the red rock recap.

this weekend i earned my stripes... even if my team misplaced our sharpie the entire race and only marked our calves after the whole shebang was over!
remember when i posted a little bit about the red rock relay down in moab in may?
it happened again. enter red rock relay: zion.  here's the breakdown
2 days
186 miles
12 team members
210 teams
4 hours of sleep in a 48 hour time period
obviously, it's a recipe for a really great time!

this time our team of "red rock relay rookies" was a conglomeration of coworkers and a coworker's extended family. the fun started in cedar city thursday night with a big sign in party and pasta feed. i was worried this mass produced food would be disgusting, but thanks to the best veg pasta sauce i'd ever inhaled and great harvest cookies the size of frisbees, i was pleasantly surprised.

after a quick trip to walmart for the goods, ie tons of clifbars, chocolate milk, trail mix, string cheese, and enough bagels to feed a small county, we slept for a couple hours. then it time for van 1 to make it to the starting line for our 6 am debut.

demon eyes. they come out in the wee morning hours

 obviously we were pretty bright eyed and bushy tailed.
the first part of the race was freezing cold and i didn't feel the least bit envious of our first runner, who had to ride a ski lift twenty minutes up a mountain in the freezing just to run all the way back down.
what did we do for these twenty minutes? jump in our car without knowing where the next exchange was and drove around completely lost, only to go back to the starting line and find out that the first exchange was right by the ski lift.  we're a good team.

 i was the second runner. do you like my ninja suit? when i was thinking "relay in st. george" i was thinking running tanktops and shorts, not underarmour and ear muffs. its a good think i threw those pants in at the last minute! my first leg was a baby 2.7 miler, but a big hill that kind of chewed me up and spit me out at first. i blame the elevation!

 while we took turns running, the rest of us stood around on the road playing cheerleader and justified eating way too many bagels. six hours later we got to our van exchange, passed the baton, and went to chili's for lunch.

 chili's is gross. i had a salad and it was mediocre- not even picture taking worthy, and that is saying something... i should have gotten the molten lava cake. next time!  after that it was two hour nap time, then back to run our second phase of the race. my next leg was a 3.7 miler. since my legs of the race were short, i set little goals, mainly consisting of passing as many men as i could and finishing this run in under 30 minutes. it took me 28. i was proud of those 7.30 mile splits!

then it was dusky and dusty... and i thanked my lucky stars i didn't have to run down this eternal road.

 it got dark and pretty. just look at that sky! the sun went down and the headlamps came out while the rest of our runners hauled up the mountain.
when our phase was done we exchanged with van 2 and went to st. george to shower and "sleep". i closed my eyes for two hours, then it was up again so we could meet our team and finish our last leg.

 enjoy this picture. it kind of shows how sleep deprived crazy i was feeling, just look at those bags under my eyes! 4 am is the prime time to run. your brain is so tired, it doesn't even know what it's doing. my third run was 6.2 mile, then i ended up running another 4.2 for a team member who'd gotten sick. i'd never run in the pitch black darkness with a headlamp, and  it was kind of fun! our van finished our part of the race, handed off to van 2 to finish, and went back to st. george to shower and eat.

 nielsen's caramel cashew custard. i would run any number of miles just for a cone of it!
after eating, we made way to zion to run across the finish line with our team members.

 again, so gorgeous.

 we waited and waited for our van to finally show up. my favorite part of the day was watching all the teams before us finish. they were so creative! i especially liked forrest gump's guest appearance.

our van finally showed up and we ran/hobbled across the finish line as the announcer told everybody to give it up for the"red runners relay rockies". rookies, rockies, tomato, tomahto. we were just happy to be done!
carbo-loading/snacks devouring ensued, then the long ride back to provo with a delirious bunch of women. let's just say that trivia and my aunt carolyn's jokes are a lot funnier when you've had four hours of sleep.
i am now accepting applications for team mustache 2012 (get it? must-dash? i'm hilarious) next september.
til then i will probably be trying to scrub these inch wide stripes off my calf. i don't doubt i'll be loofah-ing until next year's race rolls around.
the strange looks from my bishop are well worth it.