The Fast, The Slow and The Ugly

We did it!! What an AWESOME experience and fun fun time! First, I have to commend and thank our team, and particularly the four of our team that we shared a van with; Tammy, Ian, Denise and Jennifer. What a great, laid back, fun, and supportive group of people! The Vanagon rocked as our team vehicle - we were riding in comfort instead of being crammed into an SUV or something, it was great! She had a little bit of trouble getting up the steep hills all loaded down, but she hung in there like a trooper! :-) So, we finished excellently as well: 73 out of 296 overall, and 25/132 in our class, that is really good. Our finish time was 26 hours, 10 minutes. The day began with some difficulty with the van... we were intending on filling the propane tank and using the stove and refrigerator, however, when we filled it at the gas station, we discovered a leak in the valve, this meant that we then had to wait while the whole thing emptied itself out before we could drive (otherwise, it would catch fire)... that gave us two hours to hang out around the gas station when we would have preferred to be relaxing and slowly getting ready to go! So, after a few other mishaps on our way to the start, we got there - ready to begin. The six in our other van would be finishing up their first legs as we arrived, and then we start. It was HOT!!!!! Upper 90s. The pavement was so hot it burned your feet through the soles of your shoes! I was the first to go, it was 4:00, the hottest part of the day! After a mile I was frying!! Thanks goodness for my awesome teammates - they kept stopping every mile and giving me cold, cold water to dump over myself. We did this for each other throughout the first set of runs. Then, came the night legs! Wheeee! These were really fun - we all loved them. The sound of your feet on the pavement, the stars, gazillions of them, in the sky and the crickets chirping, was amazing. There were times when you were the only soul out there, and then there were times when the cars (team vans) would drive by, distracting you from the night. We finally got to the end of our night runs at about 4 a.m. and parked. This then allowed us about 2 hours of sleep (very very good sleep!) before heading to the next section to begin our last set of legs. These were difficult on tired legs, but we all still had really good times ( we all finished all of our legs under our projected times!). Tammy and Rich had the killer legs of the race and they were these last ones to boot. Ridiculously steep and long runs up the side of the mountain, in the heat! They were animals and very very impressive! We ended the race in Park City, all crossing the finish line together - it was perfect. Definately a great time, and I'd definately do it again!! I'll post some pics as soon as Tammy sends me some (we didnt bring a camera!).