Brown Dirt Relay!

I don't know why I have such a hard time blogging relays!
(yes I'm still going to share Red Rock despite the fact that it was months ago)

Two weeks have already flown by.
I'm dying to get back out on the trails that I had the pleasure of running the last weekend of August.

This was the inaugural run for Brown Dirt.  Nestled away in the hills and trails right here in my own backyard.  For having run a little of the trails out here just a few times, I thought I'd had some nice views....seen some nice scenery.....wow.  I've barely scratched the surface!
I found myself wishing the whole time I had a camera while I was running.

The morning started out crisp and beautiful, the sky on fire.

The group was little, only a handful of teams, but I have a feeling this one will be big next year.
Three of the four members of our team started from the same point since driving out to an exchange point in these trails isn't so possible.  Legs ranged from 4-7 miles each.  Legs 2 and 3 exchanged over the hills to the West (literally in my backyard), so there was a car involved there, but otherwise we all hung out at one point, which made for a nice fun atmosphere!  Having a DJ was fabulous....though I might be just a tad bit biased....

This is my fabulous team, Mike, Tiffany, Sheena and myself.

Hail The Fancy Fat Yeti Menaces.
Hey, you've always wished you could be on a team with such a cool name.  We were also known as We Like Mike. (Mike also happens to be running for City Council all you local people.  Check him out, get informed, know who you are voting for and then go vote in Primaries next week!)

I got to run the first leg-5.65mi, up an eastern hill that handed out a view of nearly our entire city, sweeping to our neighboring cities over a patchwork of fields and the lake.  It was gorgeous.

After huffing and puffing my way up that first climb, I got to drop down into the valley nestled just past our start base.  Wow.  There is a whole new world back there!
After a slow start (the first hill racked up at 13 minutes....it was steep with loose rocks facilitating more of a hike for a bit than a run), I found myself flying through the valley, absolutely loving every second of it.
Evidenced by the fact that I wrapped up the last three miles at 8:38, 8:46, and 7:43 pace.  Whew!

Check out my nice action shots......

Oh wait.
Well, you can see I was nice and shiny at the end.  Good sweat = good run.  Apparently strained neck also = good run?

Either way I got a hot sweaty picture with my favorite DJ.

It turned into a beautiful day, the rest of my team rocked their legs as well.  Tiffany we sent off in a blur to go tackle the West hill, a nice climb over soft sandy trails, while Mike brought it back to our start base from over Lake Mountain at a killer pace!  And Sheena killed our last leg that looped around the valley-in the heat of the day.  and it was HOT.  For being a newer runner, she absolutely killed her run!  That girl is going to kick some serious heiney!

To top everything off, my kids came up to hang out.  Everything was based 4 miles away from home when you follow the paved trail, along the route that my kids bike all the time during the summer.  I told them they could walk up to join us and they scoffed.  But halfway through the day they slowly started trickling in.....first a couple on bikes, followed by the rest on scooter and on foot.  What troopers!

So I got my finish line pictures with my clan.

Good stuff.