Well, Saturday was the River to River. I left Friday with my teammates to southern Illinois. It was a really fun trip, long, but fun. We settled in at the hotel and decided being the healthy young lasses we were we'd walk to the race packet pick-up place. About halfway there I started getting really nervous seeing the thunderclouds in the distance. We pressed forward though, talking occasionally about how we maybe should have driven. On our way back the clouds were looking thicker and thicker. Two other girls and I started power-walking it back to the hotel. Then we felt it start to sprinkle and started jogging. When we saw lightning strike, we ran. We made it to the hotel dry, but as a huge gust of wind blew in and rain came pouring down and turned to hail, we knew our teammates were not so lucky! The came in a few minutes later completely drenched. Soon there were a few people gathered in the hotel lobby. We saw a man we had met at a Subway on our way to the race stop in to take shelter from his run. As I turned to look at the storm track on the TV screen in the lobby I heard a loud bang behind me. I turned around and the man had passed out over the section between the two sets of doors where you wipe your feet. He was completely unconscious and was even snoring! Holly, who is trained medically rushed over to him when people started trying to get him up. She woke him and told him to stay still and explained what had happened.

I have never seen a more stubborn man. He got up despite her pleadings, went and sat down in a chair for a second and left in a bit of a huff and in denial about the whole thing. He had blood sliding down his head but was convinced that it was the hail pellets that had done it. He left the hotel room quickly. We worried about him for a while but were relieved to see him at the race and find out he got three sets of stiches and was okay. He was even running the race still... CRAZY!

We got up very very early 3:15 AM the next morning to make it to the start of the race at about 6 AM. We wanted to leave time in case we took a wrong turn or anything. And then the race began! I was the 5th leg runner. I was nervous sitting in the car as my turn got closer and closer. I honestly have never seen so many hills on a course in my life, not even maybe the bix... well, close I guess, but this was a lot longer of a race. It was a chilly race day, about 45 degrees most of the day. I only saw the sun for a few minutes during my third leg.

One of my awesome teammates let me borrow her watch so that I could push myself and pace myself to what I had been training at and I was able to run my second leg 3.41 miles in 29:01 minutes! woo hoo! That is great for me. There were a few hills that I seriously wanted to start walking on, but pressed on. Makes me want to invest in one of these watches. We'll see. I'm really enjoying running so much more than I ever have before and am anxious to prepare for the triathlon and various races that I may do this summer.