more DUUUUUUUUUUUUUDES...

so I never finished my GMR tales. tsk, tsk.

our first legs, for the most part, were pretty uneventful. Taylor rocked her leg in such a short period of time that I almost wasn't even ready for her. not to mention the fact that there were no porta-cans (or forests) at our exchange area so I had to squat next to the van parked on the side of the road. that was pretty awesome.

my first leg was ~3.4 miles (website says 3.39) and was run on a rail-to-trail type of path that was frequented with burrow holes from small critters. I was amazed that in my 1.5 year of trail running I never turned my ankle, but running on this stupid path I almost did. since I haven't been running much (understatement of the year), I just tried to crank the miles out at a nice, steady pace. ended up with something like a 9:16 pace for the course, so I was pretty happy.

one nice girl did pass me along the way. she was cruising like a gazelle but slowed a bit to chat with me as she passed. little did I know that the rest of her team was full of frigid bitches and were giving the rest of the van a hard time at the transition area. When I hopped in the van my teammates informed me that that particular team was "going down" because Mr. McSpeedyPants had decided that he was going to hawk their girl down. Sure enough, by the time we caught up to him in the van he was already very close to her and seemed to be gaining ground quickly. he was on some killer rolling hills, too.

on the way to the next transition area we had a minor freakout because we stopped to get half the van some much needed food. However, the random, middle-of-nowhere sub shop that we stopped at took an exceptionally long time to make the food so by the time e-speed and taylor arrived back with subs in hand, jayhawk was mildly freaking out about making it to the transition on time. all was good though, as we made it with enough time for her to hit up the bathroom before ryan came barreling in.

jayhawk was a rockstar on her course, which seemed to be hotter than the sun, from what I recall. We stopped along the way to cheer her on along the course and she was moving steady and strong. up at the transition area we chatted with some of the volunteers who informed us that people would be coming down that path all evening, a thought which scared most of us. we would have moved on to the part of the course that was on roads by then, so our teammates could leapfrog us. jayhawk finished up her leg solidly, although she did admit that she was ready to take a break when she saw us and the finish up ahead.

on to dice, who had also mentally decided to hawk some random girl down. I was driving to the next transition area, with Ryan navigating, and we totally got lost. the directions? were SO freaking terrible I swear we got lost driving to most of the transition areas. or maybe that was just me that got lost. but I DO NOT USUALLY GET LOST, is the point. anyways. e-speed was running a warm up backwards on the path when dice rolled in, so she actually ran into the transition area with him, which was kind of funny.

we traveled to the whole-team transition area to meet up with the other van. Dice and I found an unsecure network and uploaded the second podcast on the dude where's my van website and we recorded a third (yet to be published) podcast with van 1 at the helm. they seemed to be well rested and in good spirits, so when e-speed flew into the transition area they were quite ready to go.

we, however, were ready for some grub. and a nap. already. this, my friends? means bad news...