Back in January, my sister Debbi asked if I would be on a relay team with her in June. The relay was a 60 mile relay with 6 runners each running about 10 miles each. I excitedly said yes.... and then about wet my pants when I realized what I was going to have to start training for! BUT BOY, AM I GLAD DEBBI ASKED!!!!!
We ran the Sawtooth Relay, which took up and then back down the mountain pass that runs from Stanly to
Ketchum (the Sun Valley area). It was a BEAUTIFUL run! We each would be running 2 legs for a total of 12 legs. Each runner would run one leg heading up the pass, and then another leg heading down the other side of the pass. Each runner would end up running about 10 miles. Here we all are at the starting line the night before the race.
Our start time was at 4:30 in the morning. We had to check in at 3:45 in the morning. So, after a fun night at the hotel with about 2 hours of sleep the night before, we were ready to send our first runner, Jill, out at 4:30 in the morning. We were running on the road with traffic, so head lamps and reflective vests were required until the sun came up.
Our team name was "6 Sweaty Chicks" (thanks to Debbi and her fun creativity), so Deb and I made some t-shirts for our team. We had a whole outfit
goin on, which looked awesome! We had so much fun and looked GOOD!!
Modeling the whole outfit.
I was the third runner out. Here I am waiting for Debbi to come into the exchange site at about 6:30 in the morning.
Making our exchange.
Here we are about to the top of the summit almost 30 miles into the relay. We were all acting like we were totally awesome up here at the top, but really the person who was doing the bulk of the work and carrying our team's booty up the steepest 5.8 miles of the pass was Linda -- who was still making her way up to where we were. Linda did an amazing job, and I am completely inspired by her amazing climb up that pass!
Here we are getting ready to send Debbi out on her second time out. We had such a good time!
Debbi coming in from her second run and making the exchange for me to head back out again for my second time out.
Just finishing with my second run.
At the
finish line with the whole team. I have never run a relay before, but after running this one, I would run any relay anyone asked me to run. There was such a fun environment that is different from just running a quick individual race. It was SO much fun, and we had such a fun group of women who all did an AWESOME job. We finished much earlier than we all expected, and laughed all along the way. This relay was definately worth the training, and now I plan on keeping up on all the training time I put in and keep on having more racing fun!
While trying to climb the stair rail outside our front porch, Ethan lost his grip and fell, landing on our front step. There was a pretty deep laceration right above his eyebrow.
Ethan is waiting patiently for the topical anesthesia to set in.
Five stitches later, and Ethan was ready to get right back to playing again! He really did a fantastic job through his treatment. The doctor opted to just use local and topical anesthetic. Ethan sat quietly the whole time and didn't move an inch. The nurse and the doctor were amazed that he was so cooperative -- Chris and I were pretty impressed too!
We love our little Ethan. He certainly keeps us on our toes! In just two and a half short years, we have already had quite an adventure with Ethan, and we are sure there will be many more!
