Warning! This relay is not for the faint of heart, knees, stamina! Ok, first the disclaimer- we had 7200 (thats 600 teams!) crazy people in on the back roads of the Wasatch mountains June 21-22! I mean seriously mentally deranged... they had to be to as the slogan says: "Run, Drive, Sleep?, Repeat". And then there were those of us who volunteered to faciliate this madness-ahem Cory.
My husband and our neighbor Aaron and my neighbor Ashlee all participated in this insanity. There are 12 racers (some teams had only 6 so they all ran twice as much) each racer runs 3 different legs of a 36 leg, 181 mile race; all of the legs varied in difficulty (whether or not the runner was running up a mountain! or not) and length (I swear I heard that woman I passed swearing under her breath as she ran by). 
Craig had a 3.1 mile starting at 8:30pm on 6/21 and climbed 1000 feet to the top of Snow Basin Mountain. Next was an moderate (ha ha) 5.1 mile run at 4:30am from Wanship past the Rockport Reservoir to the other end- Gorgeous sunrise!!!!!. 
Finally, he ran the easy (ha, ha, Ha) 5.2 miler at 1:30pm to the finish line in 92 degree, not a cloud in the sky weather to the finish line (with no water). 
Craig had a 3.1 mile starting at 8:30pm on 6/21 and climbed 1000 feet to the top of Snow Basin Mountain. Next was an moderate (ha ha) 5.1 mile run at 4:30am from Wanship past the Rockport Reservoir to the other end- Gorgeous sunrise!!!!!. Finally, he ran the easy (ha, ha, Ha) 5.2 miler at 1:30pm to the finish line in 92 degree, not a cloud in the sky weather to the finish line (with no water). 
Meanwhile, I was at the Wanship exchange volunteering from 9pm to 2am marking down the runners as they came into the exchange point as my fellow volunteers called them out. It was a balmy 38 degrees (we were cooooold) and the runners were coming in in shorts, etc. After my shift, I climbed into my van to catch a scant 2 hour nap before my group arrived to exchange and Creighton took off running. Between leg 24 and 30 a group of us went to the Kamas high school where people could shower, sleep on the gym floor (a hard hardwoodfloor never looked so good) and catch a bite to eat before their next leg started. Our group (van 2) got about 1 1/2 hours sleep (thank heavens I brought the air mattress for the back of the van) then they all started again. I think that was pretty much the amount of sleep any of the 2 vans full of people got during the 24 hour period. It was a very physically brutal, but somehow crazy fun bonding experience for the runners and helpers. CRAZY!!!!!!, but at the end, we all agreed we'd do it again-- next year!
Two very tired people finally at home!
Two very tired people finally at home!
4 comments:
That is SO cool. When You were talking about Creighton's race, I just assumed it was another tri. My Bro and Sis in law did the wasatch back last year. I can't believe how insane it is, but it must have felt pretty incredible to do it. Way to go, Creighton!
That looked so intense! Congratulations on accomplishing it! Why didn't you guys talk it up at the Homestead? I would have love to hear more details, but I forgot that he was doing it and didn't ask. Dang it!
That is so great! I had a few friends do the Wasatch back also! It sounds insane to help with it let alone run it! Holy cow. That is cool!
Great Job Creighton! You are so tough! What are you training for next? C
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