RED ROCK

It was decided a few months ago that I would run the Red Rock Relay down at Zion's National park.

FYI this race is just like Ragnar.

FYI Ragnar is a team of 12, each person running 3 times, over about 36 hours continuously.

So I did some mediocre training, since I am not a "runner." And I was nervous but hoped it'd be more fun and not painful...

We recruited Aaron last minute because people keep dropping from our team. Luckily he had been running some, and he proved to be a great asset ;)

Here we are (Kanani got cut off there at the bottom) before heading up to our first exchange.

Aaron, me, Doug, (his wife) Kara, and Marni. (and Kanani!)

We had mostly all had good experience with pizza being THE carb to eat in order to have a speedy race. So the night before that's what we ate. And Doug decided we look like twins in this picture. Packard genes =)

 The 12 of us! (Actually 11, because one girl was running). You'll notice half of the group has beautiful hair. They were in the first van, the SNOW van.
They were more about looking good than running good....

Crazy Kanani gearing up for her first run.... and the boys taking the necessary measures to prevent chafing. Haha!

 Some of the handoffs. I think most of us went in to this race thinking we were going to die. My first run was the hardest, but it was the shortest AND downhill! But I think it was all mental. And high altitude didn't help.

 Kara was impressed after Doug's run. We were all rather impressed to be honest ;)

 Poor Aaron had the worst conditions for running, But also the prettiest. And he did awesome!

It was chilly that first day.. til you're running...

I was runner 12, so the very last runner of our group. It was a LOT of waiting around, I just wanted to get things over with! But after each run, I felt really good. We had started at Brian Head resort and ended the first run here at SUU.

 Our whole team of 12 put in 187 miles over the 2 days.
Aaron and I did 18-19 miles each, and I don't think either of us thought we could actually do that.
My longest run was at 3 am, and it was about 7 miles, but it was my fastest. Most of us enjoyed those runs in the middle of the night, in the pitch black, along the highway! Funny how that is..


 Being the last runner, I was the finisher. It was HOT by the time we got down to Zions so my awesome team soaked me with water the whole way to the finish, and then joined in the final stretch!

The 6 of us at the finish! Sooooo fun and so beautiful. I went into it thinking I'd probably hate running after this and would never sacrifice my sleep to run again, but we had a blast. Go team!