Saturday, February 13, 2016

Ruby Mountain Relay - 2013 - race report

Yes - I realize that this post is 2.5 years in the making. I was sidetracked...

My friend, Carrie from Vernal, won a team entry to Ruby Mountain Relay. She filled one van, and I filled the other. The team name was Sister Wives, and each van had five "wives" and one husband. We didn't know our hubby, but he was a friend of a friend of someone in the first van. As is becoming a pattern, we met him the morning of the race. The rest of our van was made up of Tanner-ites, and we knew that we (me, Majlinda, Rose, Mindy, and Carolyn) were going to have fun. We did NOT know that we were going to be running through the armpit of hell.
Husband, Farmer's Wife, Lesbian Wife, White Man's Wife, Baklava Wife, and Fit Wife - in it for the long run...

So, the Ruby Mountains are the "gem" of north-central Nevada. Honestly, a stick in a mud puddle would be a gem in north-central Nevada. Holy barren!
Having not spent ANY time in Elko or Wells, none of us were prepared for what to expect. Thankfully, we didn't expect much. Seriously un-thrilling ride through a lot of desert and sagebrush.
We drove for about 1000 hours before getting the first exchange where we met van 1. Then, we started running. Mostly dirt/gravel roads, but some asphalt.
It was hot and miserable and, for the most part, boring.
Here's Carolyn coming up a nasty hill and Rose running with trees in view. There weren't a lot of trees, so this was noteworthy.

OK - it wasn't ENTIRELY void of beauty:

We got to run through some tribal land which was pretty interesting. I don't know why. The land itself was boring as hell, but I just found it interesting. We got our asses kicked by a team from the local reservation. They were FAST! Of course, they are probably used to the heat since they live there...

Here's our hubby, David. See? It was hot!

Here's a girl who works hard when she runs. She doesn't mess around. She doesn't seem to walk, ever...

Have I mentioned that it was dusty? Here's my bum print to prove it.

Some more scenery that didn't involve sagebrush. (I try to forget about the sagebrush...)

Here's a new ride that Rose and I found just in a random part of the road as we were driving over the south end of the Ruby Mountains:

After sleeping for a few hours at some kind of bird refuge, we ran our nighttime leg. As we were leaving the refuge, one of the volunteers said "watch out for rattlesnakes!" We all laughed, but he kept a straight face... He was totally serious. I was totally freaked out, and rightly so. In my super short run, I passed about 12 rattlesnakes that had been squished on the road. I was madly swinging my pinpoint headlamp back and forth trying to keep myself from getting killed by a venomous reptile, and I actually stepped on a dead one. So much for keeping myself safe. If it had been alive, I would have been dead.

We finally got to the second exchange point, and got some more sleep. I woke up in time for the sunrise and this random dog licking my face:

I loved this.

Hey, look! I'm done with my final (and HOTTEST) leg of the race!

Here's another determined runner:

Fit Wife heats it up, strips it off, and cools down:

I think she's happy that she's done running:

Hallelujah! We're done! Let's get the hell out of sagebrush, rattlesnakes, and dirt. (Then, we lost a sleeping bag from the roof of the SUV on the way home - in the dark, I might add - and had to turn around until we found it.)

(OK - it really was fun. We had a great time, and we've done several relays together since...)

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