Running a 10k at night, on a gravel road, in the middle of no where sounds pretty boring, lonely, and a little scary. If you do it alone. \u00a0Fortunately, for me I only had to run the first 1.5 miles alone. \u00a0That was a very lonely stretch. \u00a0There were no red flashing lights ahead to spur me on and no vans around to make me think I was on the right track.<\/p>\n
At one point I did see a flashing red light. \u00a0Perfect someone to catch and score my first “kill” of the relay. \u00a0The light kept getting closer and closer and closer. \u00a0It was only a Ragnar sign indicating a turn. \u00a0Bummer. \u00a0Last year I passed quite a few people on the night leg and the steady stream of flashing red lights was a great encouragement to keep pushing.<\/p>\n
This sign indicated a turn onto a gravel road which was a pretty pleasant idea for the legs – not so much for the lungs as the vans stirred up quite a dust storm. \u00a0 I had taken the pace out much easier for this leg, remembering what happened on the previous day (this run started at 12:15am) and knowing that I had a 7 miler looming later in the day I was happy to start out pretty relaxed and to just go with the flow. \u00a0I did want some road kill numbers though.<\/p>\n
Our van was nicely lit up with flashing christmas tree lights making it easy to spot. \u00a0I saw it up ahead and I as I approached I shouted, “Where are all my road kills at?” Two seconds later some girl passed me (effectively making me a road kill). \u00a0How\u00a0embarrassing. \u00a0I had been passed by plenty of women in my first run – so I think it was my just uttered arrogant comment that spurred me to shift gears and lock-in behind her.<\/p>\n
Once I got into the\u00a0rhythm of the stride it wasn’t too bad. \u00a0I never did dare to look at my Garmin to see what pace we were at, but I knew she was pushing me hard. \u00a0I had no idea how long I could stay with her, but knew that at least mentally I had to try. \u00a0We ran stride for stride for the next 3-4 miles. \u00a0Mainly her pushing me to dig deep and keeping me on my toes. \u00a0I wasn’t at a conversational pace so we didn’t talk much, but I think she had run competitively. \u00a0She effortlessly used the variation in terrain to try and drop me. But I hung on as we proceeded to climb almost 1000 feet during the 10k distance.<\/p>\n
We battled, I never really took the lead not wanting to actually get ahead of her since it is easier when someone else is setting the pace. \u00a0Sometime after 5 miles I was struggling and let her go. \u00a0I never lost sight of her but was starting to give up hope of reeling her back in. \u00a0Then we got a road kill. \u00a0Success!<\/p>\n
The terrain leveled out a bit as we neared the finish and I started trying to work on picking her back off. I started picking the pace back up and within a half mile of the finish some random dude came out of no where and flew past us. \u00a0WTF. \u00a0I shifted gears again and gave it everything I had. \u00a0So did the girl. \u00a0It was a super battle to \u00a0see who had a kick – brought \u00a0me back to the college days. \u00a0In the process we picked up another road kill right as we passed the spotters. \u00a0Poor spotters. \u00a04 runners in the dark all yelling out our team numbers!<\/p>\n
I passed the girl for good, the guy was long gone, and I was\u00a0absolutely\u00a0spent. \u00a0 So much for saving anything for my last leg! \u00a0Even though I was spent it was much different than after the hot 8 miler. \u00a0This was a great feeling of giving 100%, digging deep, and beating the competition.<\/p>\n
I thanked the girl for helping me push the pace and for getting through an all uphill leg that could easily have become a negative suffer fest – instead of the positive suffer fest we enjoyed!! She thanked me for helping push her and that was that. \u00a0She ended up being from team 105 – Better than Bond Girls: Dirty Martinis. \u00a0They ended up beating us by 14 minutes after all 36 legs.<\/p>\n
I stretched quickly and then we loaded up to cheer on Aaron and to head to the Van Exchange. \u00a0We passed the figurative baton (a slap bracelet) and drove to Hudson WI for breakfast at Denny’s before driving to Stillwater to get a few needed hours of sleep!<\/p>\n
Here is the map\/elevation chart (almost 1000 feet gain):<\/p>\n
Here is my pace chart with elevation throw in for comparison:<\/p>\n We relaxed on Lake Pepin waiting to start back up again: Everyone has to wear a reflective vest between 7:30pm and 7am: Our van lit up with Lake Pepin in the background:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/leg17mapelevation.jpg?ssl=1\" "\\"leg17mapelevation\\"")
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