Wasatch Back Relay Recap

The Wasatch Back Relay has been in my plans since December and has been the race I have looked forward to more than any other race. It probably was one of the top 5 experiences of my life. It could be described as a marathon, scout camp, girls camp, and frat party rolled into a day and a half. The only person I knew real well in my van was my neighbor and friend Brandon Moses. I had graduated from high school with his older sister Angie, but we didn’t figure this out until we had our first team meeting. Angie was on the team along with Megan (Brandon’s wife’s friend), Amy (Megan’s friend), and Charlie (Brandon’s boss). After 32 hours together, we are all pretty good friends.

(Megan, Rob, Brandon, Angie, Amy, Charlie)

We met at Brandon’s at 11:00, wanting to be in Liberty and ready to go by 1:00 PM. We waited and waited and waited, then finally began running at 3:15 in the afternoon. Angie was first to run and she did very well considering the heat and the time we were waiting. During Angies run we stopped in the Maverick parking lot. I was so hungry. I wanted something hot and with a little more mass than a cliff bar or energy gel. I looked over the Maverick hot case and the only thing that looked good was a jumbo jalepeno and cheese corn dog. My team gave me soooo much grief about eating that thing 90 minutes before my run. It was so good. I would eat it again if I had to do it over again; maybe I would eat two. The exchange went from Angie to Amy to Megan to Charlie. All of them ran fairly close to 8 minute miles in 90 degree heat.

Then it was the moment of truth: me and old Snowbasin road, oh yeah the jalepeno corn dog in my gut too. My goal was to take down the next 3.8 miles and 900 feet of elevation gain in 35 minutes. With the heat, I knew it was going to be a tough goal. I tried to pick out a runner ahead of me to pass. I would push until I passed the runner then I would try to find another and so on. It was going pretty well, I had passed four people a mile into the leg. I pushed hard until I reached the summit at the 3 mile mark. My watch was reading 29 minutes it would be hard to make my goal but I pushed as hard I could. I ended up finishing the leg in 36:20. I passed 9 people and was passed by 3.

Brandon took us the rest of the way up to Snowbasin. He actually went a lot further because the second van missed the exchange. They met Brandon as he approached Trappers Loop. We rested for the evening at Shastas parents in Peterson. The spaghetti and hospitality was great. I tried to catch some sleep but that was not happening, so I sat in the front yard and watched runners pass by. At 11:00 we were back on the road up to East Canyon Dam for our next exchange.

At 12:15 we were waiting in the van for the exchange to go to Angie when we got a frantic call. Angie had dropped her back light into the porta jon and needed a new one up at the exchange. Shortly after that, a runner was up at the exchange without a bib looking at everyone’s bibs. Suddenly she sees Angies bib # 500 and slaps the band on her wrist and says go 500. Angie then produced probably the best quote of the race, “who the hell was that!” The runner who was going to exchange to her had been injured so this girl had finished leg. Angie ran a strong leg up around East Canyon Dam. Amy ran 7 miles downhill into Henefer. Her husband was pacing her on bike. At the end he was really cold because he had only been breaking the entire way down the hill. Megan had close to a 10 mile leg from Henefer to Coalville.

At 4:00 AM in Coalville, I exited the porta jon to find the Nutraceutical Mullet Mobile. I helped design and print the mullet wrap they used on their vehicle. It took quite a bit of time to pull off, but it broke up the monotony of everyday label printing. I was fired up because Nutra started almost four hours after us. Their runner was about 5 minutes out of the exchange. I told the guys in my van not to let anyone in a mullet wig pass you. I knew they would pass our team, but I wanted it to be while the other van was running.

I took the exchange in Wanship and felt totally energized. I was running on zero sleep, an energy drink and the fear of being passed by my co-workers. As I approached Rockport dam, I met up with a member of the Davis High X country team. He was keeping a strong pace and I just filed in behind him tried to keep up. I was going faster than I had planned, but I was passing several people and felt great. Soon I could see the exchange outside of Peoa and I turned on the after burners. At the end of the exchange, I looked at my watch. I had just run 7.3 miles with 600 feet of elevation gain in 59 minutes! (My goal was 1:05) I was so pumped! I passed 15 people and was passed by 5.

At the Oakley rodeo grounds I tried to sleep. It wasn’t going real well. I think I slept for about 90 minutes. When I got up, my stomach was pretty upset. I needed to eat but didn’t know if my stomach would take anything. I tried fruit, cliff bar, pasta salad and nothing was settling. We stopped at the Smiths in Heber for our final exchange. I wandered the isles looking for anything that sounded good. The only thing that even remotely sounded good was Canadian Bacon. Once again the van thought I was crazy. So I didn’t eat it for a while. I finally was feeling so bad that I decided I couldn’t feel much worse. So I threw it down the hatch. Within ten minutes I was feeling so much better. Megan started the ascent up Gaurdsmen Pass. There was a funny moment when she passed a runner on the U of U team. We had to talk trash because she went to BYU. Charlie had the second leg up the pass and it got brutal. Everyone was walking and he passed dozens up people.

I took the exchange and ran another half mile up hill to the summit. I was in the clouds in the middle of a thunderstorm. I decided I needed to get out of there quickly. The road was so steep downhill, it was hard to put on the brakes. I was loving the down hill until I arrived right below The Stein Erickson Lodge. The road suddenly went back up hill at a 15% grade. It was a huge shock to the legs. I went into pass people mode and did alright but it was by far the hardest half mile of the race for me. I then realized I had a few miles left and the race was over for me. I gave it everything I had, which is difficult going steeply downhill. I mainted control and handed off to Brandon in the Deer Valley parking lot. He ran his leg so strong that we barely had time to park and get to the finish line.

Our team finished in 32:38. I was so happy with how every runner in our van performed. Everyone trained and I thought we got along pretty good. Now I need to find something to motivate me like this race did.