1st Trip to Asheville & Dave's Race

So I've become a blog slacker. Which is ironic considering I'm a bit of a blog stalker and the first to nag my friends when they don't update theirs. I've been meaning to do it, but I'm finally sitting down and adding posts from our adventures the past month or so.

The first weekend in September Dave completed the Blue Ridge Relay Race. It's a 208 mile race from Greyson Highlands State Park, VA to Asheville, NC. He was a member of a 12 person team (creatively named "12 Pack") and each member had to run 3 legs of the race. His friend, Mason & his wife Shannon organized the whole thing. They did a great job not only renting vans and getting supplies but also charting out each leg of the race for the runners. Dave's first leg was the middle of the day on Friday and only 4.6 miles. Then his second and hardest leg was at midnight and a little over 7 miles. But he said it was uphill and downhill the whole way which is what made it hard. Then his final leg was supposedly 9.4 miles but he doesn't think it was that long. He ran a total of 21.5 miles! It wasn't exactly the easiest race to be a spectator for, so Arden and I drove up to Asheville and stayed with our friend, Becky, Friday night. Dave's group was on schedule to get into Asheville right after lunch time so we headed to the finish line to wait for them. Dave wasn't actually running the final leg, so he was there a bit earlier. Need less to say, after they had all been running for 31 straight hours with limited sleep the whole team was pretty beat. But the goal was to finish and they did! Here they are crossing the finish line behind Luke, who ran the final leg.

After the rest of the team packed up the vans and headed back to Raleigh, Becky, Dave, Arden & I went to the Mellow Mushroom for some food. Dave got about 1/2 way through his beer before realizing he was exhausted and almost fell asleep at the table. We got him back to Becky's where he slept from 6 pm to 7 am without moving. And he was just a little sore the next day or two ;-) But it's been two weeks now since the race and he's back to running and has his sights set on running the Raleigh half marathon in November.