Wild West Relay Report: Cheer Time + Down Time + Leg 2

Alright kids, when I last left you, I was a sweaty/salty mess from conquering an insane hill (mountain). After a quick meeting with 7-8 handy wipes, I had de-sweated (kinda), stretched, and was back to cheer on our final runner of Leg 1, Julie. :)



See look I barely even look sweaty anymore. It's MAGIC.



Then it was time for some more road kill tallies. Julie had a couple.



And Amanda had a few more to add. It was at this point that the tallies started to look (unintentionally of course) like dripping blood. Dramatic effect? Apparently we were the talk of the relay for this. Whoops!



It was on our way to the rest area that we ran by our first runner of the second van, Cynthia!! We drove by as she dumped her water bottle on her head, and I was worried that she would die without water. I got to practice my official water station girl skillz. It was a pretty swift hand off of the handheld. :)



Then it was finally time to eat and replace the ~700 calories I had burned off on my morning "jog." They had a special on wraps, so I dug in. They were pretty tasty but definitely not filling enough. The seasoned fries I had with them were AMAZING. Nom nom.





Then it was naptime. Except for the stupid kid playing the recorder. I swear if I would've had more energy, I would've beat him up. But alas, gotta save the legs. :)





Me, Shannon, and Julie take a break from waiting for our team's second van to come through to take a pic. And then it was our turn again!



While waiting for Melissa to come through on her second leg that, (and I quote) "Effing sucks!" we found this sweet rock to pose on. I had planned on squirting Melissa with the sweet squirt gun, but instead shot the sky Calamity Jane style. This is the wild west, after all.





And again taking some photos. Taking pictures is way easier than running up mountains.



While waiting for Bobbi to finish up her insane 9 mile uphill run, Melissa and I decided to take a pic.



Before Amanda's night time (second leg) we huddled to keep her warm while we waited for Shannon to come barreling through.

After Amanda was my turn. I started running around 10:30pm. It was dark. And there were numerous cattle guards on the route. I got to wear a sweet handlamp, flashing LED light, and reflective vest. On top of running tights, a long sleeved shirt, and track jacket. It was COLD! Quite a difference from my 80ish run from earlier that day. A



At first I started out running with a girl (or a girl quickly caught up to me) and we ran together for about a mile which was awesome. Then she said her pace was around 8:00, so we quickly said buh bye, as I knew I wouldn't be running close to that. :p The first 5 miles were pretty great, but I did notice that it was more difficult to breathe, even with the decline that I got to enjoy.



After mile 5 things started to get a bit brutal. I just felt like I couldn't catch my breath. Plus, my stomach was pretty upset. BUT I did get to run in Wyoming during this part, which was awesome. The van drove up to me at this point, hoping to get a pick of me and a Wyoming sign, but for some reason there wasn't one. (???) All of a sudden we started seeing Wyoming 10 Highway mile markers, so we knew we were in Wyo. but wtf? Where's my grand entrance!??! :p



1. 9:27

2. 9:28

3. 9:43

4. 9:43

5. 10:11

6. 11:59

7. 10:28

.2 1:00



I ended up having to walk once or twice during the 6th mile, but was pretty happy with my time otherwise. I did the 7.2 miles in 1:12:00 for a 10:00 pace. Whoo! 10:00 pace goal still in tact. :D




I don't really remember Julie's leg, (sorry Julie!) but I do remember STARVING. When we got to the next van exchange there was a little restaurant doing an all you can eat spaghetti dinner for $10. Let me tell you that was the most amazing midnight dinner I've ever eaten! Smart me brought white sweat pants to an adventure race. Ha. Luckily my normally klutzy self didn't show through. We ate while traveling to the next van exchange where we were told we could sleep in an elementary school. Which was great because it was pitch black out, cold, and no one wanted to put a tent.

I walked into the room and people were sleeping head to tail to dirty running shoe. The chorus of snores prompted me to immediately turn back around and head for the van. I'm the lightest sleeper ever and knew I would not be "lulled" to sleep by the snores, no matter how exhausted I was. I fell asleep shortly after my head hit the beach towel (my impromptu pillow for the weekend), and was awoken about one hour later to the sounds of our walkie talkie. I kept freaking out that our team would somehow come in earlier than planned and that we would miss them, so I stayed up until our team was ready to go.

Stay tuned for Leg 3!!