I love relay races - I've done several Ragnars. So when my local Moms Run This Town chapter leader suggested putting together a team, I was all in! What is it? It is a marathon relay - 26 miles divided by 4 runners who take turns running on three trails.

The race is managed by Startline Racing, a top notch local racing company. We registered many months prior (before I was injured). Even so, 6.5 miles per runner is totally doable.

They had packet pickup the day prior and also day of. They recommended bringing your own pop up tents, canopies, etc. We would be out there for several hours, with no shade, and in AZ our temps got up to 90 at the end of the race.

We got there early to scope out a good spot. Parking was adequate, but the walk was long to take your items down to the tents and transition area. There were three trails, a black, red and white- they were 1 mile, 2 miles and 3.5 miles. We all took turns running these loops in different orders. Since the mileage was low, the downtime between runners was fairly short. They called out approaching runners, which was really helpful so that your next runner was on deck.

Startline provided water, gatorade and a "runners brunch" in the transition area, plus a few other water stations. For the most part, the courses were well marked, but part of the course goes through the Riprarian Preserve, which is a maze of trails, and it was windy out and signs got knocked over and not necessarily set back up in the right spot. As a result, on my longest leg, I missed a turn and ran an extra .6 miles. It messed several of us up, and people were not happy.

There was energetic music playing the whole time, and with everyone camping out it had a fun vibe. We received shirts and medals at the finish.

This is a great "entry level" race if you've never done a relay race. It is the same set up as a Ragnar trail race, but with lower mileage and much shorter time commitment. It is worth trying!