Waterton 2 Glacier 100 mile Relay!!

So if you have been in touch with us lately you will know that we decided to start training for the first ever Waterton to Glacier 100 mile Relay Race. This is how it worked: You decide you are crazy enough to do it. Then you find a full team of people who are just as crazy (if not MORE) than you. In our case we had a team of 8 people. (You could have a team of 4 or 12 if you wanted) We met a couple times to run and work out all the details for our team. Then individually trained and trained and then awaited the day! Each member of our team would run 3 legs of the race. Each leg was between 3.5-6 miles long. By the time you were done running for the day you had run about the total miles of a 1/2 marathon.

Nathan initially wanted to run the race competitively with a team of 4. But as I had started running this year I threw out the idea that it would be fun to do a husband/wife team. He was incredibly patient with me and humored my idea. We pulled together our "Border Runners" team, where initially each wife was from the States and each husband was Canadian. But we did have to make a substitution in the last month and added our amazing sister-in-laws to the team. So our team consisted of Nicole and Cannon Smith, Dal and Amy Zemp, Candace Smith, Tiffany Smith, and Nathan and I.

At 5:30 a.m. on June 25, 2011 we met at the start line, got our last instructions and cheered on Dal as the gun went off at 6:00a.m. We had a couple of injuries BEFORE the Race day, but all in all our whole team did amazing! What an inspiring group to be on a team with! Everyone pushed the envelope and were astounding!! Here are a few pics of the day:

Here are Amy & Dal at an exchange. They are training for the Jungfrau Marathon in Interlaken, Switzerland this year! They are going to Rock It!!!Cannon and Nicole were an amazing couple team that filled our day with unspeakable fun! Both make running look effortless! I just love them!

Tiff(above) & Candace(below) were such sweethearts to join us for this race. They both ran the Legacy 1/2 Marathon in Cardston in May and did amazing!!
Each leg's difficult level varied. I felt incredibly lucky as most of my mileage was fairly flat with minimal hills. Nathan on the other hand wasn't so lucky.

His first leg was 4.4 miles, 4 of which was straight up over the Waterton Highway. Not only did he kill it with averaging a 8:50 minute mile, but he did it barefoot!!! I love that man!!!


I included some of these pics so you could get an idea of the beautiful scenery we ran through.


Because of our location we did get to cross the border into the U.S. to finish the race. I'm intersted to do some research and see how many races cross borders....???? Totally amazing to be a part of an international race!
If you can't tell, Nathan is my inspiration for running. He started running over 2 years ago and did so many things I never thought possible. I also have a couple wonderful friends, Barb Salmon and Patricia Beazer, who showed me that women can do anything! So I have had an amazing group of cheer leaders and friends to keep me going. Nathan was so patient with me during my struggles with my foot injuries and was willing to run at my pace and help me see my potential. I can't say enough about the wind beneath my wings!

So here's to checking off an item on my bucket list!!! It is the first time in my life that I have run that far at one time or in a single day. Our team estimated taking 17 1/2 hours to finish the race. We made it in 16 hours!!! I was so excited to feel that I had pushed myself. During my training I was running at an average 12-13 minute mile. During the race my averages were: 1st leg-10 min. mile, 2nd leg-11:30 min mile, and 3rd leg (all downhill) was a 8:50 min. mile. Talk about feeling on top of the world and learning what you are made of. I can't thank Nathan enough for being there for me every step of the way! W2G was definitely an event to repeat!