You Can Be Epic, Part: Last

The One Run For Boston was gaining steam. The story had made it to USA Today with a great photo of Danny Bent running a long deserted desert highway. All the legs were covered and people were continuing to sign up to join others. A major story had been in USA Today! It, we, the relay was a big story. Epic. 
  June 20th, "Miles" the baton entered Missouri. This was the day. Sometime that evening I would be carrying Miles on a 9.5 mile leg from Sampson to Phillipsburg MO. But not alone. 
  The day before I got a very unexpected phone call from, of all places, Boston. Eric Moskowitz, a Boston Globe reporter, called to confirm that he would, with my permission, join me on my leg in order to write a story about One Run For Boston. I was stunned. Why me? I asked. Eric said they wanted to do a story about an average runner who had decided to be part of this epic (I'm not sure he said epic) relay. Someone had suggested me or something. 
  Okay. 
  Eric came, met me at the hand off to leg 170 and along with photographer Greg Kendall-Ball, shadowed me the rest of the day. 
  The relay was still behind. After meeting the next group for hand off, Greg taped a video interview and Eric was writing down everything I said. It was weird. You can watch the video, I won't bore you with the details. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U25PtxLe80

  It was the most fun and epic run I have ever had. It was once in a lifetime. 

  

You Can Be Epic: Part 2

  Normally, I don't click on those side bar ads on Facebook, you know the ones with the woman, who made $1000 per day working form home, I mean I just don't have the cleavage to make that kind of money. But on May 23, 2013, I signed up, via a sidebar ad, to be part of an "epic" running relay across the United States. 
  I sent my entry fee via Paypal and just hoped that it would not be a scam of some sort. Shortly I received an email thanking me for becoming part of One Run For Boston Relay, to raise money for the victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing. 
  The relay, a brain child of three British citizens (Kate, Danny and Jamie), would start June 7 in LA and end in Boston on June 30.     the word "epic" would be used. A GPS tracker built into the baton that would be carried would allow for "live" tracking on the website, so each participate could see how the relay was progressing. 
  As I noted in my last post, the only requirements were to send your entry fee and swear on a stack of stinky shirts, that you could maintain a 10 minute per mile pace for the duration of your "leg".       So a couple of days later, I went to see if I could really do that. If not I had time, almost a month to get in shape. I ran 9.67 miles at a 8:27 pace. Whoo-hoo! I was gonna be epic. 
  In the weeks prior to the start, the anticipation had built to a fever pitch on the Facebook page, and on the live site. There had been drama, last minute efforts to fill some of the more remote legs in the western states.
 Did I mention that this was 24/7 relay. Once it started it never stopped for any more than time to pass the baton and take some pictures. 
  On June 7th at 10 in the morning LA time, it began.  Within a few hours the difficulty of the task became apparent. Things happened and with the relay barely underway, it was off it's schedule, behind the time it had hoped to be on. 
  This is day one. 
  To many of those waiting down the line,  this was NOT ACCEPTABLE! 
  Being not only runners, but being human, and perhaps being Americans, this caused a panic on the Facebook page. What would happen, would I have to give up my spot because my dog had a grooming appointment an hour after my leg or I had to drive back home and go to work!
  OMG! This thing is falling apart...ALREADY! 
  How can it be EPIC if it can't even stay on time! 
  We have twenty three more days...AAAAAARRRRGGGG! 
  With a sense of humor and experience in this type of adventuring, Danny and Kate, the Brits imposed a reality check! They were going to be driving and running (some) with this whole deal. They weren't worried, so don't you be either. Their calming words and the vigilance of Mary, the St. Louis based American Facebook monitor, convinced most of us (some never did get it) to "Stay Calm and Run On!" 
  My leg was still almost 2 weeks out but I was excited. I and many others were checking the website and Facebook all through that first night to see if some fast people caught up the time. Where was the baton? Who was running at midnight? Why isn't the GPS working?It became addictive. The relay was coming my way. The reports couldn't come fast enough. 
  Pictures showed people running in terrible heat, in rain, crawling under fences (thanks MapMyRun) sometimes catching up on time, sometimes falling farther behind. I didn't care, it was still making steady progress, coming my way, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas. Everyday, check it early, check it late, check on my middle of the night bathroom trip. It was getting more real. 
  I made new friends on Facebook. We encouraged those who were going before us. For me it became an excellent virtual adventure.  The baton entered Oklahoma through the panhandle, now it was getting close, well about a week away. It was still behind.
   I didn't care if  was 2 hours or 2 days behind, this was going to be epic.