Daisypath Anniversary tickers

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Dixie Relay in St. George!

I was so blessed to be asked by my wonderful friend Katee to go with her sister Kelsee, her husband Riley, and two of Katee's friends Hollianne and Angela to run in this year's Red Rock Relay-the one-day Dixie version! My new favorite!!  I was sad my body wasn't up for a relay last September after radiation.  I had come to the realization that running for two days wasn't do-able for me when I would only be getting two hours of sleep at night.  So after having to back out of that relay last September, I was ELATED to get asked in January to join Katee's team running a very DOABLE one day relay in sunny southern Utah!
And the best part of all, I would get to run with my 2nd family--the Balmforths--and with my best friend Tyler!!  I grew up living nextdoor to the Balmforths and babysat them for years as their kids grew up.  Now Katee, a return missionary from Tacoma, and Kelsee, happily married, are grown up and love running too!  Their parents, my 2nd parents Lee and Cindy, were there to cheer us on too!

In fact, Lee and Cindy arranged meals, a wonderful home for us to rent for the weekend, and provided more fun people to talk to while we were there.  It was fun to have a 3-car caravan for most of our run, with a team of only 6 people!  Lee and Cindy in their car, Tyler in our car, and the Pathfinder.  With all three, we always knew along the way we would have somebody looking out for us on our run to get water, to ask if we were doing okay, and most of all-- to HONK and cheer us on! 
 I love the feeling of these relay races.  We're all in it together, working as a team for a common goal.  I love running for a team rather than for myself, and we all pitch in until we get the race done!  This race presented an extra challenge for us, because Hollianne had just torn her miniscus (sp?) in a rather funny but dangerous basketball incident.  She still came-- I'm so glad, what a fun, happy, friendly gal!! And so is her amazing sister, Angela! So the other 5 of us ran 2 or 3 extra miles beyond our two legs so we finish with those of us there!
My first 7 miles were through the beautiful little town of Santa Clara, also quite the nostalgic town! At about mile 5, I had a big hill to climb, and it's all I could do to keep a jogging pace up the hill, but I did it!  The hard part was the last mile or so in the open desert, sunny air on flat gravel until the exchange.  It was also difficult to have two lanes of busy traffic going and no sidewalk to run on.  There were lots of rocks on the side of the road where I was running, and I was going to consider it a success if I didn't trip! My depth perception tricks me at times... but hey, I did succeed!  Not one fall the whole day! :)  I also was disappointed to have several people pass me, but I kept the positive self-talk going, thinking, "Hey, they are passing a girl with type 1 diabetes, and a brain tumor, who is in her mid 30s!"  I thought about saying this to the first few people, but just kept saying, "good job," instead. :)  Then, finally, when two ladies passed me, I couldn't resist and let them in on who they were passing.  They cheered for me, "Woo hoo!" and it made me feel good, but I told them I wasn't trying to make them feel bad. Ha ha.  Actually, everybody all day was very friendly.  I had several people reach out to give me a high five when they passed me! It's nice to see charitable and Christlike acts shown in even the littlest ways. :) One team even made a tunnel for me to run through after they stopped to cheer on a runner on their team!
Can you see the salt in the corners of my eyelids!? 

After I pass off the wristband to Riley and he took off, I got water, noticed the large amounts of salt on my eyelids, and rested for a bit!  We enjoyed good music that day, too, keeping us moving.  The weather was gorgeous, but as we entered the canyon, each one of us had the challenge of a very windy and hilly path to run!


I did two miles, uphill again, in my next turn as part of the miles we were doing for Holli, and then three others took a turn running as prepped for my last big run of 4.5 miles.  I was feeling tired, but okay.  I was worried about the wind, but knew if I needed, I could walk.  I REALLY didn't want to though!  As I passed mile 2, I knew I was in trouble.  The wind and air out in the open-space canyon was coming at me so fast, that I couldn't breathe.  Even though runners around me kept running without (it seemed) any problems, I had to slow to a stop to catch my breathe.  I felt my asthma from my childhood was coming back, and it was almost like an attack was coming on.  I tried to stay calm and keep my heart rate under control, and successfully, I did okay.  Tyler stopped often, and I assured him I was okay, but just really tired from the wind.  I checked my blood and I was getting a little low.  It was cute to see the whole team jump to my rescue, "I have dots!!" said Katee, and "We have Starbursts!" came from Angela and Holli.  I took them with me as I charged up the last big hill before the next exchange. (Oh man, I should have trained more on hills for this!!)  I got halfway up the hill, walking as fast as I could, when Tyler came to walk with me for a bit, and when we reached his car, Katee walked with me to the exchange.  What great friends and supports!  Can you see why relays are a great way to go? :)



The pretty run in Snow Canyon!

Stopping for a quick pic!
After that, I passed off to Angela who ran a long 7 miles, and then Katee ran a beautiful 5 miles through Snow Canyon, next Kelsee did a hot but beautiful sunset run, and Riley finished off the race with a huge uphill and a huge downhill into St. George.  I enjoyed cheering the others on, having great chats throughout the day with these amazing young people, stopping to offer water and "good jobs" often, and feeling the warm St. George sun.  I was looking forward to a shower, but would get that soon enough! We all crossed the finish line together back at the park and took lots of pictures.  I probably should have taken more, but maybe next time!
Katee ran her heart out before she passed off to Kelsee!  She is tough!!
Kelsee is on her way!
We stopped for a quick pic by this perfect sign!
Hooray, we did it!!
All that were there to cheer us on! Holli and Angela's two nephews met us at the park with their parents who live in St. George. :)

My BEST cheerleader ever!
So happy I got to do this again!

That night, we basked in the refreshing drinks from Swig, each took a well-deserved shower back at the NICE rental house, and had the yummiest pizza from Papa Murphy's with salad (THANK YOU, LEE AND CINDY!!)  We also had fun playing pool, relaxing in the hot tub, and chatting some more.  The weekend went way too fast!  We got up on daylight savings the next morning for church in Santa Clara (next to an awesome historical site!) and hit the road to get back and relax before work on Monday morning! 





THANK YOU KATEE, KELSEE, RILEY, HOLLIANNE, ANGELA, TYLER, LEE, and CINDY!  Awesome memories!  Love you all!

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