Well actually our adventure started on Thursday afternoon at Devonee's place. Once we managed to fit all our gear, including Dev's big old sleeping bag, and Heather's air matress we had to stop and eat at Costa Vida. The perfect way to start out an adventure-good food! So on the way down we listened to some good music, and some country. But the most entertaing was the you tube video I need to poop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_I4yHAQGJ8 Six nurses listening to pooping jokes, turned into a great time by all...However, the driver was a little distracted and forgot her speed. Unfortunately the cop thought we were headed to Vegas.. He delivered a 15 minute lecture about being safe was more important than holding our bladders... We finally found the little cabin, were we met the other half of our team. Jen, a great organizer,was in a van with 5 guys for 2 days. Lucky or unlucky depending on how you look at it. The 5 guys were super kind and helped us open our luggage container on top of our van. They proved to be some of the best cheerers on the course.
The Cabin was great and close to the start of the race. There were tons of stars, so nice to be away from Salt Lake City. We were all ready for bed when we finally decided where to sleep and Kirsten (Momma K) had her Teddy bear, and big purse. We woke up early, took some photos at the race start of our team Double Slap.
Brooke was our first runner, and missed her morning coffee. She was amazing working a night shift Thursday and then running Friday morning. I ran with here for the first mile, and then rode the ski lift at Brian Head. The lift was a little chilly, but provided beautiful scenery. Unfortunately Brooke had a little altitude sickness and threw up near the end of the ride. Quite the trooper. She ran downhill on a trail and passed off the slap stick to me. Here is Karen and Devonee, waiting to cheer me on.
For my first ran I ran 3 miles uphill from Brian Head. First of all I don't really like running uphill, and I think the altitude made the run some really tough. My second mile was 11:25 pace. Averaged a 9:43 pace. Then I handed off the slap stick to Dev who had an 8.4 mile run, thankfully her knee did very well. The Aspen leaves were just beggining to change colors, which made for beautiful scenery. We saw this amazing runner carrying a flag, for the whole 8.4 miles. Our pharmacist Karen was able to provide him with some drugs...
We also saw a hot dog guy multiple times
We went to see cedar breaks, which was breathtaking.
Kirsten's turn, somehow she managed to run without her purse. we drove through some beautiful lava fields, and our other van found us in the lava fields. The other van had an awesome blow horn to cheer the runners on...And there is our pharmacist K with some pills and sunscreen, or maybe just markers for our van.
Then pharmacist K, with an amazing running form ran through some Aspens...Here she is taking a water break with Momma K
Coach Heather always wrote down our splits and recalculating our estimated finish times. She finished our last leg of the run and passed the slapt stick to the other van.
Drove Down the beautiful Canyon to Cedar City, we could see Zion in the distance...
Found some time to swim in the awesome gym at SUU, that had an indoor climbing gym. Man why didn't they have this gym when I went to SUU.... I saw my good friend Liz outside the gym and talked to her for a while. My second run started at 6:18 pm. It consisted of a fairly flat 4 miles (7:17 pace) Here I am hydrating before my run, next to my sexy coach ;)
Mile 1 was easy and then I turned into the wind for mile 2 and mile 3, the last half mile was uphill. My van was amazing with their support at every mile. I wish every training run I had a support crew to hand me water, and cheer me on! Had to run in a sports bra, I just hate being hot when I run...
The sunset was amazing! We watched Kirsten run the long dirt road while we took pictures.
Thankfully I didn't have to run on the dusty road. After we finished up our second leg we found some flat grass by a church to sleep for a few hours. I managed a night of camping without my Bivy.
The other team called us when they were 10 minutes out, so Brooke had no time to get ready. But she looks perky despite not having coffee.
I started my third leg at 3:42am. The 10k was uphill and then most of the run was downhill so I had a fast pace (6:54), despite having a broken head lamp. When we finally met up with our other team, we found out their bare foot runner had twisted his ankle. So I volunteered to run his leg. Inwardly, I was kind of excited, because then I would almost have run a marathon with in a few days, and I like a challenge...Around 8 am, I ran 7 miles and at 7:43 pace...
Below is Heather waiting to hand me my water bottle, and Kirsten drinking her Target health drink to stay strong and slim.
Then we went to kneaders for a delicious all you can eat french toast! Afterwards we drove to the finish. Our team finished in the heat of the day. The other van was smart and bought a hose to keep their runners cool.
We finished in about 30 hours. Here is our stinky running vehicle, that we decorated the last day. As you can see we were very creative :)
We received these super cool black marks on the back of our legs whenever we finished a section, because it is so much fun!
We received these unique knecklace medals. And of course took photos at the finish line.
We had to do a picture with our Johnny shirts we received from a patient who inspires us all.
Somehow I convinced my teammates to go for a little hike through narrows in Zion! Then took the bus through Zion and I tried to convince them to do Angels Landing, but it was hot and we were exhausted and hungry! So the narrows was a perfect ending, to a relay race...
We had some delicious mexican food, and then crashed at Devonee's grandfather's place in St George.. Sunday we had an uneventful drive home, staying awake with caffeine...Momma K drove the the whole way back. Turned out to be a fun little weekend adventure, filled with laughter. I work with some amazing nurses!
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