Top of Zion - Leg 2

After our 1st leg we headed to Escalante High School and took a shower.  It felt SO GOOD to take a shower!  We were able to head into the commons area and attempt to sleep in the high school.  I wasn't able to fall asleep, but it was nice for some down time.

My sweet Aunt Renee and Uncle John came to support us during our 2nd leg!  They came up from St. George on their motorcycle.  It was so fun to visit with them for a little bit.  I thought they were going to be there for maybe an hour tops, but they stayed until Stephanie finished her 2nd leg.  It was so great to have them there!  I love our family!

We were waiting at the exchange for Van 2 to come.  I thought I would have 10-15 minutes by the time Van 2 showed up before I had to start running.  They parked the car, and I hear Becky yelling that Ryan is right behind them.  Sure enough, there he was!  I wasn't nearly ready yet!  I took off fast.  My water bottles immediately fell out.

Then my head phones kept on falling out of my ears.  They have never done that before.  I just could not keep them in!  Then the Garmin stopped working right.  Zac gave me a bandana, and it kept on flopping and hitting my chin.  When I got up to the van, I threw everything at Zac.  I couldn't handle any of it.  It was still 108 degrees outside and nothing was working right.

Then my legs hit me.  They immediately felt like jello.  I hit the dreaded wall.  I felt like I couldn't even walk another step.  I was so embarrassed and mad.  I did so awesome on my first run, and I could barely make it mile by mile on this run.  I don't know what happened.  I just felt like crying.

I didn't even attempt running past everyone.  I took it as an opportunity to walk and get sprayed with a lot of water.  I drank SO MUCH water during this leg.

I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I was when I got to the exchange and handed off the slap bracelet to Zac.  Worst. Run. Ever.

 

Zac did great again on his run.  We all were starting to get pretty tired and didn't take as many pictures as earlier.  He finished his leg pretty quick.  

Devin did so amazing on this leg!  He didn't even walk once.  His run was all uphill again, and a steep uphill at the very end.  He ran up the entire thing.  I was so proud of him.  It looked so hard!  I was fighting back tears, and turned and saw Renee with tears in her eyes.  I am so glad they were there and realized what a big deal this was.  I love that we had people who loved us there watching and cheering us on.  It meant a lot.

Jordyn did awesome again on her run.  It was starting to get dark now.  She had to use the lights.  When we were taking pictures, the Sheriff pulled over to lecture all of us about where to run.  Yep, we know where to run.  We don't want to get hit by a car either.  Thanks Sheriff.

After Jordyn's run she took a ride on the motorcycle to cool off.  Before Jason joined our team, I had invited a French guy who was going to be in Utah for 2 weeks and was looking for a team.  He already joined another team.  His team was next to us during the 2nd leg.  When he saw John's motorcycle he got excited and hopped on to take a picture.  So random.

 

John and Renee would drive ahead of us and let us know what the course looked like.  They would also drive back to the runner before they made it to the van and make sure they were still doing okay.

It was too dark for pictures with Stephanie and Jason, but they both did great.  We finished this leg around 11:30pm.

Steve is waiting for Jason to come for the exchange.  

Here is Jason and Steve doing the exchange.  As soon as Steve took off, he rounded a corner and there was a hole between the asphalt and the side of the road.  He rolled his ankle!  At the beginning of his run!  AND he FINISHED his leg!  What a rock star!

We headed straight for the next exchange so we could try to get some sleep.  When we showed up at the church, we saw sprinklers on the far end of the grass.  Zac was worried that they might continue to cycle and turn on us.  We saw the cement on a pavilion and decided to set up camp there.  Justin Coole came with us, and he had van 2's air mattresses.  He needed to have them set up for van 2 anyways, so we used them. 

We found a plug at the pavilion.  It was about 12:30-1:00am.  Again, there are runners everywhere with head lamps, etc.  Zac turned on the motor to blow up the air mattress.  It was loud!  When he finished the first one, a girl runner yelled, "thanks for that, we all appreciated it!"  Zac yelled back, "you're welcome, we have one more."  To which she replied, "are you *&^*& kidding me?!" Zac began to blow up the 2nd one.  Then Justin came up and and said he found a third one.  Oh man.  That girl was so mad!  Then about 2 am, one of the air mattresses deflated and Zac blew it up again.  About 2:30am, the sprinklers came on and got that girl and everyone sleeping on the grass wet.  About one hour later, they came on AGAIN.  Haha. 

We didn't get much sleep.  At about 3 am, we heard that van 2 was on their last runner.  So I got up and got ready to go.  They didn't show up until about 4am.  Ryan came so fast last time and I wasn't ready, so I wasn't going to make that mistake again.  I couldn't rest.