Sorry For the Cliff Hanger!

If you've followed my blogs in the past, especially for relays, you know that I sort of drop off the face of the earth right before my last run of the day.  Unlike Grandma, you also know that means that I'm not in the hospital after suffering a stroke & blindness.  (For those of you saying, "WTF is she talking about?!," that's what Grandma thought happened to me after my DTR race because I fell 5 times.  Despite me telling her that I never ended up in the hospital, I know she still thinks I did!)  Ok, enough of that!  Since I'm not in the hospital, let me catch you up on how things ended!

The sun finally started to set, and the weather was becoming absolutely wonderful!  This was the chance for each of us to have one more good run where we could really go balls to the wall without the imminent threat of heat stroke.

I was sure that Hans & Morgan were still in front of my team, so as I'm standing at the exchange point waiting for Kevin to come my way, you can imagine my surprise to see Hans & Morgan trotting up!  What a treat it was to see them!!!!  Hans looked exhausted, but he was so close that he knew he could do it.  He sat down to rest a bit, I got Morgan a Gatorade, gave one of my blinkies to Hans for his reflective vest, and then had to say my goodbyes because Kevin was haulin' ass my way.  Just as I was about to leave, Bryan says to me, "Don't worry, Kim, we won't miss you this time!"  LOL! 

This leg would be my last of the day, my legs were tired, but the weather was just too good to not push hard!  I felt good, had my tunes going, and just went for it!  Along the way, I did pass some people, so that was good.  

Scene of my outburst!

Everyone who does this leg comes to a point where you have to change sides of the road, and it's a royal pain because it's at a pretty sizable intersection.  There was another runner who had to stop with me because of traffic.  Now, here's the thing, pedestrians (I'm pretty sure) have the right of way in a crosswalk.  (Don't they?!)  Well, we got halfway across to the little median section, but the turning cars coming toward us just wouldn't stop!  Needless to say, I lost my shit & literally shouted "What the f*ck?!"  Of course, then I apologized to the guy next to me because I don't know if he speaks as colorfully as I do!  He got a chuckle out of that, and then we kept going.  Oh, getting back to this guy, he was one who had passed me before the change-over.  (The nerve of that bastard!)  However, after we could finally get through the intersection and start running again, he was sticking pretty close to me (which is annoying because the sidewalk isn't that wide).  Anyway, I thought to myself, "I know I can outlast you; just watch!"  Sure enough - I slowly started to pull away.  Ok, maybe it wasn't so much me pulling away as it was him fading back.  Either way, it was cool to have "won" that showdown.  (Lesson to all: don't mess with KimmieLynnRuns!)

The wind was coming off the water and as much as that's a good thing, it really isn't when it's in your face this late in the day.  However, Roosevelt Blvd turns, so as that happened, the angle of the wind (thankfully) became less & less of an "in your face" type of problem.

At some point before the curve, another guy passed me.  Obviously, he did not get the memo that this is unacceptable.  He sort of blew by me, but then about 200 yards up, he starts walking!  What's that shit?!  You haul ass past me, but then you realize you can't keep that up so you walk?!  Dumb, dumb, dumb for him...but good for me!  Needless to say, I ran passed him, and left him in my dust!

In all, I think I passed 4 people (including the 2 who had originally passed me), so that was awesome!  By the end of my run, it had gotten pretty dark, and I hadn't taken any lights with me; I was happy when I could see the crowd ahead which meant that G had to be there for the hand-off.  True to Bryan's word, the team didn't miss me this time!