It was 85*, and a very dry wind was blowing. After my wonderful pit crew gave me my first water break at mile 2, I opted for water every mile, and I definitely needed it! I did relatively well for the first four miles, but I quickly ran out of steam after that. I was taking more and more walk breaks. I started playing tricks with my mind, but they only lasted a short while. Finally, I decided that I would run across twenty cracks in the road before walking again. I managed to occupy myself by creating an elaborate bunch of rules in my head: the crack must extend across my entire lane of traffic (no little cracks allowed), two cracks couldn’t be too close together (in other words, if I were to lay down between them and my head/feet would reach the cracks, they would be too close), etc. If the cracks didn’t meet all of the criteria, then I couldn’t count it. So, I would run past 20 of these cracks before allowing myself to walk. Then, on my next run segment, I would run past 21 of these cracks, and so on. It was silly, but it kept me running. I may or may not have been running farther, but I was at least counting higher. Whatever it takes, right?
During this time, I passed some of Lake Mead. I didn’t even realize it because I was just trying so hard to run. What I did see looked pretty and cold and I wished like crazy that I was swimming in it. I did manage to have one road kill (which officially tied my entire experience at Wasatch Back) during the last uphill portion. It was during this time that I realized that it was so stinking hot and dry that I could no longer make spit.
As with most runs, there were words of encouragement back and forth between runners. One guy walked with me for a few feet, and we talked about the heat, the hill, the difficulty. When he jogged away, I noticed that he was wearing an ultra’s bib. Additionally, he wasn’t even winded. I think that he just stopped to be nice because he surely wasn’t tired or exerting himself like the rest of us were! Nice…
Finally, the exchange point appeared around a bend in the road. Hallelujah! I managed to run in (because I couldn’t let everyone see me walk on my FIRST leg) and exchange with Justin. I immediately wanted to barf, but it passed fairly quickly. Carol met me to walk me back to the van, so after almost catching my breath, we headed on our way. While running, I couldn’t wait to just cool down, so I got my towel out of my bag, dunked it in the cooler, and draped it across my shoulders. It was icy cold (which I normally hate), and it worked marvelously! I kept it on for about an hour!
Before leaving the exchange point, we ran into two coworkers, Jack and Chels, and talked about the race and other chit chat. They were very jealous of us due to our hottie-hot-hot teammates (they had just watched Justin run away, along with almost every other woman at the exchange point), and “HELL YEAH” was the response when I asked if they would like tickets to the show!
My over all pace was pretty slow at 12:34mpm. Carol keeps trying to make me feel better about it given the circumstances, but I’m disappointed.
After Justin’s leg (which he refused water for the entire time and ran like a machine), Sterling took over. I finally talked Justin into a few sips after the exchange because he looked white and dehydrated. Sterling spent his leg admiring the women on the course and professed to have fallen in love with one of them (and I must agree, she had very nice legs). Then, Carol took over on a long and difficult downhill – which she totally rocked. Night was falling and we were treated to views of a nice sunset. Carol exchanged with Brady who was a little speed demon (and quite an accomplished runner having already finished 12 marathons before his 19th birthday!)
All the while, we had Chelsea – a high school basketball player and daughter of a van #1 teammate – with us. She proved to be a great pit crew and a fun girl to be around. We sat around in the dark and waited for Brady to see if he needed anything while talking about the future and family and school. While we were talking, poor Brady passed right by us!
Brady’s exchange happened at a major exchange point where van #2 passes off again to van #1. This took place at a big park/picnic area on the shores of Lake Mead. I was a bit unimpressed with the parking signage and the fact that a volunteer directed us right down the boat ramp. Had I been any more tired, we would have driven right into the water!
Here, we were surprised with several pizza’s and burgers courtesy of Greg and his friend. Unfortunately, they were delivered just minutes before Greg started running again, so he didn’t get to partake for six-ish miles (which were ALL uphill). We talked with van #1 folks for a while before moving on to find someplace to sleep.
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