Red Rock Relay Rookies

I have never, and I mean never, been a runner in my entire life. I don't like it. I want to like it. So I run sparatically here and there. When I started dating Tyler in March, his family was talking about this race that they were going to do in September called the Red Rock Relay. I had never heard of it before. It is a 187 mile run starting at Brian Head ski resort in Cedar City, and it ends in St. George. They give your 12 man team 36 hours to complete it. Sounds fun right? Not really. I mean, it was, but it doesn't really sound fun. :) Well, when plans were being discussed on how this was all going to turn out, I was going to be a driver with Tyler's mom, which was totally fine with me. But then in August, Tyler's sister in law Katie, who was going to be running, broke her toe. So I took her place. What was I thinking? I ran a little the last few months of school, but then I took the ENTIRE summer off. I was a little preoccupied with other things. :) So without training, we left on Thursday afternoon for Cedar City. My first leg was Friday morning. 5.4 miles later, I was already pooped. How was I going to complete the other two legs? Especially when we started our second leg during the nighttime. With some encouragement from my amazing teammates, I started my second leg of 2.8 miles at 11:50 at night. It was quite the experience. I started to get a little spooked with all the night sounds. I even got a little discouraged after being passed by like 15 people. But I was able to finish. We were able to get a little sleep after our second leg. 3 hours of sleep is really not very much though, so we were super tired when it came to the last leg. My 5 miles was my last leg. The first mile was straight up a hill, then it went down a little, and then back up another hill. I thought I was going to die. But again, with the support of my teammates and an awesome girl who decided to run next to me, I was able to complete my last leg without perishing. Thank goodness. I love not being able to walk still from that adventure, and I am pretty sure I won't be running again for quite a while. But I can say that I completed the Red Rock Relay, which I am sure not very many people do in their life.

Tyler was tired after his first leg.

Wearing my "women's size medium" shirt.

He earned that first stripe.

The view from Melissa's first run.

Me before my first 5.4 miles.

Me after my first 5.4 miles.

We earned all 3 of our stripes!

Happy we are still alive, and feeling accomplished.