Well, we survived Red Eye. It’s funny because a few months ago, I thought it would be cool to do a two man team for the two loop- 110 miles course.We’ve actually been talking about doing that for a couple of years. ONE DAY when I’m not pregnant or training for a half Ironman. Now that Glenn’s on that Ultra Game, he’s down anytime. But as my comeback post Louis had been slow and steady, (which is a good thing) it became apparent quickly that I would not be anywhere near prepared to do that. We really wanted to do a two man team though and thankfully the race has added a one loop option that is 55 miles.
We picked up all the snacks- everything salty sounded good. Oh and our team name was “Back up Snacks”
It was the hottest day in two years and the air was thick. I was up for the first leg and Glenn ran it with me- this ended up being a good thing because I was super frustrated with the heat and the course on this leg. They have changed the red eye route several times how over the years and road they have you start on this year was terrible. They say it’s because Upland is a big sponsor now so they want to start from their new westside brewing facility. I’ve worked behind the scenes in races before though and something tells me Upland isn’t giving all that much money- at least not enough to have the race start from all the way out there. It gave the race a bad vibe on both the first and last leg (and if you were doing two loops you’d see it again). In my opinion – the start/finish was much better from somewhere near campus. Enough about that.
With Glenn running my first and last leg with me- it put my total at 27 miles and his at 36 for the day. The legs were much shorter this year than they were in the past. More manageable with the heat we were dealing with. The longest leg being 5.8 miles, which was the first and last leg.
There was another two man one loop team who started when we did, so we kind of had our eyes on them to beat them. I mean, I acted like I didn’t care, but who am I kidding. We bounced back and forth with them for a few legs but took them out about halfway through. My second leg was boring, other than trying to pass the guy on that team, which I did not. After climbing a huge hill on Whisnand Rd, there was a lot of downhill on this leg and I’m sure he was bombing down them. I was trying to be more conservative on the downhills- I knew they’d tear up my quads either way, but I didn’t want to be dumb about it. My third leg had a hue downhill and then a nice little uphill that I ended up catching him on on. I was trying not to be competitive in this stupid heat, but there was also a chick who passed me at the beginning of this leg and I got annoyed so put down some fast miles (that were probably too fast in the heat) to pass her back, which led to me feeling sick and had my l legs hating me the next few legs. The most dumb part about that was she was probably on a 5-7 man two loop team- running way less miles than I with much longer breaks.
On my 5th leg I was feeling pretty bad and thankfully was able to run with my friends Wes and JoAnn. My head was not in the game and I wanted to quit badly. The heat had gotten to me and the hills were beating me up. We try to get down to Bloomington to run on hills and trails a decent amount, but 90% of my runs are done in flat Indy. They talked the whole time and I was so thankful to have them on that leg- both were super encouraging and I so needed that. I like to be the encourager when I can in running but I needed to be on the receiving end bad. When I finished this leg, I was to a point where I truly thought I might call it a day after that leg. I had two legs to go and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I quickly told myself that I’d walk the entirety of the legs before I quit. Although, I didn’t want to do that because I wanted to get done and get to bed because it was already 11pm and I was trying to secure at least 3 hours of sleep that night before Big Lou and Marshall had us up in the AM.
My sister who came along for the ride to sag with my dad was so much fun… she doesn’t run and had had a few drinks but hopped out of the car and ran 2 of the 3.5 miles with me for the next leg. We got to mile 2 and she said she was going to throw up and got back in the car. I was so thankful to have her with me though. It was awesome, because instead of thinking about how bad I felt, I was pushing her to get to mile 2. Then Glenn trying to be all tough guy ran my last leg with me, right before he had to finish his last leg of 5.8 gradual uphill the entire time leg. I think he regretted running with me once he realized how much uphill that last leg was going to be.
We were all ready to be done. Runners. Drivers. Cheerleaders. This was the third time we’ve done this race and every time we do it, my dad tags along to sag us. If you know GA, you know he’s a good time so that’s always a highlight of the race.
Here are some videos from the day/night. I wanted to put them all together for a cute little video but ain’t nobody got time for that. Actually I started to try and my Mac didn’t have enough space to update my iMovie and I really didn’t want to deal with trying to clear that out.
The take away from Red Eye this year- It was F-ing hot. I felt fine going into it, and it would have been hard no matter what, but man it was hot. I was in a perfect spot to quit- had a ride, Glenn would have ran my last legs in for me even. He would have been secretly happy to get more miles in because he’s sick like that. I knew I’d be so disappointed in myself though. Lot’s of salt tabs and lot’s of hydrating and the mental strength to just say I’m going to shuffle my way through these last legs and get there one step at a time. Although the circumstances weren’t amazing, the race kind of left me feeling a little discouraged about what I want to do in the marathon this fall, but I’ve quickly come out of that and am feeling confident again.
I was gonna give you a week run down of what I’ve been up to run wise- but this post ended up being way longer than I anticipated- so I’ll do that this weekend and give a three week catch up.
Oh yeah and we did win the two man one loop team. (out of only 4 two man one loop teams) We were one team away from winning the one loop outright but a team of four guys beat us.