Nicole- My return to a relay with Girls Heart Rockets!
13 August, Thursday: The day started with a 5am wake-up so that I could drop off Kimber early and beat Denver rush hour traffic on my way north. I had quite a long drive ahead of me. First about three hours to Laramie to pick up Ana, then another eight hours to Rexburg, ID. This was my first time in Idaho, so I can check off another state. (I have no idea where I stand on how many states I have been in…) It was a good drive and great to have some company. I haven’t seen Ana in several years, so it was nice to catch up.
Ana was somewhat familiar with the area, so she knew the really good places to stop for snacks along the way. This weekend I would definitely eat more sandwiches than I have in a long time! Once we got to Rexburg, we met up with Rose and her husband for a quick bite to eat before checking into the hotel and crashing for the night! I was pretty tired from the drive and I wanted this one last night of good sleep before our grand adventure!
14 August, Friday: The alarm was set for 7:30 (late for me!) but I was up by 6:45. There wasn’t a lot to do except make sure the bags were packed, eat a good breakfast, and then load up the van to drive to the start. Eight of us crammed into a minivan with 2 coolers and all our gear and made the 30 minute drive to North Fremont HS in Ashton, ID for the start.
Once at the start we reunited with all the team members – some were new, some were veteran GHR. We had about 2 hours to get the vans organized, check in, attend a safety briefing, and take some team start line photos. Through a rental company error, van 2 was a massive 15 passenger van, which we named The Beast. Of course entropy is always in effect and we were able to fill all available space. At noon both our teams (an ultra team with 6 and standard team with 12) were off!
Van 1 was Kellie, Tracy, Ana, Janice, Mary, and Sally.
Van 2 was Kara, Nicole (me), Leslie, Henrietta, Kate, and Rose
I was in van 2, so that meant we had some time to kill before heading to the first exchange. Van 1 estimated 5 hours for their first set of legs. Our first item of business was to pick up some ice and more groceries, as we hadn’t even left the parking lot at the start and had gone through a couple gallons of water and a loaf of bread. We also stopped by the root beer float stand. Jon, Kara’s husband and our driver, got one, as he wasn’t running. Kate and I took one look at it and decided it would be good fuel, so we joined in.
Then we decided a cool stream to put our feet in would be lovely, so we found the state park a couple miles away. While we didn’t get our feet in a stream, we did hang out for quite a bit at the lake there, sit in the shade, and watch the birds.
When it was time we headed to the first exchange to wait for Van 1 to arrive so we could take our turn. It was late afternoon and quite warm out. We could also see some storms in the distance. The car temperature read in the low 90s. The ultra team was also at the exchange and they mentioned the heat was getting brutal.
Kara was ready when Sally showed up and they made the handoff. This segment was 9 miles , most of it on a dirt road. We “shadowed” her for a bit and also did some leap frogging to make sure she got the turns and had enough to drink. She’s a strong runner and held a great pace. With about 2 miles to go, we went ahead to get the exchange so I could get ready to run.
For this leg, what is considered the hardest of the relay according to the race organizers, I wore my Finish MS singlet. I’m raising money for the National MS Society through the Finish MS program. (I’m on the committee to help redefine/improve the program, so figured I would check it out from the participant side.)
I didn’t have an ideal warm-up but got in some lunges, leg swings, and easy running. I felt good. Just before Kara arrived, I got the timing chip from the timing company, strapped it to my ankle, and was. Kara came in fast, we exchanged the slap bracelet, and I took off.
I ran pretty hard. It didn’t take long for my heart rate to get to 160, which is as high as I wanted it to get, so I just kept an eye on it and my breathing. The first part was a very slight uphill on a dirt road, which was great – less impact. The van caught up to me after about a mile, I waved them on, and I keep chugging up the hill. They made sure I was good and got the turn, and then I was on pavement for a bit of a steeper stretch. My glutes, hammies, and calves felt this! I just monitored my heart rate and kept charging up. There was a slight downhill stretch I used to recover a bit and not push the pace too hard, as after this downhill was the steeper uphill section of about 3.5 miles.
My goal was to keep moving as strong as I could. I took a few walk breaks here and there (each mile at this point had between 220 and 280ft of gain), and was really happy to see the 1 mile to go sign, even though it was going to be a slow mile. These 1 mile to go signs are an awesome sight.
It started to rain a bit while I was running, and I heard some thunder. There was definitely a storm near by. But being in the shade of the trees, the sun now getting closer to setting, and under the canopy of some clouds kept the oppressive heat from earlier at bay.
My legs were hurting pretty bad at the end of the run. My glutes were burning, my left hamstring was super tight, but I made it. It was 1 hour and 18 minutes of really hard running. I took some time to stretch before getting back in the van, and we had a whole slew of recovery tools to use.
Leslie was next, then Henrietta, followed by Kate and Rose. Leslie ran in the storm, and it started to ease off when Henrie was running. We finished up our first set of legs around 10:30pm. After this we thought food and sleep would be a good idea, and van 1 thought they’d be about 4 hours for their next set. So we drove about an hour to Teton High School and I decided $5 for warm food and $5 to sleep in a hallway was a good investment (supports their cross country team.) I had a small bowl of chicken noodle something and then took a blanket to the hallway filled with sleeping bags and snoring runners. Being able to stretch completely out and relax was fantastic, even if on a thin carpeted floor. I set my alarm for 1:30 so we could be ready to get to the next exchange. I can’t say I slept much, but I definitely dozed as the time passed relatively quickly.
Saturday: (It’s a new day!)
We collected everyone from the school, Jon grabbed a bowl of something warm to eat, and we hit the road to Van 1 showed up on time, and Kara once again kicked off our van’s turn. These were shorter segments and we figured it’d take us a little over 3 hours to finish. Not too much rest time for van 1! I started my second leg around 3:15 in the morning. My legs were stiff and my knees from my ITB were really bothering me.
This was an easy leg terrain-wise, so I just tried to keep good form. It was 3.6 miles of 3am leg torture. But otherwise it was amazing. The sky had cleared off, and if it weren’t for my head lamp, I could have seen thousands of stars. (I got to see them at the exchange). I kept running that felt more like a shuffle. It felt like I had good turnover and a good pace, but each time I checked my pace, I was a little slower than 10:00/mi. That would have to do. I just wanted to get to the exchange without my legs seizing up! That 1 mile to go sign was once again very welcome and I made it to hand off to our next runner.
I got in a little stretching and hit the recovery tools when we stopped at the next exchange. I tried to walk a bit each time the van stopped so I wouldn’t stiffen up too bad. We finished up pretty much when we said we would. Our last segment on this set of legs was a nice long hill that Rose had to run. Then we drove back down and headed to the park that would be the location of the last major (van) exchange. We had a couple hours to kill here, and boy, at 6:30am when you haven’t had much sleep, it’s easy to doze! Some went on the grass with sleeping bags, I just went to the front passenger seat, set my feet on the dashboard, and dozed. Ahhhh. yep. some more sleep. At some point here I had a bagel with cream cheese as I was a bit hungry and knew I needed to eat something before I ran my last leg, which was 3.8 miles of up. I also spent a good amount of time with my foam roller and did some stretching. I was hoping the easy run in the middle of the night would act like a recovery run and loosen things up for the last leg.
Once again van 1 showed up almost exactly as predicted. We had better cell signal in this part so could get updates from them. Sally came a barrelin’ in and Kara ran strong once again. This time we were headed up Teton pass towards Jackson Hole. Kara had a little bit of the up and then I took over. From a leg (what my feet are attached to) perspective, it was miserable.
From a course perspective, it was fabulous. I would love to tackle this stretch without my legs threatening to seize up! I kept telling myself I was training my ultra marathon pace! The views along the pass were stunning. The sky was blue and while it was warm, we were high enough and the breeze was cool enough it wasn’t a factor. I gained a little over 600 feet on this one. My legs were super happy when I was finally done.
When I reached the exchange, Leslie was there to take us to the top. It was only 2.6 miles for here, but significantly steeper! She looked awesome out there, and then Henrie got to thrash her quads coming down over 2000 feet! Kate and Rose took us the rest of the way into Teton Village at Jackson Hole. We were close with the ultra team the entire race, and they finished only less than 30 minutes behind us. We ran behind them across the finish line.
Final results:
On the QOM (leg #8) I finished 18/47 women with my 1:18.
Overall our 12-person team finished 3rd. We were the first all-female team to finish, but the event didn’t have gender based classifications. Everyone is equal! 🙂 The ultra team finished 5th overall and was the first all-female ultra team to finish.
Amazing weekend! I’m bummed the first leg beat up my legs a bit (a lot.) As far as relays go, I felt great in terms of nutrition and rest. So I could have crushed those segments had the first one not crushed me!! (or so I think!)
It was great to meet new teammates from the Boulder area and Atlanta. Very thankful I could once again be a part of Girls Heart Rockets. These are amazing friendships from across the country. I look forward to the next relay. Now to get these legs back in shape!!
Nicole
