The Sweat Sisters: Red Rock Relay Zion

**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!