AOR - A Love Story

We miss you, Fah...

Life has a sneaky way of keeping us from the things we love.  Sometimes we even forget we used to love something just because we haven't seen or had it in so long.  Maybe it's an old friend of family member.  Maybe it's a Dorito Locos taco.  Then, out of nowhere, it's back in your life and you swear to yourself you'll never let it go again.

I have loved running ever since I started about 23 years ago.  While I didn't start to avoid homework like Mojo, I've been blessed to have found the sport.  There have been times in my life I've lost touch with it, e.g., college and grad school, after the kids were born.  It was never intentional and I never stop loving running.  For whatever reason, I just stopped.

This is the story of how I have fallen permanently back in love with my sport and, after many many years of persistence, Mojo got me to run American Odyssey Relay with him.  And this time, I'm never losing touch.
Chapter 1.  Scene - About one year ago, we were looking for a spring sport for ARG and heard about a local track program.  We signed her up, she dug it, and I was able to help out with the little kids.  This year, the middle distance coach moved up with his daughter to the next age range, and the head coach asked if I would coach the distance kids.  I've helped out with the kids' soccer teams, but I don't know much beyond an 8 year old level.  Track, on the other hand, has been such a joy to teach these kiddos I sport I know.  I've actually been able to use variations of workouts I do myself or did in high school.  Plus, being able to pass this on to my daughter... no words can describe that.

Let me tell you, these kids passion for the sport is contagious.  Granted, they have the energy of 6-8 year old kids, but they never seem to want to stop running.  And their hard work has really paid off.  I have a large group of girls running a mile, followed up with more runs during practice.  Last week, a small group of girls asked to run a second mile.  It was pretty hot, but I let them gut it out.  All 4 made it without stopping.  Could not have been prouder, and neither could they.  The whole team followed that up with by far their best meet of the year.  Even better for them, they recognized it was their best meet even though they didn't necessarily finish in places they typically did.  They all knew they ran fast.  "Coach, sometimes we race against the clock."  Makes you feel good when the coaching sets in.

We make running fun.  Our only rules:  have fun, never stop, try your best, and support your teammates.  And our "unspoken rule," the one they love the most... beat the boys.  Which they usually do whenever they race together (seriously, my girls out-kick them like crazy and they LOVE to tell me about it, almost as much as I love to hear it).  Practices are at night and sometimes I'm beat.  However, being with them is like crushing 5 Red Bulls.  Fires me up.

"Coach LB!  Coach LB!"

My proudest moment with them has nothing to do with racing, though.  So our team is fairly big, ages 5-8.  Most of my girls have either run before or are older than the rest of the team.  Some of them obviously so.  So during an early meet, my kids were waiting to run the 4x100 relay and were watching the younger kids run the 100.  Out of nowhere, they lined up along the track and started cheering on the younger kids.  LOUDLY.  The entire track could hear them.  The younger kids LOVED it.  They were beaming as they ran, some of them veering out of their lanes as they looked over at the older kids smiling.  Keep in mind, other than stretches and a warm up lap, the two groups don't interact much.  It made me so proud to see them do that.  I told them about the little kids reactions at our next practice and they have since made this a tradition at every meet and ask me when the 100 is and can I take them to watch the kids run so they can cheer.

Chapter 2.  Scene - BGE's baptism weekend.  On the way to Mojo's place, I grabbed a copy of Runner's World.  Two weeks later I had subscribed.  Totally hooked.  During the weekend I had a chance to run with Mojo and his local Team RWB chapter.  Something about running with him with the Eagle on with a group of people I would likely never see again got me fired up.  I also realized it was time for something bigger when it came down to running.  Primarily, because I was starting to get bigger.  Literally.  I was working out and running, but not getting results.  I needed a purpose.

Enter ZWR.  He, too, was feeling bigger, and asked if I wanted to sign up for a spring long run.  We kicked around a couple of half marathons before I mentioned to him Mojo had been trying to get me to run AOR with him for years.  We originally were going to double the Philly half marathon with AOR, then decided to just stick with AOR.  My leg was going to be 17.5 miles over the course of 36 hours, including a run in the middle of the night.  Gettysburg to D.C.  36 hours living out of a van.  Got the wife's approval.  Purpose?  Weight loss.  Making my family proud.  One more memory with Mojo and ZWR.  Check check and check.

Chapter 3.  Scene - Gettysburg, PA, Washington, D.C., and a hell of a lot of places in between.  Kicked off the weekend with some food and beers at Appalachian Brewing Company.  ZWR kinda questioned our ability to run after this, but after seeing all the AOR-experienced guys doing it (including a bunch of Army vets), we figured we'd be okay.  And we were.  Before I break this down, let me just say, seeing the country like this was really cool.  Just a bunch of random places on random roads throughout Pennsylvania and Maryland with a group of 12 people all united by a lot of tough miles on little sleep and questionable fueling (read: runners way of saying what you eat and drink).  Thank God ZWR found Stinger brand gummies and waffles on Amazon.  Those and that peanut butter jar were the van's back seat MVPs.

Weeeee!!!

Leg 1 - 5.5 miles in Michaux State Forest.  This was literally like a roller coaster.  About 2 miles up, then 3.5 down.  And let me tell you, that 2 miles up was UP.  Some time in the first mile I seriously thought about calling Mojo to curse him out for getting me into this.  Then runners determination set in.  Then I got to the top of the hill.  Then I crushed about 7 minute miles on a winding, stunningly beautiful downhill.  Some highlights here... some random dude lives in a shed off this hill and I heard gun shots with about a mile to go.  My teammates confirmed they heard them as well.  Luckily, I didn't get shot.  Felt great afterwards and confident I hadn't used all my energy on the first leg.

No issues going through our legs.  We grabbed a quick dinner around 10pm.  Some of us went healthy, e.g., me and ZWR went with salads with grilled chicken.  Others (not to be named) went fried food and beers.  Hey, whatever works.  We camped out for a couple of hours sleeping in a high school parking lot in sleeping bags before embarking on the second set of legs around 130am.

Downtown somewhere at 2am

Leg 2 - 3.9 miles starting briefly in a little town, then onto back roads in Maryland, finished up on a farm.  Snagged a kill a couple miles in and offered the woman a Snickers bar or water (she declined).  Their van kept lighting the way for us, which was nice.  Ran this leg from 2:05am to 2:45am.  This run redefined the idea of "pitch black."  My head lamp lit about 3 feet in front of me and that was it.  The B&O Canal was on my left.  I could hear it, but could see just the front of the tree line that kept me from dropping into it.  The trees looked 2 dimensional.  It started to lightning and rain on me the last mile or so.  Luckily I mostly stayed dry, but the next runners weren't as lucky.  It was interesting running the hills on this leg... you can't actually see them until you're right on top of them and you have no idea how big or steep they are because you can only see about 3 feet in front of you.  I asked the woman what she thought and she just kind of laughed.  I'm thinking she wasn't in the mood to talk, especially since we later found out that van had been fighting with each other a lot and ultimately dropped out of the race.

In between these two legs was quite an adventure.  I caught a few more zzzzs in the back of the van.  I also learned an important life lesson I want to share with you all... never try and take out your contacts on the back bumper of a minivan at 3am in a rainstorm in the middle of Antioch Battlefield or you'll never find them.  Having forgotten to pack a spare set, I was going glasses the rest of the way, aka, kicking old school like high school.  It was kind of fitting, since that's where my running career began.  We also found out it was going to be like 95 and humid the next day and that Van 2 was now allowed to start their legs early to avoid the heat.  So we had to make a decision around 5am what to do... start sooner on very short sleep, or brave the heat.  We ultimately decided that, since mine and another leg were over 8 miles, the later runners could catch some sleep while we were on the course.  ZWR and I caught one last quick nap (he was 1st, I was 2nd in our van), and got ready to roll.

Running buddy the last leg

Leg 3 - 8.1 miles.  Straight shot along the Potomac River with the B&O Canal next to me.  I had sprained my knee back in the fall, and it had started acting up on Leg 2, but I was able to jog it off.  Same thing happened here, except the run was twice as long.  I had two goals coming into AOR - never stop on any leg and try and go sub-9 miles each leg.  It took a good 2-3 miles to jog off that knee and it was starting to get hot out.  Luckily the pain went away and I was good to go.  This was the most cathartic run of my life.  Plenty of time with some light tunes on, gorgeous scenery, and a beautiful trail.  There was a 100k going in the other direction, so plenty of company.  Just before my leg stopped hurting someone coming the other way on the trail yelled, "Yeah, RWB!!!"  That fired me right back up and I started cruising.  I eventually ditched the headphones and just drank it all in.  With 1.8 to go, I caught up to a guy who was struggling and asked if he was okay.  He had hurt his calf about halfway through and didn't want to stop.  I gave him most of my water and told him only 1.8 to go.  I left him and turned on the jets.

We made it!

I will never forget that last 1.8.  They were the best miles I ran in my life.  I knew I wasn't going to need to stop and the runners high was stronger than I ever felt it.  I could hear the crowd cheering runners in at the transition point about 1/2 mile out and I really turned it on.  My track girls go the last 150 hard as they can, so that one was for them.  Later realized I ran sub-8s for that stretch, which put me just under 9 minute miles for that leg.  Having done it the first 2 legs, I also realized I had achieved both of my goals, which made me achieve Goal #3 - making the family proud and honoring their sacrifices of Daddy on long runs, at the gym, and not always in bed to cuddle in the morning when they woke up.  And maybe the biggest highlight... as I was walking back to the van, I looked across the canal and saw they guy I had helped out jogging in and finishing the leg.

Me and ZWR 1st transition

The rest of the guys finished strong and really f-ing sweaty.  It got over 95 degrees that day.  Mojo's brother finished it off with a nice run through DC and we ran the last 40 yards together at the Navy Yard.  Then proceeded to the best beer and biggest plate of nachos I've ever seen afterwards.  After the celebration, ZWR headed back to Fairfax, too beat to make it back to the bar in DC.  We crushed a couple Oberons with his wife and some friends and that was that.  The ride home was pretty calm and reminiscing.  Both ZWR and I committed to running it again before it was even over.  I already can't wait for next year.

I followed up AOR with a couple days off, one day of interval work, and one day of easy miles to prep for a 5K at the wife's school the following Sunday.  I ran a 20:38, my best time since ARG was born by about 30 seconds.  I took up a few yoga poses to help with some of the lingering knee pain after that race which worked like a charm.  Took a few more days off before Memorial Day weekend when Mr. and Mrs. Dawg came to visit, and am now in the midst of 4 straight run days before getting back on the track with the girls this week.  Only 2 weeks left with them and already looking forward to that next year, too.  I have a 5K booked for July 4th in Ann Arbor, but don't tend to run that fast.  ZWR and I, along with possibly another friend, are lining up a half marathon or 10 miler for the fall.  My morning runs have gone from challenging me to run 3.5 miles to running 6.5 without thinking.  And just... running.  It's running.  It's a peaceful, challenging, rewarding, annoying, and euphoric all in one.  I missed it.  It's never leaving again.

As I type, ARG just asked what I was doing and I asked what she had to say about running track this year:  "You have to run hard and keep running not stop.  Running is fun and I had fun at track this year.  I got faster.  My favorite part was doing relays and long jump."

The more astute of you may have noticed some subtle hints about a significant life event for Mojo and his family that's right around the corner.  Suffice to say we will be addressing that in our next post, in true Logical Betting fashion.  Until then, please follow us on Twitter and sing along to this with this for Memorial Day.  A many thanks to all who have served and given the ultimate sacrifice so we can live our lives free to love, play, run, and write silly blogs.  Hasta.