Wasatch Back 2010

The Cho Mamas 2010

Every third weekend in June the crazy people start coming out.  And they don't just come out quietly, they RUN out and then spend 2 days embracing their craziness.  The Wasatch Back is like nothing you have ever seen.  It is so crazy that teams have started coming from all of the country to see what it is all about.  We passed teams from Texas, Indiana, Colorado, California and others. Over 1,000 teams and 12,000 people running around (literally) in decorated vans having the time of their lives, which apparently involves running in extreme heat up the side of a mountain and going on an easy 10 miler at 2:30 in the morning out in the middle of nowhere.  Like I said, the crazies are out this time of year.

Last year I participated in 2 relay events.  The Wasatch Back and the Vegas Ragnar. Adam was very supportive even though he thought we were all crazy.  In November I was trying to come up with a few ideas to fill some vacancies on our team and was throwing out names to Adam when he said something that I never thought would come out of his mouth, "Maybe I'll run it with you."  Right then and there I checked his forehead to see if he was feeling well and then immediately started looking around to see if there were any witnesses present so everyone would know that it was Adam's idea and that I did not force, beg, or coerce him into training and running the Ragnar.  I have to hand it to him, he made a decision to run the Wasatch Back and never backed down.  He started training in February, losing 18 pounds in the process, and this year I can say that WE had a great time running the Wasatch Back!

Oh, and by the way, the Cho Mamas are totally famous.  They wrote a story about us in the newspaper before the race even started.

 This year we upped the program.  We had the Cho-mobile, of course. . .

. . .but for our Van #2, we brought out the Cho-mozine!

Having that much room for 6 runners is awesome.  We were all able to lay out and sleep in the van.  When I say sleep, I really mean that one hour that we were able to lay down before it was our turn to run again.

The Van #2 Cho Mamas.  

Van #1 had a 1:30 p.m. starting time which meant that we didn't even run our first legs until 8:00 p.m.  The first group of teams started at 5:00 a.m. with new teams starting every 15 minutes.  It takes a long time to start over 1,000 teams.

Here is Adam running his first leg.  This was the one time he didn't obey the traffic sign.

I'm pretty sure he loved it although he might tell you otherwise.

One of the things that makes the race so fun is to see all of the other teams and what they have come up with.  There are some pretty creative people out there. I love to read through the team registration list on the website.  Here are just a few of the names that made me laugh out loud:

We'll be Home for Christmas

Revenge of the Mullets (they ran in mullet wigs)

Our Wives Think We Are at Work

Tapering since Thanksgiving

(Tapering is a running term that refers to a lighter than usual training schedule just before a race so you are well rested)

Project Runway Far

Jack Bauer for President

My Name is Hurl: Season 3

11 Cool People and Kimberly

Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead

We're Totally Famous in Japan

I'd Rather Have a Root Canal

We're Kind of a Big Deal

Do Not Resuscitate

Not so Fast but Furious

Sweep the Leg! (from Karate Kid)

Stop Global Cooling

There were a lot of others, but I'll stop there for now. 

I ran the same leg as last year but this year I was able to run all 3 legs faster so that made me happy.  Not only that but I'm not nearly as sore the day after as I was in '09.  I didn't train more, I just trained smarter and I think it paid off.  It's amazing how misery makes you a bit wiser.  Last year I couldn't walk for days following the race so I vowed to be better prepared the next time around.

The Wasatch Back is really popular around here.  In my little neighborhood of 2 streets and a cul-de-sac Adam and I counted 11 people that ran the race on at least 6 different teams.  That is just in my neighborhood!  If you go out to the ward boundries there were several more.  This morning the Bishopic said from the stand they could easily pick out the people who had run the Wasatch Back because they were all trying desparately to stay awake.  You don't get more than an hour or two of sleep during the event and running upwards of 20 total miles in 24 hours tends to make people a little tired.  There was a lot of friendly banter afterwards.  We had such a late start time we didn't see our friends during the race, but I understand that they saw a lot of each other which made it that much more fun.

The results are in- The Cho Mamas finished the race in 28 hours 9 minutes and 54.8 seconds and placed 35th out of 490 in the Open mixed division. Not too shabby.

I'm proud to be Cho Mama.