Where to start and What to write. First off this all started with the 9 (Aaron Mettler, Me, Karen and Kelly Lyman, Lacy and Josh, Kelly H., Cedric, and Kaylee) of the 12 runners going up Thursday the night before to sleep at the start in Brianhead, UT. It was very cold up there and no one slept... of-course!!! Our starting placement was 6am. The first runner(Lacy) rode the ski lift up to the top of the mountain in the dark, and then ran down a rocky trail back to the venue, in the dark, to make her first hand off to Kelly H at leg 2. We circled around the Brianhead area on back roads and then headed south through Cedar Breaks national park.
I ran my first leg (#6) at the junction of Hwy 14 and the turn off back to Cedar Breaks. I dropped from 10000 feet to 8200 feet in 7 miles. I flew down this mountain! When we hit the bottom of the mtn near Cedar City, we headed back up the mountain towards Kolob reservoir. The climb back up was hellacious and took 3 different running legs to get back up to the top. Good Job Cedric, Karen and Kelly!!!! I then ran the 12th leg (8 miles) that did a little more climbing up 9200 feet and then plunged down to Kolob Reservoir. I was really sucking air at these high elevations. Our other 3 runners (Amy, Ross and Josh Decker) were there to join us for the rest of our race.
We ran down through the west side of Zion's park over to rockville. We turned around and headed towards St George. After we past through Hurricane, UT the clouds moved in and we had a spectacular lightning show around us. We arrived in the St George area around 1 am Saturday. We ran through town and headed up towards Gunlock, UT. The rain started at this point. I picked up my 3rd and final leg from Santa Clara to Shivwits. This leg the weather let loose on me. The down pour was so heavy that I couldn't see the road and the rain stung my face. I counted 5 lightning burst that hit in my local area. I was afraid I was going to get struck! This leg was #28 and I had 4 miles of rolling hills and a 1 mile uphill. I was so jazzed when I finished that run. I think it was the combination of the rain, lightning and sleep deprivation that kept me going. I had not slept yet at this point since thursday morning.
We ran up over Gunlock and over to Veyo. Kelly and Karen Lyman ran the next big hills. I don't know how they ran the worst legs of this relay. I paced a little for some of the girls that had to run at night. Over-all I ran a total of 22 miles. We finished just after Snow cyn on saturday around 9am with a time of 27 hours. We were the second team to finish. The first team finished in 24 hrs and the team after us finished a little more than 24 hrs. I figure we will be somewhere around 10-15th place out of 60 teams. I will gets the details later.
I slept till 4pm today. I hope I sleep tonight. | 