December 10th, 2015 By The Nanny

The Teams

Fast & Furious

1. Driver: Law Dawg
2. Pavarotti
3. Diplomat
4. Chavez
5. Nanny
6. Filibuster
7. Chowder
8. Kato
9. Stoli
10. Treadstone

Joggernots

1. Driver Van 1: Thorn
2. Drivers Van 2: Fonda & Ziploc
3. Mash
4. Pharaoh
5. Nighthawk
6. Meathead
7. Glock
8. Search & Rescue
9. Shazam
10. J-Lo
11. Sugar
12. Dropcloth
13. Bootstrap
14. Bling

Quotes from the gloom

1. “Did a wet dog get in the van?”       Filibuster.
2. “You hit the Portajohn yet, Chowder?       Nope. I don’t play away games.” Chowder.
3. “No service?!”  Pavarotti when looking at his phone 3 seconds after we saw the first “mountain.”
4. If eating pizza is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.  Pavarotti.  8:30 during dinner.
5. Shower pill.  “Awful to awesome in 10 seconds”.  Chavez.
6. Answer to 90% of all questions: “check the binder”
7. Answer to the other 10% of questions: “Don’t question the binder!”
8. The uncomfortable feeling when Chowder kept talking about the perineum.  To be fair…it was in the generic brand shower pill instructions.
9. Hey mr race official, don’t mind us; just a soccer mom in her sweet town & country out for a 1AM drive.
10. Running on those dusty roads where “u could see all the debris in the air – it was like a whale eating plankton.”       Filibuster during a dusty night run.
11. “let’s go get some food so I can have a productive vomit.”       Chowder after his last leg.
12. Filibuster’s new ad campaign for Lays Potato Chips.  “Just eat them while sitting on the toilet and cut out the middleman.”
13. “Hey, there’s a really big hill up ahead in about 2 miles.” –       Some old man sitting on his front porch on my way to ‘the nipple’. Sugar.
14. “I’ve never chaffed.” A statement of fact from Diplomat when asked if he remembered to lube up.
15. Multiple quotes (some withheld) from the Vasectomy conversation on the ride home. These were offered by the sterile teammates to the soon to be neutered: “Take the valium before the vasectomy….it makes it fun.”
16. “That was an angus black bear”: Treadstone really wanted to see a bear. We probably saw one in the distance, but it could have been a cow.
17. “Chamois butter is helpful but leaves me with the feeling of unfinished business”: Kato after applying Chowder’s crème to his tender bits.
18. “Vanalanche”: The immediate unloading of every bag in the back of the van every time the hatch was opened until we found a real use for Nanny’s bungie cords.
19. “Monkey Butt may help”: Treadstone’s gracious offer of powder for Kato’s bottom.
20. “Her coach must have a prosthetic leg”: Regarding the runner that had the funky gait.
21. “I feel like I just ran a marathon”: Diplomat’s 2nd leg.
22. “Don’t let that chick pass you”: regarding a female runner trailing Chavez. This was followed with: “He might want to”…an apparent reference to the appearance of the female runner about to pass him.
23. “Enterprise Screwed Us”: That one phrase garnered more interest than the most decorated van. Countless teams asked us about it.
24. “I’ll purge before I run the next leg”: Nighthawk regarding his stomach woes.
25. “John Bon Jovi in Living on a Prayer wrote the single greatest key change in the history of music” said Chavez as he recalled the music of his youth.

Stories from the gloom

1. (Nanny) Drivers. Wow. Who knew how crazy important a solid, competent driver was going to be for this event?! I can only speak for our full time driver for the 9 man team; Law Dawg, but w/o his skills behind the wheel of our Bad-A red town & country and his grasp of the many details needed at each exchange, we would not have had nearly as smooth of an event. I mean the dude kept an iPhone timer running for the entire event (all 36 legs) and never missed a single lap. That has got to be somewhere close to a quality level of six sigma! W/o those leg times, the value of the patented, trademarked, and best in class Highlands RunTracker would have been wayyyyy lower. With his times and Filibuster’s spot on estimates from weeks prior to the race, we knew when to be ready for our runners within minutes and sometimes seconds. When you watch the chaos around you as other teams are wildly searching for their next runner, you realize how big of a deal this is. We did not have a single botched exchange – not one. That is incredible when you consider the MANY opportunities for defects.
2. Ideas for next year. The 5 guys returning home on Sunday after the race were brainstorming some changes for next year. Here goes… Need a music Q in each van. Further than that, we need a Hype Q on each team. This guy is going to stand at the start and yell and scream at you and get you ready to go. Then when you are running in, he is going to be holding a speaker and playing “your song” while announcing your entry into the Exchange Zone. We also talked about having the two vans for a team stay together more rather than buzz off for downtime. Increase 2nd F.
3. List of unfortunate songs that came on the radio JUST as the 9 man team was pulling into Exchange Zones with the volume CRANKED; Bon Jovi; I’ll Be There For You, Wilson Phillips; Hold On For One More Day, and Extreme; More Than Words. In a cruel twist of fate and against all odds, More Than Words actually came on twice during two separate exchange zone entrances….
4. Appreciation for Filibuster’s work on the Weinkes. Someone asked “so how did Filibuster figure out when all the hills start, and how long they are, and all that stuff.” Answer: “He had to review each of the 36 legs in MapMyRun in order to find the hills and then key them into a spreadsheet and then laminate it. Yes, laminate it.” Response: “Oh. Dang, that probably took a long time.” Yep. Thanks Filibuster for allowing us to be prepared for the mountainous torture that was ahead of us at any given time.
5. As we were heading out to catch and pass Diplomat on leg 20 we came up on him, passed him, and hooted and hollered encouragement. He had taken off his shirt and as we passed him, Nanny swore that he started waving his arms at us as if he wanted to tell us something or give us his shirt. So then we slowed down and he ever so slowly he caught up. We were about to yell at him “give us your shirt” just as we realized it was not Diplomat. Awkward.
6. A highlight for me (Nanny) was getting to hang out with van 1 of the 12 man team for breakfast on Sat. They had great stories and I could tell they were having an absolute blast. Hopefully they will include some stories about Glock and Thorn’s encouraging “comments” to the “runners” they passed by. And of course the story of Glock hijacking another team’s race bracelet…
7. The Changing Tent. Oh the jealous looks that were sent our way when we set up that tarp and bungee wonder. Getting neked and lubing up before runs and taking your shower pill post run was a piece of cake once the tent was set up. Only downside was that it required a degree in some form of engineering not yet named; Nanny was the only one who could set it up correctly.
8. As much fun as the BRR event was, it is only a couple days. It is here and gone (unfortunately).   The training however lasts a long time. While I felt a little removed from the pax at large during the months of June – sept, I had a chance to really spend some quality time with my BRR brothers.
9. The spooky Town & Country blue mood lights that randomly turned on throughout the night…
10. The Enterprise saga. Reservation made on February 17th for four, 15 passenger vans. Called enterprise a number of times in the intervening months leading up to Sept, then twice in July and once the week before the race. I (Nanny) called and asked if they thought they would have any issue getting the vans since there was this big race in town and everyone was looking for vans. The guy said in a hurt voice, “Sir! A reservation with Enterprise means you will have a vehicle. You have nothing to worry about. We will begin stockpiling vehicles early in that week. Don’t worry about it.” Okey dokey. Fast forward to 2PM on Thursday; two hours before I was scheduled to come and get the vans and meet our 5 authorized drivers at Enterprise. Ring, ring. “Uhhh….Mr Drescher, we have had a slight issue with your reservation and are looking to put you in 3 minivans, 2 tahoes, and a suburban. Would that be ok?” Me: “No, that would definitely not be ok…..” Long story short…we get our 12 man team into two 2015 Suburbans and Law Dawg and I are waiting for a Yukon XL to show up for the 9 man team. 30 minutes later a non-XL Yukon shows up. Sigh. Our options at that point are a Yukon with no storage space behind the seats or under the floorboards OR a red Town & Country that would make any soccer mom jealous. That is how the 9 man team ended up in a panzy mini-van for their rookie BRR race. Now watch this Seinfeld clip that Pavarotti sent out in response to this overall situation. https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=4T2GmGSNvaM
11. Notable HC’s for the BRR…. S&R was the absolute first guy to consummate his HC with a monetary commitment (Nanny thanks you for your prompt payment 🙂 ). He may have been stealth during some of the training period leading up to the event, but through a ton of big life events, he stayed the course, and then killed the course on race weekend. Sugar and Pharaoh were invited to our first BRR Runners Meeting which we held at Carolina Ale House. It may NOT have been mentioned that this meeting was to talk about all the details for the guys already committed to running the BRR. Must have been the positive peer pressure b/c by the next day they were both HC’s. I have to say though the most impressive HC was from Mash. I (Nanny) was at a swim meet talking with Dropcloth and was telling him we just needed one more runner for the 12 man team. Just then, Mash walked up. Hmmm….I jokingly asked him if he wanted to run a 209 mile relay race through the mountains with us in 2 months. In classic Mash fashion he responded with positive energy and exuberance; “Wow!! That sounds AMAAAAAZING! Let me check the calendar with the M and I’ll let you know.” I gave it a 2 in 10 chance of working out. 11.5 minutes later Mash walks up and says “yep – I’m in!” Has to be the fastest “I’ve never heard of the BRR” to hard commit in history…. And while he has thanked us for the opportunity to join the team, we were the ones who benefited from the tsunami of positivity that he extends around him at all times. A good dude.
12. Most impressive transformation from non-runner to addicted running machine….. Kato. The guy devoured all knowledge re: the sport of running, put it to practical use, trialed at least 28 pairs of shoes before finding “his shoes”, and took his weekly mileage from virtually nil to ~30+ miles a week all in the short period of time between BRR HC and race day. The BRR may have only been a 30 hr race but it is an event that I think has set him on a different athletic course for the rest of his life.
13. From M.Bootstrap. Bootstrap two minutes after completing leg 35, “I do hereby solemnly swear to be nothing but a Van Driver next year.” 6 hours after completing BRR…. “I may consider doing the BRR again next year if I could do different legs.” 24 hours after completing BRR…. “you know, I want to do the SAME legs next year and try to beat my times.” (M.Bootstrap shaking her head).
14. The Nanny smiling…yes smiling…as he ran up leg 31. That kind of suffering should not be accompanied by smiling. What some would consider torture…he was loving every minute of it.
15. Stoli gutting it out on his final leg with a pulled Achilles. We all offered multiple bailouts but he saw it through. Running with a chicken wing arm movement to offset the gimpy foot, he powered up 1000ft of climb….gutsy.
16. Chowder pushing through while sick. His face of pain-wrenched determination on leg 33 was something to behold.
17. Pushing another F3 team’s van out of the ditch. It could’ve gone badly but it turned out just fine.
18. “Guess the Runner’s Gender” Game: During the night stages, van riding team members bode the time by guessing the gender of the upcoming runner only by the movement of the lights #hipsdontlie.
19. Countless times driving another runner’s leg and realizing how hard it was for him.
20. Chavez taking action and talking to the race directors about the dangerous situation with the backhoe at the EZ. Everyone else just stood there and made comments. He had the gumption to do something.
21. In addition to his regular lights, Chowder also wore an arm band light. This was really helpful as it helped identify him from further out. It may be good to have a distinctive light that we wear in addition to our normal lights that’ll help us stand out for the transitions.
22. Glock-isms. So many good stories that involve Glock. How about his heartfelt intentions of providing encouragement to runners, yet his inadvertent crushing of their spirits? Here is how he rolled… Glock is in the vehicle and yells out to a runner “hang in there, you can do this!” Was the runner on a steep section of hill, 9 miles into their run? Nope, 200 yards after starting. The runner must have thought to themself, “damn, I must look really bad if this guy is telling me to hang in there already. I should just give up now – no way I can make it 9 more miles….” Then how about his comments to female runners that just didn’t come out quite right….?
23. Reflections from Nighthawk. I am VERY proud to have been a part of this as an individual, a van 1 member, a 12-man team member, and to represent F3 Highlands on one of our two teams. I can’t quite figure it out, but I feel like the endorphins from this weekend coursing through my veins and have such a feeling of accomplishment. This was a pretty brutal event to tackle, but I couldn’t imagine not doing this …. especially with all you guys. We all hit exhaustion, we all had our battles with our respective BRR legs, and we all conquered it together. Awesome job! I want to thank Thorn for sacrificing his weekend to shuttle us around and keeping us on point with logistics, and thanks also to my van mates – MASH, Pharaoh, Glock, Search & Rescue, and Meathead – for grinding through this with me. Even at the worst moments there was always a smile, laugh, word of encouragement, story, or Meathead offering for you to eat his nuts…. We also killed our estimated van time for the whole event by almost 1 hour! (0:58:38) That shows how deep you guys dug for this. Amazing work! Thank you to all of you for the great memories of this event which will be hard to lose sight of for quite a while. I can’t wait for our next run in the spring… whatever it may be.
24. Six men in a minivan is all that fits. I know it looks like seven would be ok. It’s not.
25. At the end of leg 12, Chavez hits the finish looking like Solomon Grundy with the bad case of the flu. He recovered quickly but he had a couple of us worried for a minute.
26. Leg 33. About a tenth of a mile into the steep part of the Nipple, we see a very strong looking Chowder. The van yells encouragement that sounds like this (as we drive by him and see his face), “Looking good, Chowder!! Keep it uuuuooooooh (now in hush tones) I think he’s hurting…. A lot.”
27. “The Nighthawk nest” or “nest of Nighthawk” (tomato/potatoes whatever) – the back corner of the suburban where you could find Nighthawk and his things. Organized very efficiently (I think the only thing in the truck) to allow maximum space for activities.
28. Glock’s F3 name – all in the suburban were amazed to learn that Glock’s F3 name had nothing to do with him shooting people in the face or a him owning a significant stock pile of firearms.
29. Supportive runner comments already covered but – it took our vehicle several legs to figure out the difference between “cat calling” and encouraging female runners as well as what truly supportive comments are. This was a trial and error learning experience. Surprising how the comment “nice” depending on delivery can come across. Also, yelling “hang in there!” only 300 meters out of the transition point may not make a runner feel confident.
30. “All runners look the same at night – even up close!” This was reinforced when Glock took another team’s wrist band during a night time transition and took off running. The other team’s runner just watched scratching his head as Glock grabbed the wrist band and took off – “Guns a blazin”. Luckily he heard his supportive teammates yelling at him to stop. Upon his return he commented – “I could tell, since my team was still yelling as I continued to run away from the transition zone, that the comments were not meant to encourage me and something was wrong.”
31. As we all know the start of the race was delayed due to a tree following in the road. Following the update meeting, I went back to Pharaoh to break it to him that an additional 2 miles were being added to his leg. I thought he took the news surprisingly well considering the pre-race nerves, length of the race, elevation, etc.   I was thinking “I’m at the wrong race – I don’t belong here,” and this bad ass just blew off the extra distance. Pharaoh continued to smile nodding his head right up until he realized that I wasn’t messing with him! Pharaoh: “That is just F’in great!”
32. The generosity of Meathead as mentioned in Nighthawk’s comments. Meathead…….always willing to share his salty nuts with anyone willing to take them.”
33. Meathead’s ability to stare death (AKA the rear end of a 15 passenger van) in the face and rollover and go back to sleep. After almost becoming a speedbump during his ½ hour total trip sleeping allotment in a grassy field AKA blvd, Meathead was almost flattened by a van backing in to park. Once he realized that he was not going to be hit, he promptly (matter of seconds) returned to coping more ZZZZZs.
34. The BRR was the first time that I have heard the reference of “Undercarriage”. Hilarious for everyone but S&R. It was used in the context to explain the pain & why Search & Rescue was gingerly walking (or something that was supposed to resemble walking) to the Mello Mushroom following the race.
35. Warnings are just that…..they are meant to scare ya, nothing bad actually happens. Example, Thorn had no less than fifteen, 5 hour energy drinks in a 24 hour period – the manufacture more or less insinuates that if you have more than two, you will die a painful, twitchy death. I think he should technically be awake until after Christmas. Instead, he was fine and did an outstanding job piloting our vehicle and herding the team.
36. (Stoli) The F-150 – I’ve always wanted a bad-A truck, so the BRR started off great for me as I drove Kato and Treadstone up I-77 in Pavarotti’s manly Ford F-150 to meet the other six men of the 9 man team. I made the most of the opportunity. I drove fast; I drove slow; and drove it off road as much as possible. Ask Kato about the curb I flew over. It was wild.
37. Wendy’s – Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, we stopped at the most redneck Wendy’s I’ve ever seen. Kato’s medium fries were more like a pound. Wish he would have finished them.
38. Porta-johns – Too much time in porta-johns.
39. Roy Williams – Where was Coach K? Coaching Team USA.
40. Leg 11 – Diplomat not talking to anyone for at least 5 minutes after finishing Leg 11, despite us all standing there with him. His first words went something like “I can’t stand The Nanny; he’s going to pay for this. I just felt like I ran a marathon.”
41. Sam Adams Boston Lager – Treadstone did not approve of my beer choice during the post-run beer stop. I should have consulted with him on local brews first, but he’s fortunate they didn’t have my go-to, Miller Lite.
42. Shower – the shower back at the Hilton was glorious. Period.
43. The ride home – Law Dawg was the man for driving 30 hours straight on one cup of coffee and a Mountain Dew. I don’t know how he did it, but thanks brother! Chavez was my co-pilot as I drove the minivan home that night, and I knew he’d keep me up. The stories got so good Diplomat and Law Dawg never slept. Somehow vasectomies came into the discussion and those in the back of the van awoke to join in the discussion. Great memories!
44. BootStrap: I went from not wanting to sniff this thing next year to being willing but wanting to do some other legs to wanting to do the same legs so I can try to beat my times next year. I know where I came up short in training this go around…BootCamp is a must. Nothing more frustrating when you have the endurance and will power to do what is necessary but your body is just weak. I think that our bootcamps are a vital piece to this being successful for me next year.
45. Sugar: It all started with an invitation to drink beer and ‘talk’ about the BRR relay. I had thought about it previously and really was on the fence because I’ve run for years, but I hadn’t been running lately. Beer was drank, information was heard and peer pressure was rampant! I’m in! I remember my biggest concern was how many legs I would run and if I could do it within what I now know takes about 30 hrs. Obviously the twelve-man team was for me. As I started to train I began to adjust my opinion of hills I’ve held for so many years. I knew that instead of laboring through them with a hope of quick relief, I would have to embrace them and get used to them. I’ve said for years that you don’t get better at running, you just get better at not being able to breathe!! Perfect for hills! Then came the day that the much anticipated (and now legendary) spreadsheet was sent by our great leader, Nanny. For me, this was when I really got sucked in. (I’m also a sucker for a good spreadsheet.) Even better was getting the leg descriptions. 9, 21, and 33 were mine. Leg 9, not bad 4.6 mi., I can handle that. Leg 21, Short 2.6 mi sprint, very do-able. Side note: I hate short runs! You have to run them all out. Remember the comment about getting used to not being able to breathe? This is 2.6 miles of not being able to breathe. AND, you can’t take it easy on something like that. How would I sit in a van (or so I thought, sorry Nanny) with other PAX who’ve run the other legs (which were all way tougher than mine) after having run 2.6 mi. in over 20 minutes??? Leg 33. Purple? What does purple mean………..oh. I was so intrigued by it I spent 20 minutes refreshing my math skills for converting grade percentage to degrees because I just had to know what angle I was going to crawl uphill. (13% is about 7-8 degrees, BTW). I was also so intrigued that I made the M drive with me in early August to Barnardsville for a little ‘test run’ of said leg. And I did, and it sucked, but I did. And I’m so glad I did! I felt that if I could run the toughest leg, I’d be all right. And I was.
46. Sugar: This is the part that truly amazes me. I didn’t really know the other PAX (drivers included) in my vehicle well. I mean I had met them and had been in a few workouts together with some but I would never have imagined that this team would gel and work together as quickly as we did. It seemed that by the time the first legs were run, we new what needed to be done next. Post run drink to the finishing runner. Finishing runner in the front seat to cool down. Getting to the exchange in time for the on deck runner to prep. Pacing the current runner’s time and distance so we new about when they’d get to the exchange. Not to mention the support from everyone. Every self-critical statement was matched by a positive comment from a teammate. Several times we would say to one another: “Man that leg looked like it sucked! I’m glad I didn’t have to run it!” Truth is they all sucked. And we all ran them. Together.
47. Of course I shouldn’t really be surprised.  We’re F3.  That’s what we do.  We thrive and have ‘fun’ during these types of events because they provide us Purpose.  These events give us a reason to put ourselves 3rd and lift each other up to accomplish something great (even if it is CSAUP).
48. Treadstone on overall preparedness: I was mentally prepared for uphills, the lack of food and sleep but the one thing that surprised me was how sore my legs were after Leg 1. Whether it was the severity of the downhills or lack of training, my quads never really recovered. Lots of stretching and rolling didn’t help me as much as I had hoped for. As training goes, there was very little to prepare for me for the one, two, three+ mile stretches of either uphill or downhill. My suggestion would be more Crowder’s mountain training runs.
49. Treadstone on general thoughts: It goes without saying, most of us would never have trained as hard or as often without the support of F3. Spending countless hours in the van/truck gave us more 2nd F than most of us have previously experienced. I learned some things I’ll never forget and also some things I wish I could burn from my memory.  Black Angus bears are not what I expected.
50. Treadstone on highlight moments: Finishing the glory leg with my team even though I went sprinting by trying to squeeze a few more seconds on my last leg. The binder did not instruct me to wait for my team and run to the finish line together. A close second would be a pint of beer a few minutes after finishing.
51. From Pavarotti. Chavez quizzing us on the best key change in music history. It’s Bon Jovi. I’m sure he’d be happy to explain, so just ask.
52. Being mistaken for Stoli and Diplomat by the other F3 teams a few times…..I’ll take it!
53. During the night run, that startling feeling every time my headlamp shined on a mailbox mistaking it for a beer, coyote, zombie or some other creature waiting to attack me. Running into Roy Williams in the bathroom at the Blowing Rock Mellow Mushroom, and then Diplomat not knowing who he is (a country singer?) nor his wife via a Facetime chat (a NASCAR driver?). Being taken to the woodshed by a guy wearing Daisy Dukes and a Reagan/Bush ’84 hat (more on that later).
54. Chavez driving my truck no less than 30 seconds before it started to sound funny only to discover he ran over an orange cone. Not to be outdone, he then proceeded on the drive, but the truck was still not operating correctly and there was another loud noise. It was discovered that he couldn’t resist “touching all the buttons” and inadvertently put it in towing mode.
55. Seeing my washed truck in all its clean glory when the guys returned it on Sunday……thank you!!
56. (Chavez) Driving up the Mtn Goat Stage (31) in the rain with Pavarotti and Diplomat, we pass by Nanny, who’s looking great even on the hilly part. Then we keep going… and going… up this terribly winding hill. Looks awful. IS awful. I fall asleep and don’t wake until the top. Don’t know how long I was asleep, but let’s just say my trip up the mountain was a lot easier than Nanny’s.
57. All done – hanging out in Asheville, change in Pavarotti’s car and head to Tupelo Honey, waiting probably 30-40 minutes for a table. Pavarotti and I hang out while Diplomat befriends a homeless guy. Food is awesome.
58. After the race is over we hit up a bar, at which we are informed that we can get arrested for drinking alcohol on the other side of this one table, because it would technically be drinking in public. So we stay on the inside part of the table; thankfully nobody gets arrested. Then later, we head to the hotel and hit up Hickory Tavern while we wait on everybody to go to the Thirsty Monk. Several guys get massive plates of nachos or pints of bacon. We honor Nanny for his selfless service to our teams and recognize Filibuster and our drivers for their efforts. Incredible time.
59. On the way home was a quite humorous discussion — as Kato mentioned in his write-up — about a certain surgery that guys who believe they have moved past the child-creating stage are prone to get. Law Dog informs us that he has an irrational fear of this procedure, while Stoli informs us that the surgery was so pervasive among him and his brothers-in-law that he tried to get a family discount with the doctor in Concord who performed it.

Leg Writeups

Leg 1

1. 9 man. Runner: Pavarotti. Start time: 10:00 am Distance: 3.9 miles . Avg Pace: 7:22 Here we go. I get to start team “Fast and Furious” on our BRR adventure. I must admit it was a little stressful being the first out of that gate. If it’s a slow start, it would have a downstream impact for the rest of my team. If it’s a fast start, it could impact my performance on the 3 other legs of the event. Well, it was former, and “Fast and Furious” turned out to be the perfect name. After sizing up my competition, I decided to hold back and let the others set the pace thinking they would tire out at the end. That didn’t happen and I found myself watching the backs of the other runners all the way to the finish. Note one of the runners included a guy wearing cut off jean shorts and a Reagan/Bush ’84 baseball hat. That was humbling to say the least, but I checked Strava for my time (thinking I was way off) only to realize I set a few PRs along the way. Overall, it was a great, fast leg and I liked starting off the relay. Text to M: “Leg 1 done. This is fun.”
2. 12 man. Runner: MASH. Start time: 7:00 am Distance: 3.9 miles . Avg Pace: 6:42 Great leg, 4 miles downhill – what’s not to like about that!. I was super excited to get leg one under way until I saw the other runners lining up to start – I about soiled my mid-leg shorts.   The group consisted of a bunch of super fit young guys and a gal with 0% body fat, in split shorts, all rolling shirtless (except for the female runner of course). I definitely questioned if I was at the right race. With the support of a great team, a boat load of adrenaline, and sheer terror related to what I had volunteered for, I knocked out leg one. It certainly helped that I met a fellow F3 runner and chatted (as much as I could being out of breath) with him for the 3.9 miles.   Great conversation and killer views made for a terrific start to the BRR!

Leg 2

1. 9 man. Runner: Diplomat.  Start Time: 10:28 AM  Distance: 8.83. Avg Pace: 7:16 So leg 2 was the nice painless leg of the 31 miles you stuck me with. So I looked at the cheat book AKA Ring Binder and decided to show my talent on hope these legs could do a good job. It was a great run Killed the time by 10 minutes. I started out like all crazies going faster than I wanted but leaving the gate I wanted to take 6 kills on the 6.3 mile run. But then they said there was a tree down and we are going to reroute you via only 2 more miles.   I guess no big deal what else are we going to do, sit in the van with the 1st smelly guy. I started out the 1st 5 miles at 6 1/2 min miles trying to catch up to a runner from Charlotte. Caught up to him on mile 3 ran with him for 2 more miles. Come to find out neither didn’t want each other to pass and move on. Every thing was prime for the 8.3 mile run. It was uneventful and not too hard until the diesel truck came out and he must of known I had nice clean lungs and he felt he needed to make me get a feel for what his stacks tasted like. So after that wonderful person passed, I ran through 1/4 mile of what it would feel like running in China smog. Slapped the band on Chavez and said I can handle the next legs no big deal. LOL little did I know it was going to get VERY HARD. After the sufferfest of Saturday night I was thinking “Not Doing it next year” but by Tuesday, “I think I need to sign up and do a repeat of the same hills…”

Leg 3

1. 9 man. Runner: Chavez.  Start Time: 11:32 AM  Distance: 5.2. Avg Pace: 7:31 Diplomat finishes his brutal 9.5-mile leg and the hand-off is clean. Dang — forgot to start the watch! Oh well, I’ll get it next time. I’m about 300 yards behind a lady, who is a probably the same distance behind SS Minnow. Those who know Minnow know he is a beast. I catch up with the lady around 3/4 mile into the race and am feeling great. Crazy flat. Now I see Minnow ahead — could I really catch that dude? Doubt it. I gain some ground and then get owned on the killer 1.5-mile hill. We don’t have anything this long in Highlands! Great challenge. The lady passes me on the hill. I have to say that — in the most feminine way possible — she’s a beast. Also get passed by another guy. That guy ends up passing Minnow, so that makes me feel better about being passed. Once you get to the top, it’s basically all downhill from there, or at least flat. Absolutely beautiful. Have to run alongside a fairly major road for a while, but it wasn’t busy and the land is just awesome. Tried so hard to pass the lady but I just cannot close the gap. Minnow keeps his distance ahead of her. 5.0 miles in the end — awesome run and felt great. Hand off to Nanny goes awry and we drop the bracelet! Good thing Nanny can make up for that with his #crazyspeed.
2. 12 man. Runner: Nighthawk.  Start Time: 08:38 AM  Distance: 5.2. Avg Pace: 7:12 First run of the BRR for me and my nerves were already jacked up. My whole body was shaking like I had just jumped into a freezing river on the way from EZ 2. I knew this was going to be my “easy” run for the relay with it only being 200’ of elevation and only 5-ish miles. I stretched out a little, downed a Chocolate Outrage GU, and waited. One of the F3 guys I met earlier from Metro, Cooler, is running the same legs as me. He gets his bracelet and takes off ahead of me. A minute or so later, Pharaoh comes barreling down the hill, sunlight glistening off his bald, sweaty head and he is on a mission to end his first leg. The next thing I know I’ve got a blue snap bracelet in my hand and it’s now my turn. Jitters aside, I turn and am off down the road. The first part of the run is pretty much flat. I’m feeling great… adrenaline and endorphins already kicking and my first mile clicks in at 6:58 pace…. Whoops a little too much nitro to start. I back it off a little and as I turn the corner onto Silas Creek the pavement makes way for gravel. My nice flat section is now a 200’ climb over the next mile with a couple of switchbacks. I catch a glimpse of Cooler already on his way up the hill and put my sights on catching him. I catch him at about mile 2 near the top of the hill and we start chatting… real nice guy. The elevation hit me a bit and mile 2 clocks in at 8:34. From here the rest of the leg is essentially downhill. Cooler continues to keep pace with me and we start seeing some other runners on their way to the EZ for leg 4. Mile 3 clocks in at 7:27 and Mile 4 clocks in at 7:12. During that time we were able to pick off two runners. It was then that I realized that I had yet to see Thorn and the guys drive by….. I’m starting to get a little nervous that I’ll get to the EZ and no one will be there. Keep running…. Still no suburban. Finally, Thorn comes rushing by a little after Mile 4. I get a quick yell of encouragement as they rush to get to the EZ. Some runner comes blasting by us at subsonic speeds… I’m feeling great so I start kicking it up a notch to try to keep as close to him as I can but he’s moving at a good clip. Cooler is still with me and Mile 5 completes at 6:44 pace. We pass a 3^rd runner in the last .2 mile and I can see Meathead now trying to get himself situated because of the late arrival. I grab the wristband, stretch it out, and push it into Meathead’s hand.  Leg 1 is done and it felt awesome….. until I realized that I still have 19.6 miles left to go. I slammed down a chocolate milk, grabbed a PBJ sandwich, an apple, and sit back for the “great wait”. Meathead, Glock, and S&R go out to crush their respective legs and then we’re off to Boone for some grub at Panera. MASH is disappointed that they won’t sell him slices of turkey meat a la carte and want to charge him for a full meal, so he and I pass on a meal while the other guys feed their face. I don’t have much of an appetite and don’t want to put too much into my system since I have a long run coming up without any places to take care of business….. if ya know what I’m saying. We head back up to the TZ and hang with van 2 for a little before Bling comes in and transitions to MASH. Van 1 is back to active status…. MASH runs another great leg, followed by Pharaoh,… and now my turn is coming.

Leg 4

1. 9 man. Runner: Nanny. Time: 12:11 PM. Distance: 6.8. Avg pace: 8:02 The Mighty Red Minivan rolled into the church parking lot with plenty of time playing the only kind of music that should be played when entering an exchange zone; a power love ballad. The windows were down and once we switched to something more upbeat, Informer by Snow, we soon had the young occupants of the suburban next to us dancing. Good vibe in that exchange zone. I did a quick warm up run on Landmark Church Rd and then did my pre-flight check; bib, weinke, water bottle, and watch synced with satellites. I started the leg at high noon but thankfully some clouds rolled in which gave enough cover to go without a shirt and not be worried about sunburn. The first 0.75 miles is downhill and FAST to a small hill (which I don’t remember) and then downhill or flat again for 1.75 miles before the climb starts . This is your only chance for speed, so take advantage of it. The hill is the distinguishing feature of this leg. It never stopped and it sucked my will to live. Really, really tough. Almost everyone I passed was walking. I thought leg 4 was my most challenging one. I think it was the time of day and my slightly injured right thigh getting used to the idea that I was going to be asking a lot of it over the next 24 hours… Following my run I hit my protein recovery shake, prunes (nature’s gels), coconut water (nature’s gatorade), and fruit (blueberries and strawberries). Then I entered the changing tent, took two shower pills, and changed back into real clothes. Felt awesome to have one down but was nervous about how the body would handle three more legs….

Leg 5

1. 9 man. Runner: Filibuster. Time: 1:07 PM. Distance: 4.8. Avg pace: 8:33 Ahhh, the overconfidence of one’s first leg. The hills are still theoretical, the bright, low 80’s sun is the perfect temperature to run to, and a mile is just an inch on a map. This is my easiest leg and I am ready to eat into that 30 minute delay and get us back to binder time. As Nanny slaps the bracelet on me, I tell myself not to go too fast, lot of miles and feet of climb left on this thing. Three steps later I realize people can see me and my need to look fast overwhelms rational thought. As I head down the initial hill, I know I am too fast BUT I stop lying to myself and just plan on running too fast until the van passes me. A mile in, I’ve actually climbed my first Wienke level hill and run a 7:50 mile. Now to this point, we have run through Highlands Grayson park, through beautiful, bucolic mountain stretches and along rivers. It’s important to know that Leg 5 is the least attractive leg of the race. I like West Jefferson but running through town is kind of anticlimactic compared to the other scenery. This is wildly apparent by this point. Another basic climb coupled with a lot of downhill gives me mile 2 at 8:19. Mile 3 continues downhill. Still running on the right side, kind of on the sidewalk, sometimes in the road, sometimes dodging parked cars. The good news is the Van just went by. Mile 3 killed at 8:21. So it’s getting hot now. No shade in town, five million turns, asphalt seems 105 degrees and we are uphill from here. Most of mile 4 is ok. Hot and no fun but ok. Mile 4 9:12.. Now at the end of mile 4, I am running uphill around a iittle curve and I see the “East Buck Mountain Road Climb”. 6% incline looks like 60%. It’s only a half mile but I am starting to think how nice its going to be to clown car back into the minivan. And there’s a runner catching up with me. The team hasn’t been passed to this point as far as I know, so I dig down and knock out the final .7 best I can in a 9:30 pace which includes my version of a sprint over the last tenth of a mile. In summary, manage not to vomit and knock off 2 minutes from projected time.

Leg 6

Leg 7

1. 9 man. Runner: Kato. Time: 2:32PM Distance: 2.4mi. I had a great ride up with Stoli and Treadstone but I must admit I felt a little late to the party not being there for the start. Like many, I hadn’t slept well the night before and I was anxious to begin. Chowder slapped the bracelet on my wrist and I was off. In my excitement, I ran my first mile too fast (for me) at a 6:27 pace. It was hot and by the time I reached the EZ, I felt horrible: stiff, weak, and nauseas. What was I doing? Did I belong on this team?

Leg 8

1. 9 man. Runner: Stoli. Time: 2:52PM Distance: 3.1mi. Avg pace: 7:19 Lots of excitement going into my first leg. First 1.75 miles were a pleasant, easy run with farm animals grazing the pastures on my left. I underestimated the monster 9% grade of the hill near the end. It sucked, and I sucked running it. The last 0.5 mile was an easy, slight downhill sprint to the finish. Lots of guys were yelling, so I ran faster than I should have. So close to gagging. So close.

Leg 9

1. 9 man. Runner: Treadstone. Time: 3:15PM Distance: 4.6mi. Avg pace: 7:28 Elevation gain 241ft, Elevation lost 459 ft (75 degrees-No Shirt) I’m going by my watch so it may differ by a few feet. I also ran in the middle of the winding roads in straight tangents to maximize effort level. General advice on anyone’s first leg, go a little slower than normal, your legs will thank you later. The first mile in leg 9 is pretty much straight down hill. Even though I was trying to conserve energy in my mind, my legs had other plans. First mile at the BRR 6:41 (uh-oh 25 miles to go). All of the elevation lost in the first mile and half is quickly replaced by an equally tough 1/2 mile 6% grade climb.  This is a quick reminder that there are no short hills on the BRR. Another giant downhill for a mile before finally leveling off towards the end of the leg. Finished with a respectable 7:28 pace but my legs felt like they had just finished a tough half marathon.
2. 12 man. Runner: Sugar. Time: 12:28PM Distance: 4.6mi. Avg pace: 9:06 The Teacher. Having 33 for the last leg and overall the easiest set, I didn’t really pay too much attention to the detail of leg 9. I knew it was mostly down hill and was about 4.5 miles. Looking back I feel it was the worst leg I ran and learned a few quick lessons from that first run. Adrenaline – I was waaaay jacked up at the start of this leg. Remember, ‘mostly down hill? Yeah there’s a bit of an incline about a third of the way in that I was wiped out for because I started too strong. What complicated this was I hadn’t followed my running routine of carrying my phone (poor man’s GPS watch) and therefore had no clue of where I was on my course. Lesson learned. The other thing that surprised me was the heat. The sun was really hot and there’s nothing like feeling the heat beating down on you to beat you down. Fortunately everyone else mentioned it too so at least I wasn’t the whiner on the team. Well, I may have been but at least not because of the heat!

Leg 10

1. 9man. Runner: Pavarotti. Time: 3:49 PM. Distance: 5.30. Avg pace: 8:58 The start of this leg is great. The setting is near an old general store with a picturesque view of open fields and cabins high on the hills. It brings back some memories as this is also the start of the “Run the Gauntlet,” which I did with my sisters for a sibling weekend on the 15th anniversary of my dad’s passing. I almost got lost right after the wristband handoff from Treadstone to start the leg due to a sneaky fork in the road (well, it was sneaky for me). Also, there were no other runners on the road to show me the way. After I figured it out, the route curved around and went along the New River for most of the leg. It was another great view, but I found myself needing to breathe and focus on my mechanics rather than the scenery. The leg is mostly flat until you hit Big Hill Road. “Big Hill Road,” how appropriate (and creative)? Well, I made my way up and down that hill and was thankful to see Diplomat….and some Port-o-Johns. Not necessarily in that order. Text to M: “Leg 2 done. Not as fun.”
2. 12 man. Runner: Dropcloth. Time: 1:10 PM. Distance: 5.30. Avg pace: 8:54 This was my first leg and after hearing how everyone was crushing their times in the earlier legs I felt a little pressure build. The run was relatively easy as the first 3.8 miles runs right beside the New River and is basically flat the whole time. The real challenge on this leg is to pace yourself, as I found myself breathing relatively hard on a flat road and it was because I was running a 7:23 pace (I’m more of a 8:30 pace). The other obstacle was this leg was in the heat of day and directly in the sun with no shade at all. I found my body was craving fluids so depending on the time of day and the temperature, carrying a fuel pack isn’t a bad idea. After your turn on Big Hill road the course stayed relatively flat until the last half mile or so when Big Hill showed up. This isn’t a bad climb compared to others but after 4.5 miles at too fast a pace and the blazing sun I found myself walking briefly to recover and to have a burst at the end in front of the team. This leg is a good entrance to your first BRR – fairly easy, flat and the scenes running the river are great (especially the female BRR teams rinsing off and cheering you on – temptation overcome!!!)

Leg 11

1. 12 man. Runner: Bootstrap. Time: 1:57 PM. Distance: 8.4. Avg pace: 9:21 Leading up to my first BRR leg I felt great and was ready to get this thing started. My knee wasn’t bothering me and I spent plenty of time getting loose and was hydrated like a mother. We passed Dropcloth on the way to the transition point and he looked strong and it got me even more excited and ready to roll. When we got to the transition point I went to the restroom and waited for Dropcloth to come down the hill. I knew I had 8.4 miles to go that was labeled “very hard” in the binder so I planned on an easy pace to save some for the two climbs I had. When I got the bracelet I settled into a nice easy pace (or so I thought) but I was running downhill for a good bit and looked at my watch and it said I was running a 6:30 pace. So much for taking it easy but I knew that it was because I was running down hill and it wouldn’t last. As I approached the bridge to cross over the river I realized that I had been here before. We had been at this place last year tubing down this river with Titanium and his family. I thought this is pretty cool I get to run along the river and I know that is pretty flat for a good ways. I saw two runners up a head about 100 yards and thought I have 8 miles to get close enough to strike on the last half mile. Eventually I lost sight due to the turns but I enjoyed running along the river and taking in a beautiful day for a run in the mountains. It was hotter than I anticipated and I had decided to carry water for this run in the middle of the day but my only problem was that I didn’t bring my fuel belt because I didn’t think I would need it and I thought there can’t possibly be any room in this little suburban for my massive fuel belt. I decided to carry a water bottle and put it in my pocket when the water rain out. When I got to the end of the road along the river I turned left and saw what was to come over the next 2 miles of climb at 5-6%. I just settled in and kept telling myself “don’t you dare walk, you pansy…suck it up and press on” I knew I would get to go down eventually but it seemed like it would never end. As I got close to the top and the turn on to the gravel road I saw the suburban and the guys cheering me on. I picked up the pace to make it look like I had this and it wasn’t a struggle (I felt like I was running faster but in reality I probably wasn’t). as the suburban passed me by I traded water bottles for another one and I am glad I did because the gravel roads suck with all the vans passing you and kicking up all that dust. I wasn’t really drinking because I was thirsty as much as I was trying to get the grit and crap out of my mouth. This particular gravel road was a little challenging due to the fact that the edge were I should be running was really soft so I kept running where the vans would drive but have to keep moving every time one of them would come by. As I came off the gravel road onto the pavement it was mostly downhill and I started to pick up the pace. I came to a long straight away and could see my last climb ahead which was about ¾ mile with a 4% grade. I realized that the runners I saw along the river were gone and I wasn’t going to be killing them for sure and I looked behind me and saw no one for at least a ½ mile. I got to the top and descended upon Hwy 421 and saw an opening and went for it. I didn’t want to stop because I only had a ½ mile left so I just bolted across the highway in what felt like only 5 really long strides. I could see the vans off in the distance so I knew I was close and I just wanted to finish strong and pass it on to Bling. I passed it on to Bling and looked at my watch to see my time and realized I had beaten it by almost 2 minutes. I thought, “man, maybe I am in better shape than I thought and can really push this thing.” I stretched out for about ten minutes and then we jumped in the suburban to head over to the next transition point. I really didn’t think it was as bad as I may have thought it would be or could be but as I would find out later in the night that it really was harder than I thought on the night run.

Leg 12

1. 9 man. Runner: Chavez. Time: 5:50 PM. Distance: 6.1. Avg pace: 8:08 Man, Diplomat is smoked and no wonder: he’s just finishing what he later called his hardest leg — and this is saying something, as Diplomat’s #2 position is among the hardest of our group. Hanging out by the church and putting the vest on for the first time. This time, I will NOT forget to start the watch. Hand-off is clean. Dang! Legs a little sore from before, but doing fine. About 5 minutes into it, I realize that I’ve forgotten to start my watch again! This time, it’s a little more critical because the Filibuster-made weinke from #12 indicates 3 hills and I try to follow them. I hit the Parkway and it’s just beautiful. Trees are beautiful and occasionally you get a vista off to the left. If I run off the road once I run off 20 times because of cars. I later get advice from Nanny that you really don’t need to run off the road: just check behind you and if no car is coming from the opposite direction, make the approaching car give you some room. Man, wish I would have gotten that advice before I started! Get passed once by a guy who’s really hauling; he smokes me. I comfort myself by thinking, “He’s probably Position #12 on a 12-man team.” Nevermind that he could have been the #6 position on a 6-man team… Because I hadn’t started my watch at the beginning, it’s hard to know when I’m hitting my last hill. I accidentally believe my last hill to be what’s in reality my 2nd hill. This isn’t bad at the time because I don’t know it. But when I hit the last hill, dang again! Misjudged and now I have to run up this bad boy. It’s not too bad, though. What’s really bad is the final, final hill leading up to the finish. What sadistic soul thought it would be good to make us run up what would better be rock-climbed to the finish?? Seriously, it was a great challenge. Hard but really good. This time, clean hand-off to Nanny. My hardest leg of the day. Now time to rest…

Leg 13

1. 9 man. Runner: Nanny. Time: 6:37 PM. Distance: 9.3. Avg pace: 8:26 This was the most enjoyable run of the race for me – I could have done just this run and been satisfied with participating in the BRR – it was that great. Perfect time of day to run; evening was just setting in, temp was cooling down, and was on a high after all the great 2nd F up to this point. Race officials said if you start after 6:45 you HAVE to wear lights but suggested I wear them even though I was earlier than that. Took their advice and very glad I did. I elected to sport the safety vest Chip n Dale style. This was a low stress run for me b/c I drove it earlier in the summer. If you can pre-drive your legs you will have so much less nervousness about them – do it if you can. I got to the Blue Ridge Parkway and settled in for a 600ft climb over 3 miles. Wasn’t a killer but was not easy. A good number of cars on the Prkwy which was surprising – hence why I was glad I had lights. Also decided to take my Fuel Belt w/ two bottles and a gel. That turned out to be a really good idea. Hit the gel at mile 3 and drank water at each mile. I think it really helped make recovery easy from this one. Three AMAZING scenic lookouts along the way. One short section of uber steep downhill as you get to hwy 321, then a quick game of frogger as you cross. This is when you start hearing music and smelling food cooking in the heart of downtown Blowing Rock – you know you are close! Up to the Mellow Mushroom, down to the pool and DONE. Challenging due to length, but not bad. Keep the tradition going and dine at the Shroom following this leg while wearing your safety vest chip n dale style…
2. 12 man.  Runner: MASH. Time: 4:15PM.  Distance: 9.3. Avg Pace: 8:29 Great leg of the course and at great time of the day. Started off the race running with a guy that I learned was a student at a high school in Northern Virginia during the time that I worked there (2004 – 06) – small world!!! We chatted for the first 2 miles about crazy student stories right up until the elevation started and my lack the O2 made it a challenge to talk. Motivated by the conversation, the scenery, and the music playing off the IPhone (yep – carrying my phone old school), I settled into a consistent pace for the my journey upward on the Blue Ridge parkway/the long hill that made up the majority of leg 13.   The challenge and associated pain of traveling uphill for several miles were soon negated by the numerous incredible views of the valleys off on the left hand side of the road (awesome, it took my mind off the hill). Before too long, I began to see runners up ahead in the distance which furthered my motivation to not only catch them but also get to the top of the hill. What I failed to realize, which crushed the excitement of finishing the climb, is how much it sucks going downhill when your legs are tired! My downhill time was much faster than anticipated due to the fact that I couldn’t stop. I felt like my face was being drawn to the pavement at the bottom of the hill. Fortunately I kept my face off the pavement and made it to the transition zone where I handed off the wrist band to Pharoah – a very welcomed sight!

Leg 14

1. 9 man. Runner: Filibuster. Time: 7:58 PM. Distance: 6.2. Avg pace: 8:36 Leave the pool just as it’s getting dark. Kind of looking forward to this leg as it rolls along for the most part with some ups and downs (few more ups but that’s ok). Uh-oh. Couple of runners come in as I am heading out. Must not get killed. About a half mile in, I get killed. He was fast. First mile is a wishy washy 9:03 and I am feeling Mellow Mushroom the whole way. Slightly in to mile 2, everything starts to feel better. My stomach settles, breathing normalizes, pace picks up and I may be hallucinating but I think I catching somebody. Mile 2 clocks at 8:37. Soon the unthinkable happens; I get my first kill of the race. Otherwise, mile 3 is fairly uneventful at 8:47. Mile 4 has a little downhill to it and I pick up the pace. I also get hit with what I am pretty sure is a bat. Something flew out of the woods, zoomed by me and hit my arm with it’s fuzzy body. Happened so fast it didn’t even really startle me. Better than a bear. Mile 4 8:05. I won’t bore you with the last two miles. It’s now completely dark but I can see runners catching me. We are heading uphill and I am feeling ok but nobody is confusing me with a real runner. Kind of like in Shawshank Redemption, I put up a good fight but in the end I get killed two more times. On the bright side, I come in at 53:22, 3 and a half minutes to the good of the binder.

Leg 15

1. 12-man.  Runner: Nighthawk. Time: 06:26 PM.  Distance: 10.5 Avg Pace: 7:47 Alright, I’ve had some significant downtime and have been itching to get back out on the course…. It’s go time. It drizzles a little at the EZ and we can see some lightning in the sky off in the distance. I’m really hoping this will hold off for a bit…and it does. I see Cooler from F3 WTF3 waiting for his 2^nd man to come in, so it looks like we’ve stayed pretty close in the relay so far. At least I’ll have a running partner for this grinding leg. I down a Chocolate Outrage GU, strap on my hydration belt (18oz of Lemon Lime Nuun and 2 Lemon Sublime GU), pocket my headlamp, velcro on my reflective vest, and head to the EZ. F3 WTF3 transitions and Cooler heads out… Another two runners take off and then Pharoah crests the hill “coming in hot” (a MASH phrase). I’ve got some distance to cover and a few minutes to make up if I am going to catch anyone ahead of me. I start up the never ending incline which will be my fate for the next 10.5 miles. The first 1.5 miles is a 400’ elevation change. As I am running this I am finding every possible tangent to cut while staying on the left side of the double lines… I need to make up time and I want to cut this madness as short as possible without ending up as someone’s hood ornament or falling off the side of the cliff next to the road. I’m paying more attention listening for vehicles than I am about the discomfort I have in my legs as I cut all the curves on the road. Most drivers are courteous and slow down as they come towards me with one or two exceptions.  This leg goes on and on and on …. Some sections are a bit challenging due to their slope but then those sections give way to flat or sometimes even downhill segments where I can recover. I continue up and up and up…. Every 2 miles I take a swig of nuun and at 40 mins I force down a lemon sublime gu for some fuel. At about mile 5 I’ve caught Cooler and passed 2 other runners and am still plugging away. At about mile 7 or so it is starting to get dark out, so I put on the head lamp and keep grinding….. pass 2 more runners in that section.  At mile 9 I catch up to another runner who is struggling. Kill #6 and the end is near with runner #7 in sight. All of the sudden at 9.5 miles I get this horrible stitch in my right side out of nowhere. It hurts bad…. Real bad. I stop and walk for about 30 seconds to try and work it out…. Start going again…. stop and walk again … polish off all my nuun… try again and this time I am able to fight through it till it subsides. I get a last mile lift and give it all I’ve got to pass it over to Meathead for his leg. Somehow I was able to put in a few miles around 8 min pace and a few more around 7:15-7:30 for an average of 7:58/mi. Much better than I expected…. I congratulate a few of the runners that came in around me, hit the car, chug my chocolate milk, towel off and we’re off to the next EZ. We’re at the EZ for legs 28/29. I’m in the process of changing and recovering, waiting for Meathead to come in…. I look up to the volunteer tent and see a runner who just came in from leg 28 waiting for his teammate…. Wait a sec. that guy looks like Meathead! I frantically rush around to get Glock to run up to the EZ and some of the guys head up with him. Glock gets there and puts out his wrist to take the bracelet from meathead. It clicks and Glock heads off on his next leg….. problem is, its not Meathead. Some of the guys frantically call Glock back to the TZ , give the team their bracelet back, and wait for the real Meathead to come…. He shows up shortly and Glock heads out with our official team bracelet. We make our way to the TZ Firehouse where the showers/potatoes are and run into Treadstone, Kato, and Stoli. This is the first we’ve seen of the 9-man team. We get a chance to sit and chat, and I watch a few of the guys down some loaded baked potatoes. I’m wishing I had an appetite and didn’t feel nauseous, but oh well…  it’s probably better this way. We transition active status over to van 2 and head out to a TZ to get some rest…. Which doesn’t really happen.

Leg 16

1. 9 man. Runner: Kato. Time: 10:32PM Distance: 6mi At about 10:30 we saw Chowder’s distinctive arm band lights and I was soon on my way. This was my favorite run. It was a cool night and the first half of the run was in solitude through the woods. This time I tried to keep my pace in check and stayed around a 7:40 at the beginning. Periodically, lights would appear on the straights but would quickly disappear on the turns. Was I catching up or being left behind? Before long, I was on public streets again and saw a series of lights in front of me. I was passed twice but was able to pass a number of runners as well.

Leg 17

1. 9 man. Runner: Stoli. Time: 11:21PM Distance: 4.9mi. Avg pace: 7:49 It was around 11:30 pm and I got a 2^nd wind. I knocked out 20 pullups and 30 merkins on the school playground and was more jacked up for this leg than any of the others. Maybe it was just the time of night. The first mile was easy and cool to run through the town of Newland. Then… it’s all darkness for the remaining 4 miles and a steady 1.5 mile climb near the end. It was kind of creepy, but there were a lot of runners out at this point and the light from the passing vans helped. The music playing out loud on my iphone also made the time fly and helped me run a solid time… for me.

Leg 18

1. 9man. Runner: Treadstone. Time: Midnight on the nose. Distance: 5.7mi. Avg pace: 7:56 Elevation gain 404ft, Elevation lost 1,389 ft (63 misty, foggy) Other than being at midnight and missing the team dinner (Mellow Mushroom with Roy Williams) this was a pretty easy running leg. I wasn’t completely without quality food- I did sneak in two hotdogs at the base of Grandfather mountain. I will say that running downhill on a winding road in the fog with limited visibility, is harder than it should be. I wished I could have gone faster but I could barely see the road in front of me. I did get one really good climb around mile 3. 9-11% grade for 1/2 mile. Pace was around 7:45 with the exception of the big hill. Officially finished at 7:56 pace and the legs were really feeling the last two miles downhill.   With a nine man team and being in the 9 spot, there wasn’t any time for rest until after this leg.   Kato, Stoli and myself eventually made it to the fire station around 2am. Apparently GPS does not work in the dark or when everyone is tired. The fire station had baked potatoes and hot showers available. I took advantage of both. We got to meet up the the Highland 12 and share some quick war stories. Our sleep plan was to go back to the truck and pull out our hammocks and air mattress and sleep under the stars. The weather decided otherwise and proceeded to rain as hard as it had all weekend. We all snuggled inside the truck and maybe got 45 minutes of sleep. Kato probably didn’t get any because he was next man up.

Leg 19

1. 9 man. Runner: Pavarotti. Time: 12:45AM Distance: 4.5mi. Avg pace: 8:53 I was looking forward to “the night run,” but probably could have done without that third piece of pizza and beer back in Blowing Rock. There was a lot of time between my 2nd and 3rd legs and, looking back, would have done my down time a bit differently. This leg was next to one of the convergence zones and it wasn’t quite as organized as the other, daytime stops. The parking area was more long than wide and we had a hard time finding a place to get settled and catch some sleep. After falling in and out of consciousness for about an hour and half, it was time to vest, blinker, headlamp up and go. I bumped into a former co-worker waiting on Treadstone and she got a headstart…..now I had something to shoot for to keep me going in the nighttime setting. The write-up on this leg showed a nice, slow downhill, however, it didn’t feel that way. Maybe it was the pizza, lack of sleep or coming out of the gates too fast, but I struggled to keep the Nanny-Filibuster-binder pace. Overall, it was a nice leg. The experience was very surreal running at night in the open air with small, flashing lights in the far distance.
2. Text to M: “Leg 3 done. Less fun than leg 2.”

1. 12 man. Runner: Shazam. Time: 10:13PM Distance: 4.5mi. Avg pace: 8:04 This was my “dark” run. We arrived at the Transition zone early and tried to bunk down for some sleep. Only trouble was I only had my hammock and there were no trees to use… no worries, I’ll head over the the random church’s playground and tie off on their jungle gym and a light pole (never mind that the light pole was ON and I would be sleeping right under it). I set my alarm for about 90 minutes and tried to sleep. After 80 minutes of nodding on/off, listening to the calming sounds of slamming port-a-johns and movement of others trying to sleep I decided to pack up the hammock and get dressed for the run. I had felt great during my first leg and felt pretty good as I started stretching and hydrating. I was pretty amped up and ready to get out on the course. This leg was designated easy and at a relatively flat 4.5 miles, I knew it was on me to push myself to lay down a good pace. I kept seeing all the tough hills that our other guys had to deal with and their effort pushed me to go harder. Thanks to MASH and others, I knew exactly when S&R was rounding the corner and heading into the transition. I checked in with the psycho volunteers (seriously… what in the world was going on there? too much coffee? lack of sleep? meth?). Smooth transition and off we went. Once past the shouts of teammates and the lights of the church it got dark really fast. The only thing I could see ahead of me was the blinking light of another runner. That was my target and I tasked myself with tracking him down. I went out too fast for me (7:25 pace) but had gained a lot of ground and passed him with some encouraging words about a mile and half into the run. After that, I felt like I could settle into a good pace and click off the miles. It was so clear that I could see millions of stars, it was quite peaceful and I spent some time praying during the run. The tranquility was broken about 3 miles in when a passing van startled me with some extremely loud barking sounds from inside (side note: super cool guys… much appreciated <sarcasm font>). It didn’t seem like I’d been out there very long when I noticed the slight incline that would take me to the exchange. I pushed it in and handed off to J-Lo for his brutal leg. I was glad to have finished at a good pace for me (~8:05/mile) and felt even better that I had 2 down and 1 to go. Only issue… Leg 31 awaited – aka the MG. Got some fluids in me, stretched a bit and then back into our spacious Suburban.   Highlights – seeing the stars, not getting hit by a car, putting down a decent pace, clipping off another kill (3 total at this point). Lowlights – almost soiling myself when I heard the “dog”, dreading Leg 31 ahead.

Leg 20

Leg 21

1. 9 man. Runner: Chavez. Time: 2:35 AM. Distance: 2.6. Avg pace: 6:37 Crazy fast leg. Don’t know the name of the little town, but it’s a ghost town — except for a couple of vans riding past, including ours. Almost the entire thing is downhill, or sometimes flat. Although it wasn’t hard physically, it was mentally hard to follow all the instructions! Signage isn’t great — gotta be on the lookout.
2. 12 man. Runner: Sugar. Time: 11:53PM. Distance: 2.6. Avg pace: 7:37 The Sprint. Remember what I said earlier about 2 miles races? I knew it was going to suck but at least it would be over quick. I had actually studied this one because of all the turns at the beginning and I’m glad I did because it was dark. So dark that 2 other runners took a wrong turn and got lost (2 kills by default, I’ll take ‘em.) 2.6 miles decently steep out of the gate for about ¼ mi and then leveling out through the thriving metropolis of Spruce Pine to finish up where else? An Ingles of course. This is the leg I’m most proud of because I finished a bit over 19 min and got my fastest mile ever of 6:55! Yeah, some downhill but I don’t care. I ran a 6:55 mile!

Leg 22

1. 9 man. Runner: Nanny. Time: 2:52 AM. Distance: 3.8. Avg pace: 7:30 Running at night is tough. There is ambiguity in directions, in your footing, your body is freaking out wondering why you are doing this instead of sleeping….just a weird experience. We rolled into the Exchange Zone with me in shotgun b/c in the 9 man van that’s how we roll yo. Next runner has most incentive to get to the next EZ, so it only makes sense for him to navigate. Anyway…I took the baton from Chavez who had just cranked out a quick leg and started my run. Of course I forgot to synch my watch up to the satellites and it never found them. SUCK!!! That also meant my weinke was significantly less useful. Not that I could see it….when I shined my light on it the lamination reflected it back and caused me to go blind. When you tried to hit it with indirect light you couldn’t read it….yea – night runs are fun. Ok…so running with my ~800 lumens tactical flashlight was awe.some. I lit those roads up like a sun flare – the people I ran up on must have thought a car was on their tail. Weird to run with the light b/c you had to keep one arm sort of still, but I would do it again on a short to medium run as it took away any and all concerns re: what was beyond your field of vision. I was feeling frisky and hit this one hard – it was the only leg I felt like I truly raced. Easy leg with a long straight run up a very minor grade to the finish. Felt like I was flying but only ended up with a 7:30 pace.

Leg 23

1. 9 man. Runner: Filibuster. Time: 3:21 AM. Distance: 7.2 mi. Avg pace: 9:59 Uggghh. I have been dreading this one. A month ago, the extra 2 miles and 300 feet of climb felt like an exciting extra challenge. At 3:21 in the morning, it only encourages a number of foul curses under my breath. There will be no going out to fast on this one, just survival. The first two miles are made of a little over a half mile of gentle decline followed by over a mile climb. Real climb. Oh, and I see headlamps close behind me to start. The good news, I survive the hill, no walking. The bad news is I get passed not long after cresting the hill. As I pass the traditional EZ for this leg, I curse Nanny out loud. I know he didn’t change the course but it’s best to have an actual person to blame it on. Down hill portion now on the dirt/gravel. The first turn, I quickly learn that there are ruts that are very hard to pick out with the headlamp but easily picked out with your feet. That kind of hurt. I am also passed by two runners that go by so fast that it nearly knocks me down. Actually, they were so fast, I didn’t even feel bad about it. There’s a little rain now but now enough to keep all the dust down as the vans go by. I am eating a lot of van dust. And I can see each particle as the headlamp spotlights them in the air. I feel like a blue whale sucking in plankton except the plankton only stick to my teeth instead of getting in my belly. Now, whoever put the Wienke together for this leg (me) messed this one up. The hills did not match with with I had laminated. Let’s just say this part did not go well. I am not going to lie. There might have been a little walking, a little internal whining and moaning, and a modicum of despair. Let’s just say the binder got it’s 3 ½ minutes back from last leg. This was the hardest leg that I have run in all the BRRs to this point. (Yes, I have avoided the worst ones but this was bad.)
2. 12 man. Runner: Bootstrap. Time: 12:46 AM. Distance: 7.2 mi. Avg pace: 10:35 I felt good going into this mid night run. We passed Dropcloth and he was powering up the mountain toward his descent to the transition zone. We pulled in and I ran around a bit and stretched…made sure I had on my vest with all my flashy lights and head lamp to see. I think I need to pee so I head toward the port-a-jon to make it happen and I hear a bunch of calls for Bootstrap so I head up to get the bracelet from Dropcloth. There were a couple of us that all took off together and I ran with my boy DeadEagle from somewhere in Metro. We talked for some time while climbing the additional miles that were added to this leg. He asked if the “girl” was still with us and I said “no, we lost her”…to which he said “good, don’t want to get passed by a girl” (more on that to come). I started to realize that I didn’t think I needed pee but I really had to pee. We kept climbing up passed the school were we should have had the transition but it was moved to the bottom this year. DeadEagle informed me that he had run this leg last year and that was the transition zone last year. As dead eagle started to pull away a little I realized no one was around and decided to kill my lights and go pee (sorry Nanny but I still had 5.2 miles to go and likely would not have made it without peeing on myself). As DeadEagle got out of sight I checked behind me and there wasn’t anyone for at least a half mile. I could see far enough back when making the turn by the camp so I knew I was good to go by myself for a while. As I settled into another pace after my pit stop I felt good because the first climb was over with. I started down the gravel road and about 5 minutes in I thought I saw something ahead moving along the road. As I got closer I realized it was a SNAKE!!! Damn it man…my worst fear on these runs was not a bear it was a stinkin’ snake and here I am all alone in the dark with one of these son of guns. This is the one time that I walked for about 20 feet as I got closer it wasn’t moving…oh crap now it is going to curl up and try to strike. I really was wishing I had my tactical flash light right now so I could shine more light on this serpent but as I got closer I realized it was DEAD!!! No better snake then a dead one…but now I have wasted precious time on this stupid thing and started running again. About 7 minutes later I started to hear a pitter patter and turned to look over my right shoulder to see a FEMALE passing me by like I was standing still…What the….she ran by me and gave me a “good job”…what do you mean good job? I just got passed by a girl. I tried like a champ to stay within striking distance with her but eventually she was out of sight after a mile or so of trying to keep up. I knew I was getting close to my last turn and as I approached it I heard someone else coming and as he passed me…we both got passed by the Charlotte running club runner who was moving like you wouldn’t believe. The last ½ mile here felt like it took 10 minutes and it may very well have since I was running so slowly but I just wanted to get to Bling and pass it on. As I approached to transition zone I saw Bling waiting and passed onto him. Shazam and Sugar explained to me that the female that had passed me was one of the female elites so it wasn’t that bad…easy for you to say since she didn’t pass you like you were standing still…and they told me that she caught up to DoubleEagle too so don’t feel so bad. This leg was tough and this is where I really started to notice my lack of BootCamp was taking over with my overall strength not being where it should be.

Leg 24

Leg 25

1. 9 man. Runner: Kato. Time: 5:01AM Distance 4.2mi. Avg Pace: 7:52 After what seemed like a long night; getting lost to the TZ, a failed attempt at sleep in the truck, and countless trips to the porta johns with severe abdominal cramping, I stood waiting in the mist for the next leg. As I took the bracelet and ran, the mist turned to rain. As my headlamp shone on the falling rain, it had a weird “lightspeed” affect. A mile or so in, my cramping eased. Again I tried to keep my pace and ran around 7:30 before a climb at the end. As the grade increased, runners in front me began to slow and walk. I caught myself doing the same and after a brief bout of self-directed verbal abuse/encouragement, I picked it back up overtake some of them and to finish the leg.
2. 12 man. Runner: MASH. Time: 2:36AM Distance: 4.2mi . Avg Pace: 7:30 Crazy experience!!!! The BRR was full of many firsts for me and this leg added several to the list. The first time I have gotten ready to run for the third time in less than 24 hrs – why would I have ever done this before & yes poor prep on my part, first run at night that I wasn’t running from something, first time running with a headlamp, first time running with a headlamp in the rain (which I must say was kinda cool – the rain drops in the light were mesmerizing streaks of light- had to keep reminding myself to look ahead, and my first time running my last leg of my 1st BRR. All of these things combined with the fact that I was going to be done with my portion for the race became a mega motivator to run hard. I took off after receiving the wrist band from Bling and soon came to realize that there were no other runners around me.   I thought I would have been able to see several folks running in the distance to not only verify the path but also motivate me to chase them down. Instead, pretty sure as a result of our killer team gaining a bunch of time & placing us ahead of our wave of runners, I found myself in no-man’s or no-woman’s land for almost the entire leg. I did find one guy that was very confused by the music I was playing/listening to – he thought he was hearing things.   Towards the end, about ¼ to a ½ mile out, I did finally see the lights of the transition zone. I remember speeding up and being super excited but at the same time not wanting the adventure to finish (yes a sick thought after the other miles and had nothing to do with not wanting to return to our smelly Griswold mobile/ AKA the Suburban). Despite this feeling, for the third time in 24 hrs, I ran into the transition zone and handed off my wristband to Pharaoh only this time it was a little different. I felt this crazy range of feelings that I’m sure others have written about. It would be very hard to describe, but I will leave you with this……….if you are reading this and haven’t done the race – I encourage you to do it so you can experience the whole crazy adventure. If you are reading this because you are signed up in 2016, 17 etc. – I hope you have a similar great experience and are lucky as I was to get to know, hang out with, and share the experience with one awesome team of guys! If you are reading this after having completed the BRR – congrats on surviving!

Leg 26

1. 9 man. Runner: Stoli. Time: 5:38AM Distance: 4.4mi. Avg pace: 8:14 It was about 5:30 am, we were groggy from trying to get an hour and a half of sleep in the cabin of the truck (it was raining). Since leg 25 is a main exchange zone, and the leg itself is relatively short, there was little down time at the arrival of transition leg 26. It was dark, raining and a decent climb during the second mile. The benefit of darkness is not being able to see how much further there was to climb. Minutes into the descent at mile 2, I felt sharp pull in my left Achilles and had to stop, stretch, and figure out how to finish. The slant of the roads and therefore uneven position on your legs was brutal. I hobbled the last two miles to the finish. It was the easiest of my four legs, just the time of day and injury made it hard.

Leg 27

1. 9 man.  Runner: Treadstone. Time: 06:14 AM.  Distance: 9.1. Avg Pace: 8:47 Legs wore sore but faced a short 6-7% grade uphill and then a severe 6-9% downhill for a mile and half. Would have been nice to fly down the hill but the legs would not allow it. The next 7 miles were scenic along a railroad and stream as the sun finally came out of the fog. Kept a steady pace and finally got some kills on this long run and finished at 8:40 pace.
2. 12 man.  Runner: Nighthawk. Time: 03:45 AM.  Distance: 9.1. Avg Pace: 7:35 Holy hell. I’ve got 15.7 miles down and I’m staring down 9 more …. Who talked me into taking the #3 spot anyway? Oh yea, Filibuster… thanks pal! Its 3am. I’ve slept for maybe 30-45 minutes stretched out on an unforgiving suburban backseat where the temperature in the van makes me feel like I am going to puke…. and I almost do. Twice. I’m exhausted. My legs feel thrashed and they’re back to shaking again with nervousness getting ready for the next leg. I’m beginning to question if I would ever do this again, and NO is winning. Yep, I’ve got 9 more stinking miles to go. Fan-friggin-tastic. On the drive from EZ 26 it starts misting a little and I am praying to the weather gods to not let loose till my leg is over. My bowels are now getting the best of me and I need to do some damage before Pharaoh finishes his run…. And of course he’ll be here any minute. Yep, there’s a 5 person line…. Awesome. All the guys let me cut and some dude is taking his sweet time in the guy’s room, so what’s a guy to do when he’s gotta go and its crunch time…. Yep, destroy the women’s bathroom. Thanks ladies! I rush back to the start line (hands clean) and squeeze down a Chocolate Outrage GU (seeing a pattern here?). Pharaoh shows up and hands off the baton with a smile on his face cuz he’s done with the relay. Man, I’m jealous… I take off up the road and whoops… forgot to start my watch. Sync up little ol’ satellites cuz I want my metrics! I’ve got NO ONE around me for the better part of the run as a few folks took off a couple minutes ahead of me. I start hearing the river on my left and I am praying I don’t run into any wild animals on my way through. Somehow my legs get going again and I burn through the first few miles in the 7:20 range. Thank you downhill section! I must’ve checked my watch at least a dozen times feeling like I had covered a lot of distance only to realize I had covered about .2 mile from the last time I checked. Disappointment rushes over me EVERY.SINGLE.GLANCE. I took a little bit of this time to reflect on things/people in my life which helped me keep going…. Keep fighting to get to that EZ. I’m finally half way done and I didn’t have to race the train to get over the tracks like the cue sheet mentioned … things are looking up! At about mile 5 the gradual incline begins. It isn’t terrible but it starts sucking away my energy like a leech. I see the suburban drive by. It doesn’t slow…. no words of encouragement come …. WTF… You guys yell at every other runner out on the course and I need some encouragement right about now.  I’ll give them hell later (and find out that they actually yelled at some other runner thinking it was me!). Then I hear a van coming up behind me, or is it a runner, no it’s a van ….. nope it’s both. The runner is going at a much faster pace than me, so it must be one of the later, faster teams…. We share some encouraging words and he’s off ….. there’s no way I can keep up with him. A mile or two later I finally see a target… some runner lit up in red like the top of a radio tower and probably as bright. I start getting closer and then I see the runner is actually two running together and the one not wearing the red lights seems to have a smiley face reflector design on their shirt ….. Ha. That’s funny. I feel like crap and there’s some smiley face grinning at me…. I want to punch it. I ponder for a minute staying with them just for some company, but cast that thought aside because I’d rather keep plugging away and get this leg over with to keep the momentum going for the team. We say our words of encouragement in passing and I continue on…. Into the dark…. By myself…. With wild animals… and I am going to get mauled by them. Miles 6-8 grind by in the 7:50s range and then another elite runner comes cruising by before we hit mile 9. He reminds me that there’s not much more to go…. I try to pick up the pace as he passes but I’ve got nothing left in the tank. I finally see the EZ sign and push with all I’ve got. The end to this madness is in sight. With .1 mile to go, the misting rain that has been going on throughout the entire run finally gives way to a downpour. I scream out to Meathead to get his attention, smack on the bracelet, and cruise under the volunteers tent to get out of the rain. Meathead disappears into the gloom, the weather gods answered my request, and I.AM.DONE! Got back to the suburban with Pharaoh’s help… went to get my bag out of the back and I had no energy left to pull it from the pile. Pharaoh helped me get everything squared away and I went to go change under some overhang next to whatever building we were parked at. As I’m sitting there disrobing, I look to the ground next to me and there’s some runner sleeping right there. Sorry buddy… gotta clean up. I get changed and head back to the car, down a chocolate milk and proceed to pass out in “Nighthawk’s Nest” – the 3^rd row seat behind the driver where I had all my crap strategically placed for the entire relay – in about 2 minutes flat. I don’t even remember pulling out of the parking lot. Completely missed Meathead’s last run and most of Glock’s until a commotion in the car stirs me from my slumber. I awake to Thorn slowing the car down and yelling out the window “you wanna ride?” to someone. Still in some sleep deprived haze, I’m waiting to see who he is picking up. A lady of the evening perhaps? To my surprise I see some random runner hop in the middle seat and he, thorn and the guys are chatting about confusing directions…. Thorn whips the suburban around like a toy and we take off down the road back towards the course. Ok, you guys have got this covered…I’m going back to sleep and I do. Thorn drops the guy off at a corner near the course route “as to avoid suspicion of aiding a runner”, and we continue on to the next EZ to grab Glock and send S&R out for his last leg. We finished our transition and sat down for some pancakes at the church. Ran into Filibuster and Nanny for a little and hung out with them while we waited for S&R to come in. We transition over to van 2.

Leg 28

1. 9 man. Runner: Pavarotti. Time: 7:34 AM. Distance: 8.0. Avg pace: 10:28 Someone once told me, “think of it as a whole bunch of 100 meter sprints.” You see, I’m built for short distance, so long runs are very difficult (and humbling) for me. I was dreading this one the day I found out my legs for the BRR. I knew it would be more mentally challenging than any of the physical aspects of it. You “long distance runners” wouldn’t understand. It turned out to be both. I felt good once Treadstone slapped the wristband on me and I had my mind focused. The leg started off along a long winding, relatively flat route. The day was still waking up and I was ready to accept the challenge. Once the road started to go up, then down, then up, I knew I was going to have a hard time finishing. Luckily, I ran into Stoli’s old boss. We shared our mutual distain for him and his overall bad attitude and it kept me going (total lie except the running with his old boss part). However, the “old” boss started to create some separation from me and I was running solo again. At that point I knew I had a short distance left to the main road, and then 1.5 miles uphill to the end of this stupid idea of a weekend. That’s when it started to rain…..sideways. The last 1.5 was very challenging for me and the big ROAD CLOSED signs did not help. To me, they felt like the Berlin wall and I had to navigate around each one. It was not a big deal in retrospect, but it was a struggle at the time. I finally could see the finish and was thankful to spot Diplomat ready to go. I was soaked, tired, sore, defeated…..and, at the same time, never felt better or more alive.   Text to M: “Done! Leg 4 was as bad as I thought.”

Leg 29

Leg 30

1. 9 man. Runner: Chavez. Time: 9:56 AM. Distance: 4.4. Avg pace: 7:38 Once again, good hand-off from Diplomat. His 31+mile race is over and my final leg is starting. Long, slow up hill. Really good challenge. I get passed by another beast of a lady runner. I just can’t keep up with her, try as I did. I passed a couple of other runners, but her pace was beyond me. Slight rain, which actually added to the craziness of the whole thing. Strong finish — felt awesome with so many people standing around. But no pancakes at the end. No pancakes! No pancakes. Diplomat is happy because this gives us an excuse to go to town and get real food.

Leg 31

1. 9 man. Runner: Nanny. Time: 10:27 AM. Distance: 6.6. Avg pace: 9:28 The Goat. It had been raining/misting on us off and on all morning. This was the only leg I wore a shirt b/c it was a bit cool with all the rain. Flat run till you make the right turn and begin the climb.   I think it had been so talked up and made to sound so hard that I was very well prepared from a mental standpoint.   Now that I have also seen 33, I think it is a much tougher climb, but I digress. I kept running and wondering when it was going to get really steep and it never did. Yes it was a long climb, but not stupid steep. You want stupid steep go run Appalachian Road in Black Mountain which has a short segment of 37% grade. This was a grind for sure and a mental battle to stick to your pre-race plan of NEVER WALKING. Once you get up to the part where the road does all the tight zig zags above you, you know you are close; within a mile. I refused to look at my watch until I thought I was close to the end…and in a moment of panic wondering if maybe I thought I was at 5 but was actually at 4 I took a peek…phew!!! 5 miles down. I continued mixing up my form from mid-foot/toe strike to flat landings and was at 6 before I knew it. Told myself I was 4.5 minutes away from being done and could endure anything for that long. Seeing the long line of vans stacked up was a welcome sight and I enjoyed the last bit of running past all the stopped vehicles and gladly slapped that bracelet on Filibuster so he could start his looooong decent. I was tired and worn out but stoked that I was DONE!!!! I had just completed the BRR on a 9 man team!!I didn’t have to worry about anything else but eating and enjoying the 2nd F.   I don’t think Treadstone liked being in the van with me once I was done b/c I was eating everything in sight – lays potato chips, trail mix, prunes, pretzels, coconut water, and a burger from the PTA folks. I offered Tread some of everything but he seemed to get angry….something about “freaking last leg!!”

Leg 32

1. 9 man. Runner: Filibuster. Time: 11:31 AM. Distance: 9.4 mi. Avg pace: 8:15 So, I have always wanted to run this leg… until now. I have gotten my hour and a half of sleep and during that time it is apparent that a little man crept in the truck and hit my thighs with a sledgehammer. Not even eating pancakes with Roy Williams can get me back to feeling remotely normal. Now there’s also one other downside to this leg. It’s 9.5 miles of quad ripping downhill after all your other legs. However, you can’t complain. Nanny just ran 6.5 miles of hell and Chowder is getting ready to run a 40% grade. So keep the moaning to yourself and mosey on down the mountain. The first few miles are a major pain. It’s steep. It’s muddy and slippery from the rain. Every step hurts. My pace is way off. I don’t feel slow. Have I lost the satellite? Don’t know what’s going on but this is rough. About 4 miles in, we finally hit the asphalt. Not surprisingly, the road is much harder than the dirt, therefore more pain to the quads. Surprisingly, I am running much faster. Like 90-120 seconds a mile faster. I guess I may never know if it was me or the watch but just a little weird. So 4.5 miles in, I have been passed once and have one kill of my own. At this point, I get passed by a woman going so fast that I am completely dumbfounded.   A minute or so later another runner passes me and says “She’s unbelievably fast, isn’t she?” I grunt some sort of agreement. A minute later, I run by a couple sitting in the back of a car, passing out encouragement. They say, “Catch that girl, you can do it.” I manage to get out a response that reflects the verrrry low likelihood of that happening. The last 3.5 miles or so flatten out. You are heading downhill but only slightly as you follow the creek. It’s long and it’s lonely. Two things kept me going here. First, I am closing in on another runner and think I can get a kill. More importantly, as I heard the creek running alongside the road, I remember that there’s a place to soak my mangled legs in the creek right at the finish line. So I dig a little, try not to literally say “left foot, right foot, left foot” over and over again. Boom, get a kill. Boom, exchange zone sign. Boom, carefully hand of the bracelet to Chowder. Strip down to shorts and place myself in the creek. Did not realize that Tread was planning on taking pictures at this point. That’s a losing proposition for everyone. Maybe I should hit an occasional bootcamp.

Leg 33

1. 12 man. Runner: Sugar. Time: 10:05AM Distance 5.3mi. Avg Pace: 10:55 The Nipple. “I don’t want to do this”, I said to myself as I was watching for J-Lo. The same statement I’ve made during many boot camps. But of course I knew I would because that’s what we do. We do it because others are doing it and we all get through it together. So off I go. The most relaxed I had been all weekend and a bit smarter from the experience of the first two. I was also prepared. Having ran it a month ago I knew exactly what to expect (and not because the old man on the porch told me, “Hey! There’s a big hill up ahead. 2 Miles from here to the top.”) I knew what to expect from the course but I quickly realized that I didn’t know what to expect from my body. A month ago I was on fresh legs and a restful night. I didn’t expect my legs to tighten up like they did as I hiked up the nipple. I tried to run (run – you don’t run up a hill, you hop) but that actually just made a different set of leg muscles tighten up. So I pressed on equally rationing the pain throughout my legs (even-Steven) until I finally reached the apex where I could actually run. What goes up must come down so downhill I ran. Ok, so downhill I basically just tried not to eat any pavement. I could’ve gone faster but I was afraid my legs wouldn’t keep up. What a humbling experience that was and it lasted until the course started to level out (At least I think it leveled out. Heck after 24 hrs in the mountains I can’t tell what’s flat anymore) and I could see the exchange up ahead. I’ve never been so happy to see Dropcloth. I was done!!

Leg 34

1. 9 man. Runner: Kato. Time: 1:37PM Distance 4.3mi. Avg pace: 7:41 It was the last leg and I was excited and ready to go. Too excited. With a “give it all I’ve” got attitude, I forgot to pace and went out too fast. Once I caught on to what I was doing, I figured it was too late to care and I continued on. It was hot and unlike other legs, the cars weren’t as courteous and I had to jump off the road more than once to avoid a vehicle. As with my night leg, runners ahead began to slow and walk as the road tilted upwards. About 3/4s into the run, I ran out of gas and plodded along at around a 9/mi pace and caught myself walking. As I reached the EZ, I had a little burst of energy to maintain my pride and ran hard to transition to Stoli.

Leg 35

1. 9 man. Runner: Stoli. Time: 2:14PM Distance: 4.2mi. Avg pace: 9:19 900 ft climb during the first 1.5 miles made this brutal. As you wait at the transition zone for your turn, all you see is an extreme climb awaiting you. Actually, you’re standing on the slant as you wait. It was absurd. I “ran” the first ½ – ¾ of a mile then proceeded to jog and walk until I reached the top. Once the misery was over at the 2 mile mark, it was a slight downgrade with awesome views from the parkway the last mile.
2. 12 man. Runner: Bootstrap. Time: 11:42AM Distance: 4.2mi. Avg pace: 11:00 This is it…after this I am done with this mess of a race they call the BRR. This was the one leg I was probably most concerned about due to it being last and having a 2 mile climb that showed purple on the fancy graph in the binder. I told Shazam before the leg that I just wanted to make it to the top and then I could coast down the parkway. This philosophy worked for about a half mile and I started to get really tired and fatigued…I told myself that no matter what I will not walk. I think at one point I looked down and saw that I was running a 15 minute pace and it just pissed me off because I was running so slow…I pushed myself to move faster but it probably was only about a 13 minute pace which was awesome because I just shaved 2 minutes off…still slow but I will take it. I knew I was getting closer to the top because it was getting cooler and windier. As I got to the top I saw one of the F3 vans parked and they told me I was done climbing and it was all downhill form here. Fabulous…only 2 miles left of this stupid thing that I will never do again. As I came down onto the parkway I saw my uncle who was out for his weekly ride on the parkway…he said I was looking good…sure I am because I am running downhill…you should have seen me earlier…it wasn’t so good. I was really excited about running on the parkway because I had always wanted to do it before. I love the mountains and would live there if I could so this was kind of like a dream come true to be able to run on the parkway. I have been running since middle school and had always wanted to be able to do what I was doing right now…here I am running on the parkway. When I got to the first over look I was overwhelmed with the view (it was cloudy so I couldn’t see very far but it was far enough) I immediately started praying and thanking God for his creation that I could enjoy right now and i just prayed for strength to finish strong. As I was running I looked down at my watch and saw 10 minute pace and I thought what in the world is going on as I still feel like I am running up hill but I know that road in front of me is below me so what the heck!!! My uncle passed me a couple more times as he continued to ride and he said Lindsey is up a head. I knew she was going to try and make it to see me pass to Bling but I didn’t know if she would make it or not. As I came around the corner and saw her standing there with her camera I really got overwhelmed with emotion as I heard her cheering me on. At this point I was so tired and ready for it to be over with that my emotions began to take over. Anyone that knows me well…knows that I can be an emotional dude both good and bad. As I got closer to Lindsey…she said “are you crying?”…no I am really sweaty and glad to see you. After I got passed that overlook I came around the corner and saw Shazam up ahead so I knew I was close. I really feel like I ran that last half mile in about 2 minutes but I know it was probably more realistically 4 minutes…I felt like I was sprinting but it probably looked like I was walking. As I came to the transition I sprinted in to pass to Bling and off he went toward Asheville. I think it took me less than 30 seconds to say “I do solemnly swear to be a driver next year.”   I know the other legs are labeled as being tougher but for me this was the hardest…likely because it was my last but it was tough.

Leg 36

1. 9 man. Runner: Treadstone. Time: 2:53PM Distance: 6.8mi. Avg pace: 8:07 Elevation gain 360ft, Elevation lost 2,179 ft (72 sunny and breezy).  Quads were very sore even before the run started. I was actually enjoying the first mile uphill and was wishing it was longer so that I didn’t have to go downhill anymore. Speaking of the first mile, it was steady and fairly steep in places but when I reached the top and knew 5 miles of downhill were in my future, it wasn’t the euphoria I was hoping for. Again I wished I could have gone faster down the hills but it just wasn’t the case. A little frustrating having the cardio capacity to go faster but the physical limitations holding me back. The last 3/4 mile flattened out a bit and was able to finish a good pace. Without realizing it, I flew by the team who had a plan to finish the last 100 yards with me. I don’t remember seeing that in the binder. Anyway, someone grab me just before the finish line so we could jog the last 15 feet together. Mission accomplished.

Blue Ridge Relay, Highlands

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