2012 Blue Ridge Relay, Part IV: Mountain Goats and Legends, Smiling all the Way

I awoke again for good sometime around 6:30 a.m. I slept pretty soundly, interrupted only occasionally by the sounds of Jay and John bickering over Jay's driving. I was sorry I missed that but they successfully navigated us through a tough stretch of the relay that was challenging both for the runners and the vans. We arrived at the final transition zone, otherwise known as the "church that serves breakfast." I got out and started rehydrating as most of our van continued to sleep. I had my final racing costume on with some outerwear and milled around for a bit. We had passed well over 100 teams so far in our journey and so this exchange zone wasn't very crowded when we arrived. I was amused once again at the sight of several runners asleep on the ground, in hammocks, on benches, and even on the side of the road. I found myself a little bit envious of the teams who had enough time to actually get a decent night's sleep but ultimately decided I'd much rather have the earlier finish that comes with being a faster team at this event.

I don't want to gross out the reader, but I made several trips to the porta-jons during this stop. I thought I had had trouble eating food that will stick, but I think I was just really nervous about the task ahead of me: the first mountain goat leg, infamous for its difficulty and arguably the toughest leg of the entire race. The next six legs would certainly be the toughest section of the race, and there was a quiet intensity about Van 2 as we all began to wake up.

I managed to get in a brief warmup but felt horrible. Julie gave me some Marathon bars, which helped ease my stomach, and I spent a lot of time chatting with other runners: Thomas Eggar and Matt Jaskot, Michelle Hazelton, Carolyn Maye, Katie Howard, and others whom I did not know but found to be quite friendly. DURT had been with us for awhile earlier but we eventually dropped them and found out they had some trouble on Leg 23 or 24. Fast and Pretty and Chick Maggots had been with us most of the race, as well; after some early jousting it appeared the former had put us away but we still enjoyed chatting with Mich and the girls at the exchange zones. Jason Martin was their driver and I got to swap war stories with him, as well.

My mountain leg would start off flat for a mile or so and then begin climbing - and not stop climbing. It was a continuous ascent with literally no relief for the last 5.5 miles - for a total of 6.5 miles of running. How does 1,400-plus feet of elevation gain over 6.5 miles sound to you? I knew I was in for a war when the previous legs had been described as "relatively easy" and I had found them to be brutal. This leg was described as brutal, so how would I later describe it? Pure hell?

Emily came rolling into the exchange zone with a look of "this is finally over" on her face. Tears were shed a few times among members of Stache and Dash 2.0 - another BRR tradition that isn't always pleasant. Van 1 had shaken off some soreness, injury concerns, and brutal finishing legs to hand it over to us for one final time. I slapped on the bracelet and let out a primal roar in front of my teammates as I headed off into the distance, about 100 meters behind the woman from Chick Maggots.

Adrienne snapped a picture from the van as I ran by.

You can't tell from this picture, but trust me, I look worried.

Not surprisingly, the "flat" first mile of this leg was a lot more uphill than flat. I felt awful in the first mile but the mental toughness - something I've found to be lacking in recent months - kicked in as I discarded all thoughts from Satan and began to trudge up the mountain. I tried to settle into a slower pace right away and just keep it there, but my first mile went by in about 7:17. This leg featured some long, steady climbs followed by a series of hairpin turns and switchbacks. As advertised, it was like that the entire way with no relief whatsoever. A few times, I stopped to walk for 10 meters or so just to regain my momentum. I was frustrated because the girl from Chick Maggots - clearly a hill expert, as their team is from Asheville - was pulling away from me. But I had come into this leg with a plan and I was sticking to it. Whenever I would start to feel bad I would just re-focus on my form and trudge ahead. Every van I passed shouted out encouragement to me. I also cut distance off this leg by using the constant switchbacks as a way to cut the tangents - brilliant, I say, simply brilliant! I was angry that I couldn't catch the Asheville woman, but no one passed me - no one passed me throughout the race, in fact - and I did catch one roadkill going up a rather pretty, rather twisty section of this leg about 2 miles from the top. I could feel myself getting stronger and pushing through the closer I got to the top of this thing. After passing the "exchange zone" sign I saw a runner up ahead in jean shorts and a purple wig: it was Thomas. I dug in and tried to catch him, but I'm glad I didn't. I would have felt ill dropping someone who had run three times as many miles as me at the finish of a brutal leg. I executed another successful bracelet-slap with Jay and watched him take off. I had run this leg in an average of just under 9 minutes per mile - much slower than if I had been in better shape, but I was very proud of it. I had come into this event feeling like I hadn't enjoyed running in a long time, and this race in general and the mountain goat leg in particular changed all of that for the better. I was in love with running once again.

I could tell my team members were excited about how I had done and encouraged by the fact that we were so close to the finish line. We piled into the van in search of Jay Barringer, who had just gone flying down the mountain that I had just run up. Not long after we saw him, we passed Ashley from Chick Maggots and I felt a little better knowing that her teammate had not run much faster than me on the goat. It wouldn't take long before Jay would catch Ashley and give us a sizable lead over what would turn out to be the second-place women's team. We parked at EZ 32 and I soaked my feet in the cold stream nearby - something Bjorn Norman had told me to look for - and we waited for Jay.

We didn't have to wait long. Along with Josh, Jay lived up to his billing as the stud of our team. He had claimed something close to 15 or more road kills on a section of the course that featured some pretty good teams. His time for the 9.5-mile section? 52:15. !!!

We almost had another miss at the EZ, but Julie saw him and sprinted in his direction in time to grab the bracelet and take off. Julie was our other mountain goat, running Leg 33 aka "the Nipple." This leg would be shorter than the goat but involve one massive uphill and an equally quad-smashing downhill. We passed her as she looked determined as ever and then our jaws dropped as we saw what she had to look forward to: once again, the leg descriptions did not come close to doing this one justice: it was nearly straight-up in some parts and just didn't seem to stop. It's worth putting this one in the hat as well for the title of "toughest leg of the race" along with my goat leg and Josh's Grandfather 10-miler. There was a group of people at the top of this evil mass of land that would cheer on any runners that came through. We were thankful for them and I'm sure Julie was, too. We passed our good friend Katie Howard of Fast and Pretty coming back down the mountain and rolled into the EZ as I exchanged snarky comments with Jason Martin. Julie arrived not much later with a look of exhausted satisfaction on her face - and the announcement that even more road kills were had.

Now, enter Mrs. Tilton. Lauren was clearly excited to be nearly done with this relay as she was smiling bigger than ever while trudging on. When we waited for her at EZ 34, I walked down the hill a bit, telling Adrienne I would signal for her when I saw Lauren. She was wearing our yellow Stache and Dash singlet so I didn't have any trouble spotting her. She was charging up the hill after clearly having passed two men. Road kill, you are! Van 2 had clearly earned its keep. Jay sent word to Van 1 that legs 31-34 had just been destroyed and that we were well on our way to bringing home an amazing time. They sent word back from the finish line that no mixed teams had shown up yet and we might be in line for some hardware. Adrienne was up and John Fillette was on deck. The Blue Ridge Parkway and downtown Asheville were all that stood between Stache and Dash 2.0 and the end of this 208-210-mile journey.