Wasatch Back

Stu and I had the chance to do the Wasatch Back Relay this year (last year we missed it because we were in Hawaii-small sacrifice)

The Wasatch Back Relay is a 12 man team that covers mountainous terrain from Logan to Park City (188 miles). Each team member runs three alternating legs of 3-8 miles long. Stu and I hooked up with my running buddy Liz, her sister Erin and our long lost running buddy Leesha. We also had a man named Greg that was from Springville in our van (each van held 6 members). We had the 1st leg so we started the race at 11:00AM Friday morning. The weather was nice (for a change) and after we filled the car with gear and people we made it to the starting line with about 45 min to spare and we got Liz geared up since she was our first runner.

This is our team. 6 of our members were from the state of Texas. It is hard to get 12 people to commit to running a race and our Texas team could not get the full 12, so we joined them. We met them for the 1st time the night before the race. They were the nicest people around. Our team name was Doggie Paddlin.
Stu and I at the starting line. It was kinda fun to watch and cheer for Liz as she started our race. I normally am always the one running so I never get to be a cheerleader.

Stu and Sarah right before I started my leg. I was runner #3 and since we started at 11 I started running my leg around 12:30 AM. It was REALLY hot!

Erin was our runner #2 so this is her giving me the slap bracelet at my exchange so I can start running.

Sarah, Liz and Erin waiting at Stu's exchange.

Stu and Sarah right before Stu started his run. Stu had the second hardest leg out of our 12 runners. He had to run uphill on a dirt path for about 7 miles. He is wearing a bandanna to help with the dirt.

This is Stu's dirt path he had to run. Check out those calf muscles!

Stu after his exchange. He was glad to be done since it was so hot. We saw some runners that were dropping out due to heat exhaustion and we saw runners hooked up to IV's from dehydration. Luckily none of our runners had any problems.

Overall we finished the race in about 30 hours. We were just happy to finish. Saturday during our last run it started to rain. Running in the rain is not my favorite thing to do, so I was glad I only had to run 7 miles in it. Our Texas team ran the last 6 exchanges in the rain (about 18 miles) and they were troopers. When our team crossed the finish line together it was a down pour! Even through we only got 3 hours of sleep and smelled liked death Stu and I both agreed, we would do this again!