It's called "The Mother of ALL Relays"

At about 11:50 Friday morning I felt like a celebrity. I was running down a hill and ahead of me was a crowd of 100+ people all watching and cheering. For me! I scanned the faces for my teammates while quickly slipping off the slap bracelet from my wrist. Brent hopped out to the roped path and extended his arm for the hand-off. I was done with my first run! 7.42 miles in 65 minutes and 55 seconds. What a feeling!!

So many exhilarating moments I want to remember!

Like practically jumping out of my skin with excitement as my mom started us off in front of Timberline Lodge, with a BOOM! (She didn't 'boom'. It was the starting gun!)
(Mental note: Next year I want a bullhorn 'cause I just couldn't scream loud enough.)

And conquering my shortest, but scariest, run. It was 4.15 miles. Late at night. And ALL UP HILL. I almost cried as I saw the crowd, knowing I NEVER STOPPED RUNNING.

Or napping in the lawn of the closest church building and the missionaries showing up and unlocking the building. We 'pottied' in style.

Sweaty hugs from my dad and being goofy with my mom.

The moment that teammate, Amy, came over the final finish line, on Seaside's sandy beach was SWEET. We lined up and leaned over the mesh fencing, hands out, to get a moist high-5. Over the loud speakers we heard 'Team GoLDS!'. ('Go LDS' but everyone said Golds)

During my last run I felt defeated and done. But I knew I'd hate myself if I didn't give it my all. So through my aches I pushed. When I came into the finish I didn't want to hear my time for fear of leaving with disappointment. But when I heard that I had run the 5.35 miles at 8 min 55 sec per mile my aches seemed to disappear and I was ready to party!

It was like I was part of this very cool club and we all (roughly 16,000 people) were comrades on the same adventure. 197 miles total. (says the sticker tattoo that is already looking sadly faded on my left calf.)

Y'all know I'm talking about Portland's
Hood to Coast, right?

So THANK YOU to my team for being fun, fast, and FANTASTIC. And thanks to Mike for being such a good sport as I prance around the countryside. There's much more prancing to come!