Distance traveled: 20 miles
Personal running distance today: 10 miles
Total personal miles to-date: 273.5 miles
Today's dedications: Uncle John Green, Paddy Phelan, Christine Dexter, Jamie Roberts, my 4K family
My running buddy: The team!
Weather: Partly cloudy, 80s
One last morning, I woke up in a room with several of my teammates. Right on schedule, Joe came into our room at 5:15 a.m. blasting Rebecca Black's "Saturday" to make sure we remembered what day of the week it is, as per usual. We crawled out of our floor beds one last time, packed everything up as quick as we could and got ready for our last dedication circle.
The last circle was a lot of things: awesome, sad, weird, exciting. I had saved today especially to dedicate to my Uncle John, who was one of the biggest reasons I did 4K. Additionally, I dedicated the day to my teammate Mo's father Paddy and my teammate Matt's mom Christine, both who passed from cancer. And, as with every other day of the run, I dedicated today to Jamie, as well. Finally, I couldn't leave my 4K family out, both my run team family and the other 4 bike teams, so I had the on my legs to carry me into Baltimore, as well.
The first 20 miles took our team through some beautiful forests, a college campus and into Baltimore near the Ravens stadium. After these legs, we all reconvened to do the last 1.5 miles as a whole team. We ran 1 mile from the stadium to the harbor. This 1-mile run was the first time one of our teammates, Zack, had run since the first couple weeks of the run when he got really bad tendinitis. He was in quite a bit of pain still, but he pushed through because he wanted to be with the team. He's a trooper!
Once we got into the harbor, all 26 of us dipped our toes into the water. Since we dipped our heels in the Pacific before we left San Francisco, we dipped our toes into the Atlantic (or close to it, at least) to bring our coast-to-coast run full circle.
Once we reached the bottom of the hill, many of us could see our friends and family cheering and smiling down from above. We tried to enjoy the last walk together before running to greet them. Once we had reached the top, we saw a giant inflatable arch at the end like at race finish lines. When we had almost gotten to the arch, we ran through the very end together as a team. And with that, we were DONE.
The arrival ceremony was eventful and exciting. Two of my teammates even got engaged! I was thrilled that three of my great Mizzou friends, Meghan, Zach and Paige, were able to come up from D.C. to cheer me on to the finish line.
After the ceremony wrapped up, we were faced with some goodbyes knowing that we wouldn't see everyone again after that. It was really strange to have to say goodbye to people who you've literally spent every minute of every day with for the past 6 weeks. But I know that it won't be the last time I see many of these wonderful people.
Once I had said a few goodbyes, Meghan, Zach, Paige and I walked down to the harbor to grab some lunch. We couldn't think of a more appropriate place to eat after running across the country than Bubba Gump's, Forrest Gump's restaurant! The whole theme was perfect, and the waitress even gave me a free Sundae for my accomplishment. I also had a beer with my lunch that was from San Francisco, just to bring it back full circle!
That evening, many of the team had planned to go out to a few bars together. Mo and I decided to start the night early in the hotel room, and I had my first experience with Natty Boh, Baltimore's famous (or infamous may be the better word) beer. Once we arrived at Mother's in Federal Hill, we were ready for the night!
As it turned out, a ton of my teammates and their families came out, which was awesome. We spent a few hours there, then most people headed back, but Mo, Michelle and I headed on. After many hours of adventuring and shutting the bars down, we headed back to our hotel so I could wake up a couple hours later at 5:15 a.m. to catch my flight.
I spent one more night sleeping on a floor in my sleeping bag, but the hotel floor was quite a bit cushier than a concrete floor, that's for sure! It's hard to believe that I just ran across the country and that this trip is over. I'll be posting one more blog that reflects on the whole trip, so until then...
Run happy,
Natalie