I'd be lying if I said I hadn't dreamed of winning this race. And anyway, no one would believe me...
But the past few days were about so much more than realizing that dream. In the company of old and new friends, and with the help of the best crew I could have asked for, I had one of the most incredible journeys of my life. I have so many memories to share but my (swollen) feet are submerged in ice as I write this and can only handle another few minutes so I'll upload some pics and tell the rest of the story soon.
But first I have to mention Larry, John and all of the volunteers - these people don't just make the event possible, they make it what it is. Thank you for all the hard work before, during and after the race. Your friendly faces and kind words throughout the day and night made such a difference. The only downside of coming into an aid station was enquiring about how folks were doing and hearing of those who had to drop. I was especially sorry when it was some of the guys I have raced and trained with over the past few months - Adam, Wynn, Duke, Matt, Steve, Pierre and Molly - all top notch athletes that had various things go wrong on the day. Though I think in Pierre's case it was a well planned 50 miler! Recover well. I have no doubt you'll all be back stronger.
The day had come
The hour had come
There was time for a few pics with friends
And then it was time to run
We could have sat by the lake
And enjoyed the view from the shore
But we chose to run some trails
And some hills
And enjoyed the view from up here instead
We got to run a little of this
And a LOT of this
And even some of this. In the dark...
We weren't meant to run on this. But some of us did anyway. Despite excellent course marking!
We got to run across lots of bridges
Even a few real ones
Our crew even got to sit by them (I guess they deserved a break...)
We got to run with cool people
And have a laugh along the way (kinda hard not to laugh at Doug's stories!)
We got to pose for the camera
Even when we didn't want to :)
We got to change socks MANY times
But we had friends to help
We sometimes ran too fast for the camera
And sometimes not
But mostly we sat on our ass
And got treated like royalty!
And FINALLY...
We got to cross the FINISH line
And take off those damn shoes
And grin like a champion :).JPG)
And relax in the sunshine enjoying an ice cold beer. Ooups, hallucinating again! Except for the ice cold...
We got to hang out with cool people
And watch our friends finish
We got to shake Larry's hand
And scream in horror at the mention of next year's race
We got to watch our friends pick up awards
And then we got to pose some more
And once more
And the prize for best crew goes to...
Thanks sis!
Congrats to Chris on a phenomenal race winning in just under 22 hours. And to Joe and Brent who came in under 24 and 26 hours respectively. Full results for all of the races available at http://uppermidwesttrailrunners.com/superior/fall/index.html.
End of post.
