The Ville 2 Ville is one of my favorite relays and after being relegated to van driver last year due to a back injury I was glad to be able to join back in on the running this year. Since I had the Q, I got to make to make the rules and the mumble chatter started as soon as I put out the leg assignments. I got the worst legs, I ran those last year, that downhill sucks…shut up and stay hard MFer’s. We were originally slotted in the 0500 starting group (which we should have kept, more on that later), but worked out a trade with the Mrs. Buckeye team for a 0800 start instead. We get to sleep later, they don’t have to worry about a late finish, it’s a win win, or so we thought. Now on to the event.
The plan was to depart Ingles in Dallas at 0515, however, Freight took it upon himself to decide that was too early and intentionally showed up 15 minutes late. We’re off to a great start. The drive up was fairly uneventful and after a stop for breakfast we arrived in Asheville to perfect running weather and what we thought were a bunch of celebrities on hand to cheer us on. Hi from Raising Arizona, the Pink Ladies from Grease, the Muppets and various others mingled with the crowd. There was even a shirtless, grape smuggling, wanna be Viking with a beer belly doing meditative yoga lunges trying to summon up some kind of weird spirits to help him run.
0800 hits and Gumby leads us off. Over the mountain and thru the woods then back up again before a short downhill finish. The Viking decided to sprint the last 50 yards and overtook Gumby at the line which amused SA and pissed Gumby off. Unfortunately that team fell well behind us and Gumby didn’t have the chance for the revenge he desired on the next leg. He killed a difficult starting leg and handed off the Slawbag.
Since Slawbag was a V2V virgin he got all the downhill legs. He might have had a small knoll (700’ in 1/2 mile) near the start of his run, but it was all downhill after that. He cruised through the run typical Slaw style but for some reason came in looking like Def Leppard after a Burpeethon. This also amused SA.
Buckeye took off on Leg 3 after stating, “I’m going sub 7”. Almost 8 miles in the 6:40’s, the dude was moving! Must be the mustache.
At this point the temps started to rise and the Canoe took off on a 7.5 miler that rolls like the hills of Kentucky. He said he was gonna take it easy, I guess sub 8 minutes pace is easy to him???
As soon as Freight took off on Leg 5 the temperature jumped to 105 (should’ve started at 0500) and that’s where it stayed until the end of Leg 6. He went out on a mission to pass the F3 Fort Mill team and made it happen with a mile to go. Nasty uphill near the end of this run and he made it look easy.
YHC ran Leg 6 (temp still 105) and about halfway up Mt. Everest got smoked by a hippie that wasn’t even sweating. Dr. Seuss’ brother?
The temps cooled back down to a moderate 80 degrees for the start of the second round and Gumby again hammered out a great time on an all uphill run that took us to the NC/SC line at the top of the mountain. Once again, Slaw ran downhill for his entire run and set a PR for every distance EXCEPT 400m. WTH man, you gotta do better!
Leg 9 is the longest and most difficult run in this event and once again it was Buckeye who accepted the challenge. Runners were cramping up and being taken off the course by this point, but Buckeye is from Michigan so he should be used to hot weather right? Nothing to it, almost 10 miles in the low 7’s and he’s done. Must have been the kiss he got from Mrs. Buckeye around halfway that got him through.
SA wasn’t happy that he was having to run again in the heat and he let everyone know it. Evidently some of the other teams heard it as well because when one of the ladies blew past him on the course she told him to “Pick it up” (this amused everyone except SA). He pushed through anyway and then laid down under a tree yelling “I’m done with this crap, this was the last one”. (He’s already signed up for next year).
The weather was crazy, the temp went back to 105 (should’ve started at 0500) when Freight went out on his last run. A great leg through Furman on the Swamp Rabbit Trail and he cruises at a 8:00 pace the whole way. Freight is a runner.
YHC had the glory leg and the finish line was a welcome sight. The Gashouse team crossed together and another V2V is in the books. It was a great time, with an even greater group of guys. It’s a blessing to have the ability to participate in these events and an honor to be a part F3 Gastonia.
Until the next one,
I’m Broke