rest in motion

an ULTRA MARATHON relay. It's nuts. I know.

Mar 27, 2024

Thursday, the 28th of March, at 4AM,
6 women (runners) and 5 crew depart from Salt Lake City, Utah.

I am one of those women.

In a sleeping desert, Chloe, Rhetta, Rosa, D, Alejandra, and I will start running from Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada.

We relay continually - dawn, noon, dusk, midnight, the darkest hours, and the brightest - for a total of 430 miles. “Slapping a butt” to hand off, as Chloe says. We’ll run segments over and over and over, adding up to ~ 75 miles each.

We plan to finish the thing in roughly 58 hours. (Ignore the time estimate above on my special deluxe Google Map screenshot. That’s how long it would take to WALK, PSHH.)

If all goes well (😂!!!) we’ll arrive at the Las Vegas sign on Saturday afternoon, and immediately we will celebrate with sleep - so much of it.

And this is how I like to spend a weekend.

Ha!

YES, I AM EXCITED.
YES, I AM NERVOUS.

YES, I’M FLUSH WITH ANTICIPATION OF THE DELIRIUM, THE SUFFERING, THE ECSTASY.

Merrell is sponsoring us. Which is very nice of them because I am not an elite runner, nor fast enough to become one, but I have a ‘can-do’ attitude (75 miles worth), and I will make my teammates laugh, and also I will give them eloquent pep talks if they need.

This is all part of a (shhhh) unsanctioned and v cool, v hush, v photographable (thank you, Austin, for these photos of us), v sexy (🤪) and quietly popular race within the running subculture.

It’s called THE SPEED PROJECT: an annual relay from the Santa Monica Pier to the Las Vegas sign. I ran it last year with Koreatown Run Club. (I wore the wrong shoes and my 2 achilles were flames of pain after 31 miles.) This year, my team is part of a surprise experiment: running from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas (~120 miles farther).

(Please help keep this surprise hush until 4AM on Thursday. I am trusting you with this lil secret, which will be unveiled the moment we commence.)

December through March I acted as if I am a full-time athlete training for my Olympic games. I love to play pretend. Also, I was terrified of being underprepared. Also, it is 430 MILES TOTAL. I developed a routine of 2 hours of PT exercises, mobility, foam rolling, strength work, 12-mile runs at sunset, 20-milers in LA’s exceptionally rainy March, as well as eating a plethora of roasted Japanese sweet potatoes because they are nutrient-dense and they feel like a superfood that will make me ultra-healthy to zoom zoom zoom at 4AM in Utah with a headlamp.

I love this group of women on my team.

(L to R: Rosa, Rhetta, me, Chloe, Sarah [crew], D, Dan [crew], and Alejandra)

Chloe is the mastermind, our captain, our Lil Bo$$, and she made this whole endeavor possible with her tour-de-force selfless ambition.

Rosa is a hurricane of Joy and of potent running talent and of relational warmth which is a stunningly cool combo to witness in one person.

Alejandra has a pain threshold that staggers me, and I respect her immensely, and her grit and speed are inspiring, and she is so much fun.

D is calm and grounded and gets sh*t done and has a sneaky wondrous sense of humor and has excellent taste in music.

Rhetta 10x’s our fun and enhances the sense of play in something wild like this, while also being so fast and smooth my jaw drops.

And me. I am joining these women with my ‘can-do’ attitude and my podcast-voice offering inspiring tiny speeches, and with the way I relate to Peter Pan resting in the sky while he flies through the night.

We will fly through the night.
In our Merrell shoes.
And our Merrell shorts.
And with our combined enthusiasm and focus…

We will have to go #2 in the desert with a shovel (sorry, not sorry, it’s real, it’s fact).

We’ll make it to Vegas.

I’ll cat nap in the RV between segments. I will eat a large quantity in small amounts to sustain myself. I’ll maybe sleep for 2 days when this relay finishes. And I will definitely be in awe, even when (maybe) I want to cry 48 hours into this thing.

Think of me when you wake up Friday morning and have your coffee and your bagel (do you eat bagels? … muffins?). As you sit cozily, I’ll give you a nod from my moment of deep-desert ultra-marathoning, out in the elements under the open sky.

Little Emily would have dreamed of something big like this. And grown-up Emily now can say, “Hey, kid, we’re doing it!”