Fall 50 Relay

This weekend, Chris and I participated in the Door County Fall 50 Relay Race. It's a run that starts in Gill's Rock and heads all the way down to Sturgeon Bay (50 miles). We had 5 team members: Chris, me, Stacey, Colin, and Eric. Stacey is a good friend of mine from work, Colin is her husband, and Eric is Annie's fiance, Annie being a friend of Chris's from work. So - we put together a 5 person team, split up the miles by how much each person thought they could handle and we all met up on Friday night for dinner. Our team also included Annie (our cheering section and time keeper) Ellie (Stacey's 9 month old daughter), Andy, and Jack.

Saturday morning was race day - starting at 9 - we had 3 vehicles going from one hand-off point to the next. It was a logistical challenge to say the least, but I'd have to say it was a VERY fun and successful day. All 3 kids were fantastic - really no tears at all. We overall as a team ran 8:00 mile average pace, where I think we had submitted an estimate of 9:00 mile pace when entering the race. So we exceeded our own expectations! We were always ready for each hand-off, with the right runner ready to go. Chris ran 3 legs (1,7,10 for a total of 14.4 miles) and I ran a long leg through Peninsula State Park (Leg 4, 7.4 miles) It was a blast! We were done by 3:45 and pigged out at the post-race pizza party. We got race medals - which Andy really enjoyed wearing. In the evening, Stacey and I took Ellie and Andy swimming, which was lots of fun. The weather was pretty good - 40-50 degrees, cloudy, but windy. Unfortunately, we did not get a team photo - the kids were ready to get back to the hotel by the end of the race. We'll get a team photo next year!! The photos I have start at the end of Leg 3 where I joined up with the team. Most of the photos I've got have Andy enjoying each of the hand-off point locations (they were at a lot of park areas). Oh - and Andy REFUSED to wear his hat most of the time - so when you see him in the pics without it, know that we really tried. It wasn't TOO cold outside, and we kept getting back in the van to warm up. They haven't posted the results yet, so we don't know how we did compared to the other mixed relay division teams. There were some crazy, impressive people running the whole 50 miles on their own - or doing a pairs relay. WOW! Maybe that'll be Chris and I some day! Or maybe, Andy, Jack, Chris, and I will run it in about 20 years :)

I think everyone was exhausted that night, so we all went to sleep early. In the morning, Andy and I went swimming again before heading home. Chris unfortanately forgot his swimsuit, but he and Jack got to spend some nice time together while we were at the pool. Andy had some fun taking pictures of us at the hotel and in the car - I probably deleted about 50, but he did get a few lucky good ones! We checked out around 10:45, and by the end of the trip home had 2 sleeping boys in the backseat.