For those of you who have not heard of this event, it is a relay race in which team members take turns running one of 3 routes. A typical team consists of 8 individuals, with each runner taking a turn running one of the trails. They are rated as green, yellow and red on a difficulty scale. Each route provides breathtaking views of southern Utah, with some of the trails bordering closely to Zions National Park.
The red trail covers 7.4 miles, with an elevation gain of over 1,200 miles. Yellow comes in at 4.4 miles, going up over 800 feet. Green is a 4 miler, with around 400 feet in gain. Over the 3 legs, a runner covers close to 16 miles.
Let me tell you about my team. Let's start with Caleb, my nephew. For most of his life, baseball was his sport. When his family moved from Wisconsin to Spanish Fork his sophomore year of high school, he quickly found out that, if you haven't played on a club team since birth in this town, then you aren't playing at the high school level. Rather than feel discouraged, Caleb reinvented himself. He trained hard as a runner, and is really excellent at it now. He is on the Maple Mountain High School track and cross country teams, competing at the JV and varsity levels.
Traven is my youngest child. He has had some things to overcome in life. At an early age, he was diagnosed with Graves Disease and lost his thyroid. Due to some unfortunate decisions by his birth mother and some genetic gifts, he battles a lot of mental health demons. For Traven, running brings peace and provides an anchor for him. On a bad day, he can go for a run and find some relief. Honestly, Traven and I have had our share of difficult times. When we can run together, it helps us heal our relationship. He's the good looking one on the right in the photo below. To say that having two teenagers on our team was fortunate would be an understatement.
Dallin is my son in law, and the glue that brought our team together. Dallin is a leader and a gifted athlete. I could not have picked a better man to be the husband for Alyssa or the Daddy for Isabella. His attitude is always great, and he has a way of lifting anyone with whom he interacts. He's the one in white below. We made him take off his Christmas sweater for the picture.
On the right is his brother Connor. As a teenager, he was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo treatments. I've seen pictures of "Connor Strong", when the male members of his family all shaved their heads in solidarity with him. But you know what? He kicked cancer's butt! He had to delay his church mission until he was cancer free for a given amount of time, but through it all, he overcame. He is a great runner. When he finished the green loop, I don't even think he broke a sweat!
We were also joined by Connor and Dallin's father, Nate. Nate is the founder and CEO of BILT Intelligent Instructions. It was an honor to have him with us. He is about the busiest man I know, but he not only juggled work calls and church calls using some unstable WiFi, but he also found time to become friends with the neighboring campsite. And yes, they had him over for dinner. If he wasn't a tech CEO, he could make a living as a motivational speaker. The photo below is pure Nate. He's somewhere on a trail, but he took the time to stop for a photo, and found a new friend along the way to take it!
Next we have Nate's nephew, Hunter. He is blessed with the Henderson talents of positivity, friendliness and athleticism. I think the moment that sums up Hunter came when he finished a run, and Nate was not there for the exchange. Rather than wait, he ran all the way back to camp to find Nate and get him moving.
Outside of myself, the final team member was my son Jason. Two years ago, I would not have imagined Jason being able to run 10 feet. With his weight spiraling out of control and his health constantly worsening, Jason faced a crossroads in his life. Either die a young man, or get in shape. Close to around 200 pounds lost, and so much muscle gained, Jason became a powerlifter. He watched some of the rest of us enjoy running events, and he wanted in! And you know what? He does pretty well. It was amazing to watch this mountain of a man rumble along the trails! He defeated asthma, high blood pressure and a number of other health issues to get to where he is today.
So that's our story. Me, I'm pushing 57 years of age, and probably don't belong out on the trails. I feel blessed to have been surrounded by this team.
We started running at 11 am on Friday. We finished around 2 pm on Saturday. We ran in the sun and in the dark. We ran with clear skies, and we ran in rain and even snow. When we couldn't run, we walked. But we always kept moving forward. When Dallin finished his red loop, he talked about it being a transformative event, where he learned his body was capable of doing more than he thought it could. See, I told you he was awesome!
I watched each team member set and achieve goals. For me, it was to just finish. Caleb? He wanted to be the fastest he could be on the red loop. Hunter? He wanted to finish our very last loop before 2:40, so that Nate could finish with us and then catch his flight back to Texas. Mission accomplished! Traven did zero training, due to soccer season at the high school and playing goalie. I'm not sure he had goals, but he is so strong and stubborn that he ran harder than I thought he would be able to.
When I organized the team and made running assignments, I knew we each has our strengths and areas of concern. Some runners would go yellow, green, red. Some red, yellow, green. You get it. I knew I could send the younger runners in any order and they would be fine. And with absolute certainty, I knew I had to go red, yellow and then green. With a recovery time of just hours, I felt my old body would not be able to finish that 3rd leg at anything other than green. I was right.
I started with red at around 1 pm. For about the first mile, it was great. Just a gentle climb, basically bordering Zion Ponderosa Ranch. And then it begins to climb. And climb. And climb. Some of the ascents felt like I needed a ladder. I'd run when I could, as there were some flat stretches and brief downhills. Finally, around mile 4, you crest into a majestic view of Zions. That's the transformation part. You've battled for 4 miles to get this view. And now you get rewarded with a descent of around 3 miles! And yes, music was a part of this moment for me. Last of the Mohicans was playing as I summitted. I'd been envisioning the end of the movie in my mind for a bit, as I pursued Magua with vengeance on my mind!
About that descent. Most of the way back followed a narrow trail, which was a struggle for my wide body. By the end, after impacting my feet at weird angles, I could feel blisters forming and my ankles were on fire.
At around 11 pm, I took off on yellow. For me, yellow is just a shade of red. This was a BRUTAL run for me. 2 miles of unforgiving, unrelenting climbing in the dark, with rain and snow coming down. I don't really see well in the dark anymore, so yellow was a solid time of fear and pain for me. If I had been alone, I think I would have tapped out. But knowing that my team depended on me gave me the strength to finish that bad boy off. As I entered the exchange, I don't know that I've ever been happier to see Dallin, as I passed the bib off to him.
Finally, at approximately 9 am Saturday, I stared my green loop. Blistered and bruised feet. Bloodied knees from some falls. Calves on fire. Back seized up. No sleep through the rainy night. Energy at zero. I laced up my trail shoes, and off I went. My goal - just keep moving! And you know what, I found my stride. For the first 3 miles, I ran. The last mile? It proves what I said many times. Yellow is just a shade of red, and you can't make green without yellow! The last mile PLUNGES into a ravine. Like seriously, the most technical part of the entire race. With my legs feeling as weak as they did, I was not about to try and run this part. Luckily, my initial 3 miles of running helped me finish in a decent amount of time. Here's the moment when I was DONE!
