Intoxicating Views
Nothing starts a morning off better than the cool mountain air and a good stretch. During our warm-up, I took the liberty of surveying my surroundings, looking for any good “photo opps”. And I found one. A rock path to my left led to a pristine clearing, perfect for a complete shot of the hills and valleys. Or at least I thought. My jubilant walk over to the spot caught the attention of the others, and they too began to follow me along to the rock path…OF DEATH. The person who placed the stones down must have known that they had a tendency to slide from under your foot. I mean, come on. A little warning sign wouldn’t have hurt. But I don’t think the creator of said path was worrying about some visitors trying to climb up the hill. Either way, the whole team kept losing balance on the way up, also meaning that we almost hurt ourselves just a few days prior to reaching DC. Imminent danger didn’t matter to us though, so we just kept climbing.
Uphill Both Ways – If You’re Jacob and Michael
Realizing that the first bit of the day’s run would have some hills, we ran Jacob and Michael first because: 1) nobody wanted to run it, 2) we called nosies, 3) Darham wanted them to have the experience anyway. Starting up that hill, we all enjoyed watching them struggle for a little bit. We made it a game to predict when the next downhill would come…but that’s the funny thing, it never came. At first, we found it amusing as we kept turning corners and there was no downhill in sight. But, after about three and a half miles of consistent uphills, we realized that we should be merciful to Jacob and Michael. So, at the four-mile mark, we picked them up and stuck Matthew and Kiet out there instead. Funny enough, about a quarter mile after they started, the uphill stopped and there were nice, gentle rolling hills. I tried to feel a little sorry for Jacob and Michael, but I couldn’t!
Inclement Weather
Way to rain on our parade. During Matt and Kiets’ run, lightning made an encore entrance. And boy did it pick a perfect place to strike. The area we were in meant no cell phones, and due to the winding roads and hills, the walkie talkies we brought along were no good at the communication thing. And to top it all off, the vans were too far apart from one another to make hand signals, or smoke signals for that matter. End result? Matt and Kiet kept running while the lead van scrambled to get everyone together. But as you by now know, no one got struck by lightning.
Posing With Jared
Just a little side note, but I was able to take a picture with Jared, the poster man for Subway Inc! Ok, so it was just a cardboard cut out of him that you can find in any measly old Subway, but it was still a fun picture.
Inclement Weather: Part Duex
Matt and Kiet were sadly lucky that day. During their second run of the day, they once again brought upon the wrath of Mother Nature. Thunder and lightning made another encore (it was getting annoying by this time) and made the handoff to Coach and me the last thing the team did for a while.
Warning: 9% Grade Downhill, 5 Miles
More like throw caution to the wind. That warning only applies to big trucks and semis, not runners. Have you ever tried running 5 miles completely down a hill? Not one bit of flat land, just winding curves and descents? Well I have, and man is it exhilarating. The only problem with going downhill is the tendency to let your feet overheat, just as mine did. One and a half miles down the road, and I had to stop. Blisterous heat was taking over my right foot, and running any more could have jeopardized the rest of the relay for me. Oh, it also rained on Chris Parker’s pillow, but that’s a whole new blog post in itself.
