Running. 78 miles. 8 hot mamas. 21 stages. 1 van.
Lots of sparkles. Lots of running. Lots of laughing. Lots of tears (at the end). Lots of soreness. Lots of memories. Lots of fun.
Last year I entered my name in the lottery for the 6th annual Market 2 Market relay. 200 teams were to be chosen from this lottery and in all 500 teams would participate in the event. In May, I received word that my name was chosen and I had a team! I was so excited! Because I am so creative *not* I chose the name "Team Sparkle".
Market 2 Market starts in Omaha's Memorial park and ends in the Haymarket Park in Lincoln, Nebraska. It starts as early as 5am and could last up to 13 hours. Each team can have 5-8 members and each member runs 2-3 legs ranging from 2.7 miles to over 5 miles. Some runners could run a total of 6 miles over the course of the day to up to 13.1 miles. A long, long day, but totally worth it!
My team began our journey in Omaha the night before. We stayed at my parents house and had fun painting our nails with sparkle polish and decorating our van. We had to be out of the house by 5:30am in order to make it to our first leg of the race. We dropped our first runner off in the dark...and headed to the second stage to wait for her.
We ran on trails, roads, through small towns, and across bridges. We saw everything from men running in basically their underwear and capes, to teams dressed as pirates, to Toy Story characters. We tailgated with a team that set up a Nebraska Tailgate party at every stop...they even threw out warm hot dogs. We rocked with Team Run Jovi...who provided well needed music at each of our stops. It was so much fun seeing everyones costumes and the comradery among the running community.
I couldn't have asked for a better team! We finished almost an hour faster than our expected end time.
A team mate Erin took lots of pictures along the way and gave me permission to share some of them on my blog! I can't wait for next year!!!
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| Val & Erin: our 2 dark runners! |
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| The sun is finally rising! |
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| Donna waiting for her turn! |
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| Part of the crew! |
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| Kerstin and Val! |
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| Donna running her 2nd leg! |
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| A little bit of sparkle! |
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| Erin showing off her team spirit! |
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| Lots of corn along the way! |
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| My team sparkle outfit..made by our on house designer Renee! |
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| Val and her sparkle hands:) |
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| A few of us tailgating! |
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| Um gross... |
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| Me! |
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| Waiting for our runner to come in!, |
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| Laura getting ready to go! |
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| Our lovely van! |
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| A blurry picture I took of us running to the finish line as a team, |
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| The team at the end! |
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| All boxes checked! |
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