Brace yourselves… It’s a long one. Don’t forget to catch yourself up if you haven’t read the previous posts.
Grand Teton Relay – The Beginnings
Grand Teton Relay – Day One
Grand Teton Relay – Day Two
We made our way up to the line for the breakfast buffet that the Grand Targhee had set up for the runners. The line was moving pretty fast as we all just stood there barley talking with each other. We were all exhausted. I was still feeling weird but knew I needed to eat so I tried to get a wide range of things on my plate. I took small portions of yogurt, granola, fresh fruit, bacon and eggs. We found to tables next to each other and sat down to eat. Still not really talking with each other, we ate. The rest all found the coffee, but I decided to skip it and just drink water. I think this ended up being the wise choice.
After sitting around for a little while, we decided to make our way back to the van to go and find a resting spot. We ended up driving to the last van exchange which was located in Victor, Idaho at a nice little park. Along the way, we came across one of our other team members running. We cheered her on and then moved along to where the others were awaiting her arrival. We let out a few cheers when we saw them and then continued on our way. I was actually getting a little bit of shut eye. We arrived in Victor and quickly grabbed our sleeping bags and pillows and headed for a nice and shady location. We did not want the sun in our eyes while we were trying to sleep. We set and alarm, giving ourselves a couple hours to sleep. I was extremely relaxed and not worried about the alarm going off yet I was unable to sleep. Everyone was feeling that way. After about an hour of laying around, we all kind of sat up and laughed about how we couldn’t sleep even though we wanted to so bad. We slowly packed our sleeping bags back into the van as we were in no hurry at all. We still had several hours to wait until it was our turn to run our final legs.
We all wondered around a bit, Lui got a foot massage, we put on the appropriate running clothes, snacked on a little bit more food, sat on the grass and chatted and other random things to keep ourselves busy. I was finally starting to feel better as I continued to refuel. We finally heard from the other van as they were getting near. They found us and we caught up on the events from there van. They were all so excited to be done. A feeling I was waiting for. I was however, excited to be getting near the end and onto my final leg. We finally saw their last runner coming around the corner and cheered him on in to the transition point where Kevin was patiently waiting to go.
They passed off the wristband and Kevin bolted away. We continued chatting for a moment and then went on our way to catch back up with Kevin. He already had a kill or two like usual by the time we made it to him. He was hot though. The sun was up in full force. We jumped in and out of the van pouring water on him and giving him more to drink. He continued to run fast. One guy decided to pass him, but he didn’t know what he had coming when Kevin spotted the 1 mile left sign. Kevin kicked it into full gear and took off like it was his last mile of the relay. (Which of course it was!) We got to the exchange point and were briefed as we were entering Teton Pass. We thought that we would be able to support Lui, but it turned out we weren’t. We rushed to get him the water that he needed before Kevin made it in.
Kevin came in thankful that he had finished and was no longer running in the heat. We had to wait at this point until we thought that Lui was close to the next transition point. We passed by him and gave him the only cheer that we could since we weren’t able to drive by him on this route. Kevin came rolling in from the hill with a big smile on his face. I on the other hand was just trying to prep myself for what was to come.
Lui snapped the wristband on me and I was off. I got to kills right away as they had already started walking. I was determined not to walk. Why you might ask? Well this was a 2.6 mile leg, that is nothing for me right? Wrong. It was not just 2.6 miles, it was 1,192 feet of elevation gain with 0 feet of elevation loss. Yes ZERO! It was great. I just kept my eyes down and rarely looked up because whenever I did, I saw a hill that ended up not being the top. It was disappointing. I saw the 1 mile left sign which previously gave me and extra surge of energy, in this case it didn’t. It meant that I still had a mile of climbing to do. I was finally getting close to the top but was still just waiting to see that transition point. I saw Krista which meant I was near and then it happened. I finally made it to the top and then I sprinted off towards Marty. I instantly felt like I could run a couple more miles as long as I didn’t have to go up a hill again. I was full of energy for the next several hours.
Marty took off down the hill. He got the extremely fun part of running down a the hill and loosing about 2,000 or more feet of elevation. His long legs were just streaming down the mountain. There was no stopping him. This was a non-support leg like Lui and I had as well, so we passed by him and gave him the best cheers we could. We made our way to the next transition area where we hung out on the grass for a minute. A few of us changed into our relay shirts so we could all be matching in the end. I continued to refuel myself and was still on that running high. Krista prepped herself for her last run in the heat. We finally saw Marty in the distance. Someone from our other van yelled out that he was so close to making a kill. He booked it past a car and the girl to where Krista was waiting. When he passed off the wristband, it looked like he was going to fall over, but stood standing in amazement at what he had just accomplished.
Krista took off and made her way onto a path that ran along side the road and back into a neighborhood that way away from where we were directed to drive. Unfortunately because of this, we weren’t able to cheer her on. We had no clue where she was so we just headed to the final transition point. Some of our other team members legged behind in getting to the transition area and spotted her along the way. That gave us a bit of insight into how long we still had to wait. It is surprising how fast time actually went while waiting for each other to finish. We saw Krista off in the distance, so one of our team members sprinted to catch her and bring her in. She made it looking overheated and exhausted. She snapped the wristband on Jeff and turned around to walk away, but he grabbed her for a quick hug. This is why we all loved having Jeff on our team.
Jeff took off down the road. While we were waiting, he had soaked his shirt in cold water. He was trying to keep himself as cool as possible. By the time we found a spot to cheer him on, he was already dry. We went along the way dumping water on him at various points and giving him whatever he needed to drink. We all decided to line up and give him some high fives before we took off to go find parking near the finish. We all waited for him to come in at so that we could finish the race as a team. We saw him off in the distance with a few of our other team members. He made it too us and then we all took off for our last few minutes of the relay. We came across the line with huge smiles on our faces in amazement at what we had all just accomplished.
We came across the line in 28 hours and 50 minutes. This was an hour and ten minutes better than what we had expected. Not bad for the differing levels of running skill, the few injuries and the terrain. It was an experience I’ll never forgot. We cannot wait to run it next year. (Which is why I already registered as I told you in a previous post.) We hung out at the finish for a few minutes eating pb & j sandwiches and fat boys. They gave me all of the medals to hand out to each runner. It was a fun thing to do as the team captain. After this we all dispersed to the vehicles to split up everything. We said our goodbye’s to the team members that weren’t riding back with us and then headed off for home. We went back to Ashton, Id to drop off a couple of our team members that had left a vehicle there. We stood around and chatted about various events of the relay.
Lui showed us some of his crazy balancing and flexibility skills which left us in awe. At this point I had realized that I hadn’t really eaten anything since breakfast so we went and filled up on gas and then made our way out to find some food. We found this little burger joint. The food never tasted so good. It was Lui, Marty, Krista, Brent and I left. We had a great meal as we laughed and reminisced. Before we headed out the door to finish our 3 hour trek home, we treated ourselves to milkshakes and then hit the road. It was a long slow drive back as we were all exhausted. It was starting to get dark and we just tried talking and doing what we could to keep each other awake. We made it home so exhausted that Brent and I actually debated whether or not a shower was really that important. We decided that it was and quickly jumped in and out before hitting the pillow. Sleep was marvelous. Even with the lack of sleep and food. It was worth the friendships and memories we created. Thank you Grand Teton Relay for a great time!
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