My TIR Legs

Originally, I was slated to run legs 8, 23 and 35 - the same as Texian Road Warriors captain Bill Dwyer. However, to ensure that Joe Carey would be able to run at as close to 100% as possible, participate with us and not reinjure himself, I agreed to take leg 10 and let Joe have leg 8, which was a short 2.81 miles.

Leg 10 (6.23 miles)

As we were driving from the exchange point that started leg 9 to my first running leg in Flatonia at leg 10, I was excited because I thought Karen was gaining on the Road Warriors' Michelle Comrie. And at the same time, I didn't know who I draw to go head-to-head with in leg 10.

We get to Flatonia and I see Jay Hilscher for the first time all morning. (We talked about a number of things, but at the same time the competition between the Road Warriors and the Battling Bloggers was really starting to heat up.) And so was the temperatures.

I had been wearing a long sleeved race shirt (from the Tyler Half) over my tech shirt to keep from getting sunburned even more than I already was. I took it off once we got to Flatonia and then slipped on my hat so that I wouldn't get completely scorched. The plan was to shadow me at mile 3 and mile 5.

Michelle handed off the "baton" to her husband, Stewart, and I knew that I wouldn't make up any time against him; therefore, I hoped that Karen would soon be around the corner. When Karen came in to hand off, we were 6 minutes and 51 seconds in the hole. (This whole time though I also knew that we had about two minutes between us at the start; therefore, we were only down by 4-5 minutes.)

I started my run nice and easy because of the heat (weather.com confirmed that it was 77 degrees when I started my run and 81 when I finished it.)

I'm not sure if it was before or after I passed Brenda's, a good burger joint in Flatonia, I saw Debbie Tripp and Cathy Steele from the "Athletic Girls Next Door" team and I realized: I didn't have my bib on! (They were mentioning something about a DQ and I responded with a comment - not rude to them at all or to anybody - that I wish I wouldn't have said.)

This bothered me for quite some time, and I had plans to self report it to Jay. If it was a DQ, I would have simply asked Jay to allow for us to finish, get our medals and DQ us afterward - if possible. [I would see Jay later at the beginning of leg 18, I shared this all with him and he said that it wasn't a disqualification.]

As I continued, I was passed a few times, and when I got to the mile 3 point and Joe came out with a new water bottle, I walked until I could put on his bib number to make sure I was in compliance.

The plan was for the van to go to mile 5. When I got there, Joe was out of the van again. I took the fresh water and then I could see a female runner off in the distance and it looked like she was walking. Before the van passed me and headed to the exchange, I started to pick up the pace with an aim to get a "road kill". I was getting closer as the exchange was less than .3 of a mile away, but I got passed close and that kind of sucked the spirit right out of me.

I covered the 6.23 miles in 1:10:11, which in the heat was only 3:32 over my projected time (and I probably gave a couple of that back getting the bib number on me).

I was happy because I didn't walk but to get fluids in me, and I didn't cost us that much time.

Leg 23 (4.13 miles)

This was the first of two legs that I would go head-to-head with Bill. We would both start this leg at around 12:30 a.m. in the morning and would soon go rolling into Wallis - where things would be lit up for us as we closed in on the finish line while running along the railroad tracks.

Heading into leg 18, when "Blogger2" became the active van, I quickly learned that we had just under a 2-minute lead as Edwin left the station to chase after the Road Warriors' locomotive, Juliee Sparks.

Blogger2 went to the mile 2 mark where Juliee was stretching the lead to 3:04.51.

We went to the mile 4 spot of the leg and Juliee had covered the distance in 17:05 (8:32 pace) while Edwin did so in 19:43 and the lead went to 5:43.06.

As they both finished up leg 18, the Road Warriors had pushed the margin to 9:15.58. (I want to say that we met Edwin at the 2.5-mile and 4.5-mile marks because the 13:54 between Juliee's next-to-last time marking and the finish would have been a 7:38 pace.)

But our team kept working as a team. Sarah, Karen, Tommy and Joe Carey would cut the Road Warriors' lead to 1:41.19 - a minute and 41 seconds - with just over 17 hours of the race completed.

Now, it was me against Bill.

When I got to the exchange point, it was a very quiet reception. Bill had his game face on and I think I had mine on too. Bill's always trying to see where my weak spot is and I try to convince him that I don't have one. Nothing was said.

I got the baton from Joe, clicked my watch, saw that I had a 1:41 advantage to make up and try to build some time for the team.

As I ran, I tried not to go out too hard, too fast. The adrenaline was certainly pumping. Bill revealed to us during the prologue that the day or two may be a little challenging for him.

I thought to myself, "Bill's a friend" and while I wanted to win, I didn't want to destroy the spirit. Our friendship is too strong to have that happen, I think, but I didn't want to take a chance either.

I saw Bill and as I came up upon him, the only thing appropriate I knew was to use my left hand, pat him on the upper right shoulder and keep running.

I used a Rick Cook trick during the next couple of miles in case Bill got a second or third wind. I was carrying a handheld flashlight that I would use to make sure that oncoming vehicles would see me -- since I didn't happen to get the reflective belt from Joe. Every so often, I would turn it off (now I still had my head lamp on and my blinkie blinking) so that he couldn't quite see where I was at.

Jose met me at mile 2 and made sure I got the reflective belt on.

Then after making the turn to finally go into Wallis, Jose was there again handing me the bib that I forgot for the second time. We wouldn't have made it without his help or Manny's.

I covered the distance in 43:35.79 (for 4.13 miles) - a 10:34 pace and faster than the 44:04 predicted on the spreadsheet.

I have no idea what kind of lead I helped our team get because we were off to the hotel before Bill got to Wallis. We needed sleep.

Leg 35 (5.18 miles)

I knew entering this leg that I would be able to bank a little bit more time so the plan was just to take it slow and steady. I really didn't like this leg much, to be honest.

As I got into the beginning of it, a runner was asking me if I knew where the trail headed on this one part in the first three-tenths of a mile. I told him that I thought if things weren't marked in a "turn right" or "turn left" direction that the assumption was to keep moving forward.

He was a member of the Pirana Brothers team. I knew that they were from Oklahoma City because I had written some introductions that were to be used by the public address announcer.

The runner introduced himself as Thomas Hill. I explained to him about helping Jay and Joy out and the public address writeups. I also said, after digging a bunch of stuff up on the Internet, "I didn't know if you were the race director for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon or not." He responded, "I am." I'm thinking to myself, "Whoa."

This is Thomas' bio --

Thomas Hill is the co-founder of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, co-founder of TRI-OKC (Triathlon Club of Oklahoma City) and co-founder of the Redman Triathlon. Hill has run 14 marathons (including all four Memorial Marathons) and will be running the 2005 Memorial Marathon as well. He is currently training for the Florida Ironman Triathlon in November. Hill received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Oklahoma State University. He is vice president of manufacturing for Kimray, Inc. in Oklahoma City. Hill is married and has six children (5 boys and 1 girl), ages 8 months to 10 years.

He had planned on walking the entire leg, but we ran from the easternmost part of Memorial Park to Shepherd, and then much of the remaining trail to the pedestrian bridge over the Bayou and then in on to the exchange.

When we got there, I got a big hug from him. He was very appreciative that I was able to help him and I told him that he helped me as well.

We talked about everything under the sun. I told him that I was in Oklahoma City last spring to run the half marathon and he told me some incredible stories surrounding the marathon and the memories of the 168 survivors of the Oklahoma City tragedy.

During our run, he said, "Anybody that runs part of a race with me can come run my race anytime on me." I was floored. I'll certainly have to consider taking him up on it when I need Oklahoma for a state in my 50 state quest.

He saw Karen make a post in the message board and e-mailed her this:

Sorry to bug you again, but I saw a post of yours on the TIR msg board and noted that you were on the Battling Bloggers team. I ran my last leg (of 8) with a guy from your team, John I think, who is a writer. I was barely moving and was planning on just walking out my leg and he came along and got me running and ran with me the whole way. I would not have made it without his help. Feel free to pass my email on to him.

It is things like this that absolutely floor me.

Because Waverly's watch didn't record the last few number of splits (and I didn't click my watch after getting a big wet, sweaty hug), I don't know how fast - or slow - that I covered the distance.

In a way, I didn't care. I knew that we had the win in the Throwdown and we were all beginning to celebrate the fact that we'd soon find our adventure over.