Nancy Ericson

Courtesy of Chris Sepp. I was usually the one taking the pictures so Chris snapped this one of me. Thanks.

This is me finishing up my last leg. Thank Goodness. I thought about walking but after some good cognitive therapy on myself, I kept on going even passing the wonderful, beautiful, most athletic Ultra chick who was running two legs at a time. You go Girl!!

My hubby teases me because I like to run with my thumbs up. Who knows why I do that. At this point I don't care, I'm exhausted.

This is after my first leg. I tucked myself under some stairs of some building because I thought I was going to hurl and I didn't want anyone to see me. The team all came looking for us.

My saving graces during the race were Ibuprofen, a shower, massaging out my legs, and sitting in the front seat of the van.

Since my second leg was in the dark, there are no shots of it. It was tough in that I started out really cold and shaky. There were more hills than I expected and had to walk the tips of a couple of them. Other than that, I jogged the rest. I refused to tell any other team member that I had to stop for a short bit because I didn't want them (especially my spouse) to think they could stop as well. I wanted them to think, if Nancy, our weakling, ran up without stopping, than I should be able to.

1. How long did you train and what did you do to train? I heard about last years running experience and decided then that I wanted to be a part of that if possible. So mentally I started getting prepared last year. I did a triathlon in September and a half marathon in April. I took a month break because Chris was in Jackson Hole for a month and there was no one to watch my kids so I could go out to run. So I started training in the middle of May, running a couple times a week and doing a long run on the weekends. It was fun running with Chris once my brother in law moved into our house.
2. Why did you pick your particular leg? I was unsure of myself, so I hurried and claimed the easiest leg. Sorry guys.
3. What did you enjoy the most about your experience? There was a van that had on it painted “You would run too if you had 57 kids.” That pretty much sums it up for me. Between the 12 racers that’s how many kids they had. Being a stay at home mom is hard. So it’s nice to do something for myself once in a while.
4. Share something funny that happened or something you thought was humorous. A truck pulled up next to me while I was running a leg and the guy driving said “hey sexy, you doing all right?” I thought they were talking to me when I realized there was another runner coming up behind me.
5. How do you feel you did on your legs? My goal was to not stop. So I thought I did well on that. I need to pick up on speed.
6. Would you do it again? Yes
7. Share a highlight of your experience or something you want to say about the experience? I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I had a blast hanging out with the other team members in our van.