We had a great time completing the most grueling event I have ever entered! It is also the MOST beautiful course I have ever walked! Breathtaking at times – especially with gale force winds blowing in your face.

Deb and I finished in 5:38, Laura in 4:58 and Karen in 5:10. Karen stopped to take more pictures than Laura did. Oh, and according to Karen’s GPS, the course is more like 21.2 to 21.5 miles. If you look up the results, I do not show up. I had my chip, wore it on my shoe and even had it activated, but I’m not listed. Karen and Laura were panicked when they saw I wasn’t listed as a finisher and started searching the medical tents looking for me! Why didn’t we just carry our cell phones! but I walked with Deb the whole way, so I am confident about my finish time.

At the start the wind was brutal! We were down in a little park off of Highway 1 waiting thinking it was so warm we had overdressed, but as soon as we started and went up the hill to the highway, constant gale force winds! I was the only one in shorts, but I figured the wind had to stop eventually. I thought it stopped before Hurricane Point (others had other opinions), but it was very discouraging to walk headlong into that strong of a wind.

This was funny. The temps fluctuated so much I kept talking layers off and putting them back on! I have never been so fickle about my race attired ever!

Hurricane Point is not as bad as everyone said, but the remaining 300,000 hills were pretty horrible. (Hurricane Point goes up for more than 2 miles.) On some hills we were on a 45-degree angle sideways, (just call me Eileen), others were extremely steep, others were just annoying because the course wasn’t flat. The last hill just ticked me off because I thought we deserved a little flat ground for a while.

Deb and I passed about 40 runners, only one was puking. There were a lot of run/walkers which were annoying. They would run til they got just in front of you and then walk slowly. After you pass them, then they do it again. At one point an entire herd of Galloway followers came past us like a herd of buffalo! They were cutting in and around us, not staying to the right at all, and just being rude for about 3 minutes, then they walked for 3 and ran 3 more. Though we saw several walkers in the middle of the street or on the far right, I got stuck behind even more “runners” who came to a complete stop when getting water, Gu or fruit. OK, the rule is, walker or runner, if you need to stop to eat your piece of banana, move to the side. How many times did we have to say “Hey, don’t stop! There are people behind you.” The “you idiot” at the end of the sentence was implied. (I can be an adult at times.)

I am the most sore of our group. Deb finished feeling strong! Laura is not sore at all and Karen is a little sore. I feel all beat up and struggled a little the last couple of miles. My feet are sore (wrong shoes), my glutes are sore and my calves are sore. But we all agreed, there is no way to train for these types of hills in central Ohio. Regardless, I think my training could have been a little better.

At the end Deb, Karen and I just received water, bananas, oranges, raisins, etc., when Laura went through there were muffins, and she saw plenty of people with bagels!There were plenty of people who finished after us, and as far as I can tell, that was the only glitch the entire event.

After scaring Karen and Laura because they couldn’t find us (and I wasn’t listed as a finisher), and finally meeting up at the hotel, we had an early, quick and high-calorie dinner. Afterward we bought a bottle of wine and drank it on a patio with some cheeses from the hotel. (It offers cheese and tea at 4.)

Finally we went back to our rooms to crash.

I actually complained a little more in this blog than this course deserved. The hills were tough, and except for the couple rude runners, everyone was VERY nice. This event is extremely well run and we had a fantastic time! I was worried about the shuttles, but they ran great this morning, and we had to wait only a few minutes on the way back.

The area is beautiful and we feel we have accomplished something big. It’s been a really fun couple of days! It truly was a once in a lifetime experience!

Legs of the race:
First leg – 20 min (We are pretty sure it was longer than 1 mile.)
Second mile – 15:53
Third – 15:58
Fourth – 16:42
Fifth – 15:06
Sixth – 16:29
Seventh – 16:46 (We think 5, 6 and 7 were heading up Hurricane point.)
Eighth – 14:27
My watch malfunctioned at this point! I went to retrieve my times and it said the memory was full! How aggravating. I’m not even sure how to delete stuff from the memory.

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