Day 40: Moundsville, WV, to Hancock, MD (Thursday, July 24)
Distance traveled: 184 miles
Personal running distance today: 6.5 miles
Total personal miles to-date: 253.5 miles
Today's dedications: Ray, Sharon, Susan Styne, Mary Beth Cyliax, Patrick Nolan
My running buddy: Jovia
Weather: Partly cloudy, 80s
Today started off with a yummy breakfast cooked by the church we stayed at. Our hosts joined us in our dedication circle and offered names of family members and friends for us to dedicate our days to, which is how I dedicated my day also to Ray and Sharon.
Afterwards, we headed out to our route. (EDIT: I FORGOT ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS OF THE DAY...) At the beginning of the day, we had a very beautiful 4K wedding ceremony between two of my teammates, Mo and Kenzie. Thrift shop dresses and veils completed the look, and Haerie officiated. It was really a beautiful celebration of love...and how weird we all are.
Distance traveled: 184 miles
Personal running distance today: 6.5 miles
Total personal miles to-date: 253.5 miles
Today's dedications: Ray, Sharon, Susan Styne, Mary Beth Cyliax, Patrick Nolan
My running buddy: Jovia
Weather: Partly cloudy, 80s
Today started off with a yummy breakfast cooked by the church we stayed at. Our hosts joined us in our dedication circle and offered names of family members and friends for us to dedicate our days to, which is how I dedicated my day also to Ray and Sharon.
Afterwards, we headed out to our route. (EDIT: I FORGOT ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS OF THE DAY...) At the beginning of the day, we had a very beautiful 4K wedding ceremony between two of my teammates, Mo and Kenzie. Thrift shop dresses and veils completed the look, and Haerie officiated. It was really a beautiful celebration of love...and how weird we all are.
We started running after the lovely ceremony. After several of our runners had done their first 3-mile stretch, we decided the roads were a little too sketchy to run on, so the leg leaders used one of their back-up plans and we decided to head to a park to run trails again. It was an additional 2 hour drive to the trails, but most importantly, along the way we hit MARYLAND!
By the time we arrived at the trail, it was after noon. I was really excited because today I got to run with Jovia, who I haven't run with yet. Jovia is a blast; she's hilarious and can always keep me laughing, so I knew we'd have a good time today. We headed out with a group of other teammates to knock out 4 miles from the start. The trail was beautiful, it was very foresty and shaded. However, the trail was pretty rocky and the grass was overgrown on part of it...not to mention a giant mountain we ran up (since we're in the Appalachians, after all).
After the first 4 miles, my hip was pretty sore from all the terrain. I was really bummed out because my hip had actually been feeling pretty decent for the past few days. When I tried to set out on our next set of miles, my hip was in a lot of pain, so Taylor and I decided to walk a few more miles together.
Once everyone had finished as many miles as they could, we all piled in the vans to drive another hour to the host in Hancock, MD. And this is where the fun began. (How do these things always happen to me on this trip?!?!?!?!)
I was riding in a van that was the caboose of our 4 vans. The last 2 vans had fallen behind the first 2, so we were caravanning together. We passed by a really bad wreck with a semi-truck on the highway, and there was debris everywhere. The van in front of ours ran over some of the debris, which turned out that it punctured the gas tank and oil tank on the underside of the van, causing it to start leaking EVERYWHERE.
Immediately, the van pulled over and everyone was able to get out safely. We watched as $99.63 of gas that we had just filled up in it drained out on the side of the interstate. It was somewhat comical to us since we were all safe, just sitting there on the side of the road watching it all leak out. We had called 911 and a state trooper was there quickly, as well as the hazmat team to clean up some of the gas and oil that spilled. Then, a much longer time later, a tow truck came to tow away our beloved Van 2 forever. It was pretty sad to watch her go, but she's resting peacefully in the towing yard now.
I suppose it's lucky we were only 2 days from arrival, but at the same time, we're ONLY 2 days from arrival and the location of the leak was ONLY 2 hours from Baltimore. Oh, the irony. Yet we are all safe and sound, no problems from any of us, we're just mourning the loss of our poor Van 2. We'll be rolling into Baltimore with only 3 of our massive 15-passenger vans, but we'll always have fond memories of Van 2!
This evening we've been working on finishing up signing each others' notebooks because we're reading them tomorrow night! Tomorrow morning, a local news crew is coming to do a story on us during our dedication circle before we head out. Then, we'll make our way to Ellicott City, which is just outside of Baltimore, preparing us to be nice and close for arrival day on Saturday.
Tomorrow will be basically our last day as only our team, because on Saturday morning, we'll have Ulman staff assisting us on our way in to Federal Hill. I still am having a hard time comprehending the fact that we only have a couple more days together as a team, but I don't want to think about it too much yet! We have another full day of adventures tomorrow, and then the best half day of our summer the day after that.
Run happy,
Natalie
Once everyone had finished as many miles as they could, we all piled in the vans to drive another hour to the host in Hancock, MD. And this is where the fun began. (How do these things always happen to me on this trip?!?!?!?!)
I was riding in a van that was the caboose of our 4 vans. The last 2 vans had fallen behind the first 2, so we were caravanning together. We passed by a really bad wreck with a semi-truck on the highway, and there was debris everywhere. The van in front of ours ran over some of the debris, which turned out that it punctured the gas tank and oil tank on the underside of the van, causing it to start leaking EVERYWHERE.
Immediately, the van pulled over and everyone was able to get out safely. We watched as $99.63 of gas that we had just filled up in it drained out on the side of the interstate. It was somewhat comical to us since we were all safe, just sitting there on the side of the road watching it all leak out. We had called 911 and a state trooper was there quickly, as well as the hazmat team to clean up some of the gas and oil that spilled. Then, a much longer time later, a tow truck came to tow away our beloved Van 2 forever. It was pretty sad to watch her go, but she's resting peacefully in the towing yard now.
I suppose it's lucky we were only 2 days from arrival, but at the same time, we're ONLY 2 days from arrival and the location of the leak was ONLY 2 hours from Baltimore. Oh, the irony. Yet we are all safe and sound, no problems from any of us, we're just mourning the loss of our poor Van 2. We'll be rolling into Baltimore with only 3 of our massive 15-passenger vans, but we'll always have fond memories of Van 2!
This evening we've been working on finishing up signing each others' notebooks because we're reading them tomorrow night! Tomorrow morning, a local news crew is coming to do a story on us during our dedication circle before we head out. Then, we'll make our way to Ellicott City, which is just outside of Baltimore, preparing us to be nice and close for arrival day on Saturday.
Tomorrow will be basically our last day as only our team, because on Saturday morning, we'll have Ulman staff assisting us on our way in to Federal Hill. I still am having a hard time comprehending the fact that we only have a couple more days together as a team, but I don't want to think about it too much yet! We have another full day of adventures tomorrow, and then the best half day of our summer the day after that.
Run happy,
Natalie