I Survived the Wasatch Back

My biggest fan was my precious little Kaylie! She was at the finish line and cheered me on all the way! I love her to death!

Well, chalk this up for one of the stupidest things I've ever done but at the same time one of the better accomplishments I've ever achieved. I ran in the Wasatch Back this past weekend which is a 12-man relay from Logan to Park City. Our firm put together a group of 12 runners (some of us very much out of shape and coming out of a long busy season) and that is how we became Team Tanner! Each runner had to run 3 different legs of the race. Our team had a 12 noon start time and we finished 27 hours and 50 minutes later! We ended up in 205th place out of 545 teams (that finished). We ended up being a little slower than our original goal, but the key fact is that we finished!!!

Here is how my three legs went:

Leg 1 - 3.4 miles in Eden, Utah: I ran my first leg around 5:30pm on Friday. It was mostly flat with just a slight uphill grade for the last mile. Overall it was a pretty easy leg compared to what others had to run but the fact that it was over 90 degrees took more out of me than I had expected. I had my music blaring at the start and thought I could run forever! About a mile into the race, I got passed by a few girls (this was a common occurrence throughout the race) and realized I wasn't all that!

Leg 2 - 7.1 miles into Henefer, Utah: I ran my second leg really early in the morning (around 2am) and loved every second of it. It was so much cooler and mostly downhill. It was the first time that I even considered running that early in the morning and it was also the first time I have ran with a headlamp on. The only real mistake I made during the 2nd leg was that I hadn't tied my shoes real tight and running downhill made my shoes slide a little each step I took and I got a couple really nice blisters on my feet which became a factor in the next leg!

Leg 3 - 6.1 miles from Charleston to Midway: My last leg was a mental challenge more than anything. I feel that I let my team down on this one because I let my blisters be an excuse to slow it down and not push it. Even though my left foot was bleeding by the end, I did have to swallow my pride and walk during the leg. In the beginning, my goal was to not walk but I couldn't help it. I had no energy left (were was my cousin Kyle when I needed him?) I ended up finishing a little slower than I wanted to but I was thrilled that I was done. I feel really bad becasue this was the one leg that Amy and Kaylie came to watch along with other members of my family. I feel bad that the one they had to watch was my worst one! Oh well.

Overall, it was a great experience and I wouldn't change it for anything. I'm actually slightly addicted to the idea of really getting into shape. That doesn't mean I'm going to go crazy and start training for marathons or anything, we all know that won't happen, but it really was fun to get out and run for a purpose.

Here are a few pictures from the race!

Team Tanner: Top Row (L to R) - Jeff Carpenter, Brad Olsen, Reed Chase, Mike Ekstrom, Jeff Bickel, Marc Metcalf, Nate Heward. Bottom Row (L to R) - Mark Erickson, Rob Anderson, Adam Tullis, Tyler Ploeger, James Hinkel

Here's a picture of my dad giving me a nice motivational speach before my Midway run. As motivational as it was, it didn't help! Sorry!

And I'm off! I borrowed a Garmin watch that showed me my pace and distance. It was a pretty cool watch to let me know when I needed to pick it up!!!

Here's a picture of me and James "the Peach" Hinkle at the finish in Park City.

Another picture at the finish line of me and Adam Tullis. It was about this time that I vowed never to run again!!!