To Bone and Back Relay

On Saturday we ran To Bone and Back. It's a 40 mile relay that takes you from Idaho Falls to the little town of Bone, and back. It was so much fun! We had an 8 person team, with each person running 5 miles.

Our team rocked! We ran in this order: Becky Beck, Sawyer, Mason Whitehead, Tamra Norton, Kassie Temple, Tricia, Julie Whitehead, Bailey

Becky got us off to a great start.

Sawyer was the hero and MVP of the team. Byron Beck was supposed to be the second runner on our team. It was the hardest leg of the race. It was 5 miles of uphill. Not little hills either...we are talking 5 miles of big, grueling hills. Byron got a stress fracture 2 weeks earlier while running a marathon. No one wanted to run this leg of the race. Sawyer said he would do it, and he did AMAZING! He cruised it, and passed tons of people.

At this point, he had another mile to go.

Sawyer handing off to Mason. We've got to hand it to Mason. He stepped in at the last minute to run with us. He's not even a "runner" but he did a great job for our team.

Mason


Tamra did awesome, and was so happy and cheerful the whole way. She had a pretty hard leg of the race, but every time we drove by her, she was smiling and waving.

Kassie, Kassie, Kassie...I don't even know where to begin. She was the entertainment of the team. But not only that, she ran a really fast leg of the race. We saw her competitive side come out. Right after I took this picture, I ran down the hill to bring her some water. Well, when she stopped to get a drink, she started peeing her pants. She had to step off the road and try to pull her shorts aside because she was going whether she wanted to or not. Keep in mind that the road was lined with runners and support vehicles. The rest of our team thought she was in the bushes throwing up. She stepped back onto the road with pee all over her shorts and hands. Good thing I had water. It was the funniest thing ever...until later on in the race when she even topped that!

Kassie handing off to me.

My leg of the race is where things got interesting, and funny. Our support vehicle would drive by the runner, and then park a little ways up. The team would get in the back of Marks truck, and blast music and dance as the runner went by. I was having a hard time, and I felt like walking. They must have noticed that even their dance moves weren't cheering me up. The next thing I know, I look up and see Kassie's bare butt mooning me from the back of Mark's truck! I started cracking up. I knew I couldn't walk after that effort she made. When the truck pulled away, she was standing in the back still flashing me her butt. It was hilarious, but not that surprising. From Kassie, I would expect nothing less!

Julie running strong down the final hills.

Julie handing off to Bailey.

Bailey wanted to be our team anchor, because she wanted to cross the finish line. She did AWESOME! She passed four people in the last 5 miles. She was cruisin'. I knew she would do good, but she surprised all of us with how fast she ran.

The final stretch!

Bailey crossing the finish line, with our team there cheering for her.

A big shout out for Mark too. He couldn't run with us because his knee still isn't healed all the way. But he was the best support crew we could have had out there. He was our driver, and our very energetic cheer leader. Thanks Mark!

We had so much fun! I already can't wait until next year. I think we are going to do a 4 person team next year and each of us will run 10 miles. We had a lot of people we know run it, and they all did great. A guy in our ward did it as an ultra marathon and ran all 40 miles. He got 2nd place. Amazing!