Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay 2009- Part three

Time flies when you're having fun! After our breakfast we headed off to meet the rest of our team that finished running through the night and at the crack of dawn. You could tell we were feeling refreshed because Sarai got the whole bunny getup on to cheer our runners along the course. The adrenaline must have started to flow knowing it was our last leg, because I wasn't feeling tired at all. You'd never know that we only gotten a little bit of sleep.

There goes Tancy just crusisn' right along!

Waiting for Mel to come along.

You'd never know that this was AFTER her run! She looked great! It had started to rain by then. It wasn't too bad and in fact kept the temperatures down.

Tancy cheering for Sarai! She had the longest leg in this set of legs for our car and she did just awesome! She had 7 miles of big hill that she just kept going up.

Our car isn't looking so good after the rain.

Me and Ang right before my last leg.

The hand off. I started with the bunny ears on. It didn't last long.

My last leg was 3 miles of brutal downhill with a mile of flat at the end. It was raining pretty hard by now and the wind was the strongest headwind I've run against. It was so loud that even with my i pod turned all the way up, I could barely tell which song was playing. I just kept my head down (mostly so that my hat wouldn't fly off and so that I wasn't pelted in the face with the rain), took short quick steps and let the mountain carry me down the hill. I was running faster than I have ever run before, for a sustained distance, and at the bottom of the hill stopped to tie my shoe and then took about 20 steps to catch my breath.

I picked up again and tried to sustain a good pace even though the wind was now pushing me sideways. I was so excited to see the exchange point and know that I was all done. I pushed through to the end and passed the bracelet on to Cameo. Then I walked over to my teammates only to have to make a detour to the weeds and throw up. I had just pushed myself to its limits. It felt good. My average pace for this leg was 8:40. I made a quick cool down jog around the parking lot and got in the car. I was totally on that runner's high. And I was done!

We met up with the other half of our team to hand off for their last brutal legs.

We're all done with all our legs! Truly an awesome feeling. Now it's just a waiting game to all cross the finish line together! I really couldn't believe we were all done. The time had just flown by. I was almost a little sad. But not too much when I knew we were finally going to get to take a shower and eat real hot food. Which is what we did next.

Angie let us shower in her hotel and it was one of the best showers of my life. After I brushed my teeth I actually felt like a human being instead of a wet, sweaty monster. We went to dinner together and talked about what a great time we had just experienced. Our team really got along so well, even with being tired, sore, and did I mention tired? Everyone was so patient and cheered each other along the whole way. What a great group of women! I really hope we get to do it together again next year.

While we were in Park City showering and eating and enjoying ourselves, the rest of our team was really having a rough time. Those last couple of legs are the most difficult in the whole course and it was really raining down of those girls. The trail was muddy and on top of it all, the lightning started. Even after all that they had been through, 2 of the girls backtracked and found their runner who was pretty scared of the lightning and just wanted to finish. Amazing!

We all crossed the finish line together with the team behind us saying, "I can't believe we're getting beat by the bunnies!" We finished 27th of 82 overall the women's teams and 19th in our division. It was truly an experience I'll never forget, friends that will last forever, and one I hope to repeat.