My "van mates" were Jeff, Karen, Dan, Matt and Taryn. I'd have to say, I think the 6 of us got along pretty well. We all had a decent sense of humor and many things in common. Going with the flow was certainly a skill that was needed in an event like this. Hard for someone like me, who likes to be in control of everything. At 7am, the race directors yelled START and Karen was off. Our van was responsible for legs 1-6, 13-18 and 25-30. I was in charge of legs 2, 14 and 26. Once Karen was on her way, we hopped in the van and hit up a Sheetz. It was time for some coffee. About 40 minutes later, we were waiting in the parking lot - and here comes Karen. My leg was next. Instead of using a baton, we were passing a bracelet from teammate to teammate. My leg was labeled EASY and was 4.3 miles. For some odd reason, I neglected to pack the Garmin, so I was on my own... No idea how long I was running, how far I was running and what my pace was.
There I am headed through Gettysburg National Park. So, so beautiful. Green fields, beautiful monuments, perfect temperature and rolling hills. What a sight. As the van rode by, I had asked Taryn to snap some shots. I didn't need assistance, so everyone kept going to my finish - Boyd's Bear Country. As I turned around a corner, I could spot the red barn. There it was... I was almost finished. I felt like I had been running forever. I predicted my 4.3 would be completed in 45 minutes. Turns out... 4.3 was measured wrong... I really ran 5.3 and I did it in just under an hour - new time for me. I passed the bracelet to Jeff and he was on his way. I changed my clothes and back on the road we went. The next 36 hours would be consumed with doing the same thing, over and over until each one of us had done it 3 times.
Once our van completed the first 6 legs, it was time for a break. We decided to drive for awhile and hit up a Wal-Mart. We were all ready for lunch, by now it was almost 2pm. Once lunch was over, we hit up McDonalds for another cup of coffee and drove to the next transition spot to wait.
A local high school had opened their grounds for vans to come in, use facilities, lay on the grass and enjoy each others company while we waited for our runners to come in. At this point, Karen was preparing to get started again and we were beginning to enter dusk. I was estimating my next run to be around 8pm. Karen got started and we loaded up the van for our next spot. Once we arrived at a local firehouse parking lot, I started to get prepared. In order to run the night legs, it was required to have a headlamp, vest and blinking lights. I had never run with a headlamp before!!!!! I was really excited. Here I am before my run waiting for Karen to come in:
This run was a lot harder then the morning run. I wasn't properly hydrated, I think I was hungry and it was warmer out. Plus, when it got dark... IT GOT DARK. The headlamp allowed you to see maybe 100 feet in front, but certainly made it a challenge. For the first time, I thought I was going to throw up twice. This run was labeled as EASY and was 4.0 miles. Well, wrong again... my run ended up being 4.5. Nat, another teammate in the other van, loaned me her Garmin for that run. I couldn't believe the distance was off again. At least it was only .5 off and not an entire mile. I ran up to the transition spot and once we sent Jeff off, I downed two gatorades and a banana covered in peanut butter. There we go... now I was feeling better. We loaded back in the van and headed to Boonesboro High School. The school was nice enough to open up to us for the entire night. We were allowed to shower in the locker rooms, sleep in the gym, eat good food (well, not good for you...) and get massages at an awesome rate of $1 per minute. By now, it was close to 10pm. At this stop, the other 3 runners in our van would finish, so overall, we spent about 2 hours here. Once Taryn was back in (runner 6 in our van) we decided it would be best to head to the next transition spot where our van would take back over in the morning and get some sleep. This is when we hit Antietam. I vaguely remember pulling into a parking spot, at this point I was pretty much asleep. Dan decided to sleep in the bed of a cannon on the field (I would have been scared shitless) and Taryn also decided to sleep outside somewhere. If I had any complaints, it would be that by this time, we no longer had access to a working bathroom - so when I woke up at 3:30am needing to go, I had no other choice but on the pitch dark battlefield! Needless to say, some of us got more sleep then others, but no more then 4 hours overall I'd have to say. Katie (the last runner from van 2) was scheduled to arrive around 6:30 and this is when we would take back over for the last time.
This was our beautiful, early morning sight:
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