Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat.

Fruit Snacks. Trail Mix.  Pizza.  Repeat.

I completed my first ever Ragnar Relay this weekend!  17+ miles, 2 baby wipe showers, 1 blister, and 5 of the greatest comrades a girl could ask for.  We survived off snacks and Nuun.  We got less than 2 hours of sleep.  We parked a 15-passenger van in the tiniest of crevices in the middle of the night just to jump out and catch a freezing cold, 30-second glimpse of our runner only to jump back in, drive 2 miles down the road, and do it all over again.  Sleep is irrelevant.  Van support is everything.  Laughter is abundant.  We had 172 "kills" on this Friturday weekend and 9 wine bottle "kills" at our Sunday post race pot luck. 

 We finished in just over 27 hours–200 miles through the hills and hollers of Tennessee from Chattanooga to Nashville, and let me tell ya — there are no secrets when you’re stuck in a van with 5 other people for 27 hours.  From everyone’s GI patterns and timing coffee consumption just right to Gaz-Elrod’s fully loaded Pinterest boards, you mold this new little family where you and 5 other people just get each other.  A fellow ‘Boro runner put it this way, ” I am ever so reminded of the toughness, yet gentleness; the grit, yet grace; the tenacity, yet tenderness of the group of people we call runners!”  I could not have said it better myself.

It’s:
Challenging
|getting locked in a porta-potty|
Encouraging
|When the Go-Pro is hanging out the window so you HAVE to run up the hill|
Mind Changing
|like on your 3rd leg and you’re thinking, ‘no, I don’t think I’ll volunteer to run up Monteagle next year…’|
Selfless
|big sweaty hugs|
Unforgettable
|camaraderie|