Week 17 Update: 2,982 Miles

Looks like I forgot to post Week 16 on here, so we'll just skip forward to week 17! This week's miles brought us to a total of 742 miles, and the city of Helper, UT. We still have a very long ways to go before we get to Houston, but hopefully the new year and new goals will give us a little boost! 

Thought this might be a fun little addition to these posts too... here is a historical photo of Helper back when it was a young coal mining town, followed by a picture of Main Street as it is today.

Week 15 Update: 2,982 Miles

It's hard to believe we are already 15 weeks into this challenge, but here we are! This week we added another 32 miles, to bring the total to 677 miles. We are now at the fork in the road where we will leave I-15 and head up Spanish Fork Canyon on Highway 6. That canyon is very beautiful, and I wish we were actually running it together! Great job on logging more miles this week, ladies, and I am anxious to see what week 16 brings!

Cottonwood Heights Thanksgiving Day 5k

This was the third year that I ran the Cottonwood Heights Thanksgiving Day 5k, and it was a lot of fun! Now that it has been three years, it is officially a tradition for me. I wake up at the crack of dawn, get the turkey prepped to go in the oven, get dressed for the 5k, put the turkey in the oven, and walk the 1/2 mile to the start line. And I always dress up as a Green Bay Packer. There is a house along the route that has had Packer fans outside cheering for the runners all three years that I have run it, and it is so much fun to run by and give them all high fives and cheer and whoop and holler with them. Their house is at a great location in the race for a little extra encouragement too - about half a mile from the finish line. Great last little boost of energy! This year I ran into my friend Sarah while we were running and we ran together toward the finish for a little bit. So good to see her, and yet another great Turkey Trot in the books! Maybe next year, I'll even try to shave a few minutes off my 5k PR. 

Congratulations to Lacy!

Huge congratulations go out to Lacy and her husband, Pat, who welcomed their daughter, Siena to their family in October of this year. We are thrilled for their family, and I'm sure Siena will be out running with her mom in no time at all. And truth be told, The Sweat Sisters Family is really excited to have another little lady coming up in the ranks with us. Someday we will be running Ragnar Relays with a team full of our daughters (and maybe eventually sons)! Haha! Lacy is already a great momma to this little girl, and we can't wait to meet her. In other exciting news, Lacy also just got cleared by her doctor to start running again, so I know she is thrilled about that. It won't be long before she is beating me in mileage every week again. 

Congratulations on a perfect and healthy little girl, Lacy!

Week 14 Update: 2,982 Miles

We are so excited that we made it to Salt Lake during Week 14 of our challenge! We completed 32 additional miles this week, bringing the grand total so far to 645 miles. We have turned around and are headed south out of Salt Lake toward Houston. Right now we are kind of backtracking, but in a week or two, at most, we should be on to new roads and a whole new portion of this adventure. The leg from Salt Lake to Houston is 1,482 miles, making it by far the longest leg of the challenge. Any guesses how many weeks it will take us to get to Houston? Keep in mind that marathon season is just around the corner. ;)

Week 13 Update - 2,982 Miles

13 weeks in the books, 613 miles behind us, and only 12 miles more to go before we reach our first major milestone of this challenge. I do have to say that this challenge is kind of flying by. As the 2015 race season draws nearer and we have events on the calendar to train for, I'm sure our mileage will start increasing from week to week, and the 2,982 miles will fly by even faster. We still have a long ways to go before we get to Atlanta, but I'm sure when we look back at this challenge when it is done, it will seem like it happened in the blink of an eye. Great job ladies, and keep up the good work!

Week 12 Update - 2,982 Miles

3 months down, and 572 miles completed. This week's 46 miles brought us to the city of Payson, which is at the south end of Utah Valley. We are getting SO close to Salt Lake, and one more good week should bring us the rest of the way to Linsey's house in the Salt Lake area. So exciting that we are almost to our first major stop in this journey! Stay tuned for a big celebratory post when we arrive in Salt Lake. 

Running "Fast"

Trying to keep things in perspective. 

I have been trying to make a more conscious effort lately not to call myself a "slow" runner. Or to say that I'm not fast. While I do have goals with regard to my pace, and I am working on improving my speed, I am certainly not aspiring to win the Boston Marathon anytime soon. Note that I didn't say that I don't want to run Boston, just that I probably won't win it in my lifetime. And that is okay. But what I have decided isn't okay for me to do is to beat myself up for where I am as a runner. I am improving, and I am setting new goals for myself every year. I ran the Ogden Marathon in 2011, and my goal was simply to finish. I did. I have registered for two other marathons since that race, and have had to withdraw due to injuries both times. Huge bummer. But I signed up for Ogden again in 2015, and am feeling confident that I am ready to take on 26.2 again, and I have a plan to stay healthy for it this time (and maybe a pace goal too). But that's a whole separate post, so let's stay on topic, shall we? 

Too often, I compare myself to other runners, and end up making myself feel bad about running 11 minute miles for 8 miles (as an example). Then my brain comes to a screeching halt as I remind myself that I just ran 8 miles! No matter what the pace was, I. Ran. 8. Miles. While other people might run 8 miles faster than I do, there are also people out there who run 8 miles slower. And that is great! But I need to remember to give myself credit for those 8 miles first. 

I have also been trying to give myself credit for what I have accomplished with regard to my running goals instead of beating myself up for what I haven't been able to do yet. In June of this year, I ran the Drop 13 Half Marathon in Salt Lake, and set a new PR. Prior to that half, my best time was around 2:30. I set a goal for myself to finish at or under 2 hours for the Drop 13, did the work and training to get there, and on race day, I ran 1:58:52. And almost cried. I had taken half an hour off my half marathon time. WHAT!? That is awesome! And I'm comfortable saying that what I accomplished was a big deal. It might not be a big deal to other runners, but it was to me, and that's what matters. What that race reaffirmed to me is that I am capable of doing things that are hard, and that I may not initially think I can do. But if I make a plan to get to those goals, and stick to it, I might just surprise myself. I am running the Drop 13 again in 2015, and am setting another ambitious goal for that race - I want to drop another 13 minutes off my finish time. That would put me at a 1:45 finish time, which is averaging just over an 8 min/mile pace. And I think I can do it. It will require more speed training, strength training, and overall determination and motivation, but I know it is possible. And I also know I have a wonderful support system of people who will help encourage me when I have bad days, and cheer me on when I have good days. 

Week 11 Update - 2,982 Miles

Looks like I never got around to posting our Week 10 Update on here last week. For the record, we completed another 31 miles in week 10, bringing our mileage total to 480 miles. 

We are over the 500 mile mark of our journey, and it is looking like we will make it to Salt Lake before the end of the year. That little red star isn't looking too far away now. Woohoo! 

Week 11 added another 46 miles (huge props to Ami for adding 23 of those herself!). 2015 is starting off with a half marathon for a few of us in January, and I expect our weekly mileage will start to increase even more in the coming weeks as a result. It will be so exciting to get to Salt Lake and make the turn to head back south to Houston. Now if only the weather would actually warm up as soon as that happens. ;) 

Week 9 Update - 2,982 Miles

This week was a little lower mileage for The Sweat Sisters - 31 miles. It's kind of funny that I feel like 31 miles isn't very much, but when I think about the fact that we ran a 50k between us last week, that is still pretty impressive! Keep it up ladies, and we'll be in Salt Lake in no time at all! 181 miles until we hit our first city goal!

Santa Clarita Half Marathon

Santa Clarita Half Marathon

On Sunday, Nov. 2nd, I ran my second half marathon in Santa Clarita, California. I ran "with" four other friends that also happen to be my neighbors at Edwards Air Force Base. The women from left to right are - Ashley, Gina, myself, Sonjia and Katie. Four out of five of us had the goal of completing the half in 2 hours or less. Three of us accomplished the goal and the fourth one only missed it by 2 minutes. Close enough in my opinion!!!

It was a beautiful, clear morning and the temperatures ranged from about 46-52 degrees from start to finish of the race. The event was very well organized, which made making parking and finding our way around a breeze! This race had a lot more runners than my first half marathon; however, the only way I felt this impacted the race was that I had more people around me the entire length of the course. That being said, it did not feel too crowded.

I had a loose goal of finishing the race at 2 hours because my last few long training runs had ended with tension headaches. I decided I was just going to run what felt good to my body and just hope that I ended up close to 2 hours, or at least beat my first half marathon time which was 2:05.  I was just ahead of the 2 hour pacers until around mile 8 when I slowed down a bit to run with my friend Ashley. We ran together until about mile 10 when she had to start going slower because her hips were tightening up on her. At this point the pacers were much farther ahead and I just kept running what felt good. I do run with a Garmin watch but I do not like looking at it because I feel it mentally messes with my running performance. During my training runs I typically get faster the last 3 miles so I thought I might catch up with the pacers.

I don't think I saw the pacers again. Around mile 12 I normally just let my legs go and just push out as much as I've got left. I purposefully did not do that because my friend Katie had run this course the previous year and distinctly told us to hold back the reigns because there were 3 pedestrian bridges the last .2 miles of the race that would be really challenging. Those bridges were definitely hard and I passed A LOT of people walking them. The good news was that there were only 2 bridges, but the bad news was that I kept holding back my speed because I expected a 3rd bridge! Once I realized there wasn't another bridge coming I let loose and ran. The clock at the finish line said 2:00:45 and I was immediately bummed I had missed the 2 hour mark by 45 seconds. I forgot to stop my watch too so I didn't have that to give me a more accurate chip time. However, hours after the race I found out my true chip time was 1:59:48. I had done it, and with 12 seconds to spare!!!

To be honest, I was surprised I made it under 2 hours because I had totally given myself permission not to. There is something to be said about the energy that sweeps a runner into the collective frenzy that occurs during a race. During the first mile when everyone was just running and in such high spirits I seriously almost yelled, "This is so awesome!" But, I kept my enthusiasm to myself and just relished it. During my course I would mentally dedicate parts of the race to the people who love and support me, and I believe this motivated me to "up" my game in order to give them the effort I think they deserve out of me. Even though I had a goal, this race wasn't about me or going after a personal record. I ran this race for others...and the karma came full circle.

I was greeted at the finish line by my husband and daughter. Matthew and Tess are my #1 fans, and they provide me with the daily support and motivation to run. Seeing their smiles and having them physically there made that finish line so much more enticing! I am so happy I committed to this race and had such a good experience. I even managed not to get a tension headache after the race, which was very surprising to me considering the extra effort I expended to quicken my pace.

Race finisher photo with my daughter Tess

Loves from my daughter Tess at the finish line

Unfortunately, my glory is a little shadowed today because after going for a 3 mile run this morning to burn off some lactic acid, I'm pretty positive I strained my right quadricep during the race. The course was described as "relatively flat with a few elevation changes due to pedestrian bridges." In my opinion, this was not an accurate description. I would've described it as "rolling hills with lots of pedestrian over and under passes." I think the frequent elevation changes combined with my quicker pace just overloaded my legs and caused injury. So, I will be hanging up my running shoes for several days while I nurse my leg and hope that it is just a simple strain.  The lesson I learned from this race is that love and humility empowers my running. So from now on, I will not run for myself but for others.

My husband Matthew, who is my #1 fan

Cheers to a great race!

Ami

The Haunted Half Marathon - Provo

On Saturday, I ran the Haunted Half Marathon in Provo with most of my team from the Red Rock Relay that I did in Zion last month. It was a great team reunion, as well as my season finale for the 2014 race season. These are the awesome people I ran with (left to right) - Chris, Jenna, Steve, his son, Bryce, and Steve's wife Natalie. All super fun. And faster than me. ;)

The weather for this race really couldn't have been any better. But I could have been dressed better for it. I ran in my Green Bay Packers getup, and the thermal top I had on under my jersey quickly turned out to be too warm. And I had no base layer under it to allow me to shed it. I ended up running the half being too warm for most of it. Especially the last three miles, which were mostly in direct sun around 11am. 

Now for the race recap! Steve and his son took off right from the start line, and the rest of us stuck together through about mile 4. Once we hit that first aid station, Chris and Jenna ran ahead to pick up the pace a little bit, and I ran with Natalie for a couple of miles before we separated to run our own paces from there through the finish. I felt great through about mile 6-7, then I started to feel a little bit fatigued. Then around mile 10-11, it got really hard for the remainder of the race. What I realized around mile 11 was that I had only done one long run of 9 miles since the Huntsville Half on September 27. Poor planning on my part. I had basically set myself up to not have the endurance to go the full 13.1 miles and feel good the whole time. Even with that being the case, I still finished about 15 minutes faster than at Huntsville. 

This race was very well organized. I was not able to attend packet pickup, but from what  I heard, the race organizers made it very easy for runners to pick up bibs for others. Parking at University Mall was easily accessible and plentiful, and the bus loading was painless. We were at the start line for about an hour prior to the race starting, which was the only drawback of this event (for me). They had some fire barrels set up, but no tents or anywhere to get out of the elements. If the weather had not been unseasonably warm, I could see that aspect having been an issue. Volunteers were awesome at the aid stations, and there was a lot of activity and celebration going on in the finish area. 

Every race that I run teaches me something. And sometimes I need to learn the same lesson more than once. This race was yet another reminder to me that I can only perform as well as I train to perform. I wasn't expecting to be able to go out and just wing the half by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't think I placed enough emphasis on getting my long runs in after Huntsville, and that really hurt me in the later miles of this half. 

As I start preparing for my next half marathon (Naples, FL in January), I am rededicating myself and taking my training plan a little more seriously. It's time to get back in the gym for more strength training, back to yoga once a week, and definitely need to do my speed work too. And it never hurts to clean up the 'ole diet either. 

I'll wrap up this post with some more pictures from the Provo Haunted Half. Great event, and I will definitely run this one again! 

 I definitely earned that pizza! And here is a perfect example of the diet cleansing that needs to take place. :)

It's been a great 2014 season! Bring on 2015!!!

Week 8 Update - 2,982 Miles

We are officially two months into our challenge to run across the country, and we have logged 418 miles thus far. We added an additional 60 miles this week alone. Great job, ladies!

Running Alone vs. With a Partner

I was chatting with Lacy a little bit the other morning about how I rarely run by myself anymore, and it got me thinking. I started wondering if it was a conscious choice that I make daily to run with someone else or on my own, or if the only time I run alone is when no one else can go with me due to scheduling conflicts. And I am still not really sure. What I do know is that there are pros and cons to running alone and with a partner for me, and I thought I would share my list with you, and see what you think about additional benefits or drawbacks. 

Pros of Running Alone

• Time to think and clear my head, and blow off stress from the week.
• I can run my own pace, whether I'm taking it easy or pushing myself a little bit more that day.
• Easier to extend or cut mileage based on how I'm feeling. 
• I don't feel guilty or like I'm hindering someone else's training if I need to take a walk break.
• I can put on my music and grind through a hard workout, and just be in my own head. 

Pros of Running with a Partner

• Someone to hold you accountable to get out and put in the miles.
• If I want to walk up a hill, and my partner is still running, I don't want to get left behind. So I push through and run my butt up the hill.
• It can be safer to run with a partner, especially in the dark. I run with my Jack Russell Terrier, Sadie, so she helps me feel a little safer if I'm alone. 
• Getting out of bed at the butt-crack of dawn is easier if I know someone is waiting outside for me. 
• Talking while you run is a great way to boost the cardiovascular part of your run. Plus, a good conversation can really make the miles fly by.

Here's my verdict: I like both. It depends on the day, but sometimes I really just need to go out and run by myself. And other days, I really need someone there to help get me through the miles. 

What else do you like about running with a partner and running alone? Leave your pros and cons in the comments!

Week 7 Update - 2,982 Miles

We are 7 weeks into our challenge to run 2,982 miles, and we have completed 358 miles as of this week. This took us into Utah, past St. George, and on the road to Cedar City. Keep it up, ladies! We're only 280 miles away from Linsey's house in Salt Lake!

Week 6 Update - 2,982 Miles

I can't believe we are already 6 weeks into our 2,982 miles challenge! But here we are in Arizona. We added 46 miles this week, which took us through Mesquite, Nevada, and closing in on St. George, Utah. At this point, we are averaging about 52 miles per week, which is less than we had projected. But I would be willing to bet that we will be averaging way over our estimated 60 miles/week when the spring hits and we are staring down the barrel of marathon and race season. Great job, ladies!

Fast & Fun 9 Miles

Saturday morning, Ami and I got to run 9 miles down Big Cottonwood Canyon together, and it was awesome! I am so looking forward to Ami and her husband moving back to Salt Lake so I can run with her more often. We started our run at about 7:30am, and from where we started, we could see snow in the mountains, and it was about 34 degrees. Typically when I run the canyon, I tend to start out pretty fast, and then from there my pace kind of pops up and down from there. I loved running this canyon with Ami for so many reasons, but one of the running-related reasons is that we started out a little slower for our first two miles, and then increased our pace each mile thereafter. I think this was my first run where every mile was faster than the previous mile (except those two seconds on mile 8, but I'm not counting them). It felt great, and I never felt the need to walk or like I was pushing too hard to warm up or get moving at the beginning. And we still averaged 9:48/mile overall. Now I need to learn how to create that pacing for myself!

A couple miles down the road, we saw a couple of moose across the river. I was glad they were a little bit off the road, as it looked like it was probably a female with her calf. Although the leaves are changing up in the mountains, both Ami and were expecting them to have changed a bit more, especially considering how far up the canyon we started. The scenery was still absolutely beautiful, though, and we enjoyed every minute of the run. I couldn't believe it was already over when we ran out of the mouth of the canyon, and was wishing that we could do it all over again. Thanks for the run, Ami, and hope to see you again very soon! 

Here is our run in an awesome photo collage! Don't mind the duplicate of our splits... I was just really excited to share that separately too.

Week 5 Update: 2,982 Miles

5 weeks in the books, and we are barreling down on Mesquite, then over the border into Arizona. This was a recovery week for a couple of us, and Lacy is expecting the arrival of her baby within the next week or two, but we still managed to log 37 miles this week toward our goal. Great job, ladies!

Huntsville Half Marathon

On Saturday, Sept. 27, Ami and I ran the Huntsville Half Marathon in Utah. We had been planning to run this half together since May when Ami surprised me in my birthday card and said she was coming to Utah in September to run her first official half marathon with me. I was ecstatic when I got that card from her! 

As the race approached, we were watching the weather, and things looked ominous. Rain was in the forecast, and it had been raining more than usual in the weeks leading up to the race too. So we planned for rain. And it was a good thing, because it rained on our drive to Huntsville, and only let up for a few minutes when we were all getting dressed and boarding the bus. Then the rain started again. Our friends Andrea and Jenna also registered for the half, so the four of us drove up together, and wavered back and forth over what to wear for the race for a good portion of that drive. Eventually we were all dressed and ready to board the bus. Here's Ami and I getting ready to head to the starting area.

Once we had driven the full 13.1 miles of the course, we scurried off the bus and into the tents that race organizers had set up for us to stay as dry and warm as possible. We all donned our trash bags as 9:00 drew near... 

From left to right: Jenna, Ami, Andrea, Linsey

And we goofed off just a little bit too. 

As soon as the race organizers announced that everyone needed to move to the start line, the rain started coming down in droves again. We got a few more pictures through the Ziploc bags that were holding our phones, then it was time to run!

My whole plan was to just try to stay with Ami for the race, but she quickly left me in the dust (and I was happy about it!). I wasn't happy that we weren't running together, just happy that she was feeling so strong and doing so well. 

I'm not going to recount my entire race story, because it isn't pretty. This was definitely my most challenging half this year, and probably the hardest half I have ever run. I decided I wasn't going to make excuses for why I performed so poorly (in my eyes), and rather just look at my preparation for this race, see where I made mistakes, and what I could have done differently. Ultimately, I don't think I really let my legs recover from running the Red Rock Relay 2 weeks prior, and I think I ran too many miles in the 5 days immediately preceding the half. And finally, I let myself count on the downhill to help me keep pace and cover the distance too much. I train for downhill in Big Cottonwood Canyon near my house, and in my head, I was counting on the half to have that same kind of elevation loss. It didn't. At all. It was a much flatter course than I thought, so I had to rely on my own propulsion a lot more than gravity, and to be perfectly honest, I wasn't prepared mentally or physically for that. 

Ami and Andrea finished well ahead of Jenna and I, who ended up running slogging through the entire half together. Jenna and I ran in our floor-length trash bags for about 5-6 miles, then ditched them since the weather had cleared up a bit at that point. Then around mile 11, I regretted that decision when another downpour hit us. I ran more in those last two miles because of the rain than I would have if it had been sunny. I just wanted to be done. By the time we finished, my phone had died. Luckily, Ami walked right up to us at the finish, and we ran into Andrea on the way back to the car. It was still raining pretty hard, so the four of us wrapped up in blankets and towels, drove down some random side street in Huntsville, and changed out of our wet clothes into dry ones in the car. Pretty impressive that we all managed to change within the confines of the car, but I don't know what else we would have done. Still smiling, even in spite of the rain!

 Love these goofy girls!

At the end of the day, I had a great time, and learned a few things about myself and my running too. Ami, so proud of you for finishing so strong at your first official half, and can't wait to do more events together!

Week 4 Update - 2,982 Miles

This week we blazed through Vegas, and soon won't be able to see the lights of the strip behind us anymore. This coming week should bring us to about 10% complete for our challenge. Thinking about it in those terms make it seem like we've already gone quite a ways toward our goal. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a post up about the half marathon that Ami and Linsey ran together in Utah this past Saturday, and helped us get past Vegas. Only 2751.5 more miles to go!  

Red Rock Relay Zion - 2014

**Warning: This is an incredibly long post with lots of pictures.** 

Back in June, while we were preparing for the Ragnar Relay - Wasatch Back, my new friend and teammate, Chris (who was introduced to me by Kristen), asked if I would be interested in running the Red Rock Relay with his team in September. The conversation went something like this:

Chris: Hey, you wanna run Red Rock with me in September?

Me: Yes!!! 

Chris: Cool, we're doing it as an Ultra team.

Me: Hold up... Now I have some questions. Like is your team trying to win this thing?

Chris: Nope, just want to have fun.

Me: Will anybody be mad at me or judge me if I am running 12 minute miles by the end of my ridiculous number of miles?

Chris: Nope. 

Me: Let me think about it for a day. 

In all honesty, I didn't really need to think about it even for a day. I knew I was going to do it. Because I'm a glutton for punishment. And I love challenges, especially when it involves running and other people as crazy about running as I am.

Fast forward a couple of months to when I find out that our team name is "Derek Zoolander Van for Kids Who Can't Run Good", and I knew I was on the right team. So much planning went into the theme and costumes for this race, and it made it that much more awesome. 

Then a potential disaster struck. The week prior to the relay, there was some severe weather in southern Utah, and part of I-15 south of St. George was completely washed out and traffic was being diverted to Cedar City on back highways. But nothing changed with the relay... we were all good to go. Then Wednesday night, about 36 hours before the first teams were supposed to start, UDOT revoked the permits for the last 2/3 of the course. Red Rock made some very tough decisions very quickly, and decided to still put on the event, and just change the format a little bit. 12 person teams became two teams of 6, and would each run two legs instead of 3, essentially making the Zion race imitate their Park City, Moab, and Dixie races. But what was our team of only 6 to begin with supposed to do? We improvised. We each picked legs out of legs 1-12 that would get us the mileage that we each wanted, and was terrain we felt comfortable tackling.  As a side note, we ended up only having 5 runners at the time of the event - one member decided not to run the relay due to the revised format.

Thursday around noon, we all gathered at Chris' house in Orem to pack the van and drive to Cedar City where we would pick up our final team member, Jerrod. We had dinner in Cedar, then drove up to the Cedar Breaks Lodge at Brian Head for check in, leg reassignments, van decorating, and a little bit of sleeping. 

Here is part of the team working on restructuring the order we were going to run in. This is only part of the craziness that happens the night before a relay. Good times!

And here is Jenna, Steve, Jerrod, and me just minutes before we headed to the start line on Friday morning (7am-ish), rocking our Zoolander headbands and a little Blue Steel.

Chris and I left the start area together for about a 1/2 mile trail run that took us over to one of the chair lifts at the resort. 

Jenna, Steve, and Jerrod jumped on the lift with us, and our entire team ran the rest of Leg 1 together. It was a beautiful trail run, most of which was downhill back to the next exchange. Steve ran up into the trees and snapped this photo - which I am sure I will always look at with fond remembrance of this relay. ;) 

Chris and I stayed on course for Leg 2, which SUCKED! It was basically straight uphill for almost 2.5 miles. Oh yeah... and the summit of that hill was over 10,000 feet elevation. Thanks to Chris and Steve for encouraging me up that hill, and Steve for this photo. I was running, but I was in a little pain cave all my own at that point. 

I happened to get this awesome shot of Jerrod and Steve chest bumping somewhere around this point of the race too.

I took a break after Leg 2, while Chris and Jerrod continued on Leg 3. And what a welcome break it was. I stretched, changed, and got ready to go back out. I decided that I wanted to run leg 4 since it had so much downhill in it. So back out I went for another 7.1 miles. Steve got this great shot of Jenna and I as we started out on Leg 4. It's a good thing we took it early in the event, because by the time I ran my last legs, I don't know if I could have caught myself on the landing. Ha! 

The signs on the course were awesome, and this one in particular made me laugh. This leg of the course was a little over 7 miles... and at one mile to go, this is what I read. Almost panicked for a second, but chuckled and stopped for a photo instead.

By the time I had finished this leg, I was pretty spent. My total mileage already completed was around 12.5 miles, and I had run legs 1, 2, and 4. Time for some rest and dry clothes! Steve and Jerrod took over for some heavy mileage during the middle of the relay, and did a great job! Here's Jerrod in his sexy reflective vest. 

I don't even know how many miles Steve ended up running during the relay, I just know he's a Bad-A, because he had just run a 100 mile ultra marathon a few weeks before Red Rock. So this was kind of easy for him. Haha! He was awesome to have on the team. He helped motivate and entertain me when I didn't know if I had any more miles in my legs. And did I mention that he can jump?! 

At this point, we were in the home stretch of the race (since it was no longer an overnight event). Chris and Jenna went out for Leg 11, and killed it. This is one of my favorite pictures from this part of the race. No idea what's going on here... but it perfectly depicts where I was mentally by this point.

I was hellbent on getting at least 20 miles during the relay (my original mileage was supposed to be about 26 miles), so I jumped ahead of Chris and Jenna by a mile or so, and ran the last 3 miles of Leg 11, and then kept running with Steve all the way through Leg 12 and the finish line. My final run ended up being about 8 miles, and was not my fastest 8 miles on record, but I finished it. And that was my goal. 

Just before sunset, the Zoolander Van for Kids Who Can't Run Good crossed the finish line. 

I had such an amazing time at this event, and will definitely go back to run this course again - hopefully in its entirety! This was a new relay experience for me, and was very different from the relays I had previously run. There is something fun and exciting about running with people you haven't run with before, and making brand new friends during a relay. I have no doubt that these people will be a significant part of my life going forward. My interest in trail running was piqued during this relay, and my passion for running and relays specifically was reinvigorated. I am looking forward to running events with a slightly new perspective, and have a new appreciation for encouraging other runners to achieve their goals - whether it's simply starting to run for the first time, or qualifying for Boston. Thank you to this group for inspiring me anew!

And a special thank you goes out to Whitney, who drove the 5 of us from Salt Lake to Cedar, all the way through the relay, to Zion the day after the relay, and back to Salt Lake. It was so nice as a runner to not have to worry about who was driving next, or who would be awake enough to drive. I think we might have even convinced her that running is fun. :) Who knows, maybe she'll be making an appearance in my post about Wasatch Back 2015 as a runner! 

Thank you, Whitney!!!

And thank you to my whole team. I love every one of you, and hope we get to do this again real soon.