Women take on 180-mile race

Some people run for fun, others for sport, but a dozen women recently took on the Grand Teton Relay, a 180-mile race that started 5:30 a.m. Aug. 19 in Ashton, Idaho and ended at 5:30 Aug. 20 p.m. in Teton Village, Wyo.

Sabrina Stuckey said Jacque Griffin mentioned the idea to some folks. In March, Stuckey told her, "If we're going to do this, we've got to start right now," as there is a lot of planning involved. The two started getting women together, and had a team, but people slowly started dropping out.

"We lost a lot of the original team," Stuckey said, "but we ended up with an awesome team of 12." Those women became the official team of "99 Problems and Blisters Are Some." Many had never done anything like the relay before, and it was a personal goal. Everyone did their own individual running to prepare, though there were team meetings to better determine who was running which legs.

Chanda Waddell added the team members had a widespread mix of running experience prior to the relay. Race legs varied anywhere from nine miles to 2.5, though shorter ones seemed more uphill than others, and they went on- and off-road; some even had recommendations for bear spray.

Running along with Griffin, Stuckey and Waddell were Melissa Johnson, Amy Kisor, Babie Robinson, Cindy Messenger, Jaime Woodhouse, Jennifer Grimm, Michele Redland, Sarah Cox and Stephanie Richert.

Stuckey further explained two minivans are used to do something of a "leap frog" during the race. Each van had a set number of runners in it, and the runners in the first van would each run their individual legs of the course - as van riders cheered them on - before meeting up with the second van, which would continue the process.

The Thursday before the big race, the team travelled to a large home they rented in Driggs, Idaho - about halfway on the course. They met, had dinner and slept, then took on the 180-mile trip over the next couple days, finishing at 5 p.m. Aug. 20.

They received a medal, went back to the home they rented, cooked a big meal "and then pretty much went to bed," Stuckey said. "We had just run for 36 hours with little sleep."

"We had big plans, though," Waddell added. "We bought a lot of celebratory supplies, but we were too tired." Everyone went their separate ways and went home the next day.

Waddell said it wasn't just the running that was exhausting, but also having to stay awake for 36 hours and having to be in a confined space with the same people for that time. She added their cognitive perception of things during the race - such as driving or reading the map - was on a sliding scale.

Looking forward to next year, Stuckey said there are plans to do it again, but pointed out it will start sounding fun again in January, after there's been time to forget the blisters and the exhaustion that comes from this kind of race.

Waddell said the running wasn't as bad as she expected, but what was amazing was seeing people overcome some their fears; for instance, one member was afraid of running at night, but chose to do so despite having the option to switch legs or have someone go with it.

"It's like a really big social-psychological experiment. You watch all these women face whatever their fear is, and every single one of us came out of it better, I think."