TZR 2013

Two weeks ago, some of us were right in the middle of our Top Of Zion Relay.  I think it has taken so long to post about it because it kicked our butts and maybe even our spirits a little.  A relay brings with it so many emotions and they change quickly and its just kinda a crazy thing.  Especially with a team of 13 (hey.... that's awesome though.. 13) girls.  It was fun though and hard as all hard.
People have called this relay the iron man of relays... besides the dramatic elevation changes, the heat is a huge factor in this.  We learned from others last year to bring sprayers and those got us through our middle of the day legs. 

The great thing about this relay is that ya just get to kinda forgot all the normal everyday responsibilities and just enjoy hanging out with your friends, acting silly, dancing to motivate and entertain each other, singing, putting a giant jalapeno on top of your car, giving random strangers  high fives or spraying them down or letting them give you a sponge bath in the middle of the road and, oh ya, running.  I mean normally we can't just wear a sombrero and stand on the side of the road, blast some Mexican tunes and do crazy dance moves.  It's good...  it's challenging.  It also boosts the spirit.  Proving to ourselves that we can do hard things.  It stretches us to our limits. 

Sometimes miracles happen too...  example;  Maryann was running on north Fork road and we really NEEDED to dance for her, but there wasn't an ipod plugged in to our music.  Kamie Lee found the first radio station she could...  "If you're going through Hell, Keep on going"  was on....  I'm not even kidding..  Miraculous right? 

It's all those things and the inside jokes and the team coming together when it's needed the most.  Yeah, ya don't get a lot of sleep and sometimes there is stress, but in the end, it's pretty awesome....  SAIL.

 

Throw it back to the one that started it all

The Inaugural Top Of Zion Relay 2012

Ok, so all the girls were already runners before they got into this race, but this race started it for me and it is the race that kinda brought us all together and it is the one that gave us our great blog name:  RUN LIKE A FISH. 
Ebbi is always going to claim the fame of getting you into running, Becka. But let's just remember who told her to ask you to run this relay!! Ebbi I'm trying to think where we even saw the Top of Zion Relay flyer? Was it at Adobe?

First how it got us all together.  Lexi and Ebbi were our team captains.  We needed another team member.  We had thought about MaryAnn, but she was doing the Ragnar Wasatch back two weeks before.  Finally we decided just to ask her, what would it hurt.  Who knew she was a crazy addicted runner who would just consider Ragnar a warm-up for TZR.  Yay!!! (Crazy thing was, I was dying wanting you guys to ask me to run it with you!  I just thought it was a little too forward to invite myself on the team! So, so GLAD y'all asked me!  I now have some pretty amazing close friends because of it!) 
So glad you decided to run with us MaryAnn! 

"Run like a fish" came about after a TZR meeting, we were all leaving and Ebbi shouted as we went out the door, "Run like a fish".  Her pregnant mind was a little....  well, you know how preggo minds are.  We laughed our heads off and even wrote it on the side of our vans for the race.  We probably wouldn't have laughed so hard had we known we would literally be running like fish in upwards of 114 heat.  We were dumping water on our runners so yep...  we were running through water..  like fish.  =)

The actually running in TZR killed me, I didn't train enough. but I loved the cheering each other on, Dancing and stuff!  I'm all over that!  So as we traveled along down that last dirt road, all of us dying, we went around the group and all vowed NEVER to do TZR again.  I think it took us all of 24 hours, if not less to start planning for the next year, which is coming up in a month.  Go Jalapeno Hotties!!!

I was one of those girls that SAID no way in H will I run this relay again.  I know that I can even be quoted as saying "this relay should be posted as for elite runners only!" I am sure that was after running in 114 heat and seeing some of my teammates having to keep running even though there was dust and heat blasting us!  I also think I was the first one to post on our Facebook group asking who was going to run it with me again next year!  Yes I am addicted!  Pretty sure you were!  jaja 

I am sad we were all in different vans. I wish we could be in the same van this year! I still had a blast with my van 1 girls. It is definitely a tough relay and I remember thinking this is insane. We will NEVER do this again. But wow... changed our running lives! ja ja. I compare the toughness of every race to this relay! I'm so glad to have done this with all of you.  I can't wait to take our annual Jalapeno Hotties picture in the year 2042! We will set records!  ja ja. 

Here it is one month from TOZ! I must admit I am scared beyond belief! I was so glad I was 23 weeks pregnant last year and decided not to run. After seeing what these girls went through I was sure I would have gone into labor! The only thing that comes to mind when I think of TOZ is "What doesn't KILL you makes you STRONGER!" I have so much respect for those who ran it last year! It was such an emotional experience (and I was only the driver hahaha). As we were driving to Tory the day before we drove over van 2 first legs and I was sure Becka was going to kill me! I felt horrible (Let's just say the course description did not  give us any insight on how difficult this really was), but to my surprise Becka and her van were all fired up and excited! They showed TOZ who was boss!! I really wish we were all in the same van this year! It really sucks that we aren't! I'm pretty sure after this year of  TOZ is over we will vow to never do it again, only to find us making plans for the next year a few days later! We are crazy like that!