Running the Colonial 200 Relay - Part 5 - Enough with the PB & J!

Sunrise Over Hanover County in Leg 28

Inevitably, the darkness of Hanover County gave way to sunrise. At 9.15 miles, Leg 28 was the longest of the Relay. Keith was our designated runner and he toughed out the miles to the New Kent Airport. He even picked up a friend along the way, who seemed intent on joining our team.

Keith conquered Leg 28....all 9.15 miles of it

Our unofficial mascot ran with Keith for
several miles in Leg 28 before giving up



Napolean is often credited for saying that an army moves on its stomach. I am not sure what a relay team moves on, but by early Saturday morning, we were all thoroughly sick of all variations of the peanut butter sandwich. At the outset of the Relay, our food inventory included all manner of snack bars, candy, homemade cookies, etc. It was at that point that Jeff and Mike departed on a mission of mercy, returning with a bag of McDonald biscuits and coffee. Although I did not take a team vote, I feel fairly certain that those were, perhaps, the best sausage biscuits that we had ever eaten.

Coffee and biscuits anyone?



Revived by breakfast, we watched Keith hand off to Danny on Leg 29. We all piled back into the van and leapfrogged ahead to cheer Danny on along an almost 8-mile leg. Danny is our "running ninja," because he doesn't say a lot, but he gets it done.




Danny negotiates a busy part of Leg 29


The end of the Relay was practically in sight. Up until Leg 29, we had been running on only 11 of our 12 runners. Our 12 runner, George, joined us at Leg 30 with the challenge of running his three legs before the end of the race. George is an experienced long distance runner with marathons, ultra marathons and even 100-mile races under his belt, so he was up for the challenge. I was also, no longer, the most senior member of the team. Thanks George!

George run Leg 32 along the Capital Trail

Mark keeping watch for our runner

As we closed in on the end of the Relay, it was time to amp up the speed a bit. After our experience with the Colonial 70 in 2012, it was clear that you close with your fastest runners. Thankfully, ours were rested and ready. Time to step on the gas.