I got a facebook email back in late Spring, I think, from Michele E. asking if I wanted to join her relay team. I had received a post card from Ragnar about it already but at the time I had just been given the go ahead to run again. I had finally recovered from a hairline fractured tibia (crack right on the front of my right shin). That thing took 1 ½ yrs to heal but that’s another story…listen to your doc, don’t RUN, no HIGH impact of anything if you want it to heal FAST. Enough said!
Fast forward to October, our team (both Vans) had gone through musical chairs on runners. Van 1 van hit a deer & wasn’t going to be used. Sonia S. stepped up with an offer to use her van. She found out she had a stress fracture so she & her van were out. Paul had to drop out to work on the other side of the US so he was out. Van 2 got Pam A’s daughter, Jordan, to join in on the fun & gave us Jill M. (THANK YOU, VAN 2!) A week before game time & we’re down a runner in Van 1 & had no van. Jill offered to drive her 5 person SUV, again, thanks Jill. You saved our ass! We decided that we could handle the extra “legs” so no big deal. We knew all 5 of us were fairly strong. I knew I didn’t want to run my “easy” legs so I ran Sonia’s “legs”. We recorded all our times on each leg & those notes are not with me right now as I type this but we rocked! Our first legs were strong, which made me nervous that we would be hurting later. Turns out I was the only whiner they seemed to hurt. Ha!Our runner order was Jill, Joe, Rob, me, Anderson, & “empty legs”.
Jill left Coolidge Park at approximated 8:30am Eastern with a smile on her face & rocked up & down some concrete hills for 7.8 miles. She did awesome! She handed off to Joe & he took off for 6.2 miles. Anderson was driving then & we got lost. Ha! We missed a turn off but realized when we saw no runners or vans we needed to back track. No big deal! We found Joe looking strong & high from eating a few small bags of M&M’s. He finished faster than I thought he would because I was in a house waiting in line for a bathroom when he came to find me. I hydrated myself big time & was heading to a bathroom every 30-45 minutes. I was bound & determined a migraine was not going to ruin my weekend. Joe handed off to Rob who ran 6.8. Again, he, like the rest of us had a great fast, first leg & he handed off to me. Before I started, I saw a skinny red head from a distance while I was in the van & I thought, “That looks like Michelle, my cousin, who lives in Chattanooga!” Turns out when I was waiting on Rob to hand off to me, we locked eyes. I was surprised. I hugged her, we had a short conversation, Joe took our pic, & then I ran 6.1 miles in 53:55. It was rolling with a few bigger hills where I took 20-30 second walk breaks. I didn’t want to wear myself out by powering up the big hills the first “leg”. I was pleased! I was told about the “Muffin girl" van. It seems that there was a team of women with something on their van that said “honk for muffins”. Joe, Rob, & Anderson asked them for muffins from what I understand & the girls acted like they didn’t know what they were talking about. Joe said they were hungry & wanted muffins. Seriously, I think the guys thought they were giving out muffins. One chick stood up & shook her “muffin” at the boys. I’m not surprised at all that the muffin girls were way behind us at the finish if they did that all day/night on the course. Ha! They did cheer for me while I was running & I thought to myself how nice they seemed. I just had no idea how “nice” they were until I finished. I thought we were going to have to pour some cold water on some of our van members. Ha!!!
I handed off to Anderson & his first leg was 8.3 miles! I felt so bad for him. He did GREAT but said his legs were tired when he was done. He brought Van 1 up most of steep way on our first legs. I wish I had got a pic of him but that droid doesn’t like cold weather & I seemed to fat finger the touch screen. Arg!! During Anderson’s run there were about 4 loose rottweilers running. Most of them fell off & only one dog remained but we called it into Ragnar anyway. The one remaining “runner dog” stayed mostly with this one guy. The dog didn’t look dangerous at all & just wanted to participate. He was funny to me, tongue hanging out, & he just kept going. I think that dog ran 10 miles! Ha!
While we were running we made sure that Van 2 knew where we were & who was out on the course running. I was also making comments on Facebook when I did have a strong enough signal. It was sporadic for a while where the “banjo’s were playing” & the “meth looking” trailers were sitting. Grundy County is poor & we totally forgot to donate our canned goods to Cowan exchange area. Arg!!!Anderson handed off to Joe so Joe could cover the 1st empty “leg” of 4.2 miles so Joe got 2 “legs” first time around & by now he was on a serious sugar high of M&M’s, seriously!
Joe decided to run this leg with a paper party hat on, which was soft with his sweat by the time he finished. He handed off to Michael C. of Van 2 but botched the hand off. Ha! The announcer pointed that out, too. He had to slap the bracelet twice causing Van 2 to loose valuable seconds. (I’m kidding!!!!) Michael headed up the rest of the mountain, straight up & it appeared that half a mile to a mile into it, it was starting to sleet. Poor Michael! Kim text me later saying he did it around 54 minutes so I think he managed a 10 min pace straight up in that mess. Go Michael! Michele had to run in snow & sleet during her first leg. They had horrible weather during their first legs. We looked out the windows of the “The Blue Chair” & saw heavy sleeting rain coming down on several occasions, stopping, & starting over again… Poor Van 2! Joe decided to erase the smeared stuff on Jill’s windows. Joe put something like “Van 1 got better weather but Van 2 got to sleep in!”
After we ate a late lunch/early dinner at “The Blue Chair” we then went to Shenanigans to hang out since “The Blue Chair” was very stupidly closing. Dang, didn’t they want runner’s money?! We killed all our time in those two places watching exchange 11 from the front windows of Shenanigans. I knew Kim would be running through Sewanee campus & handing off to Marc so he could run down to the Cowan exchange. Joe got our safety flag & ran across the road to chit chat several times. He was like a kid who had too much sugar! We studied our list of 2nd legs & realized Anderson only had 3 miles to run the next time around. I told him he could do that drunk so he & Jill drank a few more beers. Ha! See what you missed, Rob, by going home for rest/shower after your 1st leg?!
Joe & I were outside on the sidewalk when I noticed a woman in a really cute hat. I saw her face & it was Kim C. I screamed to the top of my lungs when I realized it was her. When she handed off to Marc we went inside & finished up our business & got on the road to the next exchange.It got dark & it was getting SO COLD! I started debating on whether to run in my pants or just my layers underneath for my 2nd & “extra leg” to Lynchburg. Jill took off still wearing her shorts on her 2nd leg of 4.5 miles. She got to run past all the liquor stores in Winchester. Ha! When she finished she said she had been plenty warm so off my comfy, warm pants went. Joe led us through the Winchester Square towards Tim’s Ford. To me, this was one of the most confusing dark areas of the course. People were off work now & traffic picked up. Joe’s “3rd” leg was 5.7 miles & he finished it strong. He was knocking back some 8 minute miles so far on the course. He ran in shorts & would be sweating profusely, stretching after each leg. I, on the other hand, would head straight to the Van & put my heavy Titans fleece on like a big wuss with no stretching. Rob took off for another 6.1 miles. He wasn’t too thrilled to have to do this again but his belly was full of Subway meatball sub, I think & he ran real well. When he handed off to me, I was psyched up & ready to go, screaming for him when we would spot him. My voice got a little hoarse. I took off like I was shot out of a gun. All I could think about was, “We’re getting close to Lynchburg, we can get done, & get warm!” I had 4.5 miles on my 2nd leg, then I had to stop while Anderson did 3 miles, then I had to start again with 2.7 miles into the main exchange in the Lynchburg city park. I passed/chick’d 3 guys on this leg. I was fired up when I passed them like they were standing still. Joe yelled my name in the dark as I was about to head down a hill. I knew I was getting close to the next exchange at the end of the 4.5 miles. I finished with an 8:40ish pace according to Joe. When I finished, my head was sweaty & then my hair felt like it was freezing. On my 2nd & extra “leg” I wore a head lamp & a head lamp around my waist. I’m glad I did because there were times where it was so dark & I was so ALONE.
When I handed off to Anderson, I knew I had to get in the van quick & stay as warm as I could. I had a short time before he’d hand off to me & I would have to run the downhill of 2.7 & man was it DOWNHILL!! Anderson finished his 3 miles just a hair over 23 minutes. I took off knowing it would be over quickly & feeling pretty good. I think I passed two women & then the sleet started pinging my face. It stung but I told myself that I’ve run in sleet before, it’s no big deal. Keep going & push it in & I prayed it would stop sleeting for Van 2! Then the severe down hill kicked in…I couldn’t really see that well & prayed there were no pot holes to trip me up because I knew if I went down, I’d break something, probably my nose. I tried to control my feet/legs but it was weird. It was like I really needed a parachute. I can tell in my quads & achilles today that I did that hill. When I got to the bottom the volunteer read my number & yelled me in…I handed off to Michael & then Van 1 was headed to Tullahoma for some food & warmth at my place. I felt sick on the drive in…just icky sick. I made myself eat a ham & cheese sandwich after I showered but it felt like a bomb in my gut. We got to my place around 11:20ish & left somewhere around 1:30 or 2:00am, I’m not sure. I felt like crap. My stomach was rolled over & my quads were screaming a bit. By the time we got to Unionville & Jill told us the school was open, I was feeling blah… Thank God, we had use of their warm school there. Let’s just say that I felt much better when we left Unionville. Jill took off again in 25 degree weather in shorts. Amazing but I decided to stay in my pants on my next leg. She did great on her 3rd leg of 4.5 miles. Joe got ready for his final leg of 5.2 miles knocking out a 7:30something pace. He was sweaty in 25 degrees with shorts on but fired up that he was totally finished running! Great Job! Rob took off for his final leg of 6.1, bless his heart, he didn’t have anything shorter than 6.1 on all his legs.
When I took the hand off from Rob, I knew it was going to be rough. I started out ok but somewhere during the first few miles I wanted to cry. I never saw our van, my legs wanted to walk, my quads hurt, my face was frozen, my lips were chapped… I saw the Van with all the Christmas tree lights on it. I don’t know what team that was but I was grateful. This was a very long isolated area for me where there were few people around & hardly any traffic. It was around 4:30-5:00am around this time. I kept thinking to myself, “Well, on a normal work day, you’d be up anyway getting ready to run.” The Christmas tree van yelled at me, “Good job, you’ve done 2.6 miles!” I was so grateful they let me know how far I had gone because I felt like I was crawling. I wanted this done!!! Then I felt rumbling…a train came by & blew my left ear drum out. OMG! I started taking walk breaks at this point. Then off in the distance I saw light, the next exchange was within reach. I had no idea what kind of pace I had been doing but I knew it wasn’t pretty. Joe told me I had around a 10:21 pace for those painful 4.4 miles. I passed two women & one man but he blew past me right at the exchange area. I was so mad. Ha! Anderson took off on his FASTEST leg. He knocked down a 7:30 pace on 5.5 miles. He was done! Jill took off for Healthway’s on her “extra leg” to bring Van 1 into “our finish”. She did her final leg of 4.4 miles & we were so happy to see her sailing into the exchange area to hand off to Michael so Van 2 could get their final party started.
Jill drove us to her house. Joe & I headed to the condo for rest & showers. Jill let Rob & Anderson clean up at her place & brought them to the finish line. We met them at “Big River” later around lunch. It appeared that Van 2 would finish sometime around 1:00 or 1:30pm. We were all amazed at how early we got done. Jordan, Pam’s daughter rocked in the last 3 miles. “Agony of de feet” made it safe & sound to the finish line in officially 29:41:39. Ragner Relay 2010 for “Agony of de feet” was done! I highly recommend it if you didn’t do it this year. I plan to be in the NYC marathon this time next year, God willing I don’t break something.
Joe & I at the starting line. Joe waiting on his first hand off from Jill at exchange 1. He was way too excited!
I took a picture of this newspaper mailbox somewhere before Jasper. I cannot believe their paper is called "The Hustler"!!!
Van 1 Fabulous runners who are finished at Heathways!
At the Beer Sellar in downtown Nashville, TN after we all crossed the finish line.
Team "Agony of de Feet" running to finishline downtown Nashville
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