Red Rock Relay 2011

Back again for another year, but this time I was in the Sun Van (harder legs than last year's Snow Van). We had seven of our original team members from last year and five newbies. This year our team name was "Cool Runnings," and we tried to wear some tye-dyed shirts for the group shot (at least the girls did). We left on Thursday, Sept. 8 and headed to Brian Head. Our Van stayed in the condo while the others camped out in the RV. This year we used trucks and an RV. We were pretty smart and used one truck for the runners and then the other truck stayed with the RV that met us at the exchange points. That way, if your group wasn't running then you could hang out in the RV. Yes, we're a smart team! There are 12 members on a team and each person runs 3 times (a total of 36 legs from start to finish).

After we dropped off our stuff in Brian Head, we drove to Cedar City for packet pick-up and the pre-race dinner. Below is a picture that we took after dinner...had to throw in one of the official RRR vehicles in.

Friday--race morning! Debbie started the race by riding the ski lift up the mountain at 7:30. Amy, Camille, Mariangel, Jake, Suzie and I posed for a pic while waiting for her to race back down.

My half of the team waiting for the others to finish their first legs. Pictured are Chelsea, Jess, me, Mariangel, Jake, and Shyrlan. Oh, the butterflies are starting to set in.

I was the seventh runner out of our whole team which meant the first runner in the Sun Van. Here I am waiting for Amy to pass off the baton (aka: the slap bracelet).

And I'm off!!! Notice those dark clouds in the background...they played a role in my run.

So here I am going along and running the "Navajo Ninja"--this was labeled as one of the hardest legs of the whole race. Why? because you basically run up a mountain during the whole leg (which is almost 6 miles). Now if that isn't enough of a killer, let's add in some more fun. How about a little rain?

Oh, that actually feels refreshing!

Okay, how about a lot of rain?

Now that's a bit too much, but it could be worse.

Worse you say...hmmm, how about some hail mixed with some lightening right above your head?

Okay, now I'm freaking out a bit. At the same time though, it's motivating me to keep on running.

I found out later that lightening did strike and break a tree that fell on this route sometime after my run. Glad no one was hurt.

My next leg was almost at 11pm. I had to run 8.4 miles on a semi-flat highway. A little after 7 miles I had to stop because I needed something to eat. Jake jumped out and finished my last mile and told me I could make up for it by doing one of his miles. After we finished our legs we found out that we had a few injuries. Mariangel's feet were done in and Amy in the other van had sprained her ankle. Also, Shyrlan had been sick during this whole race and Jake's knees were starting to bother him. We knew that finishing the last legs of this race would mean really pulling together and working as a team. Once the "baton" was passed over to me I ran my last leg around 7am Saturday morning (another 5 and a half miles uphill) on about 45 minutes of sleep. I knew that I wasn't done yet... Shyrlan ran his with a little help from Jake. Chelsea and Jess ran their legs, but we knew Mariangel would need help with her 7 miler. Jess kept running and did the first part, Mariangel ran a quarter mile, I ran a mile, Chelsea ran 2 miles, and just as I was about to switchout and run another mile we got into a car accident. Our truck hit another truck coming down the mountain. Luckily we were all ok, but the truck wasn't driveable. This is where team work really comes into play. The other half of the team had dropped the RV in Sand Hollow and was with us in the other truck. Also, one of the runners (McKell) had her husband there in their SUV. So I kept the race going and ran to the next exchange point. Brandon (McKell's hubby) met us there with Jake and our captain, Camille. I passed off to Jake then hopped in with Brandon and Camille. After Jake ran for a bit, I got back out to run another mile. Then Camille ran one and at this point we had the other truck with us. Shyrlan ran a mile and Jake finished up the race. However, we couldn't cross the finish because we wanted the rest of our team with us. Rae Ann took the truck and went back down to get the others (they had been doing an accident report and having the truck towed while we were running). Finally, we were able to all cross the finish together...yay!

Group shots

Front: Me, Tegan (Camille's son), Suzie, and Debbie

Back: Rae Ann, McKell, Chelsea, Shyrlan, Jess, Camille, Amy, Mariangel, and Jake

Chelsea and I doing a sno cone "cheers."

So, Camille arranged a ride for me that night (since we were short one vehicle getting back). It's always fun to meet other runners and make new friends.