Fish Lake Relay: Richfield, Utah

On the 25th, Joe ran in the Fish Lake Relay in Richfield, UT. He has a bunch of family down there and his Uncle Paul (who is more like a buddy than his uncle) is in charge of the Richfield Parks & Recreation. He planned and organized this race and then ran in it with Joe and 4 other guys. The race was 100 miles!!!! The way it works is every team (there were 18 this year) drives clear up on top of this mountain near Richfield. I think it was about 1.5 hours to the lake where the race started. Each team loads up their car with blankets, pillows, snacks, drinks, etc. Each person runs 2 legs of the race. Joe ran leg #4 and #12 (the last leg). I guess it’s quite the jaunt! Lots of hills, drastic increase and decrease in elevation and shortage of oxygen since it’s so high up. Joe runs quite a bit and he said he’s never had such a hard time breathing while on a run. His first leg was about 4 miles and the 2nd was 5.5 and crossed the finish line.

The guys’ truck. As you can see they had “a few” bags and coolers filled with snacks and drinks. Joe’s Uncle Richard looks so happy to be up at 5 in the morning…

Joe’s Grandpa Carl, officiating the race.

6:30 a.m. And the race begins. Go Paul!

Fish Lake

Yes, that is the sunrise. SO. EARLY.
Joe said that next year I should come and be the driver for their team. I said, “Sure if you want to start the race at 8 instead.” There’s no way I’m getting up that early! ;)

This is Joe’s Aunt Molly (Paul’s wife, in the orange). She was on one of the girls’ teams.

This guy was amazing! He lost his arm when he was 3 years old by falling off the back of a truck and landing on his shoulder and head. The impact killed all of the nerves in his arm causing it to hang limp for about 14 years. When he was 17, he decided to have it removed. His team ended up coming in 1st place overall and an entire hour ahead of Joe’s team who came in first in the men’s division! This guy is going to swim in the next Paralympics as well! Amazing story, right?

Uncle Wells finishing and Uncle Richard taking off!

Molly coming in…

This is Joe starting his first leg… he thought it’d be funny to go zipping past this car and ask you can see the people behind him thought so too. He said he only ran that fast for about 20 feet before he decided he should probably save some energy since he felt like he was breathing through a straw.

Uncle Wells on his 2nd leg and Joe’s cousin Emilee. She was on one of the girls’ teams with a couple of his aunts and cousins.

Joe finishing up the last leg of the day. His team made it back before he got into town and they all ran in together. He thought the runner for the team right behind him was a lot closer so he sort of left his team in the dust…

They ended up taking 1st in the men's’ division! Great job guys!

Uncle Richard, Uncle Paul, Joe, Dr. B. (friend of Paul), Uncle Wells and Dave (friend of Paul)

I’ve sort of caught the running bug lately… I don’t always go but I want to. I just have to convince my brain at 6 a.m. that it’s a better idea than going back to sleep. This kind of race is a little extreme, in my opinion, but we’ll see next year.