The next adventure

So, just FYI, if Lauren Fleshman shares your blog post with her followers you get 400 hits in one day instead of in 6 months.

You might think I'd take it easy this week after racing a 5K last week. Wrong. On Friday morning 27 women and I will take part in the Cape Cod Ragnar Relay. I have never met some of them. Others are some of my closest friends. We will run a total of 200 miles from Hull to Provincetown, sleeping in vans along the way.

It is quite possibly the craziest thing I have ever, or will ever, do.

I am runner 9 (which also means 21 and 33). My legs are 3.6, 5.6 and 7.3. Nothing crazy, except I wish the longest was first and not last. My first leg should be about 5 pm on Friday, my second at 3:30 Saturday wicked early morning, and my last at 1 pm Saturday afternoon. All things considered, it's really not that bad.

I am worried about:

• My contacts. Do I sleep with them in because I may not be able to get them out & back in comfortably in the van? 
• Sleep. I likes my sleep! I won't sleep much in the van to begin with because I don't do well sleeping in cars. And because my second leg is at 3:30 in the morning. 
• Bathrooms. Did I mention the van part? I'm supposed to drink a ton of water all day. I need to pee every hour or so. 
• Getting lost. I wasn't worried about the actual running until I read something today suggesting that runners know their leg maps because sometimes signs can get knocked down or stolen. I don't have a good sense of direction at all. Especially at 3:30 in the morning. I'm hoping that my running partner is better than me! (Yeah, we all have partners. No way would I run by myself at 3:30 in the morning.)
• Eating. 
• Doing something wrong that causes a safety violation--my headlamp going out, whatever--or losing the baton to pass to the next runner. 

I know that once I am there I will be fine. I know that once it is over it will be great. I know that I am so  so grateful to be doing this with such awesome wonderful friends. Who will hopefully still be friends after a couple of days in the van with no showers.