I know I briefly mentioned that my family was planning on running an ultra marathon relay race a few months ago on the blog. Well, those few months really crept up on me and before I knew it, the time had come. The relay race is called To Bone and Back, where (you Idaho people will know what I'm talking about) you literally run to Bone... and back. 40 miles total. There were 8 people in our team. It doesn't take a high school graduate to do that math... that equals out to 5 miles a person. Did you hear me? 5 miles... a person.
FIVE MILES!
And this is no ordinary race (wait, is that an oxymoron?
Oh, I just ran an ordinary race, it was no big deal... who says that?!), you're dealing with HILLS and high elevation and rising temperatures and did I mention the HILLS? Luckily, I didn't have to deal with the HILLS. I ran the last leg (leg 8), which means I ran it back into town. Mostly flat for the most part with a little (down)hill at the beginning to get me going. ;) Or so I had planned.
I knew about the plan for our family to run Bone and Back for a while, I knew I had it coming. But to even fathom 5 miles seemed like it was impossible to me. The longest I had ever run was 3.1 miles. And even that for me is a great feat. Something I never thought I could do. But of course I said "I'll do it!" Really in the back of my mind though, I had it all planned out. I would train, and then I would get hurt about a month before and back out. :) I trained and I trained and I trained. Even though I am the heaviest I've ever been after having 2 kids, tired from night wakings, stressed out of my mind with job worries and health issues, etc. I TRAINED and I trained real good. ;) About a month and a half before the race it hit me.
Wow, I'm really going to do this! I had already run 5 miles at that point and got an ok time (for me, I'm slow). I knew it was just going to get better. Well, it sort of did and it sort of didn't. My knees started to hurt quite a bit a month before so I stopped doing the long runs and just stuck with the short ones, 1.5-2 miles at a time. I thought I would be alright, I knew I could do 5 miles... I had run it about 4 times by the time race day hit! The problem was, the last time I had run a long run was 4 weeks before cause of my knees. But I knew I could do it, even if it killed me.
If you know anything about me, you know I have anxiety. Like, a lot. I was already extremely nervous about the race. Something about race day just gets to me. I think it's the combination of adrenaline, nerves, pressure, etc. Especially coming across the finish line. ESPECIALLY when you're in a relay and your WHOLE FAMILY is waiting for you to get your big butt across that finish line! I knew and thought about all of this before hand, and figured I'd probably use all of those emotions to my benefit. Turns out I don't know how to do that.
So. Let me backtrack. Don't want to make this whole post about me. ;) Making up our team (in running order) we had my sister-in-law Claudine, my brother-in-law Darrell, my brother Rhett, my brother-in-law Rick, my brother Justin, my sister Natalie, my sister Heather, and then me. Is that awesome or what? My nephews who run cross country and my other brother-in-law who shall remain nameless ran for another team. We don't talk much to them anymore. :P Kidding. Everyone did AWESOME! Each of us had a goal time in mind that we would shoot for. As a whole we were aiming for an 8 hour finish time.
The race started at 7:30 AM. We all showed up to the starting line and had our pictures taken (at first I thought it was stupid to get our pictures taken before we had even run but now I'm SO glad we did it... you'll find out why later) and cheered on Claudine as she started the race off for us.
Justin, Rhett, Claudine, Me, Natalie, Heather, Darrell, Rick
I was SHOCKED to see how many teams there were. And holey moley they all looked like.... runners! It was super intimidating. After Claudine took off like a bandit listening to her music we jumped in Dad's truck that we had put chairs in the back of and went to the exchange point.
Claudine handing off to Darrell.
And so it went. It was so cool to watch my family run and cheer them on and then watch the exchange. I thought it was pretty funny that any enthusiasm the runner had had previously was completely gone by about mile 2. We didn't even get smiles out of a lot of them. :) I knew right then and there that this was going to SUCK.
Darrell ran the hardest part of the race, straight up hill.
He did GREAT and came in well under his goal time!
Darrell handing off to Rhett.
I think this is one of my favorite pictures. Look how cool he looks and look at the city in the far background!
Rhett handing off to Rick.
RELEASE THE SECRET WEAPON! (Anybody seen An American Tail?)
Here is Rick sprinting like a WILD MAN to the exchange. He finished in an amazing 42 minutes!
Rick to Justin.
Justin, in the zone!
Justin exchanges to Natalie.
Natalie had the best time out of the women at 51 minutes! She is a machine!
Natalie passing off to Heather.
At this point, it started to get HOT. And I started to get NERVOUS. Here is a pic of Heather being dowsed by some water. Just what the doctor ordered!
You know what this means... I'm next. Right now I was pooping my pants at the exchange. I was so nervous that I had tired myself out from all the cheering I had been doing for the past 6.5 hours that I thought I would need little boost. So I ate half an apple and drank a 5 hour energy. Then I did my inhaler. I was really nervous about timing it right because sometimes I'll do it and can't breathe while I run, like it didn't work. Luckily that didn't happen. But unluckily, I drank a 5 hour energy. Turns out, it's no bueno when mixed with adrenaline, pressure, competitiveness, NERVES, apples, and heat.
Here is Heather handing off to a very nervous, but ready to go me.
So, the first mile was smooth sailing baby, I was ahead of my goal time by a couple of minutes and feeling good! A mile and a half and I was still going strong, but was H-O-T. I was running in the heat of the day and the sun would not go behind any darn clouds! And I stupidly wore a hat that held all of the heat in. Definitely didn't think that one through. At the mile and a half marker I passed our support vehicle where I got a quick swig of water and dumped a bottle of water on my head. Then my brother-in-law Rick caught up to me and poured another bottle on my back. Awww, it felt great. I have never been that hot before in my life! It felt like my feet were on fire from the asphalt, there was no breeze (the ONE time I wanted wind, Idaho!), and I wasn't running with water. At mile 2 I hit a major wall. I walked for a long time and thought it was ok because I was still on pace with my goal time. And I told myself that once I hit mile 3 I would get a second wind. Well, that second wind never came. I was done.
At mile 3 I had a little pep talk with myself. I didn't come ALL THIS WAY and I didn't train ALL THIS TIME to not see this thing through, and with a good time! So with that I took off running again.... and blacked out. It was SO scary. I literally went black for a few seconds. Thankfully I didn't faint but it did put things into perspective. I was running on empty, dehydrated, and probably had heat exhaustion. I was so hot I couldn't even wear my headphones. That has never happened to me before. At that point I was just walking along the route, waiting for the support vehicle to catch up with me so I could tell somebody else to finish for me. After a couple of minutes I talked myself out of that. I was finishing this thing, even if I had to walk the rest of the way. I would NOT be a quitter! So I started taking it tree by tree, mailbox by mailbox, powerline by powerline (I'll walk to the next tree, then run to the next one etc.) I did this until about mile 4 when the support vehicle showed up. Apparently they could tell just by looking at me that I was in bad shape. My sister Natalie jumped out and after talking with me for a second (I was totally delirious) decided to finish with me. She helped pick out the next marker we'd run to. A lot of times I couldn't even make it to that. I thought I was going to pass out. She was patient though and never pushed too hard.
After we rounded a corner and had less than a quarter mile to go, there is my whole team, waiting for me. Supporting me. Ready to finish the race with me. When I saw them I was so overcome with emotion that I started crying as we ran. I know that at least Rhett and my sisters were crying cause I could hear Rhett cry as he patted my back and I know that my sisters were because if any of us see each other cry.... we cry. :) I thought that last little bit was going to kill me. I was already 4 minutes over my goal time and I literally had nothing left to give. The group was so nice and didn't push me, Justin said something like, "this is your race, DaNae". And I thought, no it's not. It's OUR race and I'm already over my goal time. I at least owed it to them and to myself to give it absolutely everything I had in me. So out of nowhere I start sprinting it out. I could see the clock ticking and I was bound and determined that another minute was not going to go by! I could hear my family behind me screaming and yelling for me, there were cars honking, other teams yelling for me... it was an amazing feeling, but really stressed me out. Haha. I don't like being the center of attention when I run. So I sprint it out (nobody's ever seen me move that fast by the way), and I crossed the finish line at exactly 3:31 PM. Not a second after!
Me in the front sprinting and my family behind yelling for me. Awesome.
Aaaand DONE!
As soon as I crossed that finish line I knew I was going to puke. There was nothing I could do about it so I desperately (probably with crazy eyes) looked for a private place to puke when one of the workers pulled me back to the middle of everything to grab my number and the bone (the baton). And that's where I puked. Right there, in front of everyone, in the middle where everyone was taking pictures. Yep. I was humiliated. And it wasn't just clear puke, this stuff was black and curdly with apple chunks! We figure the black stuff was the 5 hour energy messing with me since I had not eaten anything dark for days. NOT GOOD. Thankfully my sisters saved the day and came with water and napkins in hand. It wasn't pretty. I had it all over my shirt, all over my face, everything (which is why I am not posting any post run pictures! Haha!). I knelt there for a long time, wondering if I was going to pass out or not. I didn't, but I did promptly go to my Dad's truck and had a long cry. I was so embarrassed, but most of all I was sooo frustrated with myself. I called Randy who was in Utah with the kids and he helped me feel better about it all. I can totally laugh at the puking now. I mean, it just shows you all that I gave it EVERYTHING I had and more, right? ;) But it does still sting that I wasn't able to get my goal time after training so hard. I finished in 70 minutes, which now that I look back isn't AWFUL considering, but every minute over was a big hit to my ego.
As a whole we PULVERIZED our 8 hour goal time. We ended up finishing in exactly 7 hours, 31 minutes. Bajow! It was such an amazing experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I learned a lot and hope to come back next year and say remember me, SUCKAS?! :)
I think it's so awesome that we did this as a family. We ran with 3 bracelets on our wrists to remember those in our family who have battled with cancer. Orange for my sister Lori who lost her fight to Leukemia in 1987, Burgundy for my mom who died from Multiple Myeloma in 2007, and yellow for my Dad who battled bladder cancer and is a SURVIVOR! Somebody asked me why do I run? At first I was kind of flabbergasted.... I don't really know. It sucks, I'm not very good at it, I can't breathe, I have friggin' short legs so my stride is like ridiculous, my body aches during and after, I'm short and chubby......... but I do it because I can. We are running for them. NO MORE CANCER!
The circle represents our eternal family.
I like to think that My mom and Lori were there with me, pushing me to the finish line. Helping me sprint when I had nothing left to give. And then they must have left when I puked. :)
