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?!

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

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!

We picked up lot’s of gas station favorites!

The girls zombied around…

When we got Colorado the scenery was AMAZING!

 

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!

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!!

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

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

and more…. 

 

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!!!

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!

I had a cute glass of red as well.

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

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!!!

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

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

The All AMERICAN TEAM! 

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 :). 

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

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

 

Melissa and I were feeling pretty HOT!

and then the next ladies ran…

and ran…..

and ran…. 

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

That’s right straight out of the box!

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,

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!

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!!!