The Wild West Relay 2014

Whew!  We did it!  It is now Monday following a very busy, exhausting and AWESOME weekend.  Call me crazy, but it was FANTASTIC and I loved every single minute.

So lets recap.....

The Relay started bright and early Friday morning.  Thankfully, Bob and I were in the 2nd van which meant that we didn't start our first leg until around 10 AM.  So, unlike our first van teammates, we got to sleep in.....until 5:20 that is.  We met our Van 2 teammates, packed our shared suburban and headed to the first exchange just a few miles outside of Fort Collins.

All of us were a bundle of nervous energy, but so excited to "get the show on the road."  Sure enough, right at 10:08, Travis came running into the exchange, gave Bob a high 5 and Bob headed out on his first leg.

Look close, Bob is out there!

The relay was so much fun because it not only was a physical test, but a mental one.  All of the logistics and time management behind it made it extra challenging.  You see, we had to finish the 200 miles in an allotted timeframe so all of us had to run within our designated paces or we could risk being DQ.  As Van 2 took over, we snaked our way up in to the foothills chasing our runner, checking on them and being sure we were at the next hand off area with our runner ready to go.

My first leg was 3.6 miles and was rated hard.  It was relatively chill with a few steep uphills. I ended up "roadkilling" 3 other runners on this first leg.  Took them all on the hills.  I felt awesome and pushed my pace gaining us a few minutes.  It was hot, but I pulled into the hand off, high fived my girl Laura and sent her on her way.

Our last runner finished around 4PM and we met back up with Van 1 who was ready to take over again.

Once we handed off to Van 1 we went way ahead to the next van exchange situated at the Woods Landing Bar right by the river.  We had a glorious spaghetti dinner, got our sleeping bags and settled in by the river to try to catch some sleep before our overnight miles.

Bob had a major climb (one of the hardest of all the legs) coming up and all of the nervous energy made it hard to sleep, but we rested at least.

Laura is the pro.  This set up bought her the "drive through the night" seat on the bus!

8PM arrived and we all started getting ourselves ready for the overnight running.

I won't lie, I was the most nervous about this leg.  Overnight, in the mountains, on the road, no street lights, in a National Park Forest.......yeah, I was nervous.  Michelle came running into my exchange around 11:30PM and I took off on my longest of the 3 runs, 7.1 miles.  I started fast because I was FREEZING, as in teeth chattering.  I went out pushing my pace, but knew that nerves, night time running and the cold would make me faster anyways.  My run was glorious.  It was flat and only slightly rolling.  Again, I "roadkilled" 4 other runners.  I saw 3 of them off in the distance and decided that I had to catch them just so that I could run in a group, but I got to them and just couldn't/wouldn't slow down.  I felt AWESOME.  I ran into the exchange flying at about 8 minute miles.  That run was AMAZING.  So beautiful with the stars and the quiet.  It was my favorite of all my legs.

Laura, Kayla and Erikka finished up their second legs around 3:30AM.  All of us completed our legs having put over 30 extra minutes on our clock.  Whoo hoo!  We were exhausted.  We pulled into the high school at the exchange and crashed.  3 of us in the car and 3 of us out in the park.  I had run so hard and about 10 minutes from the exchange I crawled into "the nest" (the backseat with nothing but pillows and comfort) and fell asleep.  2.5 hours of sleep was never more glorious, but at 6:15 it was time to get up and get ready to run our last legs.  I was stiff from running so fast at night, but so fired up.  Lets do this.

8:30AM we made the final exchange.  Bob had another wicked uphill ascent, and blew everyone away when he left his shoes in the car.  Barefoot Bob crushed his big 6 miles of hills and gave us 5 minutes on the clock.  Michelle cruised her 3 miles out and I took off on my final 6.  My final leg was hard because it was steep up and steep down.  Down is far harder on your body than up and I was going fast.  I got to the top of my hills (after "killing" one more)  and cruised fast on my descent.  I pulled into my final exchange after having gotten us another 6  minutes or so.  Whew I was done!

Thats Laura showing us her last leg....STRAIGHT DOWN.

We sent our final runners out and then headed into Steamboat.  Erikka our final runner had a hard last 5 miles and all 12 of us met her at the finish.  Together as a team we ran across the finish more than 50 minutes before our scheduled arrival time.  BAM!!

We celebrated with a delicious meal and then crawled into the car and headed home.  Bed was beckoning!  We got home, saw the girls (who did perfectly with Memaw), got them in bed and then quickly (as in 7:30PM), got ourselves into bed.  I was exhausted, a fact for which I am thankful because I was too tired to be nervous about the TRI in the morning.

The Wild West Relay was fantastic and such a fun experience.  It showed me just how strong I am and how much I can push my body.  Can't wait for next year!