After you make it to the park (at 6am) in your vans, with all your gear and your runners, all you have left to do is run home. All day, all night and part of the next day. Over mountains with a total ascent of 20,000 feet, 22,000 feet of quad crushing descent and middle of the night runs with wild dogs (with glowing green eyes), cars, hillbillies and bears. In between runs you hang out and drive a giant white van through exchange zones and try not to run over anyone. It is the best time EVER! Doesn't it sound like it?
This year I was runner number 6 and in van 1. Which meant I had to leave on Thursday to make it to our super early start time Friday morning. Myself, Amy, Rachel, Gail, Anne and Coral made it to the all you can eat spaghetti dinner Thursday afternoon and set off for our romantic getaway just outside of Grayson Highlands. Little sleep happened that night as we were all anxious to start running. I could NOT wait to run! I was so excited.
After a 4am wake up call we arrived at the start and Amy lit herself up like a Christmas tree and ran four miles down the mountain at a 6:58 pace like 19 other runners were chasing her (they were) and she beat them all. Nice work Mama!
Things went smoothly and each runner covered their legs effortlessly and quick. It was almost my turn. Being the last runner in van one left lots of time to get super pumped, nervous and excited. I just wanted to run! Waiting at the exchange zone I was getting ready to take off and suddenly realized I wasn't even wearing my number. Oops! Calm down. Put my number on. Try again. Boom. Time to go! Leg six started off uphill and I couldn't help but frown at my Garmin and my nearly 9 minute pace. But after a mile or so I hit a 2 mile downhill dirt road. I knew there was a nasty climb at the end and wanted to throw everything I had into the downhill portion. I passed two people and ran 7:04 and 7:22 for miles 2 and 3. That's fast for me. I felt like a Kenyan. The dirt road ended and I saw two hills- read a sign quickly and headed up Buck Mountain Road to the Buck Mountain Baptist Church. A man earlier told me about the climb and that it sucks but "Once you see the church steeple you've made it" I charged the hill and kept my eyes peeled for the church steeple. Nothing. My watch beeped at 5 miles. This leg was only 4.9. Heart starts racing, wheels start turning...no church steeple, no exchange zone sign, no runners, where the heck was I? This was a moment of truth. Did I sit down and cry or handle it? I chose the later and raced into someones yard. "Where is the Bald Mountain Baptist Church? (Talking to self) Or was it Buck Mountain? Where am I??!!!" An 80 year old man looked at me like I was crazy and waved me onto his porch. "Bald Mountain? That's where all them Buffalo are." Me: "What? Where IS that?" Old dude: "Down the road a ways. Once ya hit the black top there's a big hill." Me: "I need a phone." He takes me into his kitchen where HIS PHONE IS ATTACHED TO THE WALL and panting, out of breath I yell out, "I don't know anyone's phone number! I have to run back to Asheville!" Old dude: "My Lands!!!" Seriously, it was hilarious and terrifying all at once. I get out of his kitchen and head back to Bald Mountain. I go up the awful hill, bump into my van and they say, "get in!!" I tell them I'm running back to the church. Keep running, finally I see Emily and hand her the baton. Stop Garmin. 8.2 miles and an hour and twenty minutes. I was most likely on track to be back between 40 and 45 minutes costing my team anywhere between 35-40 minutes. I was devastated. What a way to start! So stupid really and it sucks my whole team had to take the gain...because I actually had a pretty nice run. It was lovely out there! Oh well, at least it wasn't at night.
After that minor snafu, I was just wishing for all of it to be over and wanted to go back to the cabin and get in the hot tub. Thankfully, I did get to go to a cabin, thanks to our awesome friend Sonia who scored us a crash pad AND made us lunch. I ate three plates of baked ziti and five cookies. Then I changed into neon yellow clothes and prepared for night running. I've never been worried about running at night but I wasn't afraid of running in the day either and look how well that worked out. My brain was still in disbelief and started playing out different scenarios that involved me wondering around in the dark getting eaten by dogs. Then Gail asked if I would mind if she came along during my night run because her run was too short and she needed the extra miles for marathon prep. Score! We had such a great run. It was mostly downhill and 6 miles long. I really wanted to make up for time lost in the morning and adrenaline was flowing through me to get off the highway and back into the van without getting kidnapped by a moonshiner. We chatted most of the way and talked about food the entire time. Isn't it funny how when you go running with someone you talk about food and when you go out to eat with someone you talk about running? (Thanks Rachel for that quote). 6 miles flew by and we were done in about 47 minutes. Thanks Gail. That was awesome.
Next, I was determined to go to sleep. It was midnight. I knew that the transition with van two would happen around 3:30am. After a long drive to the Bakersville Fire Department and a discussion about the new knitting club we'd soon be forming (complete with hot pink and black scarves) I hopped into my sleeping bag and passed out. The alarm went off at 3am and I was SO tired. I didn't even want to get out of the van, much less run again. Amy asked if I could charge my Garmin for her run and I caught myself thinking, "I can't believe she's asking me to do this right now." Ha! It seemed like so much work. Quick observation: I don't think sleeping helps. But the silver lining in all of it is that I slept through the baked potato bar and I didn't throw up before my last run this year. Van two arrived and Amy set off into the cold, dark fog for round three. Her run went great and she was still moving pretty fast. Coral was next and I have no idea where she mustered up the strength after climbing TEN miles up Grandfather Mountain just a few hours earlier. She is tough as nails. Off she went into the dark for five more miles and away we went to the exchange to get Gail ready for her nine miles along the river. Waiting at the exchange we started wondering where Coral might be and looking at the time. Then a runner said a few runners had gone the wrong way. Oh no! I knew exactly how Coral must be feeling and was hoping that she wasn't too far off course. Not long after, she arrived. She seemed totally cool and glad to be done. She had ventured about a mile down the wrong road and then made her way back. Why not add a few extra miles to the 22 she had already run? She's the Real Deal.
Speaking of adding miles, Rachel decided her last leg of 7.5 miles was just too short so she kept going at the exchange and ran along with Anne for another hour. These girls are just too much. I may need to find a more average person team to join next year. While they were out adding on miles, I found a coffee shop and also bacon. Oh that bacon. It was a highlight for me. I suited up in my favorite outfit of the relay for my last leg. Pink socks, pink Lulu skirt, real deal shirt and real deal hat. Even if I got lost again or walked or threw up bacon for leg 30, I looked cute, which made me feel good. And feeling good means running good. My last leg was only 4.4 miles and very flat. It was absolutely breathtaking as the morning fog was coming off the mountains with sunshine beaming down. I was thrilled to go run. Which is saying a lot considering I had been on this journey now for about 26 hours. I brought along my phone, listened to Michael Jackson and ran hard. I passed four people on that run! Bacon plus Lulu plus MJ equals running success. I was all done. Piling back into the van we went to watch Emily run (yep run, she never walked) all the way up a giant mountain. It was inspiring and awesome. Go Emily!
Van Two went on to run us back to Asheville and I went home to shower. Jaime had the kids on a camping trip and I was solo and exhausted. Another Blue Ridge Relay was in the books. My great friend and teammate Amy heard these words of wisdom while she was running, "It always seems impossible until its done." Thanks for helping me to do the impossible girls. Y'all are the Real Deal.
