Wild West Relay: Day 1 + Getting to Meet My Team

At 5:30am, most of us popped out of bed and were ready to go. I was smart and laid out my clothes/shoes/etc. the night before, so I was ready in about 4 1/2 minutes. I did get some ribbing from Amanda for putting on mascara, but oh well. :p I wanted to look cute for the 5 hours prior to me sweating it off!! Hah.

After asking Melissa if I hogged the covers all night (I have a tendency to do that. The BF and I actually sleep under 2 different blankets to prevent it), she said that I was fine, except for sleeping diagonally across the bed with my feet under hers. After telling Taylor about this, he said that's how I sleep most nights. Whoops. Nothing like some footsie time to act as an ice breaker!

We started loading up the vans, and making introductions to those that didn't meander in until long after I was counting sheep. After hitting up the hotel's continental breakfast, and wiping them out of peanut butter portions, we were on the road!

I love that I look tall around runners. :p

Thumbs up, this girl is ready to RUN!

That team is so Dangerous..... We should've been blaring Akon. Dang it.

Steve, Kristin, me, Bobbi, Melissa, Jen, Julie, Alesha, Ryan, Cynthia, Amanda, & Shannon.

Once we got to the starting line, it was time to decorate the vans. There were some sweet teams with crazy sweet names and matching vans. We did our best to make ours look pretty. I got to put some of my old cheerleading sign skillz to work. Or maybe I just hoarded the window markers...one of the two....

It was around this time that Bobbi was interviewed stating that we were from 12 different states! Well sort of.... which is actually not at all, but still we represented a decent variety. I actually had a guy from SoDak talk to me at an exchange, and another guy cheering for me throughout the race. He even knew the schools that were in my hometown, including my alma mater. I may have thrown out a GOooooooo VIKES! Cheer in my delirious running state. :p

We had the great idea of taking a photo looking in to the sun. Here we are at the start prior to Melissa taking off! After starting the race and cheering Melissa on, we all wandered back to our vans to get going. I started to question who had the timer and if it got started when Melissa took off. Whoops, it was still in the package. This is timing clock fail #1 of the relay.

Pretty much sums up how excited I was to get started. I think I said, "I'm SO EXCITED!!" at least 1,200 times in the first hour. Sorry Van#1. :)

Quick photo op at the 3rd exchange after Bobbi murdered her first leg.

And another photo before Shannon took off to dominate her leg.

We were mean and had a road kill count on our van window. Melissa is tallying up her "kills" for her leg.
Shannon is taking her turn. I told you we were dangerous. :p

Next up.....my first leg!!!