Las Vegas Ragnar Relay

So last weekend the 9th and 10th- I participated in my first Ragnar Relay in Las Vegas!! It was a BLAST!!! Leading up to it I was starting to get anxious about going because I was leaving the gals for 4 days and 3 nights. Brooklyn has had sleepovers here and there, but I have never been away from them for that long. My supportive teammates kept encouraging me and telling me that I could do it. And I did- I missed them though! We left thursday night and drove to St. George. Our starting time wasn't until 11 AM. We had such a great team- there was me, my sis-in-law Chelsea, good friend, Karlie, my friend from my ward Lori, my sister's sis-in-law Mallory, and my good friend Kara. My friend Lori had run the Wasatch Back twice, but for the rest of us it was our first Ragnar. We were so excited to start. Mel started us off and then our second runner was Karlie. We gave Karlie water and were getting ready to leapfrog ahead and a runner started yelling at us and pointing to the tire. We looked and it was F-L-A-T!! Not just a little low, but flat. Crap! So LUCKILY for us there was a another team "Hell on Heels" ahead of us. (We ended up being close by them the whole time and we would cheer for each other- they became our adopted team). They had a guy in their car that got out and was going to work on changing it- thanks Rob. So Rob got out and I hopped into their van and they took me to my starting point. Poor Karlie didn't know what was going on and was wondering where we were. I gave a water bottle to the volunteer where I started from and asked him to tell Karlie what was going on- like 2 or 3 minutes later and Karlie sitting there not knowing what was going on he told her. So she got in with them and they took her back to the Durango and got Chelsea. When I got done with my run- my team still wasn't back- so I got back in with the other team and Rob made me a sandwich and they got me some gatorade. I might add it was SO hot- I wasn't prepared for that. We really were so blessed to have them. Finally- as I was sitting there my team showed up. It turned out to be quite the ordeal- thank you to the town of Logandelle for helping us out! We ran through the "Valley of Fire" and it was beautiful. We exchanged with the other van and headed toward our first rest stop at Lake Mead. Around this point, I started getting a terrible headache and just wanted to sleep but couldn't. To make a long story short- I got sicker than a dog- the headache was still there and I was so nauseated and dry heaving. I don't know if after my run I was dehydrated and then overhydrated too quickly or if I got some sort of heat stroke or something like that, but I was sick. It was our night run and the run I was looking forward to running. As it got closer to my run we knew that I wasn't going to be able to do it- thanks to Karlie and Chels for doing it. At this point we also learned that our second van had gotten a flat tire. Seriously were we cursed or what? But we got to our second rest stop and I was able to get a couple hours of sleep and when I woke up- I felt MUCH better and was able to run my last leg. When our car was done we headed to the finish line and waited for our team to finish. When the last runner got done our whole team ran across the finish line together it was a good way to end the race! Thanks to my team #199 Wayne's World- we had a blast together and everyone did great!! I couldn't have done this without a great supporting team back home. Thanks Paula for watching Gracie when I left. Thanks mom, dad, Nat, and Brett for helping with the gals on friday night and saturday!! Thanks to Sean for spoiling the girls rotten while I was away they had a BLAST!! Thanks to my sweet girls- Brooklyn told me she would be cheering for me in her heart while I was gone and I could definetely feel it! I love you all!!

(On a side note- although we had a ton of fun there was a tragedy along the course. On Saturday morning a 35 year old man named Jeremy was giving support to one of his teammates and was hit and killed by a drunk driver. His wife and mother-in-law as well as extended family were on his team and saw the whole thing. Even though running the race there were over 200 hundred teams we really were 1 big team- my heart aches and goes out to Jeremy's wife and his little family of 2 kids.)

Chels, Lori, Mal, Karlie, me, Kara

The flat tire

Valley of Fire

This is cute Mal wearing the get-up that was had to wear at night. (I say we like I wore it)

Finally feeling better and starting my last leg- 4.4 miles

This is our whole team at the finish line