Red Rock Relay

We did it. Really, we. I don't know why but I usually say "we" in reference to something when in reality it was just one of us. But this time, we really did the Red Rock Relay together. It was a huge accomplishment because I don't consider myself a runner. I'm a swimmer at heart and if we had a pool in our backyard and lived where it was 72 and sunny everyday I would swim. But since that is not the case and don't see it changing anytime soon I have picked up running. I must admit that I have actually enjoyed it. I had a few set backs in July and August and a head cold/sinus stuff the week of the race that interrupted my training so I didn't feel like I was 100% ready for the race but that's life.

Ten months ago my friend asked Andy if he wanted to be on her RRR team that she was putting together. I must admit, I wasn't thrilled about Andy doing another race and probably said something about it which changed the conversation into an "I'll do it if she does it" kind of thing. I guess I was up for the challenge because I agreed to do it. Six months later I thought I was completely nuts to think I could do it. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was 186 mile relay from Brian Head to Zion? We ended up having 2 people drop out last minute and we were only able to find one person, Andy's brother, to fill the spot with less than a week's notice. Luckily for me, our van was stacked with great runners so the four of them (Andy, Aaron, Chad, and Samantha) all split up the extra miles since we were one man short.

I think they should rename the relay, "Run, Rest, Repeat" because that was what we did. It was 36 legs divided up between 12 (11 in our case) people that covered 186 miles. My first leg was around 5:30pm and I ran 6.5 miles in Cedar Canyon. I told Andy I wanted to run it in less than an hour but really I wanted to run it in less than 55 minutes and I wanted to do it without stopping. I was feeling like I would need the five minute buffer and didn't want to be disappointed if I didn't achieve my goal. Let me preface this with the fact that I only trained on the treadmill for this race. Four kids, Andy's early morning schedule and his love for running on the trails after work only left me with 2 options. Waking up at the crack of dawn or waiting late in the evening, either way running in the dark, or treadmill at my own convenience. Obviously, I chose treadmill. Everyone told me that if I could be mentally tough enough to run 5 miles a day, 6 days a week on the treadmill, I could do this race. Andy always tells me that running isn't all physical, it's mostly mental. So, in theory, if I could stare at the wall for 45 minutes a day and run on a treadmill how much easier would it be with a change of scenery all around me to keep my mind distracted. A few miles into my 1st run, I missed my treadmill terribly. I never realized how much I looked down to see how far I had gone, how many minutes had passed by. Really, I just need to get a garmin watch to track that, but I was missing the nice running surface of my treadmill at that moment. I had a slanted, gravelly, shoulder on the side of a busy canyon road to run on. I was too concerned about being hit by a car to notice the beautiful surroundings. After every curve I thought for sure I would be at the next exchange only to see another curve. Finally, I could see the sun shining at my last curve so I knew the exchange had to be close. I could see the flags and they looked so close as I was coming out of the canyon, but then on the straight away it seemed so much further than I had previously thought. I finally made it and handed the wristband off to Aaron. Andy was there at the exchange and told me my time was 53 minutes even. Mission accomplished. I was so happy that I beat my goal time but my quads were burning and my left knee was starting to hurt. Our exchange was in Cedar City where we had 4 or 5 hours to eat and rest. My second leg was at 2 am for 4.5 miles in the middle of nowhere (outside of Enterprise). By this point my knee was really hurting and I felt like I was hobbling more than I was running. My mind is kind because I don't really remember this leg except for the fact that a headlamp doesn't stay on my head no matter how tight you adjust it and I couldn't keep my pants up no matter how many times I tightened the tie. It was a good/annoying distraction to keep the headlamp off my nose with one hand while pulling up my pants with the other hand the entire 4.5 miles. I handed off to Sam and then we met up with her at the exchange for another rest. I had the first leg on our last exchange and at this point I could hardly walk my knee was hurting so bad. I started on my last leg of 5.2 miles and was hoping there would be no more downhill because that was killing my knee. Shortly into it I had a hill and stopped three times to stretch each time getting worse until I got to the bottom. My van was coming down to follow me and I told them there was no way I was going to be able to run the rest. Andy got out and finished my leg. As much as I wanted to finish it, I couldn't and it wasn't worth doing damage to my knee. I was so amazed at all the runners in my van. They were awesome. It made me want to run harder and get better. I, of course, was especially impressed with Andy. He's a beast out there. He sprained his ankle 2 weeks before the race and his achilles tendon on his other leg was bugging him throughout the race but he was able to push through it and pass every single person in front of him on his legs.

There were 180 teams and we finished 26th with a time of 27 hours 33 minutes. I thought it would be hard but it was way harder than I anticipated. I didn't know if it would be fun and it ended up being a lot of fun. We really had a great time. I don't know if I would do it again because of the logistics with the kids but I'm glad I took the chance to experience the race and feel like it was a huge accomplishment.

A big thank-you to my Dad, Morag, and Stephanie for watching the kids for us while we ran this race. We couldn't have done it without your help!