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| Cheering on the River City Runners at the starting line! |
Each team had 8-9 runners and 1-2 vehicles. My team of 8 broke down into 4 people per van. Legs 1-4 (my van) would run in assigned order while van 2 rested. Then van 2, transporting legs 5-8, would run their assignments while we rested. Or tried to rest at least. (I can't sleep under pressure hahaha) Other teams took one large vehicle! When one runner finished his/her leg, he/she "passed the torch," or in this case, a timing chip in the form of a bracelet, to the other runner. This means we had one runner constantly on the road for 22.5 hours!
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| My team, Will Run for Cupcakes, lining up at the start! |
The Legs
Round One: Legs 1-4, 9.11.2015, 7pm-11:15pm
I was leg 4, meaning I ran the assignments 4, 12, and 20! It totaled at almost 20 miles. With that nonsense out of the way, here's how it went: My teammate Randy started us off. The event kicked off at Goodale Park in Columbus. He was only running 5-ish miles for his first leg. I knew it wouldn't take him any longer than 50 minutes to finish, so my other two teammates and I hit the road. We may or may not have gotten lost within the first ten minutes. We may or may not have caused Randy to sit in the cold rain for an extra 20 minutes while we pulled ourselves together. I still feel awful about that. :O Our second leg, McKenzie also had to run her five miles in the rain.
By the time leg 3, Katie, began, it was nighttime and we were well out of the city. The nighttime rules were that the runner had to run with the flow of traffic, but with the SAG (support and gear) vehicle following directly behind the runner. I missed a sign, and Katie ran through probably two miles of dark cornfields without the assistance from our van! As you can see, our first round of legs was a little confusing! :/ I almost cried when I realized she was out there alone, but she took it like a champ! She wuddn't afraid o' nothin'! Also during this leg, a car pulled over for us. We had a flashing yellow light on top of our car (a C2C requirement!), and evidently this other driver thought we had some authority. Randy, McKenzie, and I laughed about it all night. Literally. ;) When Katie made it safely through her 7.3-miler, it was finally my turn! McKenzie took the wheel and I took the pavement.
My first leg was 4.4 miles, and we had finally arrived in the "rolling" terrain area. My first leg had several hills and two very scary, narrow bridges. Apparently my teammates in the car would panic when I had to run across one! I started out at a relaxed pace, and then adrenaline started pumping through me. I finished a little under my normal pace! Since I was the fourth and last leg of the first half of our team, the rest of our team was always present at the exchange point at which I finished. That means I always had a cheering section! It was pretty cool. :) When I finished leg 4, leg 5, Sam, kicked off for our other van. We headed to the YMCA in Washington Courthouse to rest!
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| Team selfie, at a stop light during the first leg! |
Round Two: Legs 9-12, 9.12.2015, 2:30am-7am
The other half of our team flew through their assignments! During our team's designated rest time, I'm not convinced any of us actually slept. We all agreed that we "rested" our eyes for maybe 45 minutes. The middle section, or round two as I am calling it, was by far the most challenging because of the time of day we were running it. At that point we were fatigued from being awake almost 24 hours, and we had to pull through some really tough hours in the cold, damp darkness. However, when I finally hit the pavement for leg 12, I was really pumped up. What we were achieving finally hit me, and I realized that when I finished my team would officially be halfway done! Leg 12 was the C2C "challenge route," and I "took one for the team" when I signed up for that. It was the longest leg at 9.9 miles on rolling terrain. I began the challenge route at 5:30am. I was freezing when I started! A mile in I was fine. It was a comfortable temp actually- 54 degrees! This was a very emotional assignment for me. The longer mileage left me more time to reflect upon what I was doing and for whom I was doing it.
Whenever I felt fatigued, I would picture my Papaw as a lanky 16-year-old basketball player running in front of me, teasing me that I couldn't go any faster. The emotions I was feeling lead me to fly. Miles 3 and 4 clocked in at 9:08 - almost 40 seconds below my training pace. I slowed it down just a little for the sake of not running out of steam. Otherwise, I had negative splits! I am grateful to have done the challenge route because I experienced the beauty of a sunrise on Ohio back roads that I had never traveled. It was cloudy that morning, so the colors were dark and beautiful. The sky was a dark orange, burgundy and gray. A humid haze added another gray layer to the canvas. It's a hard scene to describe. It was breathtaking, but not cheerful. It was dark, but not ominous. It was vivid and fascinating.
I finished in the cloudy daylight in the middle of a cornfield. When I saw the official "half way" point, a big blue finish line, I picked up the pace at finished at a 7:35. It was approximately 7:00am. I felt amazing and free. And I looked wild. :) Katie, Randy, McKenzie and I decided we wanted something substantial to eat other than our diet of pretzels, peanut butter, and bagels, so we found ourselves a McDonald's. We had each been awake for 24 hours by that time, and we were feeling it. My runner's high was wearing off and I needed to rest. Combine that with some runger (intense hunger resulting from running) and I was a sassy mess. In McDonald's, we got so many stares. I mentioned in a Facebook post that it wasn't my proudest moment, but I did say... "If one more person stares at us, I'm gonna let them smell me. I look like a skank because I just ran 15 miles. You look like a skank because you are a skank." I promise I normally do not call people skanks, but my tolerance was nonexistent at that moment. :) We got our food and finally got to rest. We parked the van and napped hippie style. Doors ajar. Sprawled across whatever we could fit on. There was a pleasant breeze flowing through our stinky car, and it was sunny. Honestly one of the best naps I've ever taken- haha!
Round Three: Legs 17-20, 9.12.2015, 11am-2:30pm
Easy. Breezy. Beautiful. We were so freakin' happy because we had gotten to nap (2 hours works wonders). Because we were almost finished. Because it was a gorgeous day. Because we were kicking C2C's ass. This last round for my half of the team started on the Little Miami trail. It was serene and again, the perfect running conditions. Low 70's, but on a shaded trail; mostly downhill, down-river. I have a fun little story regarding my final leg. It was 4.2 miles. My splits continued to be negative (this is great to a runner!). I was approaching the 4 mile-mark, and I knew I was almost done. I was running approximately an 8:35 pace. There was a man running ahead of me. At first I thought he could be affiliated with C2C. I got closer (quickly as our paces were drastically different), and I realized he was not. He was sort of running right in the middle of the trail, and I needed to pass him. He noticed me, flicked his head back to see me, and then started running faster. This, my friends, pissed me off. That is bad trail etiquette. It was clear I was part of an event. I was wearing an official bib and our team gear. He started slowing down again after a few seconds. I tried to pass him a second time, and he did it again. Now the finish was in sight, and my committee/volunteer friends Brian and Robert could see what was happening. They started screaming for me. Two of my teammates were there too, yelling as well. I'm not sure what happened, but I kicked it down to a 6:35 pace and blew this heathen out. of. the. water. My teammates and friends were cracking up. Mind you, I pulled this pace out of nowhere after completing a total of over 19 miles haha. I was not playing! Papaw would have been cracking up at my temper and likely proud of my stubborn nature. I'm actually quite sure he sent that jackwagon to the trail just to make me work harder!
That wrapped up my van's assignments! We were in a cute town in Loveland, Ohio, and we located the nearest ice cream stand to indulge before the real finish line treats. We were ecstatic. Slap happy! Everything made us laugh. We drove to the finish to wait for our team, and it started to rain again. (It rained on the other half of our team every time!!)
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| We did it! My team at the long-awaited finish line in Cincinnati! |
The Inspiration
Inspiration was everywhere I looked.
So many of my friends jumped through hoops just to do this event. One friend became injured at the last minute and then developed tonsillitis five days before showtime. A teammate was also battling a last-minute injury that landed her at the chiropractor the day of the event! Another teammate had a head cold from hell! Two teammates barely had any training time.
But I could see the determination in everyone. Especially at the end when we came together to celebrate our achievements. I don't know everyone's stories, but I saw many humble tears. I saw two brothers have a moment while their daughters innocently danced in the rain. I saw tears in my best friend's eyes when she crossed the finish line. A friend was there because he lost his sister to cancer. Another very young friend had lost her mother. My best friend has lost several family members. In that moment. In those 24+ hours, our pain came together as one. As did our efforts. The funds raised from this event will provide local cancer patients with the means they need to make it to their treatments.
I cannot describe the amount of fun that I had with my team. This was quite an adventure! Good news: We can do it every year! :) http://community.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=69845&pg=entry
Thanks for reading!
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