Did this really happen??

Posted on by Susan
Soooooo, I have never ever described myself as a runner…..never. I don’t think anyone else would either. Mostly, my life has been spent running out of necessity only…..like when a coach was yelling at me, or something was chasing me, or to get to a plate of cupcakes first.

Well that all changed when I signed up for the Dead2Red race in Jordan. It’s a relay race from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. I was on a team of 10 that took turns running over and over….and over. The distance is 242km….about 150 miles. Yep, I think I had a psychotic break to make me sign up for this. Up until this point the longest distance I had run was 3 miles….back in high school (you remember that Lance?).

There were a couple huge perks of the race….these kids came to run it with me…..if you’re gonna put your body through ridiculousness…you might as well do it with friends by your side.

The race started at 4pm…and each team had 24hrs to complete the race….that’s right….I paid money to run all night…yep, I’m leaning closer and closer to a psychotic break.

I was expecting to be hard…really hard, but I wasn’t expecting it to be super cold and pouring rain for most of the night…fun surprise I guess..

The hand off between Dudans…a magical moment really

Dead Sea to the left        
And then night came….our van followed behind each runner….but it was still kind of a strange feeling to be running out in the middle of the desert by yourself. The hardest time for the team was about 330am to sunrise….we didn’t think the sun would ever come up.

It was a great feeling to get under the 100km mark

 The morning came, but we still had a long way to go. My team was amazing. They were so encouraging and we passed out the sugary goodness to help each other wake up….there were no naps taken in 24hrs…we we’re all getting pretty delirious….

View from the van
Are We There Yet???

Near the end…we would do anything for a little burst of energy….we came close to another team and our competitiveness kicked in. We passed each other a few times…and then our team had it, and broke into the lead…we were far from winning the race….but we beat that team…BAM!!

The best site ever!!

There were so many time during the race where I thought…this is never gonna happen….we are never gonna get to the finish….but little by little, we made it…..in 21hrs. My team was awesome, and pushed me at just the rights moments….they were so encouraging, and even passed me a giant pixie stick when I couldn’t stay awake. The Desert Divas and David (our team name) are forever bonded together. We rocked that race!! It was such a crazy experience that sometimes it seems like it never happened….like it was all some crazy dream….but as you can see….I’ve got the pictures to prove it!!

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