Months ago, Danielle put her name in the lottery to be a team captain and I happened to be present when she found out she had been selected. Naturally, after just running a long run with me, she asked if I would like to be on the team. A definite yes. I am not much for racing, to be honest. I ran a 5k and a 10k this year and was happy to call that good. I'm not that competitive, I get stressed with groups of people and I run to "keep this a 10" (reference to Gieco commercial). But, a chance to run with other runners sounded fun.
Originally, the team consisted of 4 different couples. Nate and Danielle, Joe and Alicia, Micah and Amy and Jim and I. Because the girls were, in most cases, the primary runner of the family, the team was correctly titled "She Made Me Do It". Then the craziness began.
A while later, Nate found out he couldn't participate because of All-State auditions for his choir members. He was replaced by Melissa, Micah and Amy's friend.
After that, Micah and Amy had to pass for medical reasons. Melissa replaced one with Mindy, and Danielle's dad Dave stepped in.
And our original team dwindled even further. Joe and Alicia had to bow out later on. They were replaced by Taylor "Sunshine" and Curt V from our very own Ogallala.
So our team of married couples ended up with one married couple, a few strangers, a high school cross country kid and a borrowed vehicle from the Holthusen's in Ogallala (thanks again, by the way).
Ok, on to the day itself.
With the lovely start time of 5AM, we were up at 3:30 getting ready for the race, listening to the thunder and watching the lightning from the window. We got the text a little while later-- lightning rule was in effect (lie; actually they couldn't spell "lightning" it was always a lighting rule...) until 6 AM. Not knowing what that meant exactly, we took off at the original time to get our timing chip and go from there.
Danielle becomes a different person behind the wheel of a large vehicle. "I'm in a Suburban, I'll do what I want!" became a quote of the day. We went down the wrong way of a divided street to get our running chip to start off the day, finding out later that we weren't supposed to have our vehicle up there.
They told us to proceed to site 2. When we were there, we were told to proceed to site 3. Both runner 1 and 2 had to give up their first legs of the race due to the storm. And other than two disappointed runners-- it also meant I started the race for the whole team as runner 3.
So I ran in the dark following blinking red lights ahead of me and passing a few along the way. I was not passed in my first leg and was happy for that, having actually started the race. The transition was sloppy at best when I handed a pile of things to Curt who only wanted the timing chip and I had no idea where to go.
Sitting in the van was as you would expect. The occasional drink of water, the conversation with other runners and listening to the great times of the other runners. About that; we had some kick butt runners on our team this year. Danielle did under 8 minute miles in her second run. Her dad was consistently speedy. Curt was always in the low 7 minute miles. And our kid, "Sunshine", really made our team speed ahead with his miles consistently in the 6's. Jim even pulled it out with 7-8 minute miles in his run.
Jim is injured from a bike accident and also from trying to pick up the dog and Dave was kind enough to take Jim's first run to help out. Other than that, the only strange thing that happened race-wise was runner 7 getting lost and without hardly any help from the volunteers we had to drive out to get her (sorry, Melissa) and another runner from a different team.
My second run was awful. A bug landed in such a way in my windpipe that I literally couldn't breath in, so I had to stop and walk while I tried to get the thing removed. It was awful and I was so mad to mess up my time for the team. I didn't think I would worry about my times but I felt pretty awful about it.
My third run was by far the best feeling, though I actually was faster in general on my first run. The last run was flat and in the daylight and nice and I didn't push myself too hard. Had I, I may have knocked some time off. But at that point I didn't care.
Other highlights of the day were Danielle's socks hanging out the front window to dry them off. Going through three pairs of socks because of the rain. Having to continually back into parking spaces in a huge vehicle. Getting stuck in the mud a little bit. Cheering each other on. The crazy, no room for anything sensation in a van full of bags and food and shoes.
After our short time at the shindig, we came back to the apartment where Nate had made some pretty awesome Curry Quinoa soup. Then we went to the Orange Leaf and had some amazing frozen yogurt, something I had been wanting to do since we got here. Then, as exciting as it sounds, we went to bed.
I am typing all of this Sunday morning but won't post until Sunday night since I can't get pictures to upload right now. We drive back today and clean the Holthusen's car.
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