Eat. Run. Sleep? Repeat.

Or something like that... that's what I did this past weekend.  I ran in a relay race that was 181.7 miles long in Arizona.  It started out in a small town called Wickenburg and ending up in Scottsdale.  We ran everywhere from beautiful national parks to ugly industrial roads.  It was one of the most fun things that I have done. 

We started the trip at 5:00 am friday morning when started our 5-6 hour drive to Wickenburg.  I was under the assumption that everyone would want to sleep on the way there.  Boy was I wrong.  We had a chatty group and I LOVED it.  Everyone was so funny... and very insightful. 

Thanks Zach for being our driver.  That was a tough job! But your handled it beautifully. 

This pictures gives you an idea of where we started out.  Seriously we were in the middle of nowhere. This was my first time doing much more than driving through the desert. Who knew that cactus really grew that big?

This is on my first run when I still had lots of energy.  I am leaping for joy at the sight of my team meets there to offer me water and support.  

You might think that this is a commercial for Propel... but its not.  This is me after my first leg of the race. It was 5.9 miles.   You might also think that that is sweat on my shirt but I assure you it is not.  That is the water that my team spread on me so that I wouldn't sweat like that.  It was like 85 degrees.  

This is around midnight. When we ran at night we had to wear reflective vest and headlamps. This is Karl showing off our equipment and getting pumped up for his midnight ride.

Around five in the morning hit and it was my turn to run.  By this time the reflective vest had been passed down through at least six other people and about 30 miles of running. YOu can imagine the sweat that had accumulated.  Ugh.  Gross.  But regardless of the sweat this was the most amazing run.  I was the lucky one that was able to run when the sun rose.  Words can't describe the surreal feeling of running in the middle of nowhere in the dark and then the sun rising and then there being light everywhere.  It was so awesome.  But wasn't awesome was the huge hill at the end of my 5.4 mile run. 

 

This is during my 3rd and final leg when my fellow team mate Karl (in the picture) brought me a piece of gum.  Have you ever seen someone so excited for a piece of gum?  Well let me explain.  Gum was more valuable then water. If you were not chewing gum then you would get the worst cotton mouth and that's all you could think about.  This run I had forgotten to put a piece of gum in... thank you Karl for saving me. 

Again.... another amazing run. It was 4.8 miles of views of a lake and canyons.  So awesome.  

 

After the race my friends Jodi and Julie met up with me at the finish line. It was so fun to see these girls.  BFF.

This was our full team once we had crossed the finish line.  We were nervous about getting enough team members before the race but somehow it was pulled off. And not only did we get enough team members but it was an awesome group of people.  

 

This was the girls from our team.  It was amazing how hard it was to keep my leg up.

Another group from Huntington ran the race as well.  This is all of us crazy people. 

The drive home you might have thought would have been a quiet one in which people would sleep and try to recover... No.. pumpkin no.  This trip home was filled with all kinds of games such as Encore, the alphabet game, and of course my new favorite game... The IPOD game. 

So after 48 hours, 3 hours of sleep, 16.2 miles I can honestly say that I totally would and want to do it again.