Saturday, July 6, 2013

Relay Iowa (Part 3)

Part 1 & Part 2
So here we are- 0900 am on Sunday morning, closing in on the finish line!! The night shift runners ran their final legs- and they were tough. The hills at the end of our route were brutal!!! I didn't get a picture of them, but they were intense! Everyone was tired and ready to be done.
 The last couple of miles of the relay followed a bike trail, wound through a residential neighborhood and ended with a steep hill as you enter the park and arrive at the finish line.

Our team decided that it would be fun to finish is true relay style- run super short legs of .2 or .3 miles. We weren't entirely sure how much ground we had left to cover, so we just started rotating our runners, dropping a runner every .2 or .3.

Rotating our so fast made the last bit of the relay fly by. The entire team was totally psyched to be so close to the finish! There was so much energy, but also so much fatigue!!
The route flew by as we sped through our 'mini-legs'. We were trying to keep the entire team together so that we could finish together!! We pulled into the park, vehicles parked and everyone piled out to finish together!!!




We climbed the last bit of hill, and there was the finish line!! VICTORY!!!

Our team set a goal to run the relay in under 48 hours and maintain an 8:30/mile pace. We finished in 47 hours and 4 minutes, and our average pace was 8:19.


In celebration of our accomplishment, we made sure to properly thank our Team Captain!! We managed to catch him completely off guard for a good dunking!

Now comes the fun part- sorting, repacking and a million pairs of running socks missing their sole-mate. :)

At the finish line we were able to Skype with the founders of Restoring Hope International and several of the children from the orphanage. It was amazing to see the little faces that we had run all those miles for.

My celebration burger!! :) After two days of mostly carbs and limited protein, this girl was ready for some meat!  

The park was beautiful! It was such a perfect day- very sunny and super lovely out! There were so many trees, and the river was right there on the edge of the park.  
 
 
 
 
 Team Bfanana Banana! Finished; 47 hours, 4 minutes!!!

The relay was an amazing, fantastic experience! There are just not enough words to explain how awesome it was. Our team was amazing and each person played a significant role- running, encouraging, giving advice, sacrificing sleep etc... Having never met most of the team prior to the relay, I was so glad to see how well we all meshed together and worked together so well.
We all had an amazing time and are already planning a Reunion for Relay Iowa 2014...........Bfanana Banana RUNS AGAIN! :)

3 comments:

  1. GAHHH this is so awesome. AMAZING time to you and your team!! You look radiant in these photos!! I look like hell while I am running, no fair! I loveee your meat burger, coming from a vegan that says a lot. Seriously two patties for buns is genius. HAHA! YAYAYA!

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  2. What an awesome finish and such beautiful pictures!!!! Congrats on making your goal time!!!

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