Local man leads winning team

Mountain Home ColorTyme Store Manager Dave Ross and his running team won the "Mount Rainier to the Pacific Relay" -- a 154-mile foot race that starts in Ashford, Wash., and ends in Ocean Shores, Wash.

His team crossed the finish line in just under 19 hours.

"It's an 11-person team and not all of us are from Idaho -- we're a pretty diverse group of people from all over the nation," explained Ross.

Ross' passion for running started at an early age and continued through his high school and college years.

"I've been running cross country and track since I was 14 years old," said Ross. "I've run these relays in the past. This is the first time I've been on a team when we've won the overall race."

After months of training, Ross was prepared for the 33 legs of the race -- all evenly split among the team. The group started the race late -- about three hours behind the frontrunners -- at around 5 p.m. on July 17.

"We were running all night, from Point A to Point B," Ross said. "It's a fun event. You're out there running sometimes at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. Among the team, I ran the longest, which was about 17.1 miles total -- spread out over three legs. We started the race on the evening of July 17 and finished Saturday morning, July 18."

To help support the team, two vans were close by to pick runners up and drop them off, in between relay legs. As the team continued the race and approached the Pacific Ocean, it became apparent that winning the race was realistic.

"The trick was to sleep between your relay legs, but it was tough with people getting in and out of the van," Ross explained.

"As the race went on, we got more and more competitive because we knew we were in the hunt for first place. We managed to pass all the teams that started before us. Later, we passed the last team -- they started three hours ahead of us -- close to the ocean. We were the overall winners and the first team to the ocean. It was a great feeling, lots of excitement among the group."