Wasatch Back – The Whole Story, Part II

I realize this is excruciatingly long to read. Please don’t feel like you need to. It’s been a really huge thing for me and I really want as much as I can recorded.

Here are a few notes I woke up to:

Friday morning we were supposed to meet at Kristen’s house at 5:45 am for 7:15 start time. After several set backs Van 1 which consisted of Tasha, Macy, Collin, Me, Sara and Kristin finally rolled into the starting point for a new start time of 8:30am. Our team name was “Un.Bell.ievable” in memory of our Grandparents. The place was packed, there were all kinds of vehicles totally decked out with all kinds of fun and crazy names. My favorite was, “Scrambled Legs and Achin” As I looked around I had a “what the heck am I doing here” moment. We saw Tanner who warmly greeted us in spite of being super busy. He was calling out team names for the 8:30 start and was definitely in his element. Tasha took off and had a great first leg. A few hours and legs later it was almost my turn and I was seriously terrified. This was my longest leg, 5.2 miles and I had no idea if I’d be able to do it. I kept telling myself I could walk if I had to, but I really didn’t want to. I started and went incredibly slow. I got passed constantly and never passed one single person. 60 year old women were flying by me, I didn’t care. Most people would say something nice like “Good job!” as they passed me. I never knew if I should just say “thanks” or “you too.” I had a feeling they were offering some extra encouragement to me because well I don’t look like your typical runner.

My van drove by several times to see if I needed anything and to cheer me on. It helped so much to feel like I wasn’t alone. It started to get hot, but not oppressively. I started to panic that I couldn’t do it and then ran past a little clearing of wild poppies. I instantly thought of my Mom and my Grandma and kept going. I finally got to the sign that said, “One more mile” and wondered if I had one more mile in me. My toes started really hurting, but I thought hurt toes was a really dumb reason to stop, so I kept going. I finally reached the exchange point. I couldn’t believe I had just run 5.2 miles! It felt great to finish and not have walked, but I was too exhausted and nervous that I just used everything in me and wouldn’t be able to do my next two legs to really celebrate.

Sara and Kristin ran two incredibly hard legs right after mine and I was feeling lucky with my easy ones. I was impressed with all my teammates as they seemed to breeze through their runs. After their runs we met up with Van 2 and handed the “baton” (a slap bracelet) off to them and happily went to lunch. We enjoyed a great meal and then headed off to Tasha’s aunt’s house for a shower and nap. It was heavenly to have a break from the car and running and nerves. I couldn’t really sleep, but it was still great to rest. We piled back into the car and found Ryan and the kiddies on their way camping. Seeing Rex and Lucy and Molly was great and helped me miss my own kids a little less.

We started our night runs. Tasha switched places with her mom, Kristen, so now Kristen was in our van. I watched my beautiful 53 year old aunt run down Trappers Loop, amazed. She’s done this 7 times!!! On my turn it was beautiful, the temperature was perfect and I usually love running at night. Part of me loved it, but most of me was still flat out exhausted. I had to run 4.2 miles this time which seemed like 402 miles. There were times I was completely alone for a few minutes and I wondered what kind of wild animals were there or how close the skunk I smelled was to me. I tried to distract myself from my pain and fatigue by looking at my beautiful surroundings, and it helped a little. It was pitch black and my head lamp didn’t do a whole lot. I felt like I was going to twist my ankle any minute by stepping in a pothole or something, but I didn’t. I finally got to the little town of Morgan and passed some volunteers who excitedly told me I only had one more mile. I wanted to scream at them and ask them why they acted like that was good news? My legs were yelling at me. I kept going, praying all the way, my favorite song came on just then and I took it as a sign that I could do this. I tried swinging my arms more hoping they could take some of the pressure off my legs. I finally saw my exchange and managed to drag my legs across. Whew, I did it and I didn’t walk! After the next two runs, one of which blew my mind with how hard it looked, we met our other van and headed off to our condo for some much needed rest. I fought to stay awake to help Macy navigate. After a miserable hour we made it and I wondered if I’d be able to sleep.

It seemed like two seconds later, but really about 3 and a 1/2 hours later, we woke up and loaded back up. I couldn’t believe we had to run. I felt like a crash test dummy. I didn’t know if I could walk let alone run. Another, what-the-heck-am-I-doing-here moment.