It will be fun!

This is the start of the first and I'm sure to be annual, "Barrel to Keg" relay. It went from Harris Bridge Winery in Wren to Rogue Brewery in Newport. 69 Miles. WTF were we thinking signing up for this thing? But "The What Train?!?" was ready to go!




And so it started, Sarah was slated for 3 legs, Stafford and Sean 4 each and me? Well I was set for one. What's that you say, one? Yeah, I know. I suck. I had originally planned on doing two but after a pretty major hiatus from anything other than sitting on my ass doing school work for the past 4 weeks, doing my scheduled two legs of 11 miles total seemed foolish especially since I hadn't run more than 4.5 miles in the past 3 weeks and that was awful!

The big surprise of the day was the weather! It was hot. Not just hot, crazy hot. It was supposed to be around 65-70 max. Nope it was over 80 for most of the day. Now that is a lovely summer day, especially when we haven't had summer yet this year. Except we were in the middle of running 69 miles. In relay legs that averaged around 6 or so miles each. Yikes! But, I only had to do one. And it was flat, and as I recalled, in some pretty shady spots. And...It will be fun!

I have been having some real trouble lately with my inner demons. They tell me I suck. They tell me I'm slow and they tell me I'm an idiot to try and run with the rest of my family pack. Today, with the heat, the not flat leg and the blister and cramping that started just a few miles into my 6.7 miles, my demons were screaming. I didn't even remember my mantra I had practiced so much in preparation for this. But, I finished. 10 minutes slower than my own goal for myself, and 2 minutes off my time projected by my captain, I hung my head in shame as I climbed into the sag wagon.



Luckily the rest of the team was a bunch of Rabbits. They kicked ass on every leg. Sarah the Gazelle actually did 3 legs. 3 legs! That's 15 miles to you an me. I've never even ran 15 miles. Her first leg was a full 20 minutes faster than Captain Stafford had projected on his little spreadsheet of anal planning. What an engineer!

Sean was amazing. He seemed to get stuck with a hill of some variation of hell on every single one of his 4 legs. Here is what he looked like after the dreaded Leg 10 which was pretty much a series of hills from hell leading through the beautiful metropolis of Toledo Oregon.



That is one tired boy. He still has one more leg to do after this too. And so it went, Sarah, Stafford and Sean trading legs for most of the day with one little leg done by me in the mean time. Luckily, I did get a badge to show for my work. I have a foot full of blisters on my left foot. One of them almost looks as gross as the one on Run Fat Boy Run. Seriously, it grosses me out every time I look at it.

At about 6:32 Sarah, Stafford and I waited at the staging area for Sean to come over the Yaquina bay bridge and meet us for the final 100 yard dash to the finish. We saw him on the bridge and within minutes he was with us and the announcer was calling off our names. We started running to the finish together and I instantly fell behind. Damn turtle legs. Luckily, Sean took a glance back, saw my instant lagging and grabbed my hand to pull me up to him where we finished the race together, hand in hand across the finish line. To those that watched, it looked like the world's most romantic gesture. Really, he was just saving my sorry ass from more humiliation of the day. However, I personally really, appreciated it. Pity hand holding or not, it was worth it. 10 hours and 32 minutes of fun! Yes, it was fun.


And this little turtle, got herself a rabbit in the end.



Oh, and a dual purpose finishers medal, a cork screw and a bottle opener.