Zion Trail Relay

I knew it was going to be a good trip when we found this little number in LaVerkin.

It's a self-serve ice shack.

THAT is brilliant.  And it worked like a charm.

This is me and Jacque.  Jacque and I met in Kirksville.  We were friends in K'ville, participating in SAA (a groups for medical student wives).  We also spent a fair amount of our time going to Antique stores and estate sales--mostly looking, never buying!  

Jacque and Matt moved to Michigan with us which is where we really spent a lot of time together.

When we moved to MI, we went house hunting together, caravanned with U-Hauls together.

Jacque had a 2 month old and I was 8 months pregnant.

Grace and Sierra spent a lot of time together which they clearly do not remember.

I still remember saying good-bye to Jacque the day we moved from Michigan to Mississippi.

I was leaving behind a yellow, antique chair we found at the Salvation Army and she sent us with a goody bag of treats and goodies to help us on our 12 hour drive to MS.  That was the last time I saw Jacque....

Until the Zion Trail Run Relay.

We had text each other and I knew she was there.  Their team had the earliest start time (12:00)

We were setting up our camp and I heard them call out the name of her team. 

I knew I would probably find her at the start line.

So, I ran to the start line (probably my fastest run of the week.)

I easily recognized her from the back and yelled her name.

We hugged and cried and talked and talked and talked.

It's been 11 years and it seemed like no time had passed at all.

 Here we are with the guys...

Kelli, Matt, Rick and Jacque

Rick gets ready for our start time of 1:00 pm.

This is our campsite...3 more tents would eventually join us.

We thought this was hilarious...

Scott with his 7 oz. diet pepsi and pregnant Kelli with her 1 liter diet coke.

Ponderosa Ranch...

This is the transition tent where one runner would finish and turn over the timing chip to the next runner.  (we lost approx. 1 hour in our transitions.)

Rick, getting ready for his next run...

Photos taken by Rick on the yellow trail...Sunrise with the full moon to the west...

Sadie stretching after her first run...

Our team was originally going to be a group from the hospital.  However, lots of people dropped out and we were left scrambling at the end to fill our spots.  Sadie was happy to join our team.  It took a lot of convincing to get Scott to run.  But, we still had one spot open with one week before the race.  Scott was able to convince Jared to join us.  Luckily he did--he was probably our best runner since he was training for the St. George 1/2 Ironman the following weekend.  

This is Jared and Kelli after Jared's last run--7.2 miles in the heat of the day at 1:13 ish.

They left immediately after this run because they had sick kids at home.

John (in the green) had just crossed the finish line to complete the run for our team.  He was also running the 7.2 killer trail in the heat of the day.  His words when he crossed the finish line..."NEVER AGAIN."  John was on the team that ran Red Rock Relay last fall.  He had sprained his ankle in the first mile of the first leg in that relay.

Finishers! (minus Jared)  We did it and we didn't come in last.