On Saturday, our eight-member Market-to-Market relay team finished the 76.4 miles from the Cincinnati suburb of Milford to Dayton, Ohio, in 12 hours, 58 minutes, and 17.11 seconds. It was a long, hot, tiring, and sweaty day. But it was massive fun, and gave us all an experience we will never forget.
Here are some of the scenes I will long remember:
Standing around at the start on the pre-dawn streets of Milford, unceremoniously mocking one of the sponsors, Whole Foods, for its asparagus water, its high prices, and its overall pretentiousness. Then we looked around and noticed we were literally surrounded by members of the Whole Foods team, obvious by their green t-shirts, which we failed to see. A good start at making friends.
Doing a good job exchanging the baton — actually a GPS-embedded wrist strap — until our third-leg runner, Corey Long, approached the exchange point and saw no one there. Then she looked over and saw the fourth-leg runner, Amie Sexton, on line for the bathroom. But Sexton saw Long in time, dashed over, grabbed the baton and started running the fourth leg.
Running on a paved bicycle trail through small-town Ohio. Sometimes the path was shaded, oftentimes it was not. For the most part, the trail ran along the banks of the Little Miami River. But sometimes it veered through cornfields, or through swamps, or through grass fields. A few times, it went through a town, taking us down main streets or side streets in the bright summer sunshine.
Sharing food and drinks. Dousing each other with water after a run. Providing the finishing runner with a water bottle and a towel. Making sure the next runner had enough water to get through the hot, steamy parts of the day.
Sitting on someone else’s wet towel and not caring. Wanting the middle seat in the middle row of the van after running, because it had a vent that would blow the cold air directly on you. Sympathizing with the runner who just ended his run, but had to hurry up and get in the van because of the shortness of the next leg, and the need to get the van there before the runner.
Getting almost lost on the road while driving from point to point, and worrying that our runner would get there ahead of us. We learned some of us are not very good at reading directions — I lost my navigator’s job fairly quickly — but our excuse was that, as some of the directions noted, several of the roads did not have signs.
Missing a turn and when asking a volunteer for directions, being told to keep going straight ahead and we’d get there anyway. We did.
Never leaving anybody behind. At one exchange point, we were stopped by a runner who asked if we had any room in our van to get her to the next exchange; her group had left without her. We were full up — seven of us in a seven-person van, plus all our stuff — so we could not take anyone else on. But we wondered: How do you forget someone?
Marveling at the smooth transitions and organization. Let me give a shout out to those who put this together: When considering everything that had to be thought about and worked out, it is quite amazing at how easy everything was and how few problems came up. The organizers set off the runners in waves starting at 6 a.m. so they would finish before 8:45 p.m., and fewer than a half-dozen teams did not make the allotted cut-off time. We finished within five minutes of a second team from our running group, despite starting at different times. That was how well the organizers planned it.
And another shout out to the volunteers. I’d like to particularly mentioned the young fellow we dubbed cast boy, a fellow of about 10 years old with a broken arm, who was pleasant and well-informed when directing us from the streets of his town to the park down the road. We also liked rule-enforcer man, who was adamant about reprimanding those who broke the rules. He let me know in no uncertain terms I was on the wrong side of the path while I waited to start my leg. He yelled at the guy blowing his stupid air horn to shut that thing off. And he told the woman beside me that for safety’s sake, no ear buds were allowed on the course.
Less helpful was umbrella man, who directed traffic by holding a sun umbrella over his head, ignoring most of the cars. And there was lady in the beach chair, who sat motionless while holding the flag directly over her head.
Our runners had some great tales and times: Laura Dixon-Caldwell lamented not approaching the kids in the fast-food parking lot somewhere on her leg, who were chowing down on burgers and smoking what may have been an illicit substance. Her husband, Brent Caldwell, crushed his last leg of 3.1 miles in about 19 minutes — this after running twice, then standing and sitting around all day in the blistering sun.
Wendy Beaudoin, a steady runner, busting out and cutting two minutes a mile off her normal pace. Mike SoRelle taking one of the hardest legs and running uphill for five miles without any shade.
Amie Sexton, in addition to lending her van to the cause, walking down the steep, half-mile long trail from the parking lot to the exchange point, so Robert Pruett — also our designated photographer — would not have to stumble down alone to begin his leg, and I would not get lost and die alone on the way back uphill from mine.
Another shout-out to her van: After the race, we went to the after-party, then out to eat. So three hours later, we returned to the van, which had been sitting locked up in the heat of the evening. The smell was not pretty.
Oh. One thing to actually complain about. When we picked up our running bibs in the pre-dawn hours, we also received a token for a free beer after the race. As the day went one, that beer started to look better and better, and we were looking forward to cracking it open at day’s end. It gave some of us a reason to keep going during the race.
The beer?
Miller Lite.
In a can.
Sigh.
Paul Long writes weekly for the NKyTribune about running and runners. For his daily running stories, follow him at dailymile.com or on Twitter @Pogue57
EXACTLY! 🙂