SO, it really wasn't that big of a deal. Funny how different things were this time around. First of all, NEVER run the first leg. It's freaking EARLY (you start between 6am and 6:30am) it's freaking COLD and there's a lot of turns (hence the 2005 episode of getting lost and creepy hobo guys near the river). The first pic above is the before. Guy on the left is an engineer my brother used to work with here in town. The guy in the middle is my brother and I'm on the right. I'm so freaking glad he and his wife are back in KC and can hang out with us now! Will ran freakishly fast on his leg and I barely got out of the damn port-a-potty (still drinking my gallon o' water daily plus a few energy drinks meant I visited the portapotties on each stop). I hear "holy crap, it's Will already" and say "damn, shit, motherfucker" and some other lovely things. Almost fall over taking off my pants, throw my coat & sweatshirt to another teammate, grab my ipod and strap it onto my arm and take off running after smacking Will's hand. My shorts weren't even tied and I almost fell over trying to tie them and turn on my tunes at the same time. damn I'm graceful. I head off up the gravel road hill to the horizon and turn where I proceed to jog my ass off up up up hills in the strongest wind I've ever been a part of. I was doing pretty well, barely even walking. I come to the top of what I swear was the 22nd hill, see all these cars parked there. I think, hey, this is it baby and turn on the gas. I sprint for all I've got. burn baby burn, looking good, not hearing any applausing or woo-hoo-ing. Then I see it's just some farmer having a damn party. NOT the end of my race. Nope, I've got another freaking mile left. damn.
The half-nekkid pic of me is at the actual end of the race, slapping hands with our last runner. I was told later that my first words were, "hills (pant pant pant) wind (pant pant pant) fuck (pant pant pant)". It became a mantra. I was handed a cup of gatorade and an energy beer. Yes, an energy beer. Apparently Budweiser makes this beer with caffeine, various energy root extracts and fruity tastes. You'd think I'd love it, no? ick. Not for me. Of course I'm a frugal woman not in favor of wasting beers no matter the source, so I sucked it down. Take one for the team. That's me.
The brew to brew run is the BEST! Great volunteers, BEER at the end and great food, 10 legs of the 44 miler. Some people ran the whole damn thing. There was this lady that did it and finished at the same time as our 9 runners all together. That's a marathon PLUS! Insane. Plus the money raised went to benefit Cystic Fibrosis to help research for my Joey and the others out there fighting this disease.
I was so very proud of myself for getting out there. Maybe (I'm typing very quietly here) I could actually BE a runner. I know it's a scary thought. Ok, scary to me. I'm all pumped up about my 5K I'm gonna run in Lawrence on April 15th. If you're in the area and want to come out and jog (I'm not a runner yet, I'm a jog/walker for now) holler at me. I'm hoping to meet up with Elinor and head to the yarn barn in Lawrence afterwards. (She's on a yarn diet, so that may not be a nice place to meet up. Maybe we'll find a spot to sit and knit a bit and admire her beautiful daughter in person.)
I did get some uninterrupted knitting done and have about 4 inches started on my new picovoli in a wild bright handpainted orange medly from twisted sisters. I thought about picot edging on this one, but laziness won again. ah well. maybe I'll crochet an edge on afterwards.
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