Lake to Lake St. George Relay

This was a fun race. I can't begin to summarize or write down the whole of this weekend, but I know that when I forever look back on it a big smile will spread across my face. Now how can running a relay race with 5 women consisting of two legs each of approximately 5-6 miles (52 in total) each one varying in degrees of difficulty be fun? Well let me tell you.....

Its starts with coming up with a really good theme and as you can see we NAILED THAT ONE. (insert Cindy Lauper's "Girl's Just Wanna have Fun/Run" into your head while viewing this post)! Find the perfect socks on line and matching t-shirts and tanks (check).  Next, decorate your car really cute with the help of an awesome friend who has mad vinyl skills. (check) Then stay up really late the night before eating pasta, decorating said car, and recovering from a long day of shopping.

Sidenote #1:  When I say a long day of shopping I mean: Go to Krumpetts for clearanced St. Patrick's Day and Easter decor, stop by Peerless Beauty for amazing deals on shampoo, buy out Christensens' Department Store, stop by JoAnns, eat lunch at Bajios (amazing shrimp salad with mango salsa), spend three hours in Down East Home trying on everything they sale in the clothes department, stop by Kohls for cards, then Roberts craft store for a wooden pig (ask Marquessa), get frozen yogurt, go to Albertsons to get some last minute race day food, stop by a car wash to prepare the Armada race SUV for vinyl decorations, drop Marquessa off at the race meeting (then all go in and buy sweatshirts when we pick her up!), and then end up at Brick Oven for dinner for carbohydrate and Garlic loading and  a last minute craft station in the back of the store with hair clips and jewelry (only in Utah)!!  We like to shop 'til we drop apparently.   

Wake up very early in the morning and tenatively drive to the race in the freezing cold and feeling very sleep deprived.

Oh yeah, and it helps if you train for a few months before. Runing in the morning and then again at night sometimes to get used to the double runs for a few weeks before the big day is a must. 

Oh and don't get sick two days before the race or be recovering from walking pneumonia....take it from us it would be easier that way!!

Side-note#2:  make sure your team consists of positive, fun, amazingly talented women, who strive to set goals, improve their lives and be great mothers and wives....this way the race weekend will turn into a rejuvenating retreat rather than a long relay race with negative, sweaty, stinky women stuck in a car all day.   

Patsy flew in from Texas to run with us.  She's amazing and such a sweetie!  I've heard about her for years, so it was fun to finally meet her. 

Dun-dun-Dun....the START line. 

Love this girl....how lucky am I to live right next door?

The Armada before the blood, GARLIC sweat, tears, and chaos took over

Missy started us off and boy was it cold....brrr

Jen went next with a smile and those long legs it wasn't long until....ahhhh its already me???

I get so nervous before I start.  I always have to go to the bathroom right before.  The lines were long, I almost didn't make it until I begged to cut.  Thankfully everyone let me go ahead.  Racing people are always so nice.  I barely got set up before I saw that bright tank top coming.  It was a little too rushed for my taste. 

Waiting for me...where am I? oh yeah dying as the last mile and a half were a steady uphill of my first leg. 

Patsy was all smiles the whole day and she had two of the hardest legs of this race.  What a trooper.  She never complained. 

We heart these socks very much.  They came from a sight called Little Miss Matched.  Cute huh?

By the afternoon, it was getting very hot.  I had only my one tank top on and biker shorts...most of my run was in this dirty and dusty terrain.  The pictures are not pretty so I'm not including any of that leg.  However, I felt much better for this leg.  It was hot, but I was in my groove.  I was pumped up for the awful hill everyone kept talking about in this leg....I knew it wouldn't be much further once I got up it.  I enjoyed this leg much more than the first.  The hill was difficult and I did stop for about 30 steps, but I knew that would probably be the case.   

Sand Hollow Reservoir---The FINISH LINE!!

We had some guys in another car who kept honking at us the entire day and semi-flirting.  It just made us giggle as we counted up and joked about the 23 kids that belong to our group and 5 hot husbands at home!    We aren't sure if this was them or not, but we were hoping...or NOT

Here's Marquessa coming in at the finish line.  She had a very hard last leg that was really long.  She was a trooper.  Each team waited for their last runner and then all ran across the finish line together.  It was super fun and an amazing feeling!  We finished at 7 hours and 54 minutes.  I was really proud of us.  Our finish time was right in the middle of all the teams.  Not too shabby for 5 busy moms who have a lot on our plates.   

This is my favorite picture of the day all finishing together.  We talked several times over the course of the weekend about how women need each other.  We rely and depend on each other and gain strength from one another.  These friends are amazingly strong physically as well as spiritually.  I totally look up to them and hope to be crossing all finish lines in my life with the support of family and friends just like them.  Thanks girls for an amazing journey.  Lets do it again! 

My other favorite pictures

I think I looked cooler in my head when posing like this than I really do!!!!

Triplet i-phone girls.  Don't they clean up nice??  We treated ourselves to the Anasazi steak house for dinner.  Its a fun place where you get to cook your steak on a hot stone at your table. 

On Sunday we had to take Patsy to the beautiful St. George temple.  Too bad the weather wasn't perfect to show off how white the temple usually is. 

This was Patsy's first trip to St. George so of course we had to show her the view from the amazing red rock.  We kept telling all our fellow hikers to go home and change because they were dressed all wrong for the occasion!