The Bluegrass Half

(That's runner-speak for Half-Marathon.)

That's right blogosphere....today was the day. Team Ludicrous Speed got up early and headed downtown to relay our first ever half marathon. We left the house in a torrential downpour, but it didn't dampen our spirits. Despite being cold and wet all morning, we were all extremely pumped. After all, we had been training for this since July.

We partnered with another family who ran it with their kids too. Mark and Tani (their 12-year old son) started the first leg. They got to be at the start line with all the other hard core runners. We cheered from the sidelines, then walked to our relay posts (they had shuttles, but we had some time to kill).

Leg one started in front of the campus, went winding thru the VA, to the hospital, and back to the soccer fields at the end of campus - 3.4 miles total. They finished leg one in 29 minutes and passed their batons (actually banjo straps - there was a bluegrass theme, you know) on to Lisa and Daniel.

Lisa and DP ran around the soccer fields, through campus, then down and back through the tree streets - 3.1 miles. Lisa finished three or four minutes ahead of Daniel, but he ran the whole way - I was so proud of him! I was waiting at my relay point, and got a little teary-eyed when I saw him come around the corner - banjo strap in hand - ready to hand it off.

I left from the McD's at campus and ran ALL THE WAY down State of Franklin - long and boring. But mostly flat and easy. We turned on Legion Street, crossed over the interstate, and ran up Roan street to the Parkway. Maya (11) was my leg partner, and she had a good head start. I could see her most of the time, and was catching up to her at one point. I wanted to run with her, but right when I got to her, she stopped to tie her shoe. I didn't want to stop! I patted her on the back and kept going, but I didn't get too far ahead.

There were supposed to be musicians playing bluegrass music throughout the course, but I think the rain scared many of them off. But there was this one lady - probably college age - standing all by herself, in the rain, playing a banjo, and singing like there wasn't a cloud in the sky. She was so inspiring! I thought, if she can do THAT, I can do this.

My leg was 3 miles exactly, and I came around the corner to the final relay post to see Ben looking my way, already in the crouch, trying to set the timer on his watch and keep an eye on me. He grabbed the strap and bolted and by Showtime's estimate, we had run for about an hour and a half. (Showtime, Michelle, Chip, and Kristy formed a team as well, so they also hung out with us at the relay spots.) Our team goal was 2 hours, and I was sure Ben would finish in 30. Maya came up about 2 minutes after me, and then Tony took off to finish the last leg. The last leg took them back down the Parkway, back into campus, and basically backtracked the second leg, ending behind the Carnegie.

Maya and I took the shuttle back to the finish, met up with Mark, Lisa, Tani, and DP, and waited for our teams to finish.

The last leg was 3.6 miles, and I think Ben finished in just under 30 minutes. We don't yet know our official time, but we think we finished in 2 hours exactly, which was our goal. Our friends finished right behind us, so it was a huge party at the finish line.

We were SOAKING wet, so we ran (drove) home to change and came back, but we still missed the awards presentation. I confirmed we didn't place, but I really wanted to see how we finished and I still don't know yet.

Oh well. I consider us winners no matter what. A year ago, not a one of us could have run this race. Today, we each contributed and NO ONE WALKED. Not once. That's huge! And it poured rain the whole time, which made it that much more challenging. I am so proud of us!

P.S. - no pictures yet. Will post if we find any, but we didn't take a camera.

UPDATE: Official team time - 2:01:12. woot! We were 12th out of 30 Family Relay teams, although that's not entirely accurate - several of the teams listed in our category were not Family Teams, so it's a little botched. But it's all good....we're happy with our time!