The route finally began to head towards Bend, and some bicyclist were passing me as they went up, and then down the mountain. I recall saying something to the effect of, "You've got it easy!"
They didn't appear to think so...
What made this leg different than I thought, is that I thought it was a five something mile run. It's funny what you can think when you are sleep deprived, and running in the heat, at a higher elevation. I had been razzing my new Canadian friend about how she got the primo short run, and I had the much longer run as the ending leg-even though I was older than she. She took my ribbing with grace.
So when I went out for this run, I just planned one putting one foot after the other, and the run taking a bit longer than usual.
I was soon passed by a high school girl, who startled me as she whizzed by, as I didn't hear her coming from behind. I was overly surprised ( I acted kinda like a chicken does when surprised), as my senses were out of whack. She apologized, and I echoed her "Good job" and she zoomed past me.
I was getting quite warm, and noticed that about twenty feet down the side of the road was a creek. I had a Bear Grils moment thinking, "Now would be the time to get water." But no, I skipped the scramble down. I knew my teammates wouldn't appreciate the time it took to do so, and there was an impending danger in such an act.
I continued my run, two other ladies passed me,(I would be considered roadkill to them) yet I continued with my slow but steady pace. My van ladies had stopped to cheer and give me water, EK dumping it on my overheated head (Hooray for Mrs. G's ability to use a spigot). At the last van assist, EK told me I had about a mile to go. I thought she was trying to pull some reverse psychology on me trying to motivate me to go faster (Remember, at this point I had maybe seven hours of sleep in two days). I say, "Do you think I'm stupid?" Not normally the tone I take, but I knew her game!
So I ran a little farther, not too far behind one of the ladies that passed me (didn't know why she was in such a hurry) when I started to notice that everyone had gather at the end of the hill I was coming down. I thought that they must me cheering on the other's for their last mile. I ran another quarter mile or so thinking that maybe it could be the end. I was down to about an eighth of a mile thinking, "He sure looks ready for the exchange." I did speed up, and slapped that bracelet on him. Quickly turning to my teammates wondering if they had conspired to let him run some of my leg. I wasn't done yet! I had held back thinking my leg was a couple miles longer than it actually was, as it was only 3.9 miles. It took much convincing that there was no conspiracy to shorten my run. Our team captain said something to the effect of, "I've never heard anyone complain that their run was too short!"
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