Dee's running blog

I ran the trails above Ogden.  There was a group of 9 or 10 of us.  We left Rainbow Gardens at the mouth of Ogden Canyon and climbed up to the Bonneville Shoreline trail.  From there continued south five plus miles and then turned around and made our way back to Rainbow Gardens.  My right hip was causing me a lot of discomfort.  I think it was because of all the climbing we did today. 

I ran with Todd and Mike.  We left Todd's house and went down Chambers to Goldenwest and then got on Washington and ran down to 40th. Turned up 40th to Adams and then up Adams to Burch Creek. Went up Burch Creek turned north again did a loop past Goldenwest and then back to Chambers and up to Todds.  The first half was downhill and I ran in the seven minute range.  Slowed down to 9 on the way back.

I ran in Idaho Falls.  I started on the paved trail that runs along the Snake River near the temple.  I went down under the falls and then up the river a ways before returning to the point I started.  This was a beautiful run.  I ran a couple of the miles in the 7:15 range and the other two in the 8:15 range. 

I ran with Todd, Mike and Quenton.  We started at Sherwood Hills and ran down to Mantua.  Went around the lake and then down Sardine Canyon to the Wal-Mart in Brigham City.  I hadn't done this run since last fall.  We did it so often that I got sick of it.  I forgot what a great run this is with great scenery as well as uphill, a lot of downhill and five miles of flat dirt trails.  I ran the downhill portion between a 7:30 and 8:00 minute pace.  Stayed right around 8:30 pace around the lake.

I ran a loop in my neighborhood.  I stayed right a a 9 minute pace.  I was surprised how sore my calves and shins were after Sunday's run.  The good new is no hip pain.  Hopefully that's gone for good.

I ran an easy 3 in the neighborhood.  My calves are still pretty sore.

I ran in Island Park.  I left my place, went down to Cascade and over to Big Springs Road.  Ran down until I hit 3 1/2 and then turned around and went back.  Unfortunately I didn't see any wildlife, which is unusual the time of the morning I ran. 

Todd and I left his house, went out to Washington and South to where it intersects with Harrison.  Took Harrison to Eastwood and down to Combe, back to Harrison.  Ran Harrison to Old Post, took Old Post to 4800, crossed Harrison, went to Glasmann, took Glasmann to Chambers and back to Todds.  Had a great run.  Our fastest mile was 7:17.  Averaged under 8 until we hit the Glasmann hill. 

Ran with Todd. Left hia house and went down Chambers, crossed Washington, went by Friendship, the Armory and then over to Ogden Regional and down the toll road a bit, then turned and looped back.  Ran an 8 minute pace

Ran the first leg of the Wasatch Back Relay today. I was the third runner in Van 1. We had a crazy experience which I  will talk about on tomorrow's blog since everything happened after midnight.  As far as the first let everything went fine without any major problems.  We had a 4:00 start time, which I thought was a little late, but our team projections had us under 24 hours.  It was still pretty hot when I started my leg.  The truck mirror said 86 degrees.  I think the heat got to me as I really slowed down as the the run progressed.  My miles were,

1.  7:13

2. 7:32

3. 8:06

4. 8:14

5. 8:44

.6 5:13-which was a 8:26 pace.

I never run in the heat (we haven't had much heat this year anyway) and it felt very suffocating which I think affected my pace a great deal.  Anyway, I got through it and I was only two minutes behind my projection, so I wasn't feeling too bad about it. Overall pace was 8:02, I was hoping to be in the 7:15 range.

Day 2 of the Wasatch Back Relay and things got crazy.  Runner 6 finished his leg and it was obvious that he wasn't feeling well.  He ran an extremely fast leg down Avon.  We had a difficult time keeping up with him in the vehicle.  It was obvious though as he came into the exchange that he wasn't doing well.  Vehicle 2 took over and we went to find something to eat.  We tried two places in the valley and they were both closed so we drove down to the Oaks in Ogden Canyon.  We went in and ordered and runner 6 said he wasn't feeling well and was going to the truck.  His sister who was runner 5 went with him.  A few minutes later she came back and said he wanted her to take him to the emergency room.  One of our team members is a doctor so he went out to the truck to check on him.  A couple of minutes later he came back and said, "guys, we have to go. Now."  We had just started eating, so we grabbed our food, found the waitress, paid the bill and ran to the truck.  Runner 6 was in extreme pain and in and out of consciousness.  I won't use his name since this is a public board and this is a personal matter. Todd drove down to the hospital.  As we were driving along Harrison Blvd. in Ogden we approached an intersection with a red light.  We could see that the cross light had just turned red and there was no traffic coming so Todd continued through the intersection.  The light turned green as we were about half way through.  Unfortunately a police officer witnessed it and pulled us over.  He didn't approach the vehicle and after a couple of minutes someone yelled out that he have a medical emergency.  He got out of his car walked up and told us he'd follow us to the hospital.  Our doctor was on the phone with the hospital so they were waiting for us when we arrived.  They helped runner 6 into a wheelchair and took him into the hospital.  He was doubled over in extreme pain and was incoherent.  The officer watched all of this and then began to question Todd about why if we had a medical emergency we didn't call an ambulance.  Todd explained that we had a doctor with us and we knew we could get to the hospital before an ambulance could get up the canyon to the Oaks and then back to the hospital.  This discussion/argument went on for a couple of minutes with the officer being very confrontational.  He finally took Todd's driver's license and said he'd be back.  At this point, we were all worried and stressed about runner 6's health, pissed off at the officer over his confrontational approach and worried that Todd was getting a ticket.  One of our team members is a felony prosecutor and he was getting readyto pull out the badge and tell the officer that he was out line with the way he was treating us.  I told everyone to not worry about it, that if we got a ticket I'd get it taken care of.  I found it ironic that out of a prosecutor, a doctor and a corporate executive, it was the criminal defense attorney telling everyone to not get upset with the police officer and to let it go.  I've just seen too many of these situations end badly.  After a few more minutes the officer returned, chewed Todd out again for not calling an ambulance and for going through the red light early and then gave him his license back without a ticket. 

Now we had the dilemna of what to do.  Runner 6 was being admitted into the hospital,  his sister was justifiably upset and worried and had no desire to continue. Plus, we were in her vehicle.  To complicate it we received a call from vehicle 2 informing us that their last runner had just started.  I live less than a mile from McKay Dee Hospital so my wife brought up one of our vehicles in case we needed it.  In the end, runner 5 sent us with her truck and her husband came to get her.  This was a huge blow to our team because runner 6 was our fastest runner and runner 5 was our second fastest female.  However, under the circumstances that was the least of our concerns. We left McKay Dee and drove up to Snowbasin trying to get there on time without any more run-ins with law enforcement.  We pulled up next to the exchange and were immediately told by a law enforcement officer (who I know and is a great guy) that we couldn't park there.  After we explained he said "just hurry."  One of our runners from vehicle 2 was there and informed us that our runner was less than 200 yards away.  Todd hurried and put on his vest and headlamp and got in the exchange just as our runner came in and he was off. 

I ran the third leg which goes up towards Morgan.  I started the run at 1:10 a.m. and had a pretty uneventful and slower than hoped for run.  My miles were,

1. 7:37

2. 7:31

3. 7:37

4. 7:54

.9 7:06

I threw up right after I came into the exchange.  Looking at those times I'm not sure why as I usually have to run a faster pace to hit that point. I finished vomitting and then we met back up with runner 5.  They were still doing tests on runner 6 and didn't know what was wrong.  Runners 4 and 5 ran their legs.  Runner 5 tweaked her knee on her run and informed us she was done but that we could use her truck.  Todd ran runner 6's leg up to East Canyon.  After vehicle 2 took over we took runner 5 home, got a couple of hours of sleep and then the four of us that were left in our vehicle drove up to Rockport to take over for our third leg.  We found out more information from the hospital about runner 6.  He has some medical problems, but as I understand it, he'll be okay.  I probably shouldn't say any more than that.

We're a mixed team and runner 5 was the only female in our vehicle so Malinda from vehicle 2 got in with us so she could run runner 5's third leg.  I ran my third leg and felt pretty good about it considering everything that had happened over the last 24 hours.  My times were,

1. 7:30

2. 8:20

3. 7:42

4. 7:26

5. 7:36

.15--1:03

I had a 7:42 pace for the leg.  Normally I would have been relieved because my race was over.  However, I had volunteered to run runner 6's final leg and only had two legs in between.  Malinda ran runner 5's leg which was all down hill.  She pulled a hammy and was in obvious pain and was crying as she finished.  She gutted it out though.  I then ran the third leg for runner 6.  It was 3.6 miles.  It was 11:39 when I started and it was getting warm.  My miles were,

1. 7:23

2. 8:21

3. 8:20

.60--4:14 which was a 7:32 pace. 

Overall, I had a 7:57 pace for this leg.  Vehicle 2 took over and we gave Malinda back.  She was in obvious pain.  We tried to talk her out of running her final leg which was the second leg in vehicle 2.  We told her not to risk a serious injury but she was determined to finish her legs.  We stayed with them in case anything happened and we needed to take another runner to the hospital.  She gutted out 6 plus miles, passing runners the entire way.  It was definitely one of the toughest things I've ever seen.  She was barely walking and in a lot of pain when she finished.  I hope she didn't do any serious damage. 

We left vehicle two after Malinda finished and drove to Park City.  We didn't realize that they changed the finish area so we parked up by the old finish line and got on the path at the same place where the runners running the final leg do.  About a half mile later we realized we had screwed up.  We decided to keep going and jogged down to the finish area.  We met up with the rest of our team and all ran in together.

We took 47th overall and third in our division which is the over 30 mixed.  Our goal was to break 24 hours and win our division.  We missed both, both I was extremely proud of our team's effort.  Considering all of the adversity I thought we did great.  Our team consists of housewives and professionals.  None of us ran in college and only two ran short distances in high school.  We have 33 kids between us and we all run when we can to stay in shape. We'll try again next year to break that 24 hour mark.

I ran the South Ogden Days 5K.  I wasn't going to run it since I was still a little sore from the Wasatch Back, but at the last minute decided to show some civic pride and run my city's 5k. I ran a mile warm up in 8:34.  My legs were definitely tight.  I decided at that point to do this as a "fun" run and stay in the 8 minute range.  When they lined us up at the start I sized up the crowd.  There were several hundred peope, but other than a couple of high school kids, it looked like I ought to be able to run with the rest of them.  My plan changed when the siren went off and my competitive nature took over.  I stayed with the top group for the first mile.  The two high school kids pulled ahead but other than that I was with the top 5 or 6 other runners.  The first mile is gradual uphill.  I did it in 7:04, but I was gassed. The second mile is slightly uphill the first half mile and then starts to come back down.  I ran that one in 7:52.  I got passed by 6 or 7 runners during that mile.  The last mile is a gradual down hill.  It was on a road that I ran a couple of times a week and should have been able to crank down to a 6:45 pace without a lot of trouble.  However, it just wasn't there. I ran it in 7:27.  I held off the rest of the pack though.  I finished in 23:07.  All things considered I felt pretty good, although if I would have slowed down the first mile I probably would have had a faster time.  Took first place in my age division and got a backpack and a ribbon. 

Todd came down and we ran from my house up to 45th made our way to Monroe and then up to McKay Dee.  Went on the trail around the hospital and then over to 40th.  Down 40th to Adams and then back to 45th and to my house.  We took it easy had just under a nine minute pace.

I ran today from our place in Centennial Shores in Island Park.  I had one of the best runs I've had in a long time.  The sun was just coming up over Bills Island as I ran along the Island Park Reservoir. Beautiful morning, very enjoyable run.  Took it easy on the dirt roads through Centennial Shores.  Had a 9:06 pace for the run.