What a Blast! Weather-wise the day started out perfect; a nice balmy 48 degrees, overcast and no rain. We arrived at Snoqualmie Elementary School at 5:45am….yes AM! We danced to Diana Ross while making last minute gear adjustments in the back of the PK-Mobile (Patti’s Van). We cheered on the Ultra marathoners start at 6:00am. Our wave was set to start at 7:00am.
Heather Nugent was first on deck with leg one; 7.9 miles. “Everything felt great, nothing hurt.” Heather’s leg started on the pavement then broke into trails a mile later. The top was flat and she clipped along at a good pace. Heather was as a little disappointed that 3 gals passed her, but it only strengthened her resolve. The last part of the trail was all down hills and absolutely beautiful. At the bottom of the hill, Kathy Morrisson waited for the gentle touch of Heather’s hand to kick off the second leg of 5.6 miles. Kathy had the privilege of running back up the hills Heather ran down, so much for gravity. What a woman!!! Kathy raced on up, passing a few unlucky runners on the way and enjoyed the trail and lush habitat.
The PK-Mobile jetted off to the next exchange at Remlinger Farm. As we waited for Kathy, Patti warmed up for the third leg. Nature kidnapped Patti and she headed over to the Honey Buckets as the rest of us headed to the exchange area. Several minutes passed, then several more.…and no Patti. It was getting close to transition time for Kathy and still no sight of Patti. We decide to get Karen Nolting ready to run in Patti’s place. And thank goodness Karen was up for the switch. Kathy arrived shortly after and handed the torch to Karen for the third leg of 5.7 miles. Finally, we see Patti running up to us. Apparently, she had her own little relay going on. She survived and was primed for the next leg.
Patti got ready for the fourth leg of 5.6miles and took off after Karen came in. The PK-Mobile was’a rock’in again and off to the next exchange point. Somewhere in between dancing, laughing and general levity we blew right by the next exchange point and landed one ahead of the assigned spot. We headed back, laughing even harder now and arrived about 2 minutes late. Patti was anxiously waiting our arrival. But as Kelly Spangler would say, “It’s all Good!” Kelly bounded off on the fifth leg of 6.1 miles. Since we had already visited the next exchange area, we had no problem driving right to it and waited for Kelly to come in. It was a brand new race when Heather took off on the sixth leg of 4.4miles Everyone had completed their first round. Now it was time to see what was left in the tank. About a mile in the sky just opened up and dumped a short lived shower on Heather, but it stopped just as fast as it started….thank goodness.
Kathy “4x4” was next with leg seven. The 7.1 mile leg started flat then climbed 5 miles at a 2% grade. What a woman! Patti, cued up and ready to fly, ran an out and back of 4.1 miles up the Iron Horse Trail. Karen set the cruise control and punished her quads on the ninth leg, 7.1 miles downhill. Kelly finished out the day with a 3.4 mild jaunt back toward Snoqualmie Elementary. The rest of the crew jumped in the PK-Mobile headed back to wait for Kelly. We caught her about 10 yards from the finish and the team crossed the line together.
We had so much fun and Kelly and Karen had us in constant stitches. If we weren’t running we were laughing….what a great combination! We finished 2nd in the female-masters with a time of 7:14:57 with an overall finish of 24th/122 teams. And it was all finished up with Chili, biscuits and beer at Kelly’s house.
1 comment:
Wow - what a great race report! I saw some flyers at the Fleet Feet, night we had a while back and I saw a relay race like that from Blaine to somewhere down south, it looks fun, especially with you ladies!! Thanks for the great report, I could tell you all had fun, I had fun reading it! Emily
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