Sawtooth Relay

Well, this last Saturday Bryce and I participated in the Sawtooth Relay in Idaho. This is our second time. Tom (Bryce's brother) and his wife Darcy signed us up. The Sawtooth Relay is a 62 mile run from Stanley, Idaho to Ketchum, Idaho. Ketchum is close to Sun Valley. It is a relay team of 6 people who each run 2 legs of about 4.5-6.0 miles each. So you basically run a total of about 9-12 miles each. It is a beautiful run through the mountains with breathtaking views.





Our team consisted of Bryce and myself, Tom and Darcy, and a couple Darcy knows from Boise, Emily and Danny. We drove up on Friday and stayed in small cabins on the Salmon River in Stanley. That was fun!! The boys (Tyler, Brayden, Brady, Creighton, and Bennett) had a great time throwing rocks across the river, finding snakes, and just being boys. We went to bed about 10:00 that night and Bryce got up around 6:00 am. He was the first one on the team to run. Him and Tom went to the starting line to check in and me and the kids slept in a bit longer. Bryce started his run at 6:45 and finished his 1st leg of about 6 miles in 45 minutes. Way to go Bryce!! He came back to the cabin and we were still in bed. But we all quickly got up and were on our way to find our team and cheer them on.





Darcy, Danny, and Emily had the next 3 legs of the race. Then Tom's first leg was the infamous climb to the Galena summit. A gain of about 1400 feet. The summit sits at about 8700 feet above sea level. Tom did a great job. That would be tough. My first leg was after Tom's, so I had the run from the top to the bottom. A loss of 1400 feet. I had never ran much downhill before so I wasn't what to expect. The first few miles were great. My lungs held up and my legs felt great. But, about 3 1/2 miles into my 6 mile leg, I noticed my feet were starting to hurt. The last 2 1/2 miles were quite painful and not much fun, but I did make it. Luckily I had some cheerleaders along the way.





After I finished I was taking off my shoes in the car as we were on our way to cheer on Danny who was running the next leg, I noticed HUGE blisters on the side of my big toes. I should have got new running shoes, because now I was paying the price. I was supposed to run the last leg to the finish line, which was only 2.5 miles but I couldn't even get my shoes back on. We weren't sure who was going to run it for me. Bryce had another 6 mile leg to do and Tom had a 5 mile one. They were going to see how they felt and then decide. It ended up that Danny ran the last leg for me. What a trooper!!





Wow! What an experience. We had a great weekend. Ellie was a trooper all day in the car on Saturday. The boys had a lot of fun cheering us on and getting us water along the way. They even hooked up with an all girl team and did some dancing (with their shirts off I might add). We have it on video. It is hilarious!!





Well I have posted a slide show of all the pictures from the relay, hopefully it worked. It was a bit difficult to get the slide show to work.