As many of you may recall I started running back in May. Mostly I did it because I was bored of my workout videos and wanted something a little different, but I also started because I've always sucked at running and I wanted to get better.
Then fast forward to July and the Freedom Festival 5K. It was my first race ever and I had a blast! I was hooked and decided that I wanted to do a 10K, run the Moab 1/2 marathon in the spring and then run in the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay next summer.
Fortunately I got my chance to run in a Ragnar before next summers Wasatch Back when I got a phone call the week before last from my friend Katie who sounded a bit panicked about the fact that one of their teammates wasn't going to be able to make it to Las Vegas for that Ragnar Relay! She asked if I would be willling to take the girls spot and even offered to trade her running position so I would have an easier time! I was TOTALLY in but wasn't able to commit until a few days later because of Jackson's football schedule, but that's another story in and of intself!
Anyways, I committed to the relay a week before the race, despite feeling a wee bit intimidated and unprepared!
So Thursday evening we set off for Las Vegas. We spent the night in St. George and headed down to Overton, NV the next morning where the race would begin!
Our first runner started at 11 a.m. Friday morning and our van (van #1) was projected to finish at about 11 a.m. on Saturday morning! Van #2 started later in the afternoon on Friday and was projected to finish at about 2 p.m. the next afternoon. Thus our 24 hour plus relay began!
The members of Lady Luck minus Jo.
Side window of Van #1
Other side window of van #1. I'm the blank one cause I was a late fill in. We wrote my name in later!
The back of the Van
So this is the way the relay works. There are 12 runners. Each runner has 3 legs to run. All the legs are different distances and different levels of difficulty. So Van 1 starts and after all 6 people run their first leg they pass off to Van 2. Then Van 1 goes to the next van exchange area to wait for Van 2's runners to go. We were lucky to be Van 1 because we got a good long rest while our Van 2 people were running. Then Van 2 passes off to Van 1, they drive ahead to the next van exchange and so on and so forth until you meet at the finish line!
I was runner number 4 and had a 3.1 hard leg, a 2.9 easy leg, and a 5.1 moderate leg. Let me tell you I thought I was going to die about 2 miles into my first run. It was a pretty steady incline the first 2 miles, which totally sucked but was manageable for me. Then at the 1 mile to go marker I looked up and just about died. The last mile was all up hill and it was STEEP. So even though I want to lie and say that I kicked butt up the hill I won't and I'll tell you I walked almost the entire last mile. Sucky, I know! My next run was 2.9 and again, I'm not gonna lie. I ROCKED IT! I felt so good. Even though it was 11:00 at night I felt like I could've run forever. It was really too bad that it was only a 3 mile run. I was dancing, I was singing, I was punching my arms like Rocky when Eye of the Tiger came on my ipod...I had a BLAST! My last run was not so much stellar. It was 5.1 and it was hard. We'd been up all night, it was starting to get hot and I just wanted to get it over with. So on that one I was slow! At one point it was all I could do to get my feet to move along. But again, I was able to FINISH!!!!
Getting ready to go!
And there I go. See that small mountain in the distance? yeah...I ran (walked) up that!
water break
Here I come.
Pass off and Pass out (almost)
The Van Exchange Area
My teammate Kristi is somewhere in there!
Natascha showing off her number!
Maleah with Kim chilling in the background. At this point I think we may have been talking about ways to get out of running the next leg. We talked about highjacking a houseboat and hiding in a cove on Lake Mead. We discussed getting bit by a rattlesnake. We discussed pretending to run but actually turning around and going home. Ultimately we all ran!
Cute Katie. Poor girl had really hard legs but she rocked them, of course!
Me.
Me and Kim
There wasn't much picture taking on our 2nd and 3rd runs so here we are at the very end of Van 1's running. Poor Van #2 people still had to run but we got to go to the hotel and sit by the pool until we met them at the finish line.
Van #1 is FINISHED!!!!!!!
Here is all of Lady Luck at the finish line! We Rock!
After an afternoon of the pool we all cleaned up and went out to dinner!
Me, Natascha, Katie, and Maleah
Me and Cathy. Love this girl. She's my running coach of sorts. Can you believe this Hot Mama has 6 kids???? Her oldest is 18! WHAT???
Harmony ordered a double bacon cheeseburger! Hahahaha. I think all of our eyes were bigger then our tummies though. She had like 4 bites of it and was full!
All of Team #104--Lady Luck after the relay!
One more fun thing...I was able to see my friends Amy and Stephanie from Sacramento since they were running on a team too. It was so good to see them and so fun to catch up here and there along the way! It was crazy that after 4 years we felt like I'd never even been gone. Miss you girls! It was AWESOME to see you!
So I just gotta send a few shout outs...first of all to all the girls for letting a sorry, wannabe runner like myself join them on such a hardcore race. Next, a thank you to Harmony's Grandma for letting us crash at her house in St. George. Then to Kristi's FABULOUS mom for letting 6 stinky girls crash at her house for an hour in the middle of the night in Vegas and for being a good support to all of us along the race! Fourth to Kim and Sarah for driving! And last but not least to Van #1 who made me feel so loved and supported while I felt ready to die in the middle of the desert! It really was such a blast and I promise I'll do better next time!!!!!!
