And She was Running

This weekend I survived the Ragnar Trail Relay in Zions. Some of you may remember that about 6 months ago I did the same thing, sort of (if you don't you can read it here). This time it was the real deal, the first Ragnar Trail Relay! Thankfully Mother Nature was on our side this time. The sun was shining in a clear blue sky. It was windy when we first got there but it died down once the sun set. Our start time was at 1pm, I thought it was great weather for some running. I was runner #5 so my first run didn't start until about 5pm. I started on the yellow trail, on this trail there is about a mile of what feels like straight up hill. Not to mention that it was also sandy. It was like running on a beach while trying to run uphill. My 2nd run started about shortly after 11 pm. Running in the night in the middle of nowhere with only a headlamp is not my favorite thing but I survived. And my final run was about 9 am, 7.5 miles, it was a rough 7.5 miles. I felt good that morning, after some sleep, and started off running that red trail once I started hitting some decent incline my legs felt like they might give out. Speed walking became my friend.

On my 7.5 mile run/speed walk I had a lot of time to think and I thought about the "running community". About 90% of the people that passed me along any other the trails would always say something encouraging. Things like, "looking good" or "keep it up!" Whenever there was someone that was moving particularly slow, seemed to be struggling or were stopped all together they probably got asked a million times if they were okay. I know I asked everyone that I passed. It's like we take care of each other! It's nice, it gives me hope in humanity. It's not just at race time this happens. I am in a running club and the same thing happens there. Runners take care of other runners and cheer others on to keep them going. In my mind I like to think that runners don't just apply this to other runners but other people they come across everyday.

I love running, I'm no pro but I feel like I am a champ after doing 15.5 miles within 20 hours time. That is the farthest distance I have ever run and probably some of the hardest miles I have fought through. Trail running is a whole different beast from pavement and treadmill, which adds to how awesome I feel for accomplishing what I did. Since I have now done 15.5 hard miles I have toyed with the idea of doing a full marathon (26.2 miles for those that don't know). Only 10.7 more miles and that would be a marathon. I don't know, I'm not sure I'm that crazy, so far I'm only half crazy. I'm going to think about this marathon things some more and I will definitely write about it and probably the blood, sweat and tears that go into something of that magnitude!