Philippians 4:13

Del Sol Relay Day 2

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Location:

Idaho Falls,ID,USA

Member Since:

Apr 21, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

2007 St. George Marathon 2:32:06 (marathon PR)

2014 St. George Marathon 2:32:45 (close to old PR...7 years later!)

2014 Boston Marathon, 2:39:00, 298th OA, 8th AG, 1st Idahoan

2013 Lake Lowell Marathon, 2:48:34 (Course Record), 1st Overall (#6)

2012 Boston Marathon, 2:43:26 (HOT!!), 114th OA, 9th Master OA, 1st Idahoan

2010 B&A Trail Marathon (MD), 2:40:18, 1st Overall (#3), Master's Course Record (still!)

2010 Mesa Falls Marathon, 2:48:55, 1st Overall (#4)

2009 Pocatello Marathon, 2:37:22, 1st Overall (#2)

2011 The M.A.D. Marathon, 2:55:14, 1st OA (training run) (#5)

2006 Teton Dam Marathon, 2:50:48 1st Overall (#1)

2015 Hood to Coast Relay (195 miles), 1st Masters Team (6th OA), 19:59:57, 6:03 avg pace for the team

2008 Ragner Relay Del Sol (182 mile relay) 1st place team 17:04:37, 5:38 pace avg for the team

50,000 lifetime miles from spring 2000 to October 2019.  Computer logged 50,000 miles from Jan 2005 to September 12, 2020. 

Logged (on computer) 49,802 miles (2 x circumference of the earth) in ~5,700 days (8/23/20)

Logged (on computer) 24,901 miles (circumference of the earth) in 2,889 days (11/29/12) http://jeff.fastrunningblog.com/blog-My-alarm-went-off-I-got-up-eventually-/11-29-2012.html  

Short-Term Running Goals:

Keep on running, enjoy it for the sake of running, relax and enjoy life...de-stress.  Stay fit as I enter retirement in < 4years.

No racing, retired.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Keep running until this old body says no, running for fun.

Personal:

 I started running competitively in 2005 and ran my first marathon in 2005. Now retired from competitive racing.

Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer;

answer me, for I need your help.
Protect me, for I am devoted to you.
Save me, for I serve you and trust you.
You are my God.
Be merciful to me, O Lord,
for I am calling on you constantly.
Give me happiness, O Lord,
for I give myself to you.
O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,
so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.
Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord;
hear my urgent cry.
I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble,
and you will answer me.  - Psalm 86:1-7

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Miles:This week: 16.00 Month: 157.50 Year: 484.55
Runs With Moxie Lifetime Miles: 12491.60
Vibram Five Finger Bikila Lifetime Miles: 137.80
Saucony Xodus 2011 Lifetime Miles: 982.61
Saucony Fastwitch White 2019 Lifetime Miles: 1960.23
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Brooks Launch 6 Red 2020 Lifetime Miles: 2227.00
Zoot Solana Tigers Lifetime Miles: 877.00
Nike React Infinity Black Flyknit 2021 Lifetime Miles: 960.90
Nike React Infinity Blue Flynit 2021 Lifetime Miles: 602.00
Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 38 Lifetime Miles: 667.00
Race: Del Sol Relay Day 2 (182 Miles) 17:04:37, Place overall: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.000.006.870.008.87

After catching a little bit of sleep on the ground in a couple of sleeping bags with Ted and Adam, we wake up about 3am and start getting ready for our next leg.  James comes flying in and Adam is off and we are on our way.   This whole rotation is mostly short legs (4 or less) except Steve so it should go fast.

At about 5am, we are getting ready for the handoff.   A women's team from North Dakota is there waiting as well and they ask when we started.  We told them 6pm and the laugh that we started 9 hours behind them and are already passing them! 

So, I get the hand off for my uphill 2.75M leg.  Man it is hard to get going, but again the adrenaline just takes hold and you go as fast as you can.  As this is short, I just put my head down and go, but the hill is worse than I thought.  Splits were: 5:45, 5:44, 5:19 pace for last 0.75 for an avg. 5:35 pace.

total time: 15:24

We head to the Saguaro Lake campground for some more rest after Steve's leg.  Ted, Adam and I again lay out the sleeping bags, this time on hard concrete.  Ted gives up before even starting and Adam and I lay down.  I manage to somehow fall asleep and get about 2 hours of hard sleep (Adam is amazed that I could even drift off).  We awake to sunshine and start getting ready for our last leg, expecting to be way ahead but still wanting to pour it on.  Adam gets the hand off from James and we are away.

I get the hand off from Sasha for the second to last leg and head out for a flat 4.12M leg.  The team heads out to scout the course and get Steve to the start of his leg.  As I am running along, a guy pulls up with a video phone and asks me "So this is what first place looks like, how do you feel?"  I yell and scream for the team, then he asks "So, how fast are you running right now?"  I look at my GPS and yell out "5:14 pace!".  He hollers and takes off (I still don't know who he was).  As I past 1M, I see a dog wandering in the road ahead, I stop to pick up a hefty rock and keep on running towards the dog, cross the road and am ready to let the rock fly if the dog moves.  Luckily he is more wary of me and leaves me alone.  So, I keep powering on.  As I approach mile 3, it is a major intersection and Ted heads out into traffic to clear me a path and the all the cars stop for us!  I turn the corner at 4M and hammer it with my loud dog-bark breathing to kick to the finish.  Splits are: 5:27,5:41, 5:43, 5: 40 and last .12M in 5:18 pace.  Steve is off.  About .5M warmup and 0.5M cool down scouting the course for Steve and running into the finish with the team.

total time: 23:07  (Tangents - 154 miles)

Running with this team was awesome and inspiring.  They all pushed me beyond what I thought I could do as I beat all of my estimated finish times.  They are all great guys who I am glad I got a chance to know better.  Thanks to James and Lybi for their hospitality and support (James you are da man! for driving).  Thanks to Steve H and Sasha for putting this racing team together and to Ted for captaining the team.  An experience I will never forget!

Only real downside...The awards ceremony at the end was a total joke.  We got to the finish before anyone was their (they weren't even done setting up for the event) and they totally messed up all the awards for every category, so we received our dinky little first place batons with nearly no one in attendance.  Google, the third place team, got a new treadmill from Nordictrack for winning the "corporate" event...what a joke.

Comments
From Jon on Mon, Mar 03, 2008 at 21:57:56

Glad to hear you enjoyed the relay. They are an entirely different race than normal races. Most of the time you run the whole race with just you to pace yourself. With no GPS, it is especially interesting since you are never sure of pace or distance, so you don't know how you did till after you are done.

Congrats on the unofficial PR's. Hopefully you'll do WBR with us- if you like RDS, you'll love WBR! Same relay setting, a lot prettier setting and more challenging legs. And bigger and more competitive!

From Brent on Mon, Mar 03, 2008 at 22:16:11

Jeff, great race take down, 1,000 commando points for being part of a crazy fun race team that set a record that may never be broken. Also, another 500 points for the 5K and 10k PR. What a rush just reading the race reports.

Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out

From Cody on Mon, Mar 03, 2008 at 23:18:07

Nice Running! I am glad you had such a great experience. Those relays are so different, but awesome.

From James on Tue, Mar 04, 2008 at 20:27:15

You ran ran awesome! Every time Ted called me with an update you were always way ahead of schedule. I hope you enjoyed your first relay, it was good to finally get you on a team. We did some major clock cleaning last weekend!

From Adam RW on Tue, Mar 04, 2008 at 22:55:16

Jeff, Again I have to say great race and I really enjoyed getting to know you. I look forward to spending more time with you in the future. I really like your telling of the race. You helped me remember some details I'd already forgotten. What are the odds of you signing up and coming down for WBR?

From jtshad on Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 10:56:43

Odds right now for me at WBR are very slim due to family conflicts and my wife's desire to get some house projects done rather than me racing again. I am likely running the Teton Dam marathon the weekend before this and June 21 is most likely when we will have our daughter's 6th birthday party...so it is a no go (and I don't dare even ask).

From Adam RW on Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 11:03:29

Understood about WBR. It's a shame but don't sweat it. There will be other races for us to tear it up again...

From Jim on Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 17:40:53

Great job on winning the relay! Sounds like everyone did an awesome job. I found this blog: http://championseverywhere.blogspot.com/2008/03/sashas-revenge.html from someone that was on the second place team. Thought you might find it interesting.

From jtshad on Thu, Mar 06, 2008 at 09:41:11

Thanks Jim. I am pretty sure Sasha knows this guy and we talked with him at the relay. That team seemed to be nice guys, we just did not get to see them much and never did talk with them after the race.

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