Following a stay over at Lynne’s (my mentor and friend from work) house which resulted in my best night of sleep ever during the Ragnar--it was only three hours, but I was completely out. In addition, it was great to get some real food in the form of a delicious pasta dinner prepared by friend and annual team supporter, Dan. By 8:10 am I was ready to rock my last leg, a flat 5k through Heber to the Rocky Mountain Middle School. My legs were sure felt heavy for the first mile with a 6:09. I thought that I would fall short of my six minute goal pace. So, I just started to focus on the turnover and the breathing knowing that it was going to take a patience to increase me speed (in other words, my legs had not burst in them at all). My second mile was 5:56 and I knew I had a chance to run a sub-six minute-pace 5k if I kept everything together. Fortunately, I was able to perfectly time the one stop light on the course which help up a number of runners then it turned into an all out sprint to the finish with my third mile being 5:48 followed by a 0:34 tenth. A total time of 18:27, which is a 5:57 pace!!!
Through all three legs (18.1 miles), I was able to achieve a 6:05 pace which is my fastest Wasatch Back ever and my best race since last year’s Deseret New Marathon! After four years, I was finally able to put together three strong legs (i.e., no lateness to an exchange or stomach problems to slow me down this year)!
Most importantly, I was able to build stronger friendships among my colleagues from work as we motivated and pushed each other to succeed over a very challenging course. As a team, we finished our 4th Wasatch Back in a solid time of 31:08:54 (i.e., 9:44 team pace) and I could not be more proud of my teammates the gritty performances that they delivered. | 