DUUUUUUUUUDES...

this weekend? pretty much wacky. and I'm not gonna lie... there were at least a few moments when I claimed that I was "downright miserable". said moments generally occurred right before having to run 7+ mile legs on little sleep. PURE HAPPINESS, I TELL YOU.

but let's back it up.

Wednesday night both Dice and E-Speed rolled into town. I accompanied the Jayhawks to pick them up (since I am currently car-less) and we headed out to grab some dinner. Fun was had by all as we anticipated what the coming days would bring.

Thursday, Dice and I packed my stuff up (he was ready to go already) and then chilled for a bit with Jayhawk and E-Speed before heading out to run some errands and pick up some last minute supplies. Jayhawk and OOSG headed up to the airport to get the vans, where they would be stuck for like a gazillion hours before the hertz line finally accommodated them. We were supposed to meet up for dinner at 6:30 but when Jayhawk frantically called Dice and told her they wouldn't get the vans by then we got ahold of everyone and backed things up. We eventually just ended up meeting at the Jayhawk/OOSG casa where everyone loaded up and hopped into vans.

I volunteered to navigate on the way to Madison and swiftly a) failed to inform Barb that she was in an IPass lane without an IPass and b) fell asleep. [I was tired and they were being boring! leave me alone!] We somehow managed to arrive safely in Madison and had our team meeting before heading to bed.

6:45 came ridiculously early and our room stumbled down to the lobby to meet up with the rest of the team. the plan was to check the team in, watch our starting runner (the fabulous full metal lunchbox) start and then grab breakfast/sleep more. I had the privilege of driving the beast over to the start and quickly commented about how "I didn't hit the..." booom. curb. oops. sucker takes some getting used to, I tell you. but that wasn't nearly as bad as mike claiming he had explosive diarrhea while in our hotel room. totally awesome, right?

Lunchbox starts the race in the lead and we are off! Van 2 - let's go grab breakfast! oh... before we progress, Van 2 consists of Taylor, Ryan (McSpeedyPants), Jayhawk, Dice, E-Speed, and myself.

YAY FOR PERKINS! booo for stupid Perkins employees. after devouring what seemed like an impossibly large amount of food we had a highly amusing conversation with our cashier.

cashier [after us telling him we were doing a relay from Madison to Chicago]: "I just drove from here (Madison) to Minneapolis last weekend. You going to Chicago doesn't phase me."

us [after it occurs to us that he thinks it's some kind of driven relay]: "dude. we're running. not driving."

cashier: "oh."

HA!

we mosey on back to the hotel where we record our first podcast, pack up, and head to the first group transition area. after snoozing for about 30 minutes in the van (one of the rare occurrences of sleep that we all participated in] the other team arrived and we cheered Dawn on as she passed off to Taylor.

and so Van 2 begins their first GMR legs...