Bringing the slap bracelet back!

We all had a slap bracelet once in our lives... most likely, in our childhood.  Well, the weekend of Sept 7 and 8, me and 11 of my closest friends got to play with one for a little over 27 hours.  How is a slap bracelet SO entertaining that we actually played with it for over a day?  Well, let me explain...

First things first.  What is a slap bracelet (In case you are a loser and never had one)?  A slap bracelet is a bracelet consisting of layered, flexible stainless steel spring bands within a fabric or plastic cover.  The bracelet can be straightened out, creating tension within the springy metal bands:

The straightened bracelet is then slapped against the wearer's forearm, causing the bands to spring back into a curve that wraps around the wrist, securing the bracelet to the wearer:

Now that that's clear, you ask yourself AGAIN: "How can someone (adults) play with one of these for 27 hours?  Well, easy answer: a Relay Race.  Not only are we dumb enough to sign up for a race that covers 188 miles in distance,14,000ft of elevation gain, a poor diet and no sleep, but also we want to slap each other with a bracelet, since the bracelet is our baton.  HOW FUN.

Focusing more on the running part and sorta forgetting about the countless hours I spent organizing my team, here's basically what I remember:

Thursday: Gather 12 people outside our house, drive 2 hours up to the mountains.  Stuff ourselves with delicious carbs and beer and go to bed.  Now, the fun (really?) part.  We woke up early in the morning and 10 of us tried to use the one bathroom available (most of us showering, since that was not going to be an option for the following 48 hours).  We finally got all 12 out the door, we packed the cars and off we go:

Yes, our van HAS to be decorated. 

The start line was quiet, as there was only about 10 teams starting at the same time as us.  Most teams had started earlier... and since we are a bunch of super fast runners, we were stuck starting late and with the challenge of catching up with all the slow pokes.  We had to take this lame safety class (10 min long) and then off we go.

Yep, looks like this team is ready to run!  :)

Long story short, there's 12 runners, 36 legs and we each run 3.  So roughly 8 hours in between each run and somewhere around 4-5 hours of sleep total... So when I say off we go, I mean, one runner starts and from there the slapping begins.  One after the other we pass on the bracelet.

SLAP!

 Ok now... this is me (we all know me):

Hello, my name is Gaby

How was MY race?  Surprisingly good.  I started off with a 9 mile run which also had lots of elevation gain.  The first 1.5 miles were straight up, gaining roughly 600ft.  At elevation, that definitely slowed me down, but once I reached the top, I was able to fly down on the bike path... for a while.  It then started going up again for the last 3 miles and while not steep, it was a flat-looking climb which ended up being a grinding 300ft.  Ran this first leg in 1hr and 27 minutes.

My second leg, the night one, was a pretty familiar one.  In two of the past 3 relays I had done, I had started my long leg at the Wolcott Post Office and ran into Eagle.  This is roughly 12 miles, but this time, Ragnar did a great job dividing the leg and I ran from the Wolcott Post Office and 5 miles west towards Eagle.  I had a very good run averaging 8:35 min/mile which made me very happy.  After this, I was ready to nap.

"Napping" can be very challenging in races like this.  First of all, we needed to keep driving and dropping off our remaining runners (3 more after me) and then, drive to the next major exchange point, where we'd meet our other half of the team once they were done with their night runs.  Then, once we got there, I was too tired to deal with the cold and was dying to go inside the building, lay my sleeping bag and sleep there.  But it was a tad crowded...

I slept well regardless

 The morning call is THE WORST! When the people in the other van call you at 4:00am and say: "our runner will be there in 40 minutes".  Ugh, are you kidding me?  Why are you all running SO FAST??!?!?!  Anyway, we got up and started getting ready to move.  We were not happy people.

Yes, we had reflective vests and ran in the dark with them.  SEXY! 

Regardless we kept moving, and as the sun came out, the smiles came back.  We were almost done.  My third and last leg was my fastest.  First, it was my shortest in distance at 4.5 miles, but also mostly downhill.  I was SO READY TO BE DONE.  Ran an average of 7:55 min/mile and while you may think I should've gone faster cause it was all downhill, well, pounding on pavement on steep hills is not fun.  I did my best.  But once I was done I was happy... and tired.

After all our 6 runners finished their legs, it was the last 6 to continue on and bring our team to the finish in Snowmass.  We, on the other hand, stopped in Basalt to have some delicious breakfast.  We were done running, we had been fed and were bound to just wait.  We went to the Exchange Point 36 in lower Snowmass to cheer on our last runner and he started his leg.  He looked determined and we, with no doubt in our minds headed up to the base of Snowmass Ski Resort to meet with him and cross the finish line together.

Our last runner, had no easy task in hand... his leg was long (9 miles..ish) and close to 2000 ft of elevation gain.  He said he'd run it in 90 minutes, and we believed him... and he did.  He absolutely crushed it.  But while he was running ferociously, we were just getting the party started.

Robb, our last runner, came sprinting down the mountain and we could barely keep up with him, but we somehow, kind of, sort of, crossed the finish line all together. And popped open champagne, and got our medals, and celebrated... FUN!  Ok, this part was ACTUALLY fun.  And I am usually the happiest when the above madness is over (and by that, I mean the running).

Team captain here opening a bottle of Champagne... Yeepeee!!!

The team celebrated and had some beer at the finish line area... shortly after that, we left and went to our hotel in Aspen, where we hung out at the pool with pizza and some more beer.  We then all met for a nice dinner (thanks for buying guys!!) and went out to the bars and clubs... and then some more pizza... this last part is sort of a blur.  Sunday after the partying is never a fun day.

Oh!  Forgot to mention, Team Happy Endings finished 8th place in our category out of 107.  Not too shabby.  Well done team... until next year!

Team Happy Endings at its finest.