The Lake to Lake Relay is a 50 mile relay that starts at Gunlock Reservoir and ends at Sand Hallow Reservoir. You can have up to 5 people on your team and each person must run at least 2 legs of the race, there are 10 legs in all.
Our team was "SLOW & STEADY", #140. Our team members were myself as the captain (only because Clint didn't want to be captain), Clint Cottam, Chad Cottam, Bennett Wilson (Clint's friend from BYU), and Janessa Campbell (my friend). Kade was our official driver and I now call him Drover. Everyone did such a great job on each of their legs of the race. Thanks to Bennett and Janessa for joining our team and racing with us! Thanks to Kade for making sure we got to each station and for driving all day long.
LEG 1: "Gunlock and Loaded" 6.07 miles.
I started off the race for our team. It was rather chilly, but the beautiful downhill run was a great way to start off the race. I ran it in 53 minutes and tagged Clint for the second leg.
LEG 2: "Red Rock N' Roll" 5.32 miles.
Clint ran this leg and it had two hill areas and the rest beautiful downhill red rock. Clint did a great job! Bennett, Kade and I would stop off the side of the road every mile or so to cheer Clint on and give him water.
Clint ended at Unity Park in Ivins and tagged Janessa.
LEG 3: "Navigators Nightmare" 5.71 miles.
Janessa did a great job with this leg of the race. There was a lot of navigating to do and that alone was difficult. Also, from her 4th mile to the end of her leg was all up hill.
Janessa ended her leg by the fishing ponds across the street from the Softball Fields on Snow Canyon Parkway and tagged me for my second leg.
Here is Clint, Kade, myself and Bennett at the start of leg 4.
LEG 4: "Dixie Stampede" 4.84 miles.
I loved this leg of the race because it mostly stayed on the trail that goes from Snow Canyon Parkway, down under the road and passes Dixie Downs Park and ends at 540 North (the street I grew-up on!) and then my leg continues on Dixie Drive until I reach the super-fun park with all the fun new-age toys that adults can even play on.
Everyone met me at the Stake Center just after 540 North to help cheer me on. It was fun to have our kids there to see me run. Janessa told them to give me "5" while I ran past and that was cool! It gave me the momentum I needed to give it my best. I was running a really good leg for me and it felt like I was pushing it a bit, but it felt great until... I got to the park and NO ONE WAS THERE!!!!!!!!!!! Where in the world was Chad?!? I grabbed my cellphone out of my running belt and was yelling to Kade that I was finished and where were they!?! They got stuck in traffic. I finished before they thought I would, I finished it in 43 minutes. I started running just the first part of Chad's leg and then he came and continued on. He took off like a maniac!
LEG 5: "Man O Warrior" 5.98 miles.
I know it was stressful for Chad to start late and he wasn't 100% certain about where his leg went. When we stopped to cheer him on he asked for clarification of directions and he was booking it!
You would never know Chad had both his knees operated on last July with the way Chad ran. He had a good mile plus of steep uphill. He made great time and tagged Janessa for her second leg.
LEG 6: "Trails,Trails and Llama Tails" 3.95 miles.
Janessa did a great job with her second leg. It followed the trails from Man O War Park in Bloomington all the way to the small park just below the Post Office on River Road. The last little bit of her leg her daughter Emmi ran with her. Great job Janessa and Emmi! Janessa passed off to Clint for his second leg.
LEG 7: "Expedition Virgin River" 4.4 miles.
Clint ran on the trails along the Virgin River and then when the trail ended by Millcreek High School, he ran up on Riverside Drive until he got to Industrial Road where he tagged Bennett. Clint did a great job!
LEG 8: "That Washington Dam Hill" 4.7 miles.
Hooray for Bennett, he finally gets to run! Bennett was a runner in High School and we were glad to have him help us out. Bennett ran up the Washington Dam Road like it was nothing at all! He ran 7 minute miles and wasn't even giving it his all! Bennett breezed through his first leg to tag Chad for his second leg.
LEG 9: "The Dirty Climber" 4.34 miles.
Chad was so excited about this leg of the race. He didn't care what other leg he did as long as he got to do this specific leg too! This is the hardest leg of the whole race because of the three crazy hard hills he had to run up and that it was all dirt and mud, but mostly mud is some parts because of all the rain we have recently had. Both Bennett and Chad were wind burned by the flying sand. The wind was blowing pretty bad!
For the first 75 teams (there were 95 teams) that had their runner finish this last 9th leg of the race that runner got a Lake to Lake ball cap. Chad got his and we were very proud of him for it! Chad tagged Bennett for the last and final leg of the race!
On Chad's leg Clint, Kade and Bennett stopped to cheer him on!
What cute brothers I have! Good job on the Relay Race Fellas!
LEG 10: "Sand Fanale" 4.69 miles.
Bennett took off like a shot from a gun and ran 5 minute miles! We were shocked at how amazing Bennett was ! Way to go Bennett!!! Bennett ran it in for the finish and did our team proud as our anchor. Janessa and I had gone home earlier to take care of being a mom for a little bit and we figured we would have plenty of time to get back, but the last few legs of the race went so fast that we missed Bennett crossing the finish line.
We all received nice shirts for the race and great participation medals. This is our great team at the finish line! It was a great race! Thanks to everyone!!!
At the banquet that evening we had some yummy salad and pasta. The awards were given to the top ten teams in each category. There was also a raffle that everyone at the banquet entered. I had purchased an extra ticket to the banquet and an extra shirt for Kade because he was a huge part of our team. So, it was the end of the raffle and there were small and extra small jackets raffled off. Kade won the extra small and the whole big banquet room roared in laughter, including us. While we were laughing we didn't hear that Clint was the winner of the small jacket. When they recalled his name and we realized he had won we started laughing again and then the whole room was laughing again too! It was so funny I was crying! They offered Clint a $50 gift certificate if he put his arm in the jacket and tried to put it on and he did! He gave the jacket to Janessa because it fit her well and Clint still had his $50 gift certificate. Janessa also won a smoothie certificate. Kade is modeling his extra small jacket in the picture, he just cannot zip it up.
This was such a fun experience! I am so glad I got to experience it with my incredible hubby!
Chad looks pretty darn good in that extra small jacket. Nice jacket!
It was great to get to know Bennett (aka: Prince Bennett to my three little daughters that have a crush on him). It was great to run with Janessa and see her family's support for her! Let's do it again next year!
This is a great photo of Snow Canyon State Park. Next year we will run it again!
Those are my brothers - Clint and Chad! It was fun running with you!
