I took a trip to Hell this weekend

So 6 months ago my sister, Shannon, called me up and said she wanted to do this 204 mile relay race from Prescott AZ to Tempe AZ and that she wouldn't do it unless I did it too. At the time I thought that sounded awful. I had JUST had a baby by C-Section and training for a race was NOT what I wanted to be doing. But I reluctantly agreed and the training began. We assembled a team of 12 girls including myself, 2 sisters, 4 cousins, a couple of their friends and my bestie from high school. Along the way quite a few dropped out and were filled in by a couple more cousins on the other side of the family and some VERY last minute replacements (like the day before, thank you Courtney!) But we were determined to get this race done.

The "FlabFighters" right before the race started, left to right: Evelyn, Meredith, Meghan, Marisa, Courtney, Kelly, Jenn, Debbie, Shawn, Windy, and Karina (Shannon was taking the picture)

Some of my teammates, Debbie the Awesome Aussie, Kelly my cousin, Evelyn the bestie, Shawn a cousin's friend, and Courtney who saved our day

Meghan, Meredith and Windy

Meghan Decorating the Tahoe

Some Jones cousins, Meredith, Marisa, and Meghan at the starting line

the girls from my car Karina in front, Evelyn, Meghan, Shannon, and Windy

Meredith and Evelyn

my sisters and I on day 2, are those tired eyes or what?

What an adventure to say the least. starting with a 3 mile run straight uphill for poor Shannon, the hills I never thought would end, trying to nap on the desert floor with ants circling around, by the way, my sister Windy can put up a tent like nobody's business, losing Karina in the middle of the night during her 7 mile run (thank you kind runner who found her) shannon's 8 mile run in the middle of the night, the portapotties!! i've never used so many in my life, the 1 am run on the highway and spotting my teammates at jack in the box as i ran past them wishing i could join them, sleeping on the pavement in a middle school parking lot at 6 am (not really sleeping), praying that the boy who got hit by a car while passing his teammate water would be ok (we still don't know) the tears that EVERY team member shared as each of us finished our last legs, and finally watching Shannon join us at the finish line to end it all pushing kelly on a grocery cart to get her across the line cause she ruined her knee for this.

In the words of my sister Shannon, "hell is a never ending Ragnar Relay Race, with the need to poo every 20 minutes!" That's what I did this last weekend, and you know what . . . I would do it again.

but for now, i'm resting.