We had 6 people on the team and each ran two legs, with an extra mile(s) for some tossed in on the final leg, and had so much fun! I don't know if I've even been that tired after a run. Got up at 3:30 am to get ready and head up to the mountain, started in the 7am wave and finished just before 5 I think. It took us 9 hours, 51 minutes, and some seconds to cross the finish.
I slept for almost 12 hours that night!
The first leg is all pavement, after that the next several legs are all, or mostly all trail. I LOVED my first leg (leg 2) because it was 100% trail, muddy, wet, beautiful, fun trail running. I was so happy, and yet again reminded that I must get back to trail running. It's what makes me happy! I really wish I had run with my phone to get pics, but I didn't want to bite it in a puddle and ruin it, so take my word for it that it was 6.6 miles of beautiful trail running.
(All photo's from Elya's phone and taken by different team members through the day, depending on who was running, driving, recovering).
Top picture...what the last 2 (ish) miles looked like, nice wide, flat, hardly any mud, faster paced running. It was a nice break because the first several miles were mostly single track and you had to pay attention! You can see from my shoes that I had a good time in the mud!
It's a unique race in that it's not supported like most races. No water stations, or if there are stations it's for Ultra runners only, and not always well marked routes. Roads are not closed, and some of the legs you feel pretty isolated. But, the runners around you have your back. They are friendly, helpful, and cheering for each other from start to finish. Totally unique in that you feel like your are team members with all 800+ participants.
Stephanie, Kim, Me, Cori, Elya, Shawna = Training BraWds, see what we did there?! At the start.
Don't you love how it looks like I peed myself?! Pretty sure my hand off to Elya wasn't very friendly...I was irritated with how bad I felt and on the verge of being sick.
Once again I had trouble with the heat. 80+, and it's not even summer here yet! The second leg, while short (3. something) was blazing sun, blacktop, straight along the hwy and boring. I was sick, again. The best part of that run was finding a park potty with a freezing cold, metal toilet. I may or may not have sat on that cool metal for much longer than needed. I ended up walking a lot and feeling frustrated a lot that the heat once again was a factor. I MUST figure this out! The neck chiller thing helped a lot, but it cooled off fast. Next year, spray bottle with ice water. One of the other teams ran with them and it was brilliant.
BTW - that skirt got tossed after the race, that's an oil (from what I have no idea) stain of some sort that washing didn't get out. I also had to toss two pair of socks, and the shirt from my trail leg. The mud was almost like a slimy oily mud and ended up getting on some of my other running gear when all the dirty stuff was tossed in the same bag. Given everything I had to toss out this was one of the more costly races I've done...but totally worth it!
Another BTW - I went to investigate replacing my skirt (I have a few others that are old and the seems are starting to rub, so it's time to replace them...going on 4 years for several of them) only to find that Lulu discontinued my go to skirt, and now I'm at a total loss as to what to switch to. Grrr.
Ring My Bell, Ring My Bell! Each exchange has a bell to run under and ring.
Finish line!
A few things I learned about running multiple legs of a Relay, don't start snacking on the yummy food until your final leg is done. Pickles wrapped with ham and cream cheese makes an excellent recovery snack, and at some point you will want real, solid food in your tummy. Next time I will have something "real" with me for after the last leg. You can only eat pretzels and chips for so long.
Seriously so much fun, and I can't wait to do it again! Thank you Elya for being an awesome team captain and organizing everything, and thank you ladies for the fun day! I'm totally hooked on Relay's now!
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