Sawtooth Relay

Jeff and I joined a relay team sponsored by his employer, Clenera to run in the Sawtooth relay. It is a 62 mile race from Stanley to Ketchum. Each team is made up of 6 people and each person runs 2 legs of the race. Jeff ran leg 1 and 7 (approximately 12 miles), and I ran leg 5 and leg 11 (which totaled just under 11 miles). Jeff's company rented 14 passenger vans to use for shuttling each team. There were 4 Clenera sponsored teams in the race. The night before the race they paid for a dinner for everyone at a restaurant in Ketchum. Then they put us all up in lodgings for the night. The vans came furnished with all kinds of snacks, drinks, and supplies for the race. Plus, the company paid for matching race shirts for all of us. It was really very generous. I was the only woman on our team. There were only 3 other women on the other teams.

The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful. The Sawtooth Mountains are really stunning, and they were especially beautiful in the early morning light. Our team started at 5:15 am (start times for teams were staggered every 15 minutes or so from 2:00 am to 9:00 am). That meant we had to get up at 3:30 am in order to make the drive to Stanley and be ready. So it was a very early start time, but I did love seeing the sun come up over the mountains. Our team took just under 9 hours to finish the race, which was a respectable time, and the 2nd fastest Clenera team. We were 49th overall in a field of 200 teams.