River to River Relay

Last weekend, Sara, Steph, and I ran in an 80 MILE relay with 5 fun guys. We finished in 9.5 hours, and it was a ton of fun! I have been working up to this for months - basically signed up shortly after Emmit was born so it was a great motivator to try and get back into some sort of shape. Still have a little ways to go, but I ran my 10 miles and that's all I wanted to do! After running for 9 1/2 hours we crossed the finish line 18th and ended up taking 28th overall and 6th in our division - way to go team!!! I'll tell more with pictures, because there are a ton!

At about 5:00 am - ready to run! We had the earliest start time at 6:15, but had to drive up a mountain basically to the start line.



Ready to go!



All the vans lined up at exchange 1. There were 250 teams with 8 people on each team - lots of runners!



Seth kicked us off in a stellar way - down the mountain he came to Steph.



Steph ran second



Waiting for Steph



Then me 3rd



This course was REALLY hilly, I mean REALLY hilly. This was my hill in my second leg =)



Sisters before Sara's first run



Tim was runner #4, handing off to Sara



Running her first leg and keeping pace with the guys!



The guys early on



Nate was our anchor



There was this team called the Dixie Flyers - they were all men average age 65 - some were EASILY in their 70s. They took 39th overall and to top it off, not only did they run 80 miles, they also biked about 60 of it - the only used a car on the gravel roads - CRAZY!!!!!!!!



A typical road...it was a mix of country, off road, and highway.



About halfway we came across some vineyards...tempting...





Our running fuel!



Our van...over the 3 days we spent about 36 hours in this baby!



Tim towards the end



Done!



Our van again with the mildly innapropriate painting on the side...this hill, described as "the hardest" in the program was a real killer!



Thankfully, Kraig ran it for us! Here he comes...not even HALF way up! =P



Bryan was runner #7 and our team liability...he seemed to have some issues getting in and out of the van =)



All DONE at the Ohio River. The race went from the Mississippi to the Ohio, along the southern-most tip of Illinois - 'Little Egypt' because of the hills and the rivers. That's Kentucky on the other side of the river.



And another team picture at the top of the observatory tower at the campground we stayed at (after a few Coronas and Blue Moons!) =)



Sunday...cheese puffs are GONE!