Day 41: Hancock, MD, to Ellicott City, MD (Friday, July 25)
Distance traveled: 87 miles
Personal running distance today: 10 miles
Total personal miles to-date: 263.5 miles
Today's dedications: Wendy Burger and Judy Mullineaux
My running buddy: Hannah
Weather: Partly cloudy, 80s
This morning we were visited by a news crew as we did our dedication circle and started our run. He wanted to interview a few of our runners, so it was a slow start to the day since we had to wait for the interviews and for the cameraman to get all the shots. However, the finished product turned out to be awesome! Check it out here.
For today's route, since we were down one van and it would make the running rotations harder, we stuck to a trail day that was right next to the church we stayed at last night to make it easy for everyone. We ran the C&O Trail all morning to get our 10 miles in.
I ran with Hannah today, who had been injured previously in the trip pretty badly with her knee. She's just now been coming around to running again, so I was hopeful that we could have a gentle running day and not irritate her injury any more. We ran into Mo and Danielle who were also taking an easy pace, so we stuck with them. We also picked up Kelsi and Michelle along the way, so we had a nice group for the day.
It was pretty easy to get our 10 miles done today, which was a pleasant surprise considering how bad my hip had hurt the other day. Once we all wrapped up our miles for the morning, we piled into the vans and headed toward Ellicott City. One of our teammates, Syd, lives near Ellicott City, and her mom had offered to have us all over for lunch and showering, so we headed there first.
Syd's family was so warm and welcoming and had plenty of yummy food for everyone. We spent several hours there as everyone ate and showered off. Once we had wrapped up there, we went to our host church in Ellicott City. We enjoyed our last team dinner together, which was a random yet delicious assortment of Chipotle burritos, cheese pizza and Subway subs.
During the evening, we had our team's last pow-wow. We all did some self-reflecting and took time to compliment ourselves for a successful summer, then we opened it up and let anyone give compliments or thank yous to the team as a whole. We realized it was pretty much the last time it would only be just our team all together, so it was a bittersweet moment, but the pow-wow was awesome.
After pow-wow ended, I handed everyone their journal that the entire team signed. Everyone had time to read what great things all our teammates had written about one another in them. I really loved reading through mine; it definitely lifted me up and made me feel like I did a great job as a run director, so thanks to all my teammates for making me feel so appreciated!
The rest of the night, we all just hung out together. Although we wanted to stay up all night, we knew it would be a long day tomorrow if we didn't get enough sleep, so close to midnight we decided to turn in for our last night's sleep on a floor in our sleeping bags.
Run happy,
Natalie
P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos today! I've spent more time with my teammates and less time taking pictures as the trip winds down.
Distance traveled: 87 miles
Personal running distance today: 10 miles
Total personal miles to-date: 263.5 miles
Today's dedications: Wendy Burger and Judy Mullineaux
My running buddy: Hannah
Weather: Partly cloudy, 80s
This morning we were visited by a news crew as we did our dedication circle and started our run. He wanted to interview a few of our runners, so it was a slow start to the day since we had to wait for the interviews and for the cameraman to get all the shots. However, the finished product turned out to be awesome! Check it out here.
For today's route, since we were down one van and it would make the running rotations harder, we stuck to a trail day that was right next to the church we stayed at last night to make it easy for everyone. We ran the C&O Trail all morning to get our 10 miles in.
I ran with Hannah today, who had been injured previously in the trip pretty badly with her knee. She's just now been coming around to running again, so I was hopeful that we could have a gentle running day and not irritate her injury any more. We ran into Mo and Danielle who were also taking an easy pace, so we stuck with them. We also picked up Kelsi and Michelle along the way, so we had a nice group for the day.
It was pretty easy to get our 10 miles done today, which was a pleasant surprise considering how bad my hip had hurt the other day. Once we all wrapped up our miles for the morning, we piled into the vans and headed toward Ellicott City. One of our teammates, Syd, lives near Ellicott City, and her mom had offered to have us all over for lunch and showering, so we headed there first.
Syd's family was so warm and welcoming and had plenty of yummy food for everyone. We spent several hours there as everyone ate and showered off. Once we had wrapped up there, we went to our host church in Ellicott City. We enjoyed our last team dinner together, which was a random yet delicious assortment of Chipotle burritos, cheese pizza and Subway subs.
During the evening, we had our team's last pow-wow. We all did some self-reflecting and took time to compliment ourselves for a successful summer, then we opened it up and let anyone give compliments or thank yous to the team as a whole. We realized it was pretty much the last time it would only be just our team all together, so it was a bittersweet moment, but the pow-wow was awesome.
After pow-wow ended, I handed everyone their journal that the entire team signed. Everyone had time to read what great things all our teammates had written about one another in them. I really loved reading through mine; it definitely lifted me up and made me feel like I did a great job as a run director, so thanks to all my teammates for making me feel so appreciated!
The rest of the night, we all just hung out together. Although we wanted to stay up all night, we knew it would be a long day tomorrow if we didn't get enough sleep, so close to midnight we decided to turn in for our last night's sleep on a floor in our sleeping bags.
Run happy,
Natalie
P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos today! I've spent more time with my teammates and less time taking pictures as the trip winds down.