Third Annual Heart of Vermont Relay

The third annual running of the 100on100 was last weekend, and I am psyched to report that Lauren and I completed our legs, and our team had it's best finish ever. I am pretty sure that Lauren's contribution was her fastest average time ever for that kind of distance, and although I was a little slower than last year, I still had a blast. Our team finished 17th out of 61, and 7th in the Master's category (all over 30 years old), running at an average clip of 7:39/mile. Perhaps best of all was the fact that our team also finished #2 in overall fund raising for the Boys and Girls Clubs, so a big Thank You to everyone who supported our efforts there.

The weather on race day was a little crazy -- we started out huddled under a tent (see photo above) at Stowe at 6:30 am, dodged rain, clouds and wind for a few hours, and then ran straight into a pretty clear and beautiful day. The wind never really subsided, but the conditions were really good for running.

For my part, I had it a little tougher than usual, fighting through some significant knee pain. I want to thank my good friend Dr. Tim for the miracle adjustment last week -- when I saw him on Monday I didn't think I could walk a 1/2 mile, much less run 16. But he was able to fix me up to the point I could complete my piece of the race. The knee was definitely not 100% -- especially after my double-diamond first leg, but I made it through. Plus, I had a great time, and that's really what we are in it for.

I couldn't be any happier for Lauren -- she really looks forward to this race and puts a LOT of effort into making sure that our team is organized, ready to go and successful. There is a lot more to it than you might think, and she did a great job as team captain again. On top of that, she ran great, was injury free and pretty much all smiles:
She was also faster than me, but I don't care to discuss that any more at this point. :-)

The rest of our team was in a groove all day -- just nutty fast times for Andrew, Brendan, Russ and Rebekah. Also a big shout-out to Lauren's cousin Suzy (Russ' wife) who acted as our team driver/cheerleader. As usual, Suzy did an awesome job and kept us all rolling (on wheels and with laughter) all day. And while running these kinds of distances requires considerable training and dedication, no one is taking things too seriously, as you can see from Andrew's choice of *sports drinks*:
As you can tell from the results link, there are still some teams faster than us, but there are none who have more fun. Being fast is all good, but I'll settle for a little less speed and a few extra laughs any day. Here is a shot of our team just after crossing the finish (in daylight for the first time ever!) -- can't wait for the fourth annual next year.