Wasatch Back Marathon- Relay Style- GOALS

The 13.1 mile workout with Darcy was awesome yesterday! I use that word a lot it seems like. Will someone send me a thesaurus? Anyway, I paced Darcy to a new 10K PR time and half marathon PR time. Not a bad way to start your day, eh? We ran the first 6.2 miles in 46:46 with a 7:32/mile average, and then we finished the 13.1 in 1:43 with a 7:56/mile pace. This was just a training run- it gets me stoked to see what we could do in a race!!! Obviously those Yasso's are helping us.

When we finished, however, my legs were not loving me. My IT Band felt more tight and sore than it has in a long time, and 3 days of running in a row did a number on my foot that has been sore. So what did I do? ICE BATH.

I turned the faucet on as cold as it could go and filled the bath up until it would completely cover my legs (quads included). Then, I dumped in my entire thing of ice from my ice machine in the freezer. After I cranked up the tunes to get my mind off the pain, I hopped in, and....

IT WASN'T AS BAD AS I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE!!!

I'm totally going to do this after all of my hard/long runs. It made a huge difference in my legs for the rest of the day, and today I'm not even sore. Bonus!

It's a good thing I'm not sore because I have a race tomorrow. The inaugural Wasatch Back Marathon is taking place right in my own back yard at 6AM tomorrow morning. The difficult course runs from Soldier Hollow in Midway, over to the Wasatch State Park, up Snake Creek, over Cascade Springs and back down to Soldier Hollow to the finish. I'm excited to do this in a relay because, frankly, running this on my own would make me want to jump off a cliff-
With elevation gain like this, it's not exactly a PR course :).

The course is sure to be stunning. With all of the water we've been having, the mountains are still so lush and green. These pictures are from the actual course and were taken only a couple of weeks ago (so as to tempt you with lovely views so that you'll run next year)-


I'm running the first leg- 8.8 miles. I will have a total elevation gain of 1109 feet. I do believe that I get to enjoy the first mile or so with a loss :). It's not until that last mile, when I'm beat for racing at near 10K pace for 8 miles, that I'm going to want to die.
Darcy is running the last leg, and I'm so excited to run with our middle runner. Her name is Sara Edwards and I first met her when I ran the Toughest 10K last year. She placed 1st in women overall, and has spanked me in every race that I've seen her in since then. I knew she ran the Utah Valley Marathon in June, so I busted out my super spy abilities and checked out her time on line.

3:26! She placed 6th in her age division at Utah Valley.

I am still feeling humbled that she asked me to be on her relay team for this marathon and I hope I don't let her down!

My Goals are-
1- To run the first 5 miles at under a 7:40/mile pace.
2- Run the last 2.8 miles up Snake Creek to Mill Flat WITHOUT STOPPING. I know I made this goal for Guardsman, and didn't do it, so now is my chance to redeem myself!