Grand Teton Relay Part 2

here's another picture looking out towards the Tetons after we had finished running. The thing was after I got done (I was runner 11) our team split up runner 12 length which was the rest of the way up Targhee and down into the ski resort. Steve, Kyle and Kevin each took turns up the 4.5 miles. When we got there the other car wasn't there yet so Kyle just took off and started heading back down the road (only one way out). He'd gone a ways when the other car finally caught up to him and dropped off their guy but at least it didn't slow us down, we were still ahead of our projected schedule.

Here's me, Caralee and Robbi the three girls on the team.
We headed down to Victor and got a yummy breakfast at a cafe and went and laid down in the park waiting for the other van to get done with their runs before we headed out again.

This is a picture of Steve and Jon right after Jon got done with his second run. They were waiting to cross a pretty busy road.

Here's Steve prepping for his last run. This was what he had been preparing for for the last 3 months. He was running the pass that goes from Driggs in to Jackson Hole. It is way steep and one of the hardest runs, the only thing harder was running the whole thing down hill. But Steve would rather go up hill than down.

And there he is off. He really was excited to finally be running this run. How many people can say they ran this hard stretch of road!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Steve. It shows that the road was 10% grade and look at him he's still trucking away. There weren't a lot of places to park once he took off so they held us back for 20 minutes. When we finally got to go we kept thinking we would see Steve around the next corner and then he wouldn't be there. By the time we caught up to him we were shocked at how far he had gone he only had 1 mile to go of his 3 mile run.

He's running down the home stretch of his run, even this part though it was down hill cause he had just crested the top was hard, he said it really hurt his feet even though it was only about 1/4 of a mile

He's almost done and there's me in pink waiting to give him a big hug. I was so proud of him and what he had just accomplished. I couldn't cheer loud enough for him. I really hope I am like that in our marriage everyday because he deserves it.

See that grin on his face! He was just handing off to Kevin who had to run 5 miles all down 10% grade hill into Jackson.

Here's the 3 that climbed the pass, with Steves' being the steepest of it all. There's Kyle, Steve and Jon. See that sign in the back. I thought it was so funny "Be Bear Aware, Food Storage Required." I was explaining it to Damen when we got back to Mom and Dads saying that even bears have to eat so they can store up enough for their long winter nap so people needed to be aware of the bears so they wouldn't get eaten. Steve and Dad started laughing and told me that's not what it meant. It meant to store away your own food so that bears wouldn't get into it. I have to say I like my explanation a lot better.

The two of us after Steves great run.

Then when Kevin was done it was my turn. I had another 4.7 left to run and I was feeling it. My body was aching my thighs were burning but I pulled out that "stick" and worked them over pretty good and just told myself to "do my best and forget the rest". I was doing good until they told me I had taken a wrong turn and had run maybe a 1/4-1/2 mile more than I had too (I wondered why I couldn't see any other runners) But I made it to my end spot only to think of what else we were going to have to run in 20 minutes. See the other car was going to take the 12th run but they decided to go home so once again we had to split up almost 5 miles. We decided we all better take our turn and run a little bit. So about ever mile we would pull over and switch runners. I was the last and ended up running into Teton Village where I met up with everyone else and we finished the race together. What an accomplishment. All that training all summer long had brought us to this point and it felt GREAT! Yeah I wish I could improve on my time and there's always next year but for never having even run a 5 K we were pretty proud of ourselves!

Kyle, Kevin, Steve, Erika, Jon

See you again next year guys. We will be back!