100 Posts!!!!!!

Tom, Shawna, Jen, me

It's hard to believe that I have finally made it to 100 posts. Considering that I am a very bad blogger, this is an accomplishment. With that being said, post 100 will be my recount of the 100 mile relay that I ran this weekend. Seems kind of fitting, if you think about it.

So here goes.

This past weekend I participated in the Red Eye Relay. What an amazing and tiring experience. It consisted of 21 legs that covered 100 miles. These were not your average flat miles either. There were plenty of hills along the way.

We started our journey by meeting at noon on Saturday at the local YMCA. After everyones gear was loaded we were on our way. It took us a little over an hour to make it to Columbus, Indiana. We then stopped at the local Subway for our last meal before the run. Then it was off to the Indiana University track for check in.

As we arrived in the parking area I was greeted with the site of the Upland Brewery van. What made this even better was the fact that the beer on tap was FREE!!! Nothing like starting off a run with ice cold Upland Wheat straight from the tap. So I grabbed a free beer and then headed to the check in area. We grabbed our gear and watched a couple of teams start their race.

Then it was back to the van to get everything ready to go. Once everything was ready to go, we headed back to the track to wait for our start. One thing that sucked was the heat. It was in the upper 90's at the start of the race.

Jen had the first leg, which was just over 2 miles. She did an awesome job. Then it was on to Tom, who is an awesome runner. To had to run just under 6 miles for his leg. This meant that I had just over an hour from the start of the run before I was up. It was kind of nice to relax for a bit longer. But before I knew it, I was up.

My leg was 5.9 miles. I told Brad, Shawna's husband and driver extraordinaire, that it would be about an hour. I knew there were some hills and it was hot! So I was amazed when I came in in 53:08. I will say I was glad that leg was over. I handed off to Shawna, who had probably the hardest legs for the entire event. Her total mileage was over 30 and they were not easy miles.

That's how the rotation went throughout the night. After each leg the person who just came in would grab whatever they needed to drink out of the cooler and then hop in the van. We then covered up with towels and got out of the nasty clothes we had on. I don't think I could think of anything grosser than wearing and sitting in the same clothes leg after leg. The smell would have probably killed us. Luckily they have done this for the past couple of years and have a system down. Get out of your wet clothes, tie them up in a plastic shopping bag, cool off, then put on fresh clothes and be ready to go. The system worked well.

The rest of my legs were as follows:

3.99 miles       33:35
2.22 miles       17:12
3.81 miles       33:52
3.18 miles       31:03*
3.23 miles       31:17

The leg with the asterisk is the one that I finished out for Shawna. I had to damn near wrestle the slap band from her since she wanted to keep going. She is an awesome runner, but sometimes I think she pushes herself too far past what her body wants to let her do.

We ended up finishing the relay in 15 hours and 31 minutes. We won our division, granted we were the only ones in it. But we still won.

After the run we all got a much needed and deserved shower before heading home. Before making the journey home we stopped by Denny's for some food. All you can eat pancakes for $4 was amazing. Once we got back in the van I don't think I remember a thing until we were getting off the exit to head back to the Y.

I took last night off work because I knew I would probably be sore. Man was I correct! This morning I met Shawna, Jen, and Norma for a very easy 4.7 mile run. The first few steps sucked! But I have discovered that once you get moving the soreness fades. At least for that brief amount of time you are moving.

If they ask me to join them again next year I will definitely do it. It was an amazing time.

Later