Our Family Trip 2015 : Madison Marathon!

Our 17 Day family trip officially started on July 17th when we pulled out of the yard with our pickup and trailer and headed South.  We met Dad and Mom, Keith and Melinda and kids, and Dana down in Ennis, Montana.  Randy, Colter, Maya and Melita dropped Kyla and I off with the others and headed to Virginia City for the night.  Kyla and I got in with the others and headed up the long, twisting, switchback mountain road to camp and run in the Madison Marathon the next day.  At more than 9000 feet above sea level, this is the highest road marathon in America.

Oh, you didn't know I was a runner?  Neither did I!

Here's the story... Some months before, we had signed Kyla up for running in the marathon relay with Melinda, Dana and another female runner. About 3 weeks before race day, the other runner became injured and could not run.  Melinda asked me if I could fill in that leg of the marathon and I said sure because I really wanted Kyla to be able to do the race.  It was her first one and she was really looking forward to it.  So I ran a little and walked a lot in the 3 weeks leading up to the race.  Needless to say, I was NOT very prepared and pretty nervous about it!  But, it turned out to be a fun and rewarding time.  :)

Here we are camped in a little mountain meadow at somewhere around 9000 feet elevation.  It was very cold and I didn't sleep at all that night.  Cold, nerves, eeeek!  Kyla slept in Dana's tent and slept much better.  It took me a while to thaw out in the morning as I stumbled around for a while.  What did I think I was doing?..

Grabbing a quick breakfast and then Keith and Melinda are off to start the race.  Keith ran the entire Marathon and beat his time from last year! Yay!  Melinda ran the half marathon last year but wanted to include Dana and Kyla this year so decided to do a relay this year.  She started the first leg of our marathon relay team that morning...

And they're off!...

Following Melinda's was Dana and then myself.  Here is where we did the switch-off from Dana to me.  My dear sister, who apparently hadn't had enough running earlier in the day, decided to run/walk along side me on my portion of the race...

And we're off, begining my 7.1 mile section of the race with my sister by my side.  Oh my goodness, considering the elevation, the lack of sleep, the uphills that went on and on, and the fact that I hadn't even walked, let alone run 7 miles in the weeks before the race, I was in for it...

Somehow I made it through.  My cheering squad, Randy and kids, met me somewhere along the way as they were coming up for the day to watch, and I walked a lot and stopped to catch my breath a bit, and kept going with a LOT of encouragement from my sister.  Thank Melinda and everyone else who cheered me on.  It made me smile and cry and finish my part of the race! :)

Then it was Kylas turn!  She ran her whole section of the race!  She did great!  I was so excited for her! 

Go Kyla go!!!

Kyla was the last racer in our team so she got to come into the finish line.  Here we all are together after we cheered her on!

After an exciting day up on the mountain, Randy and I and the kids jumped in the pickup and headed down the winding road to continue our trip.  Here is a picture of  our little cheering squad...

And one more picture out the windows as we headed down.  It was beautiful...

Here is a super neat video that shows the race...

And that was the awesome and crazy start to our family trip.  More awesome and crazy to come...

Alison