Daniel Olsen
Race Report
Wasatch Back Relay
June 22nd-23rd
I haven't written a race report in a pretty long time. I
enjoyed running in high school a lot this year. Sure there were a few
disappointments, but there were good parts that made up for it. In cross
country I normally ran in the late 17 minute range for my 5k's. I was a
little disappointed about my region race because originally I was the 4th
fastest in the region, but at region I finished 15th. I didn't individually
qualify, and our team got 5th in region, so I didn't get to run at state
this year. In track, I was a lot more lucky. My best time in the mile was
a 4:49. At region, I had a pretty good 2 mile race, and qualified for state
by only .35 seconds. I was happy that our boys team won region. At state,
I got a 14 second PR in the 2 mile of 10:19.
This summer, I got to take a short break from running. After a
few weeks I then started up on my cross country summer training. During my
second week of training, I got to participate in an awesome race called the
Wasatch Back Relays. It's a pretty cool team race in Utah that can be
either on the 126, or 176 mile route. I got the opportunity to be on a team
of some of the fastest High School runners in Cache Valley and Box Elder
County. There are 12 runners that can participate on a team. It was pretty
cool because I've run against a lot of these kids in middle school and high
school.
On Thursday, we had a team pasta dinner in Logan at the Olive
Garden. We talked a little bit on how the race would go. The course has
each runner on the team run 2 legs. I had leg 5 and leg 17, and they were
both ranked as medium runs. It was pretty exciting, because we would have
runners going through the night.
On Friday our team drove down to Ogden where the high school
teams started. My friend Neal told me that last year there was a girl his
age at the starting line that was a really good singer that sang for their
team. She also signed some of the race numbers of the guys on the team, and
gave one her phone number. She was there again this year, and she sang to
our team. Shortly after that, our first runner started off.
After our first runner started, we were pretty busy. We were
frequently driving around to cheer and give water, while taking our runner
in our van to his next leg to get a decent warm up. While we were cheering
for our first runner, we saw that he was behind a kid from the Davis team.
Our coach told him good job, and he responded by whacking his hand on some
construction sign to brag about how fast he was. This somewhat ticked off
our team, and we were determined to beat Davis by the end. Our first runner
was running pretty fast at just a little slower than a five minute pace for
a downhill 7.8 miles, but he was still a minute or two behind the Davis kid.
We were lucky that Davis took a wrong turn. Our van went back to tell them.
They took up about 2 minutes doing that.
After 4 legs, it was my turn. I started my leg at around 10 pm.
It was a 5.4 mile course. I felt like I did pretty well, except my shoe got
untied in the first 100 yards. I ran with a vest and a headlamp through a
dark road. The course had a few tiny hills, but nothing steep at all.
During the run, my van stopped to encourage and give me water. I was
feeling pretty confident as I passed people. I felt like my pace was pretty
strong as I finished. My coach didn't time my leg, but I'm guessing that it
was either a little faster or slower than a 6 minute pace. After my leg, I
was pretty exhausted. I ate a little, and they took us to the trailer to
try and get some rest.
Well I didn't get any sleep at all. My next run was at 5 in the
morning. It was a
4.1 mile course. I was happy that the course was almost all downhill. I
didn't time my leg, but I know that I was around a 6 minute pace again. Our
team ended up beating Davis by 33 minutes to take first in our age division,
and first overall (since we had a pretty good staggered head start on the
BYU and Weber cross country teams. They did 50 miles longer than us, and
they started the race at 1 o'clock in Logan.) Our team was around 12 hours
and 45 minutes. We were pretty proud of ourselves. I guess there was a
referee that said we got a time penalty for bringing a camper on the course.
Nobody told us about that rule, even though we did it last year and this
year, but they said we should have read the Wasatch Back Manual. We didn't
really care about that setback. We knew that we won the race, and we were
happy with how we ran. It looks like there are going to be a lot of fast
runners from the schools in Northern Utah that ran with us. I was the only
Logan kid that got to run on the team, and there were a few kids that were
the only ones from their schools, but Mountain Crest and Bear River had a
bunch of fast kids from their schools.
On the way home I got to have a good nap. I walked into the
house and took another long nap. I know that this was an awesome racing
experience for me, and I can't wait to make my own team after I graduate
next year!