First up - dinner. The best $6 I've spent in a long time!
I don't like spaghetti, but I wolfed down my entire dinner - spaghetti with sauce, green beans, bread and butter, applesauce (unpictured), and chocolate cake. I would say my van was very prepared and brought a lot of food, but eating was very sporadic throughout the race. We ate breakfast at the hotel the morning the race started, but throughout the day, I didn't have anything really substantial - a granola bar here, hand fulls of trail mix there. I did eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at some point, but overall, not the best nutrition.
I was going to take a shower, but I ended up skipping it when I saw the set up. It was a typical high school shower - open, no stalls. I must be really old, because I had forgotten what the typical high school shower looked like. I had been picturing a gym shower with stalls. Nope, and I didn't really feel comfortable getting naked in front of all of the women there. I had a little bit of a self conscious moment. I did, however, use baby wipes to get as clean as I could. Not the greatest, but actually, only two other people in the van ended up showering. So, the stinky people outnumbered!
By 8 p.m., we knew we needed to try and get some sleep, as we were scheduled to run from midnight to 6 a.m. It had stopped raining, so we spread some tarps on the ground, got out the sleeping bags, and tried to get some sleep. And I tried really hard, but I couldn't fall asleep. There was a lot going on, from teams cheering on the runners that were coming in, vans coming and going, car doors opening and closing, and just hundreds of people walking around and talking.
Before I knew it, the van was packed up again and we were headed to the next exchange to meet out team and start then second leg of the race. We met them at a creamery, and trust me when I say the smell was unreal.
It was good to catch up with Van 1 and to hear how their race was going. It sounded like everyone was having a great time!
My second run happened around 3:30 a.m., and I got decked out in some pretty attractive night running gear - reflective vest, head lamp, and a blinking red light attached to the back of the head lamp.
I was also sporting some very cool glow sticks - one wrapped around my ponytail, one on my wrist, and one on each shoe. I did get some compliments from passing vans regarding the glow sticks.It was very humid out and visibility was poor due to heavy fog. I was very scared I was going to get lost in the middle of the cornfields. I started out running way to fast - still doing 5/1 intervals, but running at about a 9:30 minute/mile pace. Way too fast! I started losing steam around the second mile and with two more to go, I slowed my pace and did the best to power through. I was so relieved when I finally got to the exchange and was done. Running in the dark is one thing; running in the dark in the middle of the night while a little sleep deprived is another. There's no easy way to train for that. And, honestly, I don't remember the exchange that well, just that there were John Deere tractors. I was a little loopy.
We sent our next runner on his way, and oh my goodness, I am so glad I didn't have his leg. I don't know how he did it! Most of his run, which I believe was over 7 miles, was uphill on a very narrow dirt road. The terrain was dirt and rocks, and most of the time, the road was so narrow that the vans were shadowing the runners rather than passing them. It was also during this leg that we ended up helping a van that had a flat tire.
Our last runner finished around 6 a.m. and we were done until 11. We handed off to Van 1 and headed to the next major exchange in Chevy Chase, MD.
0 comments:
Post a Comment