The Big Race: Running Cowboys

Our second set of legs started around 5 PM. Race rules stipulate you have a wear a reflector vest, a head lamp, a butt lamp and carry a flash light. So cars will be able to spot you on the dark roads. Also, if there is a spelunking accident, we can be of assistance.

We didn’t get any pictures of us running in the dark because by that point we were too exhausted and needed to focus on tracking our runners which became much more difficult at night. I was the last runner on my team and ran my second leg around 9 PM. It was pitch black and quiet an experience. Because your only light is the head lamp, you feel like you are running in a different world. You can’t tell how steep the hills are, how fast you are going, or how far you have gone. I was never so happy to see my team as I was during that run. Their words of encouragement every two miles were the only markers I had to know how far I had come.

Once I finished that leg, we had another 5 hour break. We were beyond tired, so we drove to the next check point, a high school, to get some sleep. Jess, Stef and I just grabbed our sleeping bags and slept on the ground on the lawn of the school. It was 40 degrees. That was another amazing experience; to sleep out under the stars, in the cold, in a strange place. We were too tired to be scared. We felt like cowboys.

Song of the Day

Bon Jovi and I both felt like cowboys. Today's song is Wanted Dead or Alive