Random Thoughts: Cold, wet and windy

I can honestly say I haven't been as cold and tired as I was from Friday and Saturday. All said, I think it would have been much better without the wind. I was much more cold and much less willing to walk because it was so windy. Also, I got very little sleep because the wind kept me up all night. I almost think I would have been better off if I had skipped sleeping all together. At the very least, Jeremy and I would have played a little more cribbage. Anyway, it was a fun event of our own making. Of course, as it turned out, it wasn't really a team event. In fact, it wasn't really an event at all unless you went inside all night. Some teams, it would seem, did just that. The same people that I saw at dinner, pizza party, and breakfast were all clean, dry and had neat and orderly hair. It's a definite sign that they were fair-weather Relayers.

In any case, I don't know if I will do it next year. The event could be much more fun if we truly had a team. As it was, we had more along the lines of half a team. Rain or shine, I could see it being much more fun if the team plus families showed up and stayed the night and walked in groups. Either way, though, I still had a bit of fun.

One other note, there was a kid who was attempting to run for 24 full hours. Getting some of the back story, he was the product of a group home. He really likes running and is really good at it. Back to the story, he was planning on running for a full 24 hour span. Unfortunately, was not successful. He had two things going against him. First, was the previously mentioned weather. The second thing he was lacking was a support system. People were periodically running with him as moral support, but even that was unplanned. He needed people to provide him Goo and Gatorade and water at periodic intervals. He needed coach runners to push him along when the wind picked up and the rain was sheeting in. Heck, he probably could have used more fresh shoes and socks to help with the foot fatigue. All said, it looked like he lost it around midnight. I know he was running when we were setting up around five. Doing the math, he probably ran for about six or seven hours at (I would estimate) a 9 minute per mile pace. Factoring in bathroom breaks, I put him in at 30-45 miles or so. Even though he didn't run for 24 hours, he still ran a quite respectable an impressive ultra-marathon. So, I just have to say, "Congratulations nameless kid I don't know and will likely never see again."