Van one endish

Just to wrap things up...we've already covered how Shaun had a super-duper extended last leg due to a hostage situation the previous night on the route. Al and I also had surprise longer legs. Sometime after the original pacing charts (with distances) were published the course changed. Al and I were unaware. As we sat down to look over the courses for our individual legs...SURPRISE!!! I only had an extra 1/2 mile (so 4.5 miles to 5.0 miles). Al, running immediately before me, had an extra 1.2 miles (so ~6.X miles to 7.X miles). Regardless, Al had a blistering leg. He arrived minutes before he was expected absolutely all out sprinting into the exchange. I then took off while simultaneously evaluating how my legs were feeling.

I train primarily on the Charles River in Boston which is completely flat. My tri the previous week (which included a 1/2 marathon) was super hilly. My first two legs of GRR-super hilly. My quads now hurt with each step. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Etc. Oh well. Suck. It. Up. Buttercup. My one moment of worry was when I heard gun shots and was worried I would get hit with stray bullets from hunters. This fear was alleviated when I saw I was running past a shooting range. I finally made it to my van's final exchange after 47:30 (9:30 min/mile). There was cheering. My van was happy to be done.

We bid the other van adieu (they still had hours of running ahead of them) and went off in urgent search of food. We literally did not care where we ate and got off at the first exit and went to the first restaurant we saw. Olive Garden I believe.

We checked into our hotel, showered, changed, and grabbed our disgusting team shirts as we headed back out to catch the end of the race. We would don the shirts again when we ran our last runner in and for the team picture.