Women of Steel Relay-2013

Back in May I received an email about the Women of Steel Relay and a 50% off code.  I had wanted to do the relay last year, but it was too soon after the c-section, and for 50% off, I was willing to see if I could get a team together this year.

I put out a plea on Facebook, and was shocked by the response.  I had enough friends willing (and a few family members who don’t know how to say no) to put together 2 teams of 6 within a couple of days.  I felt so LOVED!! 

So the idea of a relay freaked me out…really. I had been struggling with running all summer so running 3 legs of about 3 miles each and making sure the group finishes before they kick us off the course.  And how do I deal with stress?  Going overboard with planning of course.  I think I had lists of my lists.  Still couldn’t prepare for everything, but it turned out to be a blast. 

We named our teams “Mom’s on the Run 1 & 2”.  (I even made team headbands, and customized them to say “Aunt’s on the Run”for my sisters without kids.---Score 1 for crafty Alicia) Pretty much everyone was nervous about this.  A lot of new runners, out-of-shape runners, and non-runners.  But we were excited to see if we could finish.

Right before heading off to the starting line.  What an awesome group of ladies! 
A storm came through the night before, and we FROZE.  The cars’ thermometers said 27 degrees when we started. (Thanks for the pics Britta)  Literally frost on hair and eyelashes after running.

The first couple of legs the fog was so thick you could barely see the runners.  Thankfully when the sun got higher it burned off and we ended up with a beautiful day.  In fact it was perfect weather.  Beautiful Heber Valley

Our group got bogged down at the beginning of the relay.  In fact, at one point we were dead last…by a long way.  We were a little disappointed because we thought we would be able to stay up with the “younger” car.  But we ran our little tails off and came back.  We never caught up to car 2, but we were definitely not last.  I think our goal changed from “Finish the race” to “ We have to beat the bootie-cow van, if only to get away from their obnoxiousness”.

We had a great group of women.  They worked hard, even though for most of them this was really difficult.  Everyone ended up doing better than they thought they would.  I was really happy to totally wipe out my previous PR’s.

Leg 1	Hard	3.11 miles	26 minutes
Leg 2	Easy	2.85 miles	25 minutes
Leg 3	Very Hard	2.96 miles	30 minutes

It was so funny that all summer I was consistently running an 11 minute mile, maybe a 10:30 and then 2 weeks before the race I broke the 10 minute.  Well, it happened at the right time I guess!

The finish was a little lackluster.  The other car had left (we were over an hour behind them), but we were stoked to have finished in a decent time.  We started at about 7:40am and finished at about 5:40pm with about 54miles total. 

What an amazing experience.  I had a group of great women in my car and they really encouraged and cheered each other on.  Thanks to my Timpview friends Natalie, Heather, Jolene, Britta, and Bethany, my neighbor Paula (you rock girl!!), my amazing exercise buddy Amy, and my wonderful sisters Heather, Tiffany, Sarah, and Kat for a day I won’t forget. 

Who’s on for next year?!