Run the Red Rock

Here's half of our 12 team members. We left late Thursday (Sept. 9) afternoon and here we are taking a break in Fillmore (Heidi, Tawnya, me, Jake, Mariangel, and Geri). Chris, our driver and Geri's husband isn't pictured because he's the one who took this picture.

Once we got to Cedar City (about 8:30ish), we met up with everyone at the packet pick-up/pasta party venue. After dinner, we headed up to the condo in Brian Head--only a minute or so away from the start of the race. Above is a picture of me helping to decorate our half of team's van (the snow van). We start the first set of legs in the colder climate and the other team members end in the other van (the sun van) in Zion.

The following morning we had to be at the resort lodge around 8ish. Our start time was 8:30, but that only meant that Geri, our first runner, could get on the ski lift then (which was a 20 minute ride to the top) before she could even start running her first leg.

Our team was "R.A.G.E." which was the name of the gym that a lot of the people on the team are members of.

My name was misspelled, but it's not a biggie. We kept track of our roadkills (the other runners we passed while running) by putting Tally marks under our names. At the end of all of my runs, I had 15 tally marks.

Just before race time, Geri and I were lucky enough to score some sweatshirts.

Taking some pics by the ski lift.

Here's most of our team minus two of our runners and another driver.

Here I am starting my first leg (I was the third runner on my team and we rotated through the twelve of us 3 times which equals 36 legs). This was a 7 mile run entitled "Cedar Disco Break." We're in between Brian Head and Duck Creek.

Still running...minus the sweatshirt.

Oh ya, I scored me a roadkill tally mark.

The running exchange...passing off the "baton" (a slap bracelet) to our next runner, Jake. I finished my 7 miles in about 50 minutes.

Taking a little picture break during Jake's run.

Various Van Photos

Jake, Heidi and me

Chris and Geri

Tawnya, Heidi, Mariangel, and me

Starting my second leg the same day (Friday) but it's about 9pm now. I had to wear a reflector vest and head lamp since it was so dark and the name of this leg was quite fitting--"Desert Solitude." I felt like I was out in the middle of nowhere. There weren't too many runners with me, but I did pass the few that I saw. This run was about 4 and a half miles, but half of it was up and the other half was down. We're between Cedar City and Newcastle.

I look like an alien :)

Glad to be done with that run (took me about 40 minutes). After our van finished up it was midnight. We drove to Veyo while the other half of our team was running their legs. We had to roll out the sleeping bags at the next van exchange which was a church parking lot. Let me just say that I only had about 1 and a half hours of sleep because I just couldn't get calm/comfortable enough to sleep (that on top of the three hours of sleep I had the night before).

The next morning, running my third and leg. This was about a five mile run called "Snow Canyon." It was absolutely beautiful, and I actual ran on a trail as opposed to the road for most of it. We're between Veyo and the Washington Community Center at this point in the race.

Passing off to Jake. I finished in about 40 minutes (maybe more like 37 to be exact).

Showing off our 3 stripes. You make a stripe for each leg of the race you run. The actual race is 186 miles (obviously divided up between 12 people).

Waiting for Kamille (our last runner) at the finish so we can all cross the finish line together.

Here's our team after finishing in a little over 32 hours total. We received finishers batons instead of medals--very appropriate for a relay race.

Our team plus our two drivers. Afterwards, we went to Wendy's for dinner then headed back home (got home around 10:30ish), but still had to grab Hayden from my mom's.