Sawtooth Relay 2010

Well...I did it! I competed and finished the Sawtooth Relay!!! It was hard and a lot of fun, no sleep and great company. Our journey began in Stanley, Idaho and as a team we ran the 62 miles to Ketchum, Idaho. There were six of us on our team and we had one volunteer to help out at one of the transition stations. Each of us ran 2 different legs of the race.

Check out our cool van we got to ride in...it was so sweet.

Natasha, Becky, Denae, Kathy, Brandy, Me, Heather was up at the cabin waiting for us.

We stopped at Cafe Rio for lunch before heading up, yum...it was delicious!
Trying out the cool Afro we wore throughout the race, don't I look hot?? :)
I know you all want one too!!
We went up Friday night to Sun Valley and stayed at Heather's friend's cabin, when we should have been sleeping, but we decided to venture out. We went to dinner at a restaurant.

Hanging out on the big chairThen we stopped at an ice cream/sweets store. We got some candied apples. Again, I know something we probably shouldn't have been doing right before a big race...but we had a lot of fun.

Random blue dog outside the shop, had to have my picture taken with it.

The race began at 1 am, luckily my leg of the race didn't start until around 5am. I tried to sleep in the van but it's difficult to sleep when you have so much going on around you, and you have butterflies in your stomach. Needless to say I only got about a 20 minute nap that night. The weather turned out to be great for us, it was suppose to be rainy and possibly even a chance of snow, we were blessed to have clear skies and no rain.

Waiting for the race to start. Becky was the first to go.
The starting line

Our team was called the K-2 Sole Sisters, we decorated the van with polka dots and we wore giant black fro's when we were cheering our team mates. It was a blast.

My first leg was up hill and classified as hard, I gained 310 feet in elevation and ran 5.83 miles. The view was great and I enjoyed my surroundings. There is nothing better than running outside when the the sun is rising and the only thing you hear are the birds, crickets and river running by. It was a hard run and I'll be honest, I struggled to the end, but I did it. It was very cold, something I am not used to running in. It was about 36 degrees when I started my run, and it dropped just as the sun was coming up to around 32 degrees or lower. It was weird to be out running and feel the temperature drop instantly.

On the Run!!
Woo Hoo!!! Feeling great so far.
Hey sole sista...

My second leg was mostly down hill and it was a lot warmer. I ran around 11 am. It was nice to not be all bundled up and have to wear a safety vest and head light. I only had to run 4.97 miles but it really seemed a lot longer than that. My knee was starting to give out on me so it made it difficult to run as hard as I wanted too. In the end I sprinted hard and finished strong, I was very pleased with how I ran and how I finished. I learned a lot about myself during the race and was glad to have accomplished it and glad it was over. :-)

The hand off

The jacket didn't last long.
I know...I'm cheesy.

It took our team 12 hours to complete the race. We finished 2 hours earlier than we had estimated. We all did an awesome job and ran hard, a great experience I will never forget. We are even considering doing it again next year. Are we insane...yes. But it really was a great accomplishment. I think I have been hit by the running bug...I am really considering running the Pocatello Half Marathon in September, we will see what happens.

The K-2 Sole Sisters