Team Strong Women, Strong Men

The Wasatch Back was the goal for these hearty folks. This is Van 2 just after our first van started the race. We are feeling pretty strong, here. In our van was Chad, Sherry, Nicole (Weezie), Brett, Wade, and Steve.





The heat was pretty intense and the sleeping worse. Our team was short a woman (airplanes are very unreliable!) and so we also had three of our team members run an additional leg. Our start time was 11:00 am and van 1 was off. Most of van 2 relaxed in the little shade we could find while Chad ran his extra leg in van 1. Then our van took over at 4:45 pm. Here are our runners on board waiting for their turn (Weezie, Wade and Brett). This set of legs covered 22.1 miles.

Our van finished our first legs after climbing the hill to Snow Basin at 7:53 pm, and we drove to Taggerts in search of some good dinner. Very satisfied, we then drove to our next major exchange, East Canyon State Park, and some of us caught about an hour of sleep before we were awoken suddenly to meet our runner, only 1 mile out. Here is Chad, our fearless driver.

At 12:11 am, Brett took over for our van. A full 33.4 miles to go, but it was dark, cool and there was lots of excitement along the race trail. We finished our second legs at 4:41 am , arriving at Rockport Lake State Park and we drove to Wade's parents' house for a little shut eye. Wade wasn't so lucky, he had to run his extra leg shortly after we all fell asleep. Five of us slept very soundly from about 5:30 until 7:30 am. We would need those two hours of sleep later!
After waking, we drove to the next exchange in Heber City and were in position to let Brett start his last leg at 8:49 am. Our last set of legs covered 25.9 miles. Brett turned in another amazing run - we knew he could pull it out! Following Brett's leg, Steve did his last one. Steve was amazingnly consistent even though it was already very hot and we were going through water fast.


Next in line, Wade continues to run without sleep. He had the first part of guardsman pass with 7.6% grade. He was amazing and ran almost the whole thing. Wow!







Next, Chad did Ragnar. By now the heat is punishing and the grade is 8% uphill. Chad worked hard with his brand of running and speed hiking. Here he is on the right, as he and a fellow runner encourage each other to just keep going. The 4 miles could be the longest of his life.






Now the women take over. Weeze continues the uphill run for about a mile, then coasts back down. The side aches start to hit and the heat takes all the water out of us. She is so strong and finishes her section in good time.



Finally the last leg. Sherry runs this and ends at the the finish line. The rest of van 2 and all of van 1 meet her and everyone crosses the finish line together. It was a hard fought race. We finished at 12:48 pm, doing it in 25 hrs and 48 min. We placed 57th out of 300 teams. We were surprisingly competitive, especially since we were short a person. Way to go team!