I laced 'em up today!

Today I woke up feeling like I should go for a run....so I decided I had better get going, before I changed my mind!  So I got dressed and laced up my kicks, and decided to run to my mom and dad's house.  That is just 3 miles away.  My legs felt ok, except some pain in my right shin. (the same one that has been giving me trouble.)  It usually calms down after 1/2 a mile or so, and did again this morning.  My plan was to run home again after chatting with Mom a bit, but I decided not too....my leg was hurting again by the time I got there.  All in all, not a bad run, considering what I had just put my poor body through.  The most surprising part is that I wanted to run! 

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Error Correction

I made a huge mistake!  Kathy ran leg 4, and I originally posted that it was "moderate".  It was classified as "hard".  I know that is a HUGE difference.  Kathy, please accept my public apology! :)  I corrected it on the original post.

Sawtooth Relay: Team Sofa to Sawtooth: Part 2

So here is the rest of the race.  We are starting over with runner number one, Michele.

Leg 7: "very hard" 6.02 miles DOWN the hill!  Completed in 51 minutes!  We don't have very any pictures of this (or the next couple) legs, due to the fact that Janine (photographer) had to leave the course and rendezvous with Kevin, so that she didn't have to keep driving herself around. 

Sorry Michele, we still love you just as much!  So here is the hand off  (with obligatory high-five) again, and some scenery.

Leg 8:  "moderate" 5.09 miles.  Heather ran this one, very well I might add, in an hour flat!  Here is a beautiful picture of Heather, from the starting line.

Leg 9: "Moderate" 4.64 miles.  Roxanne.  45 minutes.  She really makes the rest of us look bad...Janine made it back just in time to catch the end of her leg.

Leg 10:  Me again!  Get ready for way to many pictures of me!  This one was "moderate" for 6.13 miles.  I had no idea what to expect from myself on this one.  I had never run more than 5 miles at once, and I for sure had never done it 5 hours after running 4 1/2 miles up a (small) hill!  I just kept going...and I made it!  (except for a 5 second stop to remove a rock from inside the back of my shoe!....little bugger)  Took me an hour and 23 minutes.

I added this one for the scenery, not for the beautiful view of my butt.

See me?  The little speck in black?

This photo should be in Runner's World....because I look like a model. 

(Seriously though, see how hard I am working for this last mile?)  Sweaty.  Sexy.

Here is my husband, Kevin, after giving me a big hug. 

He said "I am SO proud of you!"  Kinda makes it all worthwhile. ;)

Glug.....so- thirsty-  glug-glug.

Look at my dad, behind me!  How sweet.

Leg 11:  "Moderate" for 4.97 miles.  Kathy ran this in 54 minutes.  She had a MUCH better run, emotionally.  (She is too hard on herself, in my opinion, anyway.)  She got her iPod to behave.

Awesome form.

Beautiful scenery!

Look!  Kathy is smiling!

Approaching the hand off...

12th (AND FINAL) leg: John (remember, my awesome dad?) 2.64 "very easy" miles on the greenbelt.  This is the reward for having to run the summit in the first half!  We had to send him off and then book to the finish line to meet him....he is a speedy little son of a gun!  There is a staging area arranged so that the whole team can cross the finish line together....we knew we couldn't dilly-dally, or he would beat us!

He hasn't even started yet, and look how FAST he looks?

Here we are!  You can barely see Roxanne, but she is there....see her feet mixed in with Heather's?

AFTER PARTY!

We picked up our (awesome) race t-shirts and a goodie bag.  The bag contained coupons for food.....beer, sausages, trout, red potatoes, coleslaw (but they ran out of that before we got there! What-ever!) and strawberry shortcake!  Here we are, all re-assembled as a team.

We weren't organized enough to have brought chairs, so we lounged in the grass. (next year we might remember!)  Check out the awesome Falls Brand polish sausage dog that Dad is eating!

My husband, Kevin and Kathy's husband, Lee.

Roxanne (official team captain) made 2 rules for this race: 1-have fun and 2-no injuries.  It is very safe to say that we all followed both rules!  I am looking forward to doing it again next year!  With that being said, here is our "crazy face" team pic, and our fashionable "sunglasses" team photo. 

Thanks for letting me share all of this with you!

Tone Bone

One very important team member was not mentioned in my original post about the team!  Every team that participates in the Sawtooth Relay is required to provide a volunteer.  Ours was Tony, Roxanne's ever supportive husband.  He had to be at his volunteer station at 2:30 am!  Then he had to direct traffic in and out of an exchange point for 5 hours!  He was a trooper, and then after that, he joined us on the route to support us.  Thanks Tony, we surely could not have been a team without you!

Here he is, welcoming Roxanne to the end of her leg.  I wish I had a better picture...oh wait, I will steal one off of Facebook!

Tony and Roxanne

Sawtooth Relay: Team Sofa to Sawtooth: Part 1

I can't believe that I was sitting on my butt in January, and running this relay in June. This was an amazing experience....like no other.

My sister, Janine,  was along for support, and our designated, dedicated, team photographer.  She takes amazing pictures, and I am lucky that she is willing to come down here and hook us up!  Thanks Janine!  I don't have pics of her, because she prefers to be on the other side of the lens.

We all began arriving in Stanley around dinner time on Friday. 

 

 

We met at the Casino Club for dinner.  Aside from the fact that they weren't staffed properly for big crowds, we had to sit at 2 tables and they didn't have any "light" pasta dishes, dinner was good. 

 

Better than that though, we went to the cabins for a quick team meeting, and got the food into the race vehicle.  Each of us was responsible for a part of that.  We brought bananas and grapes, cereal energy bars, protein drinks, peanut butter and jelly sammies and lots of water and Gatorade!  We took a few pictures and then it was off to bed for an early (if that is even the right word) start the next day.

 

Team Sofa to Sawtooth: (L to R) John, Jennifer(me!), Roxanne, Heather, Michele, Kathy

 

Our team had 6 members, plus a volunteer to work one of the exchanges.  Each runner ran 2 legs of a 62 mile course.  Here is how it went:

1. Our team start time was 3:30am.  That meant we had to check in at 2:45.  Imagine what time we had to get out of bed!  Ugh.  Anyway, have you ever been in Stanley at that hour?  Not a lot of city lights!  We met at the starting line to see Michele off....she had to run in a reflective vest and a headlamp!  This legs was considered "hard", and was 5.96 miles.  Here are some pics so that you can see what we saw....nothing.  I am grateful that I didn't have to run in the dark...that would just be too weird for me.  She completed the leg in  57 minutes!  Thanks Michele!


2. Heather is next!  "Moderate" leg, 5.83 miles.  Completed in  75 minutes.  The sun was just starting to come up when we were getting ready for the next exchange. 

Adjusting the headlamp...

3. Roxanne ran leg 3, a "moderate" 5.03 miles.  She completed this in 50 minutes.  She seemed to be saying, "What hill?  What altitude?"  Way to go Roxanne, looking good, as always!


4. ME!  This leg was "easy" (yeah, right!) for 4.43 miles.  I completed it in 62 minutes, and worked hard for every step.  All 6 of the first legs were uphill...to varying degrees.  This one was "mellow" but my legs didn't know that.  And my lungs were angry, and it took me a while to adjust.  I was able to enjoy the scenery though....wow.  (I know, lot of pictures of ME, but it is MY blog, after all!)

Waiting for Roxanne, donning cold weather gear.

They say you run faster if you hug at the exchange point.

And I'm off!

This is one of my favorite pictures.  See how long the road is?  And the pretty scenery?

Peeling of layers as I go...


It looks as if Kathy is wondering where the heck I am, and checking her watch.  But really, she is slapping the bracelet on her arm, after I had handed it off to her.  Seeya!

Not pretty.  But that pretty much captured the way I was feeling.

Now I am safely back in the team vehicle, recovering.
5. Leg 5. This was considered "hard" for 5.83miles.  Kathy's iPod was trying to ruin her day, and she wasn't loving the elevation....but she completed it in 71 minutes....WAAAAAAY better than I could have done it.

Roxanne and Heather, running Kathy in.

Ready for the hand off....Kathy was joking that the next leg was so steep, she would have to hand the bracelet off over her head to hand to John!  What a card.
6. The SUMMIT! (this really should be a 4-letter word)  This leg deserves a lot of attention...not only because any time you mention the relay to anyone who knows about it, their first question is "Who ran the summit?!", but because it was run by none other than my awesome dad, John.  This leg is "very hard" ad 5.35 miles.  That hill gained 1,300 feet in 5 miles!  But, he did it in 63 minutes.  He said that was a snails pace for him, but was very speedy in my opinion!  You should have seen that hill!  The vehicle even had to downshift to get up!

Peeling of the outer layer....really working up a sweat.  It wasn't even 9am yet!

LOOK at the backdrop!  Breathtaking.

Does he LOOK like a runner to you?  Yep, pretty much.

You really cant appreciate the grade of this hill....stupid steep.

Alexa and I, waiting.  What is up with our looks of concern and astonishment?  We could not BELIEVE  he was coming up that huge hill so fast!

Almost there, and the road levels out.

Now he is just being silly....must be the mix of adrenaline and lack of oxygen.

The hand off!  It's all downhill from here!

Now we are halfway through the relay.  It is just about 9:45am.  Stay tuned for the second half!