How It Works

So, we have a tentative set of leg assignments now. To refresh anyone's memory, if you forgot/didn't get them they are:
1- Mike, 2- Allison, 3- Carrie, 4- Laura, 5- Pat, 6- Josh, 7- Kat, 8- Kristi, 9- Judy, 10- Kristin, 11- Dave, 12- Heather

And in case anyone was unclear on how the whole relay will work, I will use those assignments to try to explain it. So at about 10am on Friday, September 26, Mike will be at the starting line, Allison, Carrie, Laura, Josh and I will be with our van in that area, and everyone else can either be there, or can be at Exchange Point #6.

Mike will start running, and the rest of the members of Van 1 will get in the van and drive up ahead, either to somewhere further along the course to cheer him on or directly to 7.7 miles further along the course ahead where his leg ends. Allison will eventually be there waiting, warmed up and ready to go, and he will hand off the wrist strap (I think it is like a slap bracelet, or at least it looks that way in the videos) and she will take off and do her 9.2 miles. (Longest leg!) In the same way, Carrie will get the handoff and do her leg, then hand off to Laura, then she will give it to me, and I will to Josh. At the end of his first leg, Josh will hand off to Kat, and Van 1 is done for a little while while Van 2 does just what Van 1 did with its 6 people.

Van 1 can then drive ahead to points on the course and cheer, but people that have done it before recommend going to your next start point and getting some rest, food, a shower and such. Remember, you have been in a van for a good 6-7 hours other than when you were running, plus you are up for another leg in 6-7 more hours... and then again. The whole thing is probably going to be about 30 hours if we do our estimated 10min/mi pace based off of the estimates everyone sent me.

So, Kat goes, then Kristi, Judy, Kristin, Dave and then Heather hands off to Mike at exchange #12, Van 1 is back in, Van 2 can go rest up, and we do it all over again. There are three full rotations, and then we are in DC and done!
I hope that made sense, and if you have any more questions, just post a comment and maybe someone who does not suck at explaining as much as I can tag in to clarify this whole dealie.

Natural Bridge

Wow! Thank you to everyone that sent in mileage. With all of your additions, we just increased our total from 157 mi to 244 mi which takes us from Harrisonburg all the way past Roanoke. Along the way, we passed over Natural Bridge, which according to its own website, is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. Impressive, no? Ah the scenery we are running by- quite like Forrest Gump. I can almost hear the Bob Seger playing in the background.
Thanks again, and good luck with your training this week!
-Pat

Accomplishments

A lot has happened in the last couple weeks, and I only know about the highlights for a few of our team members. Please add your stories too!!

First of all, Pat and Allison ran the Marine Corps Historic Half in Fredericksburg, VA on May 18th!! This was Pat's longest race to date, and the second time Allison has completed a 1/2 marathon. They were AWESOME!! The weather cooperated nicely for running, with even a slight drizzle as they climbed the huge hill around mile 11. I thoroughly enjoyed watching and cheering with the crowds of people and marveling at the incredible endurance of the runners. They may not like the fact that I'm posting this, but I'm just really proud of them... so here's a video that I accidentally shot instead of taking a still photo.

As for me, I ran my first official 5K on May 25th, and think that I've officially caught the running bug. I actually heard myself tell someone yesterday that I'm starting to like running... gasp! I never would have thought I'd see the day!