our runner would try to find it. At one point, Marinda, Lyn and I had led the van to hell by playing dirty SNL songs on my phone and coming up with risque names for future WB teams, and we turned on Primary music to return the spirit of reverence to the car. Actually, we blasted it. And I think we caught a bird from a fellow runner for our efforts. Like I said, pretty much anything seemed hysterical by that point.

My last leg was 3.1 miles (actually 3.26) through Heber. It was an easy leg, great except that I had to stop for a RED LIGHT (grrrr!) for at least a minute to cross Heber Main. I finished in 22:06 and was pretty happy with that time considering that it was about half a mile longer than I originally thought it would be (it was listed as 2.8 on the spreadsheet). It's probably bragging to say this, but I'm going to do it anyway: I didn't keep track of how many people I passed, but I only got passed once. By a fast, fast man. Yay.

After my last leg was over our van went over to Granny's, where we met up with a team who had already finished. We were very jealous! My mom and kids showed up, and it was back to being a mom for me. We drove back to my house, showered, and had a (very) little bit of down time before heading back to Park City to meet our team at the finish. Like the others said, by the time we crossed the finish line, there was a torrential downpour with hail, and it was 46 degrees. Eddie (who had been finishing up his job in Texas) arrived in Salt Lake just about the same time we crossed the finish line, and I was eager to get home and reunite my family.

It was a great race. A crazy race. And it came at a crazy point in my life, but I'm so glad I did it again and can't wait for next year.