Leg 24 - 7.9 miles
I was already feeling sore from my first two legs, so I didn't know what I was going to be able to do on this one. I started off well, hitting about 6:50 pace for the first couple of miles, but my legs didn't last very long, especially since this was mostly gradual uphill. I ended up wimping out and walking occasionally about every mile, which was about when our van stopped to offer me gatorade. When we made the turn, I managed to put together a pretty good couple miles, but then we hit more uphill and my legs abandoned me. Out of all my legs, this was the one I was most disappointed with. Average pace: 7:38/mile. I was absolutely exhausted after this leg. I had also gotten a blister on my right big toe during the previous leg, and got a matching one on my left big toe to match.
Thankfully, we drove down to Camille's house after this leg, and her husband made waffles for us with orange juice. We also had a nice place to take a hot shower, which I did. I downed a couple waffles and had some orange juice, then laid down on the couch and managed to get maybe an hour of sleep. Then off to our final set of legs. Everyone was tired and sore and ran slower than we had planned. Leg 36 - 3.8 miles
I got the baton and surpised myself with how well I was doing - I was running about 6:30 pace and felt like I could sustain it, then got hit with the dreaded stoplight. I lost at least 30 seconds at the stoplight and had I been a cursing man, would have been cursing the light for taking so long to change. Another speedy runner had caught up to me at the light, and we took off together. I tried to stay with him, but he was running a little too fast for me. I made the turn on to Alma School road, and had to wait for ANOTHER light! Another 30 seconds (minimum) lost. Grrrr! From Alma School, I went on to the canal for about a mile, and the dirt took a lot out of me. Once I got onto the road again, I was really struggling. I ended up walking for about 0.1 miles again until I got to Dobson, then ran the rest of the way in. Oh, and I had two more lights that I had to wait at! Finally finished, and I was absolutely beat. Average pace was 7:13/mile, but I feel confident that had it not been for the stoplights, I would have been able to hit my predicted pace of 6:48/mile.
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