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Barrel to Keg Relay - Leg 7

July 14, 2018 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 90s? Hot!

Comments:
My second year in a row doing Barrel to Keg. It's a pretty sweet, and "easy" 70-mile relay from Philomath, OR to the coast at Newport. I got roped in via Ricky Knutson, the [now former, I guess] CGHS track coach. He's been on a team with some Philomath-Willamette U guys (all around age 40) for several years. I was a fill-in for Thornton (also an outsider) and I ran again.

I agreed to run in several months ago, only to bow out when things got really bad, at the end of May. However, upon my "miracle recovery", I got back in.

This year we had 7 guys (the max), and we were a master's team. For years we'd been the second place overall, which gets nothing. Masters wins beer, so we were hoping to win.

However, age takes its toll: nearly all of us were a bit slower than last year, and one of our new additions (new to me, at least) was a lot slower.

I ran Legs 7 and 14 -- the anchor legs. Both were 5.9 miles. So I sat around most of the day and took splits and monitored the competition. The new dude led off...and promptly got us, like, 8 or 9 minutes behind! Yeesh! In like 5 miles! We scraped our way back and by the time it was my turn, we were even with the top Master's team (and tied for 2nd).

However, the other master's team -- a long-time team from Corvallis -- had a new ringer! We started on a light downhill in the gravel roads through the coast range. I saw sub-6s on my watch, but the guy was flying in front of me. First mile in 6:11, and he put probably 15s on me! Yeesh.

It felt too fast, and it got hot, quick. I dialed it back -- and even felt a bit of heart palpitations for a bit -- but still managed to run 6:30s. But by then this dude (apparently a faster ultrarunner from Corvallis - not sure of his name) put three minutes on me, in 5.9 miles! Yeesh! Crushed it.

So from there, we went around the order again. And we bled time. Went from 3 back all the way to 13+ min back.

Felt strong but I was a little worried for leg 2. Could definitely feel both the hill work and the 1500m in my legs.