Something pretty amazing and special is happening this weekend…the Banff Ekiden relay!
What is an Ekiden? An ancient Japanese system of mail delivery where the couriers would run from station to station in a task called an Ekiden. The Banff Ekiden is a relay race with five legs and a total distance of 42.2 km.
What makes this Banff Ekiden particularly special for me is how the team came about. It all goes way back to when Tina and I applied for Nuun’s Hood to Coast team. Neither of us made the team and we were commiserating with each other on Twitter. Somehow or other Cori and Michelle joined the conversation and the idea of signing up for a local relay was brought up. All of a sudden Cori and Michelle were on board and we thought the Banff Ekiden relay would be perfect! Tina wanted to take the two short legs and we’d be a team of four! And the whole thing happened over twitter…social media is so amazing!
Cori and I at the Crave Chick Chaser
Running into Tina and Michelle on a weekend run
Cori created a space for us in Google+ to chat and start planning. At the time when we started planning the only person I’d actually met before was Cori! We had so much enthusiasm and team spirit that I knew we’d be an awesome team. Team Little Bloggy Blue Birds was getting ready to fly.
Cori even came up with a logo for us!
And finally this weekend our race is here! We are running in Banff…which is not exactly known for being flat…so these legs are going to be challenging!
Cori kicks us off with a 7.8 km run for leg 1. Next up is Michelle, who volunteered to tackle the longest leg of the race. She’ll be running 13 km through the golf course which will probably be beautiful! Next up Tina tackles legs 3 and 4 for a combined 9.7 km. I’ll be bringing us home for the fifth and final leg. My leg is the second longest at 11.7 km.
I cannot wait to run with these ladies and hang out with them in Banff. Be sure to follow along with us as we take on the Banff Ekiden this weekend!
Cori – twitter…instagram
Michelle – twitter
Tina – twitter…instagram
Leana – twitter…instagram
#littlebloggybluebirds
I believe the word EPIC has been thrown around a fair bit for this one! I am so freaking excited! I still love how the team came to be! We are going to have so much fun!
I know!!! I am hoping the weather is gonna be so ace. Gotta bring a few pieces to wear since the temps will hopefull get warmer as the day goes on!! I have never done this race, but we all LOVE Banff so much it is gonna be so ace! I sooo need this race too after last week an a half!! wootie!!!! It is so funny how it came together. So glad you and michelle interloped on our commiserating! 🙂 we are gonna be one swell set of birds!!
Nothing to do with this post but I really like the picture of you running in your Oiselle tank with a smile.
Hope you ladies have so much fun!