RED ROCK RELAY

I am going to report on one of the most epic weekend adventures I have ever experienced in my 20 years of living:

 

Two Days

2 Vans

187 Miles

12 Teammates 

140 Slays

23 hours 17 minutes

1 WIN…

The RED ROCK RELAY

    

The race begins at 11,000 feet at Brian Head Ski resort then travels Dixie Nat'l Forest, Cedar Breaks, Snow Canyon, St. George, and ends at the entrance to Zion National Park, totaling a whopping 187 Miles.

Meet the Sun Van of TEAM JIMMER:

Team Jimmer is comprised of 12 individuals divided into 2 vans. 

Dan, Eric, Tristram, Ryan, Chels and I were in the sun van and several other avid runner friends were in the other. (The Sun Van=Party Van...hence the random woman who wanted her picture with the notorious "Jimmer Van")

SO here is how our Red Rock Relay experience went:

Start Time: 10:10am on Friday Morning

Finished: 9:25am on Saturday Morning  

(AKA: Sleeping was not included in this weekend getaway)

Each van has 6 teammates and each teammate runs a leg ranging from 3 to 8 miles (depending on the level of difficulty). After each member runs they pass off the baton (aka the sacred slap bracelet) to the other van which does another 6 legs. The vans continue to leap frog back and forth until everyone has individually run three legs.  (Everyone runs about 18 miles by the end of the relay). 

Look at Chels ROCKIN' IT

The vans drop off their runner follow their runner cheering, giving water, splits, and moral support. Our van typically blared music and had a dance party every mile or so.  As exemplified by Dan, below in his "one-zie,"dancing.

 

We were P-U-M-P-E-D. 

We painted our bodies to show our team Spirit.

JIMMER #1 BABY 

Tris's mustache stayed on the ENTIRE TIME,

rain or shine.

Ryan had other motives...why not pick up an attractive, athletic woman at the same time?

We slept, ate, cheered, sweated, bonded, and lived in this van for the weekend as we traveled across Southern Utah...

Needless to say, Chels and I got a dang good glimpse of boy life. 

Farting, Burping, man-talk, you name it, we experienced it!!! 

The van smelt DELIGHTFUL.

Dan, Tris and Ryan are three of my best friends.

Chels and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them.   

They have wisdom beyond their years and humor that could kill.

We all share the same-crazy sense of humor...RARE...and we laugh, laugh 

and laugh. 

I think I burnt more calories laughing then running.

I will forever be grateful to each one of them=they have changed my life!!!!!

These picture capture their personalities quite well:

Yes, Dan wore those "holey" superman pjs the entire time. 

Yes, Tris seductively drinks water. 

Yes, Dan parked the cars to make them look like they were kissing. 

Yes, "Slim-Jim"  is the name of Dan's belly. (It replaced "chuck")

Yes, they'll whoop anyone in a dance competition...HIP THRUST MASTERS

  

I have 3 stories emulating the degrees of emotion experienced on this journey:

10:30pm on Friday we stopped at New Castle to get some food. We stopped at "Rokko's Pizza Shop"-the ONLY place to stop in New Castle. After inhaling a pizza or two, we all went to a church parking lot and slept in the van for an hour before we embarked on our nightly runs through the desert.  Well, long story short, that Rokko's Pizza literally "ROCKED" our bodies. Talk about a cleansing of the body. Those Port-o-Potties became our best friends. Nasty, I know, but it was absolutely HYSTERICAL. When you run, run, cheer, run, eat-crappy, and don't sleep, it really takes a toll on your body. 

Story 2: We ran our second legs in the desert from midnight until 3:00am. Of 209 teams, we were now in the lead! With the silence of the night, a single headlamp piercing the darkness and the light of the moon guiding our pathway, we ran for hours alone. I LOVED running at night, I could not help but thank God for creating such a beautiful world.  

After our second leg, we slept on lawn chairs in a rec-center next to a pool (RANDOM) for an hour before our final set of legs. We were SOOOO EXHAUSTED at this point. I wanted to collapse on the floor because of the intense pain consuming my muscles as I walked to the lawn chairs. Ten minutes later (okay, an hour later) the boys woke us up and we were back on the road. (Most teams had longer rest periods but our team was haulin' so we did not have time to sleep.)

It was still dark.  After Ryan ran his 8 miles, Chels got out and grabbed the headlamp and reflector vest from him and began to run her leg.  After a few miles, we all drove up to the five mile mark, parked and waited for her.  After what seemed like an eternity, we did not see Chels.  We decided to drive back and retrace the route to find her...we could NOT find her. We all started to panic. It was the middle of the night, no other team was around, and we were in a foreign city.  Everyone was silent.  I started praying in my heart as I fought back tears. I would die if something happened to her. Eric, suggested we say a prayer for her. At the conclusion, he looked up and immediately shouted: "THERE SHE IS!" We saw her red light bobbing up and down.  Chels had not seen the directed path and continued up a GIANT 1.6 MILE HILL. Chels is a CHAMP. She went up this monstrous hill and instead of complaining, she apologized for making that mistake and insisted on running back-no, no, no we drove her back to the course. She is an angel.  We all about broke down in tears of relief as we shut the door.  PRAYER WORKS.  From then on, we stayed sooo close to our runners. 

Story 3:

My final leg was a 6.4 mile run at 6:00am.  The sun was rising and the red rock was stunning. My route was absolutely breathtaking! The first few miles of my run consisted of a 60* incline up a never-ending red rock mound. I was suffering from my asthma and ankle issues and mere exhaustion but I was determined to run as hard as I could, I refused to let my team down.  At the conclusion of the beastly red rock mound, Chels jumped out of the van and started running with me.  My team in the van, blared "All These Things I've Done" by the Killers (I love that song) and were cheering me on, despite their exhaustion. Chels started talking to me like we always did on our morning runs and all of a sudden, boosts of energy started firing in my muscles and I conquered my leg. Words cannot fully captivate the extreme love and gratitude I felt for Chels, my friends, and my physical capability to run. Running has provided some of my best lessons in life. 

After 23 hours of running, we finally saw this beautiful site:

Out of 209 Teams, TEAM JIMMER CAME IN FIRST

 Team Jimmer next to the vans totaling the number of kills (aka teams passed) or as Ryan puts it "Muggles Slayed" : 140! 

WHAT A GLORIOUS ADVENTURE