Fall 2009

Here some pictures of some of our adventures this past fall. The girls loved going to the orchard to pick apples. We took several hikes to Graveyard Fields, Blowing Rock, and Water Rock Knob. Our church had their annual Fall Fest and Ellie and Maggie won the costume contest as Strawberry Shortcake and a Strawberry! Halloween was rainy, but we still had fun!

Blue Ridge Relay from September

I know I am so behind, but I had to blog about one of the neatest experiences I have ever had, The Blue Ridge Relay. It is a running relay made up of teams from 4-12 people. There are 36 legs in the relay and the distances and difficulty vary from leg to leg. It starts in Grayson Highland Park in Virginia and finishes in Asheville, NC, for a total of 211 miles. There were 100 teams in the relay and the starts were staggered throughout the morning of Sept. 11. This relay takes you through the back country of NC mountains, through some towns, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and up a 1400 foot mountain, which I will get to. You must stay in order of the legs you run. Our team had 10 people so that meant 6 of us ran 4 legs of the relay. My legs were 1, 11, 21, 31. Teams usually have two vans and you drop the current runner off and pick up the one finishing at the exchange zone (usually a church parking lot) and drive to the next zone to wait. The relay runs through the night into the next day. We finished around 2 pm on Sat. I was lucky enough to be asked by a group of professors from the PT dept and athletic training dept at Western Carolina. They knew Grant's wife was a runner and needed another person so that is how I ended up in this crazy, insane, exhilirating, inspiring relay.
I ran the first leg for our team, which was 4-miles downhill. It was wonderful! I talked with a PT from another team the entire time and we ran it in 26 minutes! I handed off and hopped into the van to rest and eat and take a break before leg 11. It was so fun at exchange zones chatting with other runners from other teams and watching and cheering for others as well. I even met a team from Memphis and one of the guys knew my brother, Andrew. Go figure!
Leg 11: My second leg was 6.2 miles, rated difficult, on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I am sure the people passing us in the cars thought we were a little crazy! I think this was my favorite leg. It was hard, but I was still feeling good and not sleep deprived yet. Oh, and I was wearing my, "Running is my Prozac" shirt!
Leg21: By this time I had used more port-o-johns then I ever cared to in my entire life. I had trouble getting any rest and it was around 2am when the bracelet was handed off to me. Luckily, this was a very short leg of only 2.4 miles and fairly flat. It ran through downtown Spruce Pine, NC so I had some street lights. At night the runners had to wear head lamps, reflective vests, and blinking lights. I was looking good :)! I handed off in a 24 hour Ingles Grocery parking lot and had to go in to get some cough medicine and fluids! I was tired and questioning my sanity at this point knowing my last leg I would run is arguably the hardest leg of the relay.
Leg 31: Okay, I had hardly any sleep, more port-o-johns, an upset stomach, and telling myself I will never do this craziness ever again! This leg is famous and known as mountain goat hard. It is 6.5 miles straight up a mountain. You gain 1400 feet in elevation and never go downhill. Oh yeah. I took the bracelet about 8:30am. I told myself it was okay if I had to walk. However, my competive nature and mental games kept me from walking. Just run 10 min, then it was go another 10. I passed some walkers and felt inspired I was running. As vans passed to go to the exchange zone at the top they would cheer very loudly and one team even jumped out of their van and made a bridge for me to run through as they encouraged and said, "you're our hero"! I didn't even know these people. Just as I thought this leg would never end, I saw the promised land. The top! Waiting were my teammates cheering along with some other teams waiting on their runner cheering and giving me high fives. As I handed the bracelet to my teammate, Jeremiah, for his 9-mile downhill run, I had never felt a feeling of victory for running the entire mountain in under an hour (barely), but also a feeling of "dang I am done. When can we do this again?".
We were all able to run the last 100-yards across the finish line together as a team at around 2 pm in Asheville. Our team finished mid-pack of the 100 teams, but that was not the point. The experience and challenge is incredible and I am a relay junkie now! Ready to do it again! Can you tell??