A blog about my journey as an athlete and a woman. Come step into her shoes...

Monday, August 10, 2009

Wild West Relay Recap Part I: The First Leg

“We (The Dangerous Dozen: a team comprised of 12 runners from 12 dfferent states, kinda, well, maybe 8 different states?!) got our "ass over the pass" and ran 200 miles within approximately 33hours. Truly an amazing & awesome ADVENTURE!”AMBER

Well hello friends, I have missed you all sooo much. I am so glad that Hubby held down the fort while I was gone! If you didn’t get a chance to read his post, you must I nearly peed my pants reading it!!

The past four days have been truly amazing, and I am for warning you that this post might be long but well worth the read, but I won’t be offended if you just scroll through the pictures :).

When I first signed up for WWR, I don’t think I knew what I was getting myself into. Two days, 31 hours, 2 vans, 12 runners, Hills, Hills, Hills, no sleep, what a crazy amazing adventure!!

Let me take you for a ride, if I may. Thursday night after work, Melissa, Carly, Sandra and I loaded up the car and headed out for a 15 HOUR ROAD TRIP to Fort Collins, CO.

First stop dinner at Baja Fresh(a new fave). Why have I never eaten here?!

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I ordered two Mahi Mahi tacos with avocado, HOLY YUM! 

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I then drove until 11pm and then we all took turns driving, we did this all through the night and munched on some of Melissa’s amazing cranberry chocolate muffins!!! I think my hands and face were covered in chocolate!

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We picked up lot’s of gas station favorites!

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The girls zombied around…

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When we got Colorado the scenery was AMAZING!

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First stop, Starbucks a must!!! Sandra needed it so bad, she couldn’t even keep her eyes open ;) Ok that was a lie, I needed it more!

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We finally made it to Fort Collins(17 hours later), and look what we found!!! McCalisters Deli :). We don’t have these in CA, and when I was in college in Memphis TN, this was my favorite place to EAT!!

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I had my favorite, the Sweet Berry Chicken Sandwich with a Chicken Tortilla Salad. This brought back some GREAT memories :).

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When we finally checked in our hotel it was 2pm and this is what we did.

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and more…. 

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When part of our Relay Crew got in we finally got up and went out for our pre-race dinner. I love Downtown Fort Collins, it is so adorable!!!

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Melissa and I split a Veggie Pizza, no cheese they forgot, and lot’s of tofu! The crust was honey wheat, it was ok not my favorite but I sure did eat it! I needed some REAL FOOD!

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I had a cute glass of red as well.

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After chatting away about our excitement for the race, we finally headed back to our hotel room and did some last minute prepping!

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Then rise and shine, it was time to get on the road for a RELAY RACE of a lifetime!!! Ten girls( 8 which are all bloggers), two boys, two vans, and a S#i% load of SNACKS!!!

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My first pre-race snack was simple and delicious, it was all down hill from there…

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When we got to the starting line we completely decked out our vans, GO DANGEROUS DOZEN!

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The All AMERICAN TEAM! 

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The announcer made me get up and talk on the mic about our team. He asked how we all knew each other, I told him we didn’t we were all complete strangers :). 

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Melissa updated her status stretched, she was our first runner!

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We all got another group photo at the starting line, we were picture HAPPY!

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Before we knew it Melissa took off for her first leg!!! GO Melissa!!! She totally Rocked it!

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I was the second runner and I was ready, my legs were lose and I couldn’t wait to get out there!!!

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My first leg was 3.9 miles. A sweet morning jog :). As soon as Melissa was finished she handed off the baton bracelet and I was off!!

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Minus the elevation, I was feeling pretty great!!! I worked it, my average was a 7:30mile, a great way to start! 

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One down two more to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

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Melissa and I were feeling pretty HOT!

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and then the next ladies ran…

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and ran….. wildwestrelay2009 048

and ran…. 

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Well they ran, we cheered, blasted the radio and of course there was a lot more eating that took place!!!

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That’s right straight out of the box!

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The hot ladies in the back!  Melissa, Shannon, J-Light(who I kept affectionately calling Julie). Julie was running that’s why she is not pictured :). Julie,

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Hot ladies in the front!  (Amanda and I). I loved getting to know all 5 of these ladies, they were so sweet and pretty darn funny!

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Ok friends that wan only the first 6 hours, 21 more to go!!!

Going to call it a night, stay tuned for part two tomorrow morning!!!

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Yesss....love it! 12 diff states, well sort of... :)

Had a blast!

Rosey Rebecca said...

That looks like so much fun! Love the 'runners on the road' caution sign!

Anonymous said...

sounds like such a great experience! can't wait for part 2!

Eve said...

Wow - that looks like so much fun! I would love to be a part of a relay like that.

Unknown said...

That looks like a blast - can't wait to see more!

Meghann said...

SOOO JEALOUS!!! I wish I could have gone :( Looks like a blast though! I can't wait to read about the rest!

Anonymous said...

Looks like so much fun!!

momto4boys said...

You are such an inspiration. I just started running in June and we have a relay here in Texas that I am planning on being a part of in 2010. I am just getting started, but I know I will be ready. Can't wait for part 2!!

RunToTheFinish said...

oh man I just can't quit smiling about our race!! i've now got invites for 2 more...EIIIKKK

brandi said...

what an awesome experience! i can't wait to see more.

what a beautiful place to run!

Angie Eats Peace said...

Awesome!

Lizzy said...

Loved reading this! It looks like you guys were having such a great time!!!!! :)

Michelle said...

This sounds like so much fun! I love the decked out van. That's so cool that you got to meet new people/bloggers too!

Jeri said...

Love the recap so far. :D

olsonsfoodemporium said...

Really useful information, thanks for the post.