Smoky Mountain Relay

Some friends of friends were looking for a few more people to round out their team for the Smoky Mountain Relay (212ish miles with a 12-person team), so I emailed my friend Kim and we decided we were in. I figured this would be a fun and different way to keep up my running fitness before my 20-week training plan starts May 5. When I told my husband about it, he said "Are you just trying to fit everything into this year?"  I said yes. :) 

So Thursday night our team of 12 (Blue Ridge Bootleggers) headed up to Brevard to be ready to start early Friday morning. Here we are at the start: 

My first leg was leg #2, 7.79 miles at 7:02 am on Friday, was mostly on a gravel forest service road with great views of Looking Glass Rock. It was cloudy, but only sprinkled a little, and it was relatively flat. I averaged around 8:30 min miles and figured I was off to a good start since we still had a long way to go.

Nutella on a chocolate chip bagel and a wardrobe change into my comfy clothes and I was ready for a day of cheering on the rest of the Bootleggers through Brevard, Balsam Grove, Canada, Caney Fork and East LaPorte before starting my next leg. It was so fun to be running through such familiar country!    We had to stop and take pictures of the great views from Wolf Mountain Road. Bill had a horrible climb (we nicknamed his leg "Soul Crusher"), but at least he got to look at this.

Legs 12 and 13 were the costume legs, so we Bootleggers got decked out in all our finery:

My next leg was leg 13, from the Jackson County Rec Center almost to the top of Tilley Creek. It was 4.19 miles at 5:54 pm Friday. It started with about 1.5 miles of relative flat out Speedwell on Cullowhee Mountain Road and then Tilley Creek before it started going up. I estimate the climb was the last 2.5 or so miles. I averaged about 9:20 minutes/mile, which I was OK with because it was tough (and I think I'll be biking that same hill next weekend in the Tour de Cashiers…) - especially in overalls!

My parents met us at the end of this leg with pizza for the whole team. :)

After a few more legs that took us into Macon County, we tried to sleep from about 1am to 4am while the other van's runners did their legs. I started back with leg #24 - a somewhat hilly 4.2 miles in the pitch dark at 4:40 am. Another 9:20/mile for this one - it's hard to run fast in the dark - and I was done! Time to cheer on the rest of the Bootleggers all the way to the finish line at NOC. 

First the view from Tellico Gap and a Van 2 selfie:

Finished!

What a great race! We had a great time despite the challenging course and lack of sleep. I couldn't have asked for prettier scenery, nicer weather or better teammates! Thank you, Bootleggers!!!

In other news, Brad was getting a little tired of my medals hanging on the closet door because they were clanking around every time I opened it, so I bought myself a fun medal hanger, and I have a new addition for it. :)

Valley of the Lilies half marathon

I grew up in Cullowhee, so I was excited to do the Valley of the Lilies half (named for the English translation of the Cherokee name Cullowhee). This was the 3rd or so year of this race, and I'd been wanting to do it, but it was always the same weekend as something else, so this year I decided to go for it. 

The course is not too terribly challenging, considering that it's in the mountains. More looping around the WCU campus than I would have chosen, but then we headed off campus and down by the river for a while. There's a short uphill leaving the river up to the highway around mile 8 or 9, and then a short section on the highway before a long downhill back to the river. This is the first place I saw my parents. It's so fun to do races in WNC so they can come. 

Around mile 10 comes the biggest climb of the race. They call it the Catamount Climb and sell t-shirts. It's tough. And long. But then you get to the top and you're rewarded with a nice downhill back to campus. One more loop through campus (including a fun downhill where I passed a guy who was originally very upset to be passed by a girl but then decided I was fast enough that he didn't mind… thanks?) and up a small hill to finish by running through an inflatable catamount. Pretty cool touch. 

Nice finisher's gift of a pint glass with the race logo, but I was a little disappointed not to get a medal (I race for the medals!). 

Luckily I placed in my age group, so I got a medal after all!

After a shower and a yummy lunch of meatloaf (made by my mom) and arugula sandwiches on bread I made, my parents and I headed up to do some trail recon for the Smoky Mountain Relay next weekend.