Highlights of the American Odyssey Relay Race

Now that I've learned and shared with you what I'll do differently for my next relay race, I thought I'd relive some of my favorite parts of racing for 30.25 hours straight - and some photographic evidence.

• Eating anything I wanted because I'm RUNNING.
• Having the best excuse ever to use my mustache flask.

• Drawing mustaches and other things that shall not be named on our van (too bad the rain washed it all off just 30 minutes later).

• Enjoying the gorgeous rural countryside - fields, cows, and civil war battlefields.  Not too shabby, although sometimes the smells weren't fabulous.

• Running at 3:30 am in pitch darkness (except for the safety lights of a couple of runners ahead of me and the occasional car headlights) from Maryland into West Virginia.  The stars were absolutely brilliant. So were my bunny ears.

• Beer after the 3:30 am run.
• Seeing a waning crescent moon appear just before sunrise over an open field while everyone else slept (except our wonderful driver, Liz). 
• A cup of piping hot black coffee at 8am after a 2-hour snooze inside the van.  And Thin Mints for breakfast.
• Hanging out at transitions along the gorgeous C&O Canal.

• Running along the C&O Canal just outside of DC while wearing bunny ears (yes, still) and getting bewildered looks from other runners and bikers.
• Seeing the rest of the awesome Stash Mob team at the finish line and crossing it together.  

Our way-too-with-it team captains have already registered the team for next year's race.  This gives me plenty of time to plan for fabulous costumes and headgear for next time. I can't wait.

Lessons learned from my first relay race

Thanks to all the amazing people on the Stash Mob team that I ran with this weekend, I am officially a relay race fan.  After running 13.2 miles, getting around 3 hours of sleep, wearing lots of pink, and eating lots of junk food, I feel fabulous.  A good long shower afterward and a few hours in compression socks helped a lot, though.  I was a tad funky after running three times and spending 30 hours in a van with 5 other people.

I felt fairly prepared for my first relay experience, but one can only prepare so much without experience.  I really hope to do one of these again in the future (and hopefully with the same people), so these are the top 10 things that I'll do differently next time:

1.  Bring more beer.  You can never have too much.
2.  Bring less non-running clothing.  I only need one outfit to sleep in and wear in between race legs.  If it's not drenched in sweat, it's good enough.
3.  Bring more bourbon.  After running a leg that is cold and/or wet, bourbon will warm up your insides quite quickly. Also, it's delicious.
4.  Bring a hydration pack, like this one.  My last leg was hot with very little shade, and I ended up borrowing one from one of our fearless team captains (thank goodness they were prepared for things like this). There are no water stops (or toilets, for that matter) on the legs. If you're thirsty or have to poop, well, good luck with that.
5. Don't bring heavy costume hats.  I brought a fabulous fuzzy pink Viking helmet, and it was too warm to wear it.  I hate seeing a good Viking helmet go to waste.
6.  Don't wear my "Show me your boobs" trucker hat inside a church.  Oops.
7.  Bring instant coffee to drink before each leg.  A caffeine boost really makes a difference in my energy level, and it would have been really nice to have when I started my second leg around 3:30 am.  I know I could drink a Red Bull or a 5 Hour Energy, but that stuff is disgusting.  I'd rather run groggy than guzzle that swill.
8.  Leave the camera at home.  I thought I'd want to take some more serious pictures, but digging my camera out of one of my bags was too much of a pain in the ass.  I always had my phone by my side, so laziness won that battle.
9. Bring a spare pair of running shoes.  It started pouring a few hours into the race, and I had visions of having to run in muddy, soaked shoes the entire time.  I didn't have to run in rain and mud, but a couple of our team members did.
10.  Train.  I was very lucky to be asked to take someone's place on the team at the last minute, so training wasn't much of an option this time around. But I have every intention of doing it again - only faster.

All in all, everything was fine, I didn't royally screw anything up, and our team captains were impressively prepared with everything we might need that we didn't have for ourselves, including everything from mustache bracelets to Gatorade.  Because you never really know when you'll have a mustache bracelet emergency.

Our fearless and colorful captains

Hide yo' kids, hide yo' wife. I mean, hide yo' beer.

Considering a trip to the beach for Labor Day weekend generally elicits one of 2 responses:

1.  "Yeah, I'm going to drink beer/an umbrella drink/Budweiser Chelada and get a sweet taaaaan!" (tan = painful sunburn).

2.  "Deal with all those crowds?  No way.  I'm going to sit at home and play Magic: The Gathering until 5am.  Screw paying for parking and slathering on sunscreen every 15 minutes.  And sand.  Screw sand."

Chris and I went with response #1.  Though only one of us got a sweet tan/sunburn.  And neither of us drank Chelada.

We wound up going to Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach in North Carolina, mainly because that was the only beach within driving distance that had reasonably priced lodging on Airbnb.  And there will be a report on the Airbnb part of this trip later on.

Bottom line, I think this area is my new favorite beach destination. There were long stretches of sand and beautiful blue water.  There were plenty of public access points and far more available parking than I was expecting. It wasn't overshadowed by condo buildings trying to break the stratosphere.  And it had sand crabs.

Also, people were ridiculously nice and helpful.  I know, it's the south and everyone is nice, but there are different varieties of "southern nice".  There's sweet-as-over-sugared-pie-to-your-face-and-I'll-talk-shit-about-you-as-soon-as-you-leave nice.  There's friendly-because-I-love-to-talk-about-myself nice.  And then there's just regular down-to-earth nice.  People here are down-to-earth nice.  They don't want to make fun of your hair behind your back, and they aren't attention whores.  They will help if you if you appear to need it, they'll smile while they do it, and they'll be on their way and let you be on yours.

The only problem was the no alcohol policy.  I'd read stories about how militant the police are about drinking on the beach.  But it's THE BEACH.  A dehydrating beverage is a necessity.  That was easily taken care of by drinking out of a squeeze bottle.  But, seriously, Wrightsville.  Changing this should be your top priority.

Problem (kind of) solved.

Sometimes a trip to the beach on a holiday weekend can be harrowing, and the relaxing trip you envisioned becomes a big fat ball of stress and road rage as you try to make your way to your tranquil little spot of sand by the water.  There was none of that in Wrightsville.  Things were easy.  The beach was pretty much perfect.  And the people were wonderful.  The Outer Banks may get all the hype in this state, but Wrightsville deserves just as much attention.  But if it doesn't get it, that's ok.  Fewer crowds and cheaper rates for me. I just need to remember to bring a nondescript beverage container.

OBX half marathon - beaches, beer, and Backstreet Boys

A conversation from June 2012...

Laura:  “Hey, want to run a marathon in the Outer Banks in November?”

Me: “Hell no.  I just did a half marathon.  There is no way I’m running twice that distance. I don’t even want to run another half.”

Laura:  “They have a half marathon, too.”

Me:  “Ok I'll do it.”

Based on my flip-flopping, I’ve clearly missed my calling in life as a politician. 

Anyway, that’s how a group of us found ourselves in North Carolina’s Outer Banks last weekend.  Laura’s marathon training involved never running more than 15 miles.  My training involved going to Alabama and Chile and some very sporadic running in between.  

But who cares?  We were at the beach!  The weather was absolutely perfect for running, we were one block away from the water, we had a hot tub, and the beach was nearly deserted.  

I ran the race, got a PR (beat my old time by over 2.5 minutes!  Training?  Bah, who needs it?), collected my free BBQ and beer (now THAT’s how to put on a race), and wandered with Chris around the adorableness of the town of Manteo where the race ended.  

But I had plans for the rest of the day.  And they were as follows:

1. Taco Bell (ok, that was Chris’s idea, but a brilliant one)
2. Go back to beach
3. Jump in freezing cold Atlantic Ocean
4. Run back to house
5. Grab a cupcake and beer
6. Jump in hot tub with cupcake and beer
7. NEVER GET OUT OF HOT TUB

Things don’t always go according to plan, though.  Here is what actually happened:

1. Taco Bell
2. Go back to beach
3. Dance wildly to the Backstreet Boys blasting from the house next to the beach access, much to the amusement of the people in said house’s hot tub
4. Jump in freezing cold Atlantic Ocean
5. Dance wildly to more music coming from house next to beach
6. Get invited to join party at house next to beach
7. Crash party in house next to beach
8. Drink our new friends’ beer in their hot tub
9. Feel super slow after realizing our new friends are super freakin’ fast runners
10. Get hungry, go back to house for dinner
11. Grab cupcake and beer
12. Jump in hot tub with cupcake and beer.

Ok, I ate the cupcake before ever making it to the hot tub.  Details.  Whatever.

I didn’t complain at all about the slight change in my plans for the day.  I ran a great race, stayed hydrated enough to have beer afterward, got to go to the beach, dance to terrible  boy band music, meet fun new people, and sit in multiple hot tubs.  Before the race, I swore up and down that this would be my last half marathon.  My knee was protesting, I’m not the most dedicated when it comes to training, and races can get expensive.  But after a race day like this, I might have to rethink all that.  Especially when beaches and hot tubs at the Outer Banks are involved.