Day 39: Columbus, OH, to Moundsville, WV (Wednesday, July 23)
Distance traveled: 140 miles
Personal running distance today: 7 miles
Total personal miles to-date: 247 miles
Today's dedications: Bree Kline and Steve Ellis
My running buddy: Sarah
Weather: Sunny, 80s
We woke up way too early in the church today after our late night musical adventures. I was exhausted already when my alarm went off and not prepared to take on the day, but I was really excited to start the morning off. The church provided us another great breakfast, and then several of the church members wanted to run our first 2 miles with us. They have a group called Run for God where church members run and train together for various distances, so lots of them were eager to run with us. They also had a member who works for Advocare and donated bags with nutritional supplements to all of us!
We had a fantastic dedication circle this morning that our hosts joined in with. Today, all of our teammates dedicated our day to Bree, one of our teammates who survived cancer when she was a kid, so that was pretty special for her and us. We also dedicated our day to Steve Ellis, a man who worked with Navigator Management Partners in Columbus and is currently battling cancer. The hosts also contributed a few names to dedicate their run to.
As we finished our circle and our cheer, the rain started to fall. We've never run in actual rain, and although it was still pretty light, it was awesome! We did 2 miles on a bike trail near the church and got more of a chance to talk with the awesome church members. It was sad to leave them because they were so incredibly supportive of our team in so many ways.
When we said bye, we gassed up the vans and started to drive the hour and a half drive to where our route started today. Ohio has been giving us lots of troubles with roads, and today proved no differently. When we thought we had arrived at the place where the route would start (which actually turned out to be quite a ways from where we were supposed to be, thanks to construction), we regrouped. We spent another hour or so trying to find where we were supposed to be...and finally, around 11:30 a.m. after we had been driving since 8:30, we decided to throw in the towel and drive straight to the host in Moundsville and do our miles there.
We arrived a little after 1:30 p.m. to another wonderful church who had snacks for us. I was running with Sarah tonight, who was just as tired as I was after last night, so we had a good time running together. There was an obstacle today because we HAD to go shower at 3:00. Even though we were supposed to do 12 miles today, we only got 6 miles in before we had to go shower. It surprisingly felt good though, despite my sleepiness.
We showered at the local high school's wrestling gym, which was very impressive. When we got back, it was around 4 p.m. and we didn't have dinner until 6:00...which meant SO MUCH TIME FOR A NAP FINALLY!!! I can't remember the last time we got to nap after running, so this was perfect for today.
I woke up and headed down to another awesome pasta/salad/bread dinner, with plenty of treats for dessert. After dinner, I had eaten far too much spaghetti, so a few of us took a little walk around the city to add another mile to our count for the day. As it turns out, not much goes on in Moundsville. They do have a huge old state penitentiary, though.
Distance traveled: 140 miles
Personal running distance today: 7 miles
Total personal miles to-date: 247 miles
Today's dedications: Bree Kline and Steve Ellis
My running buddy: Sarah
Weather: Sunny, 80s
We woke up way too early in the church today after our late night musical adventures. I was exhausted already when my alarm went off and not prepared to take on the day, but I was really excited to start the morning off. The church provided us another great breakfast, and then several of the church members wanted to run our first 2 miles with us. They have a group called Run for God where church members run and train together for various distances, so lots of them were eager to run with us. They also had a member who works for Advocare and donated bags with nutritional supplements to all of us!
We had a fantastic dedication circle this morning that our hosts joined in with. Today, all of our teammates dedicated our day to Bree, one of our teammates who survived cancer when she was a kid, so that was pretty special for her and us. We also dedicated our day to Steve Ellis, a man who worked with Navigator Management Partners in Columbus and is currently battling cancer. The hosts also contributed a few names to dedicate their run to.
As we finished our circle and our cheer, the rain started to fall. We've never run in actual rain, and although it was still pretty light, it was awesome! We did 2 miles on a bike trail near the church and got more of a chance to talk with the awesome church members. It was sad to leave them because they were so incredibly supportive of our team in so many ways.
When we said bye, we gassed up the vans and started to drive the hour and a half drive to where our route started today. Ohio has been giving us lots of troubles with roads, and today proved no differently. When we thought we had arrived at the place where the route would start (which actually turned out to be quite a ways from where we were supposed to be, thanks to construction), we regrouped. We spent another hour or so trying to find where we were supposed to be...and finally, around 11:30 a.m. after we had been driving since 8:30, we decided to throw in the towel and drive straight to the host in Moundsville and do our miles there.
We arrived a little after 1:30 p.m. to another wonderful church who had snacks for us. I was running with Sarah tonight, who was just as tired as I was after last night, so we had a good time running together. There was an obstacle today because we HAD to go shower at 3:00. Even though we were supposed to do 12 miles today, we only got 6 miles in before we had to go shower. It surprisingly felt good though, despite my sleepiness.
We showered at the local high school's wrestling gym, which was very impressive. When we got back, it was around 4 p.m. and we didn't have dinner until 6:00...which meant SO MUCH TIME FOR A NAP FINALLY!!! I can't remember the last time we got to nap after running, so this was perfect for today.
I woke up and headed down to another awesome pasta/salad/bread dinner, with plenty of treats for dessert. After dinner, I had eaten far too much spaghetti, so a few of us took a little walk around the city to add another mile to our count for the day. As it turns out, not much goes on in Moundsville. They do have a huge old state penitentiary, though.
Another fun fact we learned on our walk is why Moundsville is named Moundsville! There is a huge mound in the middle of town that was an ancient burial site and actually has tombs inside of it...weird. But here's THE mound of Moundsville:
After our walk, I signed more of my teammates' notebooks and FINALLY caught on my blog. So sorry for all the delays to my loyal readers, but the past few days our team has been spending a lot of time together because we recognize that our days are very numbered. Today is Wednesday, and on Saturday morning, we'll wake up together for the last time, circle up for the last time and run our last few miles together to the top of Federal Hill. So I've been spending quite a bit of time with them rather than blogging, but I think it's been worth it!
Tomorrow we are actually going to make it to Maryland, which is the state we ARRIVE in! It's such a crazy thought to me, and I don't think it will hit me that we're done until Sunday when I'm on the plane home. Tomorrow our route takes us through the Appalachian Mountains, which should be a tough challenge, but I'm up for it. Until tomorrow!
Run happy,
Natalie
Tomorrow we are actually going to make it to Maryland, which is the state we ARRIVE in! It's such a crazy thought to me, and I don't think it will hit me that we're done until Sunday when I'm on the plane home. Tomorrow our route takes us through the Appalachian Mountains, which should be a tough challenge, but I'm up for it. Until tomorrow!
Run happy,
Natalie