3 miles, 3 miles, 3 miles...

We did it!  Our Red Rock Relay team did our first training run together!  Of course we have all been training on our own but we've scheduled 2 sessions to do together and our first one was a blast!

I know, how cute are we?  We look like we have way too much energy to go running at midnight!  We only missed one girl and that is because she has twin babies that she had to be home with, we'll give her a pass. : )  We had a pre-run meeting at my house to go over van assignments, where we're going to stay, and also discuss nutrition/meal planning.  Only one of us has done a relay - not me - so we are trying to plan the best we can.  If anyone out there has good tips and any info you think can make or break a relay, please share!

Only one of us brought a reflective vest.  Put that on the list for the race.  We did an easy 3 miles and had so much fun.  We all are at different paces so when we hit the half-way mark of our out and back, we waited for everyone to gather up again.  At this spot, there were 11 of us standing at a corner and I'm sure there were some suspicious neighbors.  We even had a visitor from the local law enforcement drive by real slow to inspect the situation... "Headquarters, we got a gaggle of women out here loitering, I think we're going to need some back-up. 10-4."   Ha ha...  I'm sure he realized quickly we were pretty harmless!  By the way, it was 81 degrees at midnight?!?

Watch out Redrock - these new kicks are comin atcha!

Onto 6 a.m. - What a perfect time to run.  I didn't get to sleep until about 1:30 a.m. so the when my alarm went off at 5:45, I felt pretty groggy.  Once we got going though, it felt great.  Muscles felt good.  I ate a Clif bar and some water and off we went.  We were able to witness a beautiful sunrise.

After we finished our run, we planned our 2 p.m. run.  Not everyone was going to to make it because of work and other commitments. 6 of us planned on meeting and running the easiest route of all since it would probably be in the 90's at 2 o'clock.

Instead of the 90's we planned on, we had a monsoon tropical storm hit and of course, a complete downpour of rain!  Hey, I can take that over heat any day!  There were rivers flowing down the streets from all the rain that fell really fast.  My shoes were soaked through within the first 5 minutes.  Before I left my house it had already started to rain so I wore my Utah Valley Marathon tech shirt and the shoes I wore for that race, you can remember that story here. : )

Lindsay wasn't able to make it to the run, but strategically found us and got pics of us running - without anyone knowing!  Proof we did it even in the rain.  Seriously, I could not have been happier that we did our run in the rain.  10 minutes after we finished our run the storm passed, the sun was out, and the heat returned.

So we had a successful 3, 3, and 3.  We're going to do it all again in a few weeks to practice again.  And yes, I will admit, I am tired.  That is why this post is coming today and not yesterday!  Body good, but sleepy!

I had my training session Wednesday night, right before the 3,3, and 3, and it was great!  These sessions are only a half hour long but he's kickin my butt.  And the great thing about it is that when we're working out, he's choosing things that I can get through and can complete without falling apart or having to stop.  Now 2 days later I'm feelin' it!  My favorite new move is where you start in a crab walk position with dumbells in your hands and push yourself up to a standing position. You then do a shoulder press and lower back down to crab walk position again. It sounds weird and you have to twist your body back and forth to move from one position to the next. Man, my abs are still hurting today.  Love it!  He definitely listened when I said I wanted to work core, speed and strength.  Yay!

Now we're off to a family vacation this weekend at my cousin's cabin.  It's going to be great to get away for a few days with the fam and relax a bit.  I'm planning my long run up there for Saturday and I'm sure it will be wonderful.  I've got to get some serious hills in during that long run to help prepare for the Park City Marathon.  This upcoming race has a gradual up for about the first 16, 17 miles and then down the final miles of the race.  Sounds tough to me, but I've been told by others that because you will be running slower it won't be as hard on your body come recovery time.  We shall see...

So, any tips on relay team musts?  How bout uphill marathons?  I'll take whatever you got! Plus it's fun to hear about the different things you guys are doing.