Dear Reader,
Larry the Letter Carrier hopped into Wyoming the other day and I began telling him about the Grand Teton Crest Steeplechase, and he was like, whoa mate – put it in a letter so I can share with my online friends.
Let me start by introducing myself, I am Henry Pronghorn and I live in Wyoming – home of the Grand Teton Crest Steeplechase. This is a yearly race and animals from around the globe come to participate and spectate. This is my first year running in the steeplechase, I had been training really hard. Running this trail and that trail as fast as I could. I knew I would be competing against some of the fastest animals on earth. Minya Cheetah from Africa was my biggest competition! He is faster than fast! But the lion, gazelle and wildebeest rank pretty high on the charts. All having won Steeplechase medals in the past.
I had my eye on the prize.
You may be wondering why the Grand Teton Crest Steeplechase takes place in Wyoming. One reason, the Grand Teton National Park is there! And the other reason – it is a large state but does not have too many people. So, there is always room at the campsites for all the visiting animals.
On the day of the race, I was a little nervous, I was tap dancing on my hoofs, I could barely keep my breakfast down, but that is not surprising - pronghorns always eat their food twice. (It’s a pronghorn thing! Look it up!) Getting to the event was exciting - I saw friends that I only get to see once a year! They were all carrying around water bottles - something I did not have to worry about, that twice eating food thing allows me to absorb all the moisture from the plants I eat - I don’t need to drink much water. Which is good since we do not get that much rain in Wyoming.
I saw Minya Cheetah close to the starting gate. He was doing a menacing prance back and forth - he was the crowd favorite! I walked up beside him and continued my hoof tap dancing - a hyena yelled out “you here to dance or run”! There was lots of laughter from the other hyenas in the crowd. Me and Minya just looked at them and laughed, but seriously we were here to run! On your mark get set and we were off. Being the second fastest animal on the planet, I was able to stay neck and neck with Minya – the lion was fast on our tails, and it seemed that the gazelle was running extremely gracefully but keeping the pace. Wildebeest, he is always joking round so he fell behind quickly but stayed in the spotlight with spectators taking pictures of him. Knowing Minya the way I do, I knew I could out pace him, but I also knew he was good at getting a second wind and would easily catch up. And he did! I was really hoofing it on the uphill slog, Minya was quickly taking the lead – we were neck and neck. Minya pulled out ahead. But I kept pace. Minya was able to run top speed of 60 miles per hour, but once he hit another quarter mile his pace slowed to 40 miles an hour. This was my chance to bypass him - I was able to get a top speed of 60 miles an hour as well and run a little further than Minya at the faster rate. But, once again Minya gets another burst of energy and here he comes, and we are neck and neck heading toward the finish line. We stayed neck and neck until the end! We tied, both winning the Grand Teton Crest Steeplechase gold medal. What a run!
Remember, writing is right on! So, write a comment below.
Your friend,
Henry Pronghorn
Do you remember? What state is Henry Pronghorn from? What were the other 4 animals participating in the race?
Additional tidbits – Pronghorns have horns that measure 10 – 12 inches, the Wyoming Indian Paintbrush is the state’s flower, the race in this story is made up, but a steeplechase race is 3000 meters (about 1.875 miles).
Comments