Once we arrived, we went for a pre-race dinner at the old Olive Garden standby. (One disadvantage of this race vs. Reach the Beach - the neverending pasta bowl had ended. That doesn't seem quite right, does it?) After dinner, it was time to get one last good night of sleep before the long day(s) ahead.
Friday dawned clear and beautiful - a great day to start racing! The first teams started at 8:00 AM, but we wouldn't be starting until 3:00 PM. So, there was plenty of time to hit up the grocery store for in-car snacks and drinks. We even found a rubber chicken at Petsmart to join the crow on top of our van for our team, "Three Old Crows, Nine Spring Chickens". :) Meredith and I were in van 1, so we'd be running fairly early in the rotation. As the time drew near to get underway, we drove to the starting line at the Jim Beam distillery, though we declined the free samples! (Side note: we had followed the Garmin to find a Subway on the way there, and it turned out to be inside a hospital. I'm pretty sure their staff wasn't used to twelve smelly people in shorts and dry-fit in the middle of the day! Somehow we even got free cookies, which are physically impossible to turn down in the middle of a relay.) Our two teams started in a wave with two other teams, who we'd see quite often in the next 24 hours. And with the gun at 3, we were off! We all hopped in the van and began the trek. Meredith took the second leg, and a couple hours in, it was my turn to take the handoff.
My first leg, "Stairway To Heaven Hill", was a 3.9 mile run through the middle of Bardstown. It started off on a pretty narrow road on which I had to duck out of the way of the mirror on an ambulance (ironic, eh?). I was matched up against my father-in-law on this leg, and Meredith handed me about a 3 minute head start. Before the leg, I had predicted that I'd need four minutes to hold him off. I haven't done much running since Cedar Point, so my feel for pace wasn't great, and I took off pretty hard. I managed to hold it together for a couple miles, but by the time I was in town, I was hurting and had to slow it up a bit. And true to my prediction, he caught me with about 3/4 of a mile to go. And what a 3/4 of a mile it was...
I had conserved just enough legs to make a final charge at him on the last hill. Steadily the distance closed...20 steps back...15...10...then my stomach said "no mas" and I was suddenly dry heaving on the side of the road. I walked for a few seconds and then jogged it in to the next handoff at the top of the hill. Oh well. I couldn't have given more effort than I did, so no worries. I ended up with a time of 32:00, for a perfectly acceptable 8:12 pace. That's actually dead even with my 4-mile PR pace, which was on a pancake flat course. So despite the head-to-head loss, I now feel like patting myself on the back a bit. :)
As the rest of our van finished up their legs, afternoon turned to evening, and we pulled into the beautiful (seriously!) campus at the Maker's Mark distillery. Not only was the campus beautiful, their bathrooms were clean - a rare sight on one of these races! We bundled up, as the evening was getting chilly, and our final runner handed off to van 2. Soon, we realized that we were kind of in a sparsely populated area, and asked for a good place to get dinner. That turned out to be Cozy Corner, a local bar/restaurant. We even got hit up by one politician while eating, who was friendly even after he found out we weren't local. My stomach was still a little uneasy, so I just stuck with a grilled cheese. Since our van 2 only had 5 FAST runners, we didn't have much time...had to get back to the course for our second legs!
My second leg was leg 14, "Heart of Danville", and kicked off around midnight. It spanned 5.7 miles, which would officially be my longest run since Cedar Point. The profile didn't look too bad, but not too long into the run, I found myself on a hill that felt like it would never end. Not steep, just long! Even a couple runners that passed me here commented on it, so I knew it wasn't just me. Now that I look back on the profile, it's pretty obvious, so mea culpa on not being mentally ready for it. It was a beautiful night for a run, Orion's belt hung right over the horizon, and I ran steadily for it. And on this leg, I tallied my first roadkill (read: passed a runner) of the trip. She was ahead of me and moving pretty well, but I could tell I was steadily gaining, and when she stopped to tie a shoe, I made my move. Unfortunately, I was also passed by three, putting me at -3 when combined with my first leg. I liked the end of this leg, as you transitioned from dark highway to the streetlights and buildings of Danville and Centre College. I'm pretty sure the "1 Mile Left" sign was a little off here, but regardless, I came into transition just ahead of my predicted pace again. I ran the 5.7 miles in 49:49, for an 8:44 pace.
After the second running leg is always the darkest time for me in these races. There's still one to go, you're soooo tired, and you know you'll get a few hours of sleep maximum. Because of our odd team size, we weren't handing off at the "normal" spots that were set up for sleeping. We pulled into a parking lot around 3:00 AM, dragged our sleeping bags onto the grass a few feet from the car, and crashed on the ground. However, we didn't anticipate problems from our proximity to the bathrooms. "crreeeeaak....SLAM!" doesn't make for great sleep, but it was enough to heed the message that the other team was on the way at 5:30.
I sort of lucked out in that my third leg started right around 8:00, and I didn't have to wear all my reflective gear and lights. It was even warming up a bit! My third leg was leg 25, "High School Reunion". This was a 4.7 mile run, and unlike the previous leg, I was quite aware of the upcoming hills here:
They're not killers by any means, but by your third go-around, you feel them. Luckily, I wasn't the only one on my third leg. As I started out, I'd pass a runner, then get passed by another. This repeated a few times on the first hill, and at mile 1, I was plus 3 and minus 3. As we turned onto the highway that would carry us the last 3+ miles, I was passed again. Dang, back to negative numbers. But then the most wondrous thing happened...the hills were taking their toll on everyone. I passed a runner. Then another. Then one who was walking. Thanks to the open scenery and view from the hills, I could see the runners laid out ahead of me, and realized I could do some damage. I powered up the hills with a quick cadence, and stretched it out going down. Whatever I had left, I gave, and by the time we turned into the handoff, I had passed 12 runners in total! That gave me a final tally of +5 overall for the race, my best to date. I ran the final leg in 40:21, for an 8:35 pace. This was a fun leg with all the runners out there, and it was a good cap to my experience.
Now that I was done, there were still 11 legs to go. It was a pretty relaxing end to the relay, getting to just cheer on my friends, get a couple little bourbon samples, and have a good time in the nice weather. Eventually, we did wind our way into downtown Lexington, and 25 hours and 52 minutes after we started, our team crossed the finish line together. We ended up 20th out of 200 teams - unfortunately behind our other team, but still a good showing! Then, all that was left was sharing stories over pizza back at the hotel, a good night's sleep, and a return to Columbus the next day, tired but happy.
