26.2 With Donna Marathon Relay

So Jacy was ever so kind in sharing her race entry that she won with a few of us from MRTT!!! She could have chosen to run the entire 13 or 26 miles all by herself, but instead she wanted to have company!! And i am so glad she wanted our company! The marathon relay was split up into 5 different legs to cover the full 26.2 miles. We had 5 different people to do all the legs, but one leg kept having stability issues, one girl was injured so she had to give up her spot, then the girl who took her place ended up getting into an accident just days before the race so she couldn’t race either. Guess who got to fill that spot?! ME 🙂 Jacy knew i needed to get my training miles in, so she offered up 2 of the legs to me, which totalled 10.5 miles legs 3 & 4.

Jacy and I left for Jacksonville and went to the expo. We got to finally meet up with a few MRTT mamas that are from the FL area chapters, that was FUN. We all went out to dinner together at Carabbas. Jacy and I went back to the hotel and caught up over a glass of wine in the lounge, then waited for Ashton to come in. We laid out our flat mama’s. Jacy made up matching designs for all of us to wear. we looked like Dunkin Donuts sponsored us, totally unintentional.

Come race day and OMG COLD. so we are in Florida….it is just NOT supposed to be this cold. I swear i got frostbite….It’s hard doing the relay in the cold because you have hours before you even need to run and get to warm up, so you just freeze, and we did. Ashton was first leg, and they had to delay the start because traffic getting to the race venue, well, it was just dead stop traffic. Miles and miles of cars not moving an inch. I was able to talk with a few other girls who were still waiting in the traffic while i was waiting in the freezing cold for them to get there. finally at the start Ashton took off doing her 6 mile leg. We had to take shuttels to the stop where we hand off the baton, so Pat took shuttle 2 to her stop, Jacy and i waited in the car with the heater on, for a little while. I had it timed out so i knew when i needed to leave to get to my position to get the baton from pat when she finished up her 3.75 mile leg. I was there waiting for her at my stop and she came rolling up and handed off the baton and i was OFF. Leg 3 was 6.75 miles, and when i came up to the baton hand off spot, i got to just keep going since i was doing 2 legs. The next leg was 3.5 miles. The scenery of the 2 legs were so pretty!! all the houses we passed reminded me of the beach housees in Rhode Island groing up. Of course i was bundled too from the freezing weather in the morning, so around mile 4 i was warmed up and i had to strip. I was completely loaded down with STUFF….anyways, once i got done with my 2 legs it was finally Jacy’s turn!! i mean she has been waiting for hours to get to run, im sure she is frozen solid by now…Her family was there and was able to get a cool shot of us handing off the baton and her taking off to finish up her 6.2 mile leg. i took the shuttle to the finish line and met up with Ashton. I had to get my medal since i didn’t get it on the run when i finished my leg. I got my beer and free food and we waited for Jacy. She came in super fierce at the end!!

And that about sums it up. Add another medal to my wall, cross off – do a marathon relay, from the list, add something new to the list. What should i set out for next?? Maybe i should get through my first FULL marathon before i add anything else.