Monday, March 2, 2009

RUN, DRIVE, SLEEP, REPEAT.

Ok so I didn't drive, but I did puke in the van! Can I just say how much freakin' fun this race was, despite my raging sinus infection (maybe the lack of sleep and drugs have seduced me into thinking it was more fun than it actually was). Anyways, I have to say that I have not had a post event high like this since my first marathon! I am already planning my team for next year's DEL SOL event and would love to do a team for Texas and LA! So here is a rundown of how my weekend went.

Friday - Breakfast - oatmeal w/ banana, huckleberries, and almonds
0930 am - leave for our exchange
snacked on handful of wheatthins

LEG 1 - sometime around 5pm, 8.5 miles, dirt road, support vans making
sure I filled at least the lower lobes of my lungs with some good AZ dirt,
one giant rock painted as a skull (kind of an ominous sign, but whatever
right) Here is a fun t-shirt from one of the other teams that says it all!


















So for having a sinus infection that leg was not bad, super dry air though and I barely had a voice when I was done. I ran my 8.5 miles in around 80 minutes which is good for me especially since I was sick. Here is a picture of me during my first leg, not bad at least I look like I have a forward motion!











Ok back to the rundown:

7pm ish we hit up the next exchange with our Van 1 again and off for us to get a little rest, but first I felt the need to puke all over the van floor (oops #2)! Must have been the combination of antibiotics in my system and the liquid intake, lol. On a side note, if you ever decide to do a race like this always handy to invite a doctor or two to be your teammates! Luckily I am smart like this and my teammate hooked me up with some antinausea medication and I somehow managed to doze off in the van for about 1 hour and keep 1/2 a bagel with some peanut butter down, weeee!

LEG 2 - sometime around 5am Saturday, 6.5 miles the first 2 of which were into +30
mph crosswind and then another 4 miles of slow, steady uphill. I am not
going to lie at this point I was sucking, my knees hurt, and I was cussing
(under my breath) all the elite runners sprinting past me telling me "good
job" (the started the race 8 hours after us, lol). Oh tip for anyone
running a night leg and trying to wear a headlamp....wear a hat or visor
with a bill to hold it in place....my team did this, I did not, I fought
with that stupid headlamp the whole 6.5 miles because it kept slipping down
my sweaty forehead.

Ok on to the next exchange but first breakfast, I was literally running on empty and oddly enough the teams consensus was for mcdonalds, lol. I opted for the sausage mcmuffin with cheese, no egg, and a small coke (I was choosing my food choices by what wouldn't be extremely disgusting coming back up!) Oh yeah I almost forgot I had 1/2 a cinnamon roll at the exchange site right before mcd's (in the spirit of JOYRUN, trying to fuel my run with sugar)!

LEG #3 - 4:30 pm Sat, +85 degrees, full AZ sun, 3 miles, lots of sunscreen! Oh did
I mention that I haven't showered since Friday morning, apparently someone
thought I was stinking and felt the need to give me a shower during my last
leg of the race!





Totals for the race:
18 miles running
1 hour of sleep
2 episodes of emesis (back to back)
1 cool medal that doubles as a bottle opener (sweeeet!)
2 potential knee replacements (not really, but I am taking a few weeks off to rehab)
32 hours of non stop fun!
213 teams
426 vans!

Did I mention this race is fun???????

1 comment:

  1. Thanks! Considering it ended up being a 32 hour event for my team I hope the race report didn't drag on too much....had to hit the highlights. There are sooo many more things I could have mentioned (like how for my first leg I was wearing the same green shirt as another team whose runner was behind me so everytime I would crest a hill they would all be cheering by their van then realize it wasn't their runner and stop cheering, lol....I eventually got inducted as an honorary member of their team and they cheered for me the rest of the race whenever they would see me!) so, so, so much fun!

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