It all started at 3:25 AM when my alarm went off; I got up and got dressed. I drank some apple juice, and was out the door by 3:50. I drove up I-15 to Layton where I actually found the parking lot by following a car that I assumed was going to the race (where else would he be going at 4:20 AM??). I got on the bus and was surprised that my good friend Ron got on right after me. Ron is great, we met last year at a run with Dean Karnazes. We have not talked much since that but we picked up right where we left off last year. That is one cool thing about the running community, once you meet someone you are friends for life. We dove out to Antelope Island and waited to get roped up. We had a pre-race meeting and then tied ourselves off for the next 26.2 miles.
When we started it was still dark and I was glad I had my headlamp on. The rope situation was actually a lot more comfortable than I thought it would be. It was tied around our waists. There was a lot of space and plenty of room to not be hitting or tripping over others. The first water station we stopped at took close to 25 minutes to get through. The first 7 miles took 2 hours to run. At this point we were still on the island and a lot of people started complaining about the pace and how much walking was being done. I tried to tell some folks around me to change their attitude and not worry. After some talk of mutiny and flipping the herd people came together and came to some common ground.
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| Out on Antelope Island when we were all hydrated and full of energy. You cant see them but there are a gazillion mosquitoes around us. |
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| The cars that drove by us that had no idea what was going on was one of my favorite parts of this whole thing. |
At mile 11 or so we had 4 people drop out and we continued going toward the record. We, as a group started doing a 5 minute run and 1 minute walk for the rest of the race (for the most part). We started going through the aid stations faster, as more people either held it in, went on the side of the road, or accepted the dehydration. The volunteers at the aid stations were awesome! So helpful and patient with 82 tired and low on patience runners. The heat was.......well hot. I was glad to be by Ron and the other people behind and in front of us. Conversation was funny for the most part and awkward for the other ( in a good way....) (thanks kilt guy for the TMI). Getting to the finish was worth the run and a lot of fun. My wife was there with my pacer and so were my in-laws and parents. The best part of the finish was finishing, having enough people for the record, and the ice cream sandwiches.
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| The Herd |
The lessons I learned from this run:
1- Don't mess with the grumpy ladies behind you, they don't take no crap from anyone.
2- There are a ton of nice people who you can talk to for hours and not get bored.
3- Patience is an endless lesson, I am always learning from others on how to deal with stuff and the moral of most "stuff" is show a bit more patience.
4- 5 out of 5 mutinies don't actually happen.
5- You can have a lot of fun by just trying something new and crazy, but you have to TRY!
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| Interesting to see everyone's different facial expression, or non-facial expression |
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| Me and Ron at the.....FINI line?? Here is link to a video of what the race was like. You can't see me because I am in the back, but it gives you a pretty good idea of what was going on. Video
Daily Mileage = 26.2
Yearly Mileage = 1384.7
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This was pretty impressive to see! Good job!
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