Spokane to Sand Point Relay and one moment in time...

This weekend I participated in the Spokane to Sand Point relay with 11 other women. The idea is that each runner runs 3 legs over a period of about 28 hours. I always have the first runner position...I love it! Our van had ladies from Walla Walla...most whom I am very close to and this year, we had two new additions to our group. As always, we laugh, we act naughty, we tell secrets and most of all, we run! It is tons of fun. The golden rule is "what's said in the van, stays in the van". But what I can tell you about the race is that I ran some of my fastest times! It was awesome. I ran my 5.2 (which is all down hill) in 35:06! I was smokin'. I ran with a young girl who was participating for her first time. We had a great time visiting and passing people (all while wearing crazy wigs). This was at 8:15 am, Friday. The rest of the girls did awesome on their runs too. It was extremely warm this year and this first section has a lot of hills. They rocked it.
My next run took place at 6:00 pm. It was 6.8 miles and I ran it in 53:12. Another great time for me! It was a beautiful run on a trail. At this point, my story takes a turn to the one moment in time.
Part of this relay is to ride a roller coaster at Silverwood with your team. We rode Tremors and laughed! Afterward, we went into the bathroom, we saw a group of HS girls who were on a cross country team. They were participating in the relay and we saw a couple of the moms that were helping them out by driving and biking with them. Lori chatted with them for a minute. I continued on with my 3rd and final leg. It was at 3 a.m. Boy was it dark and scary. I saw lots of shooting stars, heard many spooky noises and had a train scare the HELL out of me. I ran 3.7 miles and have no clue what my time was!
Our night continued on. Our 5th runner had just started her run at 5:45 a.m. We started down the road to wait for her. About 5 minutes into our drive, we were the 3rd car to arrive at the scene of a horrific accident.
The mother from the bathroom at Silverwood and one of the high school girls had been hit from behind by a drunk driver. The mom was biking, the girl was running. They were going towards traffic. The drunk driver crossed over the center line and hit them. When we arrived, the girl was sitting up. The van that arrived before us had a nurse in it and she was with the mom who was seriously injured. A man came to us and asked for any blankets we might have and asked us to slow down traffic. As I reflect on this moment in time, there was so much silence. I have such vivid memories of the next hour. CPR on the mom from a fellow runner. Waiting for an eternity for help to arrive. The helicopter. The damage to the van. The daugher arriving on the scene and the pure sadness, anger and loss that she showed. The rest of the team coming. The daugher calling her dad. Paramedics working together to save this woman's life. Eventually, there were 4 ambulances on scene and a helicopter. The mother did not make it.
It's not that I wonder why. There is no answer that will make sense to this. But what keeps coming back to me is that moment in time. It was a long stretch of highway. I wish she could have just driven herself off the road. Is that horrible? She was destined to hurt someone. She could have crashed head on with another car. The mother on the bike saved this young girls life. But her 3 children and husband now have to live without her. This was avoidable...plain and simple. Don't drink. Don't drive. There was a man on the scene who had been following this woman driving. He had tried to call 911, but couldn't get reception. He even stopped at a checkpoint/exchange for runners to tell them to be careful of the driver. He then drove up and saw the accident.
I feel deep sadness. I feel anger. I feel haunted by visions of raw human emotions. I feel such admiration for the people who did everything they could to help in this situation.
Our runner came upon the accident and saw our van in the middle of it all. She blew past the police officer thinking that something had happened to us. She did not finish her run that day. We just couldn't. I was so numb. So thankful that Marcella was ok. The van had passed her. Another moment in time.
I didn't run today. I've been pretty teary today. I plan on running tomorrow. I know it will be healing. This is one moment in time that I will never forget. Neither will many other people who were on Highway 41, Saturday, August 14th at 6 a.m.
The woman's name was Patricia Lambie (age 46). She will be deeply missed by so many people...that was obvious. The woman/drunk driver was charged (age 31) with vehicular manslaughter.
I want to hang on to all of the wonderful memories that we made, once again this year. And I will. But at the end of the day, the vision of this tragedy is there. Time will help heal. Friends will help heal. And a good run will help heal. The road holds many of my secrets. Tomorrow it will hold many tears--and that's ok.