day 293

day one, in the books!

DP met me @ The Parkhouse, we went to fetch Vin, Sue, and Ray. After that, we went to get Randi-we'd trade her to the other van, as they brought Rettmer, but he couldn't leave a day early. Off we went, drove 2 ish hours to Saugerties, to the Hojo, got our rooms, got food, went to sleep knowing we'd hook up with the rest later the next morning.

Our team: DP, Me, Vin, Sue, Rettmer, Ray.
Their Van: Laughlin, Tom, Randi, John, Ken, Sara.
The idea: every team member does 3 legs, total 12 team members, total 185 miles.

My leg was 7, "very hard," good. EVERYONE was suffering from the heat/humidididity, and gnats, so it was best to get the tough/longest leg(8.3m) done with first(6:22pm). From then on, I had approx 5m per. Not too bad, though leg 7 FELT like it was ALL uphill. Hot as a mofo. The ONE thing that PISSED me off, the van had some whining re: DP's leg-"oh she's prez, she switched for the easier leg," or "oh, ___ got more downhills..." JEEEEEZ. STOP bitching!!! I mohthed off to our van to "man up," and grow a pair." From then, we went to the campsite to nap/sleep. Wasn't meant to be. 1/2 our crew slept outside, when the skies opened up, everyone went into the van/sauna. Good, Vince was set to go off as 12:30am, so we wouldn't be late.

Next leg was 19, 5.0 miles, "moderate." Now THIS was key, as my time was 4:22am. By this time, it was MUCH cooler. Problem: dark as night, so you hadda watch your footing. This one was like an inverted/wide V, uphill, crest, then down. After the earlier sweatleg, it wasn't too bad. Problem was-I WAS tempted to walk some-it WAS night, with NO sleep, but no, don't let the team down. I did well, no walking, kicked some ass, but...but...my handoff wasn't there!!! MOTHERFUCKER!!! Laughlin's van went to nap, and slept through it!!! All that hard work for shit!!! They showed 10-15 minutes AFTER I was done. Again, like with the first leg, at least I didn't have to walk. From here, we went to the hotel in Armonk for a shower and a few hours nap. Took a LONG time to stop cursing at those assholes, THAT was unforgiveable.

Felt GREAT to shower and nap, I took a corner on the floor. It was GREAT!!!

Day 2:

Woke up @ 7 ish, we went for coffee etc... hooked up with the other van's leg @ 8:30, we were off! We passed the hotel room keys to them, so they could shower/nap while we finished. I had the last leg, 4.5 miles, "moderate." Their idea was to hook up with me 2 miles from the finish, and we'd all run in. Ha, my leg, the finish, was largely a trail run. AND, after fucking up the exchange @ the earlier leg, I wasn't keen on running in with anybody.

Today, also, was a dif world, temps were great, no one whined about the heat, jealousy over their comparatively easier legs (they're ALL hard, 36 straight hours of relay, nothing's easy), you DID really get a sense of people's issues.

Would I do it again? Dunno. Ask me in a week. REALLY cool/heavy medals! The after party was underwhelming, no food, nothing cost-free. Not cool.

Got home, It's nowhere to be found, Stoney's on the couch sleeping, the sink is full. Nothing ever changes. Get me back on the road.