Marathon Relay

If anyone has been reading my posts you will have noticed that I go running in the morning with some girls from church. One of the girls found this marathon relay and we decided to sign up for it. The route started at a girls camp way up in Provo canyon and then followed the river trail and ended at Utah lake 26.4 miles later. The relay split this into legs that two or four people could run. So four of us signed up for a team. It was our original understanding that we would each be running a 10K leg, so about 6.5 miles or so. This turned out not to be the case. It turned out that there were three 6 mile legs and one 8 mile leg. And it just so happened that I was the person assigned to that leg. One of the girls offered to swap with me, but Doug goaded me into doing the 8 miles by myself. I can proudly say that I did do it, but I am not ashamed to admit that it was extremely hard. Yes, it was hard to actually keep running 8 whole miles, and it was hard to hold the pee that I ended up holding for 5 miles, and it was also hard to not choke on water while I was running (I had never gotten one of those water cups while I was running, and I almost died trying to drink it!) but the hardest part was that I kept getting passed by all the marathon runners! I was running at a pretty good clip (I found out later I was running about an 8:45 minute mile) but people kept passing me with black numbers, and my numbers were red. When I realized they were all marathoners, I was upset. Then when I got the 14 mile marker(supposedly where my leg ended) and the race wasn't over. Then I saw people waiting, but it wasn't the end of my leg! I was getting so frustrated, that by the time I did finish the race I looked and felt very ticked off. My neighbor ran the third leg, and her husband is in the bishopric and he was there. He told me jokingly that he was glad I didn't say anything that would make him have to release me from my calling. I was really confused because I didn't realize how mad I looked! Doug told me later that I was and angry race runner, which is funny because I don't feel angry when I run regularly. Here's some pictures from the end of the race. I was much happier then because there was pancakes!

The triumphant finishers! Our team ended up getting 15th place, completing the marathon in 3 hrs 55 minutes. I don't know how many teams there were...over 15. :) The runners are (left to right) Stacy Phipps, me, Amelia Anderson, and Carolee Crawford.

Mmmmm...pancakes!