Rivalry Relay

I was invited to run the Rivalry Relay (63 mile, 6 person relay from the U in Salt Lake to BYU in Provo) back in June.  At the time that I committed I didn't know yet that I was expecting, but even once I found out that I was, I still wanted to give it a shot.

I was 22 1/2 weeks at the time that I ran.  It has been a challenge, but an empowering one to train for this race.  I hardly exercised with Shad since I was coming off of an ACL surgery when I got pregnant and hadn't been working out much, plus I was working full-time so I didn't make it a priority.  This time I've been trying to keep up with my running post-Ragnar and having this race to train for has been just the motivation I needed.  It's definitely been hard, I didn't feel well or have much energy during the first trimester which was also the hottest part of this backward summer, but somehow I have kept up well enough that this race actually went rather well for me!  

I ran it with Jessica, Ceci Hermann, and 3 girls I didn't previously know, Rachel Hughes, Heather Frost, and Fawn Powell.  What I love about relay races is that you can come together with a completely random group of people, share a confined, sweaty space for an extended period of time, and somehow get along, support each other throughout, and become friends by the end.  

The race was last weekend, September 28th.  Our start time was one of the first, at 5am.  We had to leave Provo by 3am to make it to Salt Lake by 4:15am to check-in and get our safety training.  It was cold and early, but I think I still really enjoyed the change- not having it be a 2-day over-night race like Ragnar.  

I decorated the suburban Friday night... 

My team, "Girls Just Wanna Go Run" at the start line:  Olympic Bridge near the U's campus.  

Rachel was runner #1.  We were team #23!

Dave and Toni ran this race on another team that also started at 5am.  It was fun to run into them.  I guess Torie was also running it on another team, but they weren't starting till 7am or so... 

Heather was runner 2.  Here she is handing off to Fawn who was runner 3. 

Fawn coming in to hand off to Ceci, runner 4.  

I was runner 5.  Here I'm waiting for Ceci to come in... 

Here she comes!

And I'm off!

I started just after 7:30, which was the end of the "night" time that required safety vests, headlamps, tail lights, etc.  Yes!  Plus I got to watch the sun come up over the valley.  It was beautiful!

Coming in to hand off to Jess, runner 6!

She was worried about how she'd do, and that her pace would be way slow because she was still recovering from 2 pregnancies in 2 years, but she rocked all of her runs!  She did awesome.

Handing off to Rachel:

Fawn just finishing her killer climb up Suncrest behind Draper:  (And Rachel supporting)

Ceci:

Rachel bringing me water:

I hated how ridiculous and lumpy my belly looked but wearing that belly support band really helped!  I don't think I would've still been able to run that much if it wasn't for that band... 

Handing off to Jess again:

Picture I stole from instagram that Ceci posted...

Rachel waiting for Jess to come in:

Jess handing off:

Heather just finishing her last run: 

Fawn finishing her last run:

Those numbers really weren't designed to fit around a roundish object...

Ceci finishing her last run:

This is only half of the crazy hill I had to run up hike on my last leg:

LOVE that sign!

Jess taking off for her last leg:

Waiting for Jess to come in:

Here we come!

It was awesome to be done!  We had a blast!

I designed our team t-shirts and had them printed at TTOD.  Then Momma C helped me sew stripes onto all the sleeves to make them more retro.  I really liked the way they turned out!  And they all loved them, which was fun for me!

And a few last pictures of our van!  

I'm so glad I did this race.  I was able to run more than I walked on all 3 of my legs.  I think I would've run even more of it if it weren't for all my uphill climbs.  I think most of my legs were uphill or flat, I didn't really have any downhill...  I felt really proud of myself, and empowered.  I felt like I'd proved something to myself, that my body can still do so much more than I thought it could while pregnant.  I had a lot of support form Jessica and my other team members too.  It really was a great, though extremely exhausting, day!