2011 River to River Relay

For the second year in a row, the Flint's Flying Salukis made the trip to Southern Illinois for the River to River Relay. With this being our second year with the same fun team, we were finding the nostalgia in all the 'traditions' we were creating. Just about everything we did had some connection to the prior year, because it was 'tradition'. A great time running, cheese balls, card games, post-race booze, fun times had by all! =)

The adventure started on the trip down when we ran into SEVERE weather and had to take cover at a gas station! The van got a few dents from the hail, but it still managed to carry us along for the next couple days! This was the same storm system that later turned into tornados further East!





The race check-in is in Carbondale, IL, the home of Southern Illinois University. Because it was tradition we ate at The Italian Village for our pre-race carb load. Every surface inside The Italian Village is covered in graffiti - signatures from restaurant patrons of year's past. They were celebrating their 50th year in operation that weekend so we christened the exterior door with our names =)



On to race day! I have so many pictures! I was runner #7 this year which consisted of a tough uphill in my first leg, a nice flat run in my second leg, and a steep downhill in my third (which was kind of fun, but my shins were definitely sore the next day!)



A bunch of random running shots...

























Our new team Dr.!



We spend many hours in this van over the course of 3 days!



The guys minus Seth



This course is super hilly...here is one of the 'best' ones - this was Steph's to tackle this year.



The worst hill (almost 2 1/2 miles uphill)



Sisters!



Sara, Tim, and I



So, this was funny. For whatever reason there was an outbreak of stray dogs in southern Illinois this year - there were several reports of people being chased and one bite on the 80 mile course. I was one of the chase reports! I had a buddy for about the last mile and a half of my last leg...he just came running out of a yard and continued on with me all the way to my hand off. He jumped up on me a couple times and crossed the road when I crossed, but other than that he was a friendly running partner!



The end is in sight!



Seth bringing us home! We finished in just over 9 hours and 20 minutes this year, placing 7th in the mixed division and 28th overall (out of 260 teams!)



The whole team in Golconda at the Ohio River Finish! Our name and how this team came together is really quite random. It started with Tim (second from right) who met a girl from Flint, MI (hence the Flint in our name) while attending school at Southern Illinois (home of the Salukis) many years ago. This was Tim's 13th time running the River to River. Tim then went on to teaching at Southern Illinois and eventually migrated to UW-GB which is how the rest of us come in. Tim taught both Sara and Kraig at UW-GB, Nate and Seth ran cross country with Kraig, Bryan is Kraig's cousin from Minnesota, Steph and I are Sara's sisters of course =) We are the Flint Flying Salukis - none of which have ever lived anywhere near Flint, displaying a Green Bay Packers banner flying on our van. Too funny! =)