Run for the Rangers 3 Mile Race

Today I ran in the inaugural "Run for the Rangers" 3 mile race in Hill City. It was a fundraiser for the Hill City track and cross country teams (Hill City is about an hour and half south of us). I wasn't sure if they would have this race or not as we have had 3 blizzards in the past 3 weeks with a foot or more of snow dropped on us each time. But a quick e-mail confirming that they would run the race no matter what and we decided to go for it. By we, I mean, my sister, Kelly, and my friends, Tim and Amy with their daughter, Avryl. It was a race that we had had our eye on for a while as they were promoting over $2000 worth of door prizes after the race and we definitely wanted to get in on that!

It was still snowing when we left this morning and it took a little while longer to get down to Hill City as the roads were not in the best conditions. But, thanks to Tim's good driving, we made it we did with time to spare. :) We signed up and got our T-shirt and hung out talking to some of the other runners. At noon, we were off -(not very fast for me however!) It was hard to run on snow packed roads and trails. After we got to some wet pavement, I felt much better. It was a combination of snow-packed, slushy, and wet roads, sidewalks, and the Mickelson trail for the 3 miles and running on snow made my calves burn pretty good. But after seeing the finish line after my last turn, it was smooth sailing and I finished with a time of 29:13:41. Not my fastest time, but anything under 30 minutes I was happy with with the conditions I was running in.

After the race, everyone got a free soda or a free beer at the Slate Creek Grille in Hill City and we had some lunch while they announced the age group awards and the door prizes. Everyone knew they were getting something as they had 3 tables full of stuff, way more stuff than runners! And this was awesome stuff - not your average run of the mill door prizes like Pizza Hut and Mr. Movies gift certificates. I'm talking stuff from Patagonia, Royal Robbins, Marmot, and HornyToad outdoor gear! Everyone was quite excited!

Tim was called first from our group and got a cool T-shirt and the Kelly was called next and spent about an hour up at the tables deciding what she was going to get (all the while really stressing Amy and I out because she was going to end up with something she didn't want or something we really did want!) but she finally decided on the same T-shirt Time got right after Amy was called and grabbed the gift certificate for rock climbing lessons that she had hid under a pile of clothes! ha! I ended up with a really cool HornyToad Long-sleeved shirt (for those of you not in the know, that shirt retails for over $50!) We couldn't believe the stuff that they were giving away. And the top guy and girl each got a new pair of running shoes! It was insane! We tried to get some more stuff since there was so much left over, but they said they were going to use it for next year! Hey, we tried....

After the door prizes, they did the age group awards and I ended up 3rd in my age group! I'm not sure how many 20-something females there were (probably 3!), but I was 24th overall out of the 62 runners. And Amy was 9th overall and 2nd in her age group! We each got a certificate for our efforts.

After some Easter gift shopping at Walmart, I got home to one child sleeping, one child watching a movie, and one husband folding laundry! So, it was a great day overall! Thanks to Tim and Amy driving me and Kelly to Hill City and for the fun company!