We Finished the Relay and Hans Finished His Race!

It's really cool to be able to join up with the last runner and cross the finish line as a team to celebrate the accomplishment of traveling 100 miles together.  For this final portion, everyone changed into our Run to Remember shirts.  This is mine; I was running in memory of Ian Foster who was a friend of my friend, Joan Luebbe's family.  I'm honored that I could run not just for anyone, but for someone who was connected to a person I know and for someone who was spoken so highly of by Joan.

After crossing the finish line, we got our medals which are super cool this year!  I like how the ribbons are different for relay teams and 50 milers.  (I'm guessing the ribbons for the 100 milers were different too, or maybe they got a belt buckle; that's a tradition in the ultra world for 100 mile races.)  Take a look at these pictures!

After that, it was time to take a few group pictures, grab a turkey burger, and get some beer!  As good as that beer was in the van, the post-race beer was even better!  Here is a quick group shot of us.

Me, G, Kevin, Bryan, Tony, and Renee

As I'm walking away from the burger table & starting to stuff my face, I see Addie who had successfully finished her 50 mile individual race!  We both screamed when we saw each other & ran together to give the biggest hugs!  For someone who spent the day running 50 miles in the heat & humidity, she looked like she had just come out of her hotel room!  How does she do it?!  She told me about her race, I got to say "thank you" to her friend, Lisa, who was giving me the text updates, and then went back to finish my burger with my team.  However, I realized the Hans was still out there, so I offered up my beer to the first taker (Kevin), put on the reflective/blinking vest, grabbed my phone and what was left of my burger to head back out to meet up with Hans & Morgan.

I'm sure I got quite a few looks from people who realized I'm a racer, with my finisher medal on, but yet I'm going back out onto the course!  In fact, one guy even said (jokingly), "You're going the wrong way."  "Going to help a friend" was my reply.  Then, a little later, another person said "You're badass" as I passed him.  Hysterical!  Here I am jogging back up the course, munching on my burger, and realizing that I'll probably be doing another 2 miles (1 out and 1 back in).  Hey, Hans & Morgan would totally do this for me!

I met up with them, and together we did the last little bit.  While I can't say that my presence helped, it was nice to be able to be there for what surely had to be Hans' hardest race and to let him know that the end was, quite literally, near!  As we neared the finish line, Morgan and I veered off to the side and saw Hans cross with his hands up and, most probably, a huge smile on his face!  Morgan skee-daddled a bit too quickly and went to get the van, so Hans & I snapped a quick picture before it was time for him to go.