Relay Team Troubles

Over the past couple weeks, our team has been experiencing some issues, not much different than those of the USA men's and women's gymnastics teams. We have lost a couple runners due to injury or other conflicts, and to make it worse, our alternates have also had to drop out for some of the same reasons. Unfortunately, we have no Olympic-sized comback story, as we have not been able to replace our lost team members or alternates. With the race less than 4 weeks away, we are most likely going to pull out, regroup, and try again next year. Hopefully we'll be able to stay together as a team and run some local 10K's and 1/2 marathons together as part of our training.

I was looking forward to running with the team, but at the same time, I do feel a sense of relief that we've decided to scrap this year. For one thing, I don't think any of us was really prepared to run that kind of race in those kinds of conditions in the required amount of time (i.e., 13-24 miles per person in mountainous terrain at a semi-high altitude, with all of us having to average 10 minute miles in order to finish the 208-mile race in the allotted 34 hours). Also, if we had decided to do the race, and one or more of us got hurt or sick during the race, the rest of us would have had to pick up the extra mileage, on top of our own assigned miles. While no one likes to give up on a commitment, I think that this is one of those endeavors where it's better to realize ahead of time that you're not prepared and work harder for next time rather than barreling ahead, only to have a miserable time.

So hopefully, the Bear Breasted Second Basemen will make a roaring comeback (no pun intended) in next year's Blue Ridge Relay.