Even less than one week to go!

Getting closer!  Woo hoo!  :-)

Let's pick up with the story of how I got here, or maybe more accurately, how I'll get there!

It was April 17th, less than a week after the 7 Mile Bridge Run, when I really started to get serious about finding a team.  Google really is my best friend, because despite emailing the race director and having a friend post a "team wanted" message on the Keys100 Facebook page, I was teamless.  But thank Google for directing me to this site: http://cgremember.com/sign-up-for-the-3rd-run-2-remember-now/.  That's where I saw the oh-so-lovely "Email Us" link where I could in a subtle, refined way, beg to be on a team!  Hopefully my email didn't come across that desperate, but I really, really, really wanted to do this!

So how does one sleep after getting an email back about runners still being needed?  The answer is "not very well" for $500, Alex!  Excitement doesn't even begin to describe this.  It took a few days to get more information, but on April 22nd, I had officially been recruited to be a part of Run to Remember Team 5 - "The Cinco!"  Woo hoo!!!!

I remember telling my mom about this.  Her comment was something along the lines of "how do they know that you're not 300 pounds and planning to walk the entire thing?"  Ummmmm, I guess that's a good point.  I wasn't asked for any racing "credentials," although I would've happily given them over!  But I guess the fact that I'm asking (or rather begging) to be part of a team gives some indication that I'm not what my mom described.

Oh, and if you need some irony, on April 23rd, I was contacted by another team that needed one more member.  So in the span of probably less than 24 hours, I went from having no team, to having 2 who asked me to join.  (Sorry, RtR Team 4!  If I could clone myself, I would've been there with you!)

April 23rd was also when I found out what was going to be expected of me.  They Keys100 is a neat relay race in that there are only a few "rules" as to how the runs are organized.  No leg of it can be less than 2 miles, and you can't start a new runner midway on a bridge, so obviously some legs of the relay would have to be longer than 2 miles.  But just in case you're thinking to yourself, "oh, she's only going to have to run 2 miles at a time," no-no-no.  Get rid of that thought because Team Cinco is not running that way!  I'm "Josh" (at least according to the initial spreadsheet), and that had me doing 3 legs of the race: 5.2 miles, 6.3 miles, and 5.6 miles.  Are you doing the math here?  That's 17.1 miles during the day!  Putting on my "Positive Kim" hat, I think "oh man, that's easy!  Heck, I did 13.1 miles in one shot back in March."  When the "Not-So-Positive Kim" hat gets put on, it changes to "Sweet Mary mother of all that is holy in this world!  17.1 miles in one day?!"  (In case you're wondering, I'm usually wearing the "Positive Kim" hat.)

So what's been going on since I found out what I'd be running?  Well, a lot of running!  I'm not really a fan of mornings or of running in the heat.  Guess what I started doing?  Running (when possible) in the morning and in the afternoon when it's nice, sunny, hot, and humid!  Seeing how wonderful running at noon or 2pm or 4pm is has really made me say "wow - this is a challenge!"  And you know me, I love a good challenge!!!