EatBlogRun: Recap

Team EatBlogRun was incredible.  What an amazing group of women.  We had a fantastic weekend.  I can’t seem to say that enough.

EatBlogRun, aptly named, was made up of a group of bloggers.  Most of the women have a serious following in the blogging world, with thousands of loyal readers logging onto their sites.  Hence, my team was fortunate (savvy?) enough to work the sponsor angle.

Country Inns & Suites donated rooms for the weekend and left us yummy welcome packages well-stocked with fruit and natural electrolyte-replenishing drinks.  GM donated two fully loaded Acadias for us to zip around in.  GM also treated us to a pre-race team dinner on Friday, where we indulged in some serious carbo-loading.  Owater and Clif (including Luna) donated cases of their products, ensuring we were well hydrated and properly fueled throughout.  Team Sparkle donated the adorable racing skirts we became known for; those awesome little numbers snagged us countless compliments.  My favorite slogan of the weekend?  “Does this skirt make my butt look fast?”  Then there was the goodie bag stocked with Croc flip flops, Hanes team t-shirts, Blistex, reusable shopping bags — all sorts of fun stuff.  Talk about being taken care of.

(Things we kept track of by tattooing our progress on the Acadia: the EatBlogRun website, Twitter handles for our sponsors, number of u-turns, number of bathroom stops, and number of skirt “love,” i.e. compliments.)

On the race front, the actual running wasn’t as brutal as I anticipated.  Yes, it was hard.  Definitely hard.  But we had so much fun it more than made up for it.

My first leg was my hardest (in reality it wasn’t supposed to be; it was merely “moderate”), I guess because of my nerves and being worried about doing too much too soon.  I sort of psyched myself out.  My entire first leg was plagued by an unruly stomach.  Not runner’s cramps,  but flat-out queasiness and aching and unhappiness.  Yuck.  My second leg was deemed my hardest, with a steady elevation gain (600 feet) throughout.  As if it weren’t hard enough I missed a turn-off four miles in and ran an additional two to three mile detour.  Because that’s the fun thing to do in the pitch black at 4am when you don’t know where you are or where you’re supposed to be.  Then I subbed two miles for my injured teammate Kelly (Carrie and Brenna and I divvied up her six mile leg between the three of us), which was relatively easy as I was “only” running a quick two miles.  My last leg was my easiest, although knowing that ahead of time meant I was expecting to snooze through it.  Don’t fool yourself kiddies, five miles is still five miles.  Particularly when you’ve already run seventeen and change.

The course was stunning.  We’re talking gorgeous.  What a beautiful region of the country.  My first leg was half trail, up and down over rolling hills and through cattle pastures and vineyards.  It involved opening and closing huge cattle gates (what?! where was this in the course description??) and another team advising us not to “look a cow in the eye, they’ll charge… especially the ones with horns.”  Um… thanks?  My second leg wasn’t much for visual scenery, as it was pitch black and crazy foggy.  But there was a nearly full moon gleaming overhead and the roaring Pacific crashing next to me as I ran down the coast.  My stretch of Kelly’s leg was along a beautiful deep turquoise tree-lined reservoir, and my final leg wound its way downhill beneath a canopy of towering redwood trees.  So. Damn. Pretty.

The hardest part was probably how stiff and cramped we got sitting in the van after our runs.  And “camping” (i.e. bare sleeping bags on the grass) at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge at 1am was freezing (sub 40 degrees and insanely windy), not to mention something I’m not likely to do many more times, if ever.  Talk about nutso.

My teammates were incredible.  We were divided into two vans for the duration of the race (a mere 36 hours).  My “Van 2″ girls were the best comrades a girl could hope for.  Our EatBlogRun team roster sported amazing, inspiring women across the board.  I am so thrilled and grateful to have been included with such a wonderful group.

It’s a full week later and I’m still flying on an unbelievable runner’s high.  What a phenomenal experience.  I absolutely loved it.  And I can’t wait to do it again.