Team C - midnight run #4

Ahh, nothing like "Dearhead" AL to start off our fourth run. Everyone
is feeling 100% and ready to conquer the world! Really? Not quite, but
everyone is in good spirits, the finish line is getting close. Tired
bodies, but we are ready for our night run! Check back for some more
details on leg 4! Ahh! Love from Deerhead!

Team C - another handoff - Fri. 6:00

This is our handoff to Team A. Kevin (aka DJ Lance Rock) Jeff (aka
bull) Brandon (aka rodeo clown). looking awesome!

We saw are fair share of drama, honks, waves, yelling; happy, sad,
mad. Whoo! All part of the weekend fun. Had some threats... But we
just smile and give some friendly waves.

Just finished eating some awesome: All-you-can-eat catfish! Thanks
dave's!

At the hotel now. Lookin forward to a solid 2.5 hour nap. Back in a
few..

A-Team Day 2: Honestly, we pity the fools.

We departed the superb Key West Inn at 3:30 am groggy and ready to hit the road and get over the 3rd run hump, so we could high-five each other with much enthusiasm for getting on the backside of the relay. Christine and I immediately sought refuge in the back room so we could get a couple more winks before round 3. It has to be mentioned that with Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker at the helm, Christine and I actually caught 3 feet of air while we were lying in bed. That's some serious driving skills, people. And if we haven't mentioned it yet, our drivers do deserve a big fat bear hug for not only keeping on course but for also their encouraging words while we run, for example, "you should run faster, you're slowing us down."

I gotta tell you, we had some rough runs this morning. We were all a little bit sore and a little bit cranky. My spirits were really broken and when I finished my 4 I wasn't a happy girl when I boarded the bus. Our most entertaining moments were:

* Discovering that we had either an 80's hair band superstar in a midst. Its really a beautiful thing when you find out you're in the very presence of excellence. Christine really mixed up things up this morning by wielding a red headband/bandanna featuring white skulls. She looks like a ridiculous female pirate version of Bret Michaels.

* 2-Cube topping even himself by upchucking his breakfast and two gatorades right after his hand-off to Chesley Of course he still ran sub-8 miles. He is now affectionately being renamed Chuck.

The highlight of our morning has been the Big Boy breakfast at Karls Kountry Kitchen, or whatever, taking in the fine aromas of Thomasville, and getting 3 hours of sleep before our next leg. It should also be noted that there is no surliness or punchiness from any members of our team. But, again, that's probably because we are awesome.

We'll holla lata, but you should be anticipating a special edition blog from us shortly.
**Sent from my BlackBerry**

A Team - Day 1, Leg 2: Hot Plate!

One thing you can say about this group, we are consistent…consistently awesome. I am amazed with how consistent our paces have been, even with the weird diet, the weird sleeping schedule and the weird playlists that Chesley plays. Each of our second legs presented the same variety of excitement and lameness as the previous leg and the boys each came in with solid 7-8-minute splits and the girls each finished right at 9:45 splits. We capped off our second leg last night with a little Mexican Fiesta in Clanton, as all of us were tired and came to the mutual decision that we'd rather risk the potential intestinal havoc it might wreak later and have Mexican food than eat Wendy's or the likes. The fruits of our good decision making were realized when we were served a bucket of steaming hot refried beans by a waiter wearing a skin tight apron while exclaiming, "HOT PLATE HOT PLATE!" Whilst our group dined on chips and queso, I surveyed the crowd what their favorite moments of the day were and was provided the following fodder for conversation:
·         A fun little jaunt to Target to purchase an open box special boombox to hook the iPods up to. The result has been a glorious RV ride showcasing several hours of the group's greatest hits, such as the Macarena, Purple Rain, and Mmmbop. 
·         During my 4-miler right at dusk, a golden retriever decided to join me right around mile 2 and dive in and out of traffic and literally run circles around me. It only became somewhat concerning when it became apparent to me that her sight was lacking and she dodged out into traffic.  So basically, I spent the remainder of my run being herded like a lame sheep by a blind dog, which obviously makes me feel fantastic.
·         Knowing that we have unconditional support from all of the locals we run by, not limited to the 8 year old girl who was driving a riding lawn-mower unsupervised with her 6 year old husky brother riding on the front of it while cheering for us and waving.
·         Checking into our hotel and finding some hairs in the bathroom that clearly defied the laws of gravity to happen upon the sink.
Additionally, there was some spirited group discussion over queso that resulted in our need to say just one thing: SHOUT OUT TO MAD DOGG, WOOOOOOT WOOOOT!
A-Team, out – what what!

Team C - really?

Roll Tide? RTR, classy! Love it!

Team C - on the run...

Our team is still out on the open road. Stephanie is out now. Keeping
her groove going! (picture) can yall all do a rain dance for us? We
would like something to keep us cool. Drivers are doing well. Trucking
along.

Team C - round 3!

Hotel was awesome, some pretty good sleep for the whole team! About 4
hours, and we are back in action... Brandon and I have run our legs
and Christina is running now. Doing an awesome job! The rest of the
team is getting ready. It is overcast, and as enjoyable as a hot run
can be, just thankful for not too much sun on our backs. Check back in
a few hours!

Nicole

Sent from my iPhone.

Team B: Road Kill, State Troopers, and Hills Oh My!

Hello from Guest Blogger Jennifer. We are now on our 3rd leg of the trip. We are somewhere in Wilcox County between Selma and Thomasville. Last night's run through Clanton was quite eventful. We encountered dogs, road kill, police, etc., but the weather was great and we didn't have as many angry commuters as we did in Talladega. I would like to give a shout out to the Talladega police department for escorting us after our fourth or so road rage encounter.

We stayed in Childersburg at the Key West Inn. We sat down at the Pizza Hut for some much-awaited nourishment, when we had to get our pizzas to go because we got the phone call from team A that they would be at the check point 45 minutes early. Slow down, Hussein Bolt. Those folks are fast! We are not that fast, but I feel we make up for it with style. We got them back by filling empty pizza boxes with banana peels so that they would be tricked! Ha! Take that!


Anyways, right now we are in the rolling hills of mid Alabama. I am very imressed with Holley, Waymon, and Lee for killing those steep hills. There are going to be some sore bottoms tomorrow. I will be running anchor today and it looks really hot. I need to put some sunscreen on now. We'll holla atcha!

Update:
Okay, so leg 3 is over and I stand corrected - everyone in the group had massive hills, so I would like to give a shout out to Kathleen, Nicole, and Bryan in addition to those listed before. I, on the other hand, had it flat the whole way and the clouds came out, so sorry! Luck of the draw!

Yay for Rosa, one of our fearless drivers, who joined me for the final mile (as posted above).

well, we are off to Thomasville for some rest and food. It's five o'clock somewhere! See you in a few hours!

C team - Round 2 finish

The hand off to A Team was a success! (see picture) yes there is a
baton inside the road kill. Everyone ran very well this go around, it
was a nice change for the killer heat yesterday. Cool night air.
Starting to feel the lack of sleep, but everyone is taking it well.
Props to the drivers they are doing and awesome job. It really is the
hardest part of this run. So this one is for our amazing drivers:
Trei, Carey, David, and Delicao.

C Team - rest no. 1

Well some awesome run fuel (pizza hutt) and some soild sleep (average
2 hours). We are back in the RV ready for round two to start at 1:45
AM.. Meeting B team for the swap, our team will finish about hum 5:40
ish, awesome night running! And we are off...

Team B - Second Run

Team B is wrapping up our second run. We ran past the giant peach in Clanton. The drama has settled a little as we are running through the middle of the night. We did have an armadillo cross in between Jennifer and the RV. Other than that the visit from the Clanton police department that was the most of the drama.



Lee is running next, and I'm pulling anchor tonight. Need to start stretchig. We'll be done soon!

Bryan

Team B - What happens in Childersburg stays in the Burg...

So we may not be able to run or blog as well as Team A, but we have better picures... take a look!

C Team - picture try again

For some reason it did not up load, try again:

A Team – Stateline at Sunrise

A Team – Stateline at Sunrise

9:40 a.m. and the A Team has just finished our first leg. Overall, I'd say the general sentiment is "Too Legit to Quit." I'm just going to go ahead and be honest here, this is a team of studs – myself excluded.  Here's how each person's leg of the relay went down:

Thomas – El Capitan started us off strong at 5:57am  in the chilly 57 degrees to pick up the 5-mile leg of our relay. He was able to fend off some acutely aggressive Chihuahuas while kicking it up hill and still maintaining a 8:20 pace. Obviously, this was a pretty tremendous start to our day.

Jared – Luckily for him the chilly weather mitigated the alluring scents of roadkill shortly after the pass off from Thomas. Relatively consistent with our Captain he maintained a 8:37-mile pace: however, he had the unfortunate luck of his teammates having not quite mastered the RV door and was forced to run about an extra quarter of a mile while we tried to figure out how to release Christine from RV captivity.

Christine – Seriously, this girl fought some hills. Her four-mile-stint was filled with long, steep hills and she still managed bust out an 8:50-mile pace. On a personal note, as someone who runs relatively frequently with Christine through our neighborhood, I was more than impressed (read: intimidated and jealous) with what she busted out.

Brooke – I *should* completely gloss over my 10-minute mile pace performance, seeing as it was by far the most lackluster performance of the crew. My biggest challenge was not knowing how hard to take hills, for fear of how my body will hold-up and how long I had left. Luckily Trey came to my rescue as I was on a nice long somewhat downhill through downtown Heflin.

Trey – Where do we even begin with Trey, or as we are affectionately calling him Two-Cubed? Our relationship with Trey began with him regaling the tale of his attempt at his first marathon last weekend, which was re-routed and he subsequently only got to finish 22.2 miles. He feels owed that extra four-miles and we may feel obliged to give him four extra miles during this little excursion. Again, I digress. Trey got into his run striding out in about a 7:30-mile pace and unfortunately for him we stumbled into some construction. No joke, we had to stop, as did he. The sweet sweet irony came when we looked at the odometer and noticed to our amusement, sweet Trey had completed (wait for it………) 2.2 miles. Once we got moving again he was able to pull-out an 8:45-mile pace INCLUDING THE CONSTRUCTION STOP. (Yes, feel free to point out his stop-and-go pace, was quicker than my consistent slog).

Chesley – I'm trying to resist thinking that Chesley purposely nominated himself as the anchor of the relay (you know, to make up time for some of our slower runners). He got the smooth-sailing-down-hill paltry 3.4 mile leg of the race. We were already making pretty decent time, but for what I assume was an attempt to make up for his shorter-than-average leg of the relay, Chesley pulled out all the stops and wowed us with a tasty little 7:35-mile pace.

After the A-Team finished our entire first leg of the relay, were treated with much enthusiasm to yummy breakfast complete with some electrolyte-replenishing Gatorade. Now, its off to rest, relax, and come up with some more RTFR shenanigans. HOLLA ATCHA FROM THE A-TEAM!

Team B - Transition

Thank you Southwire for a great breakfast. Team B had a successful
first run. Everyone is in high spirits (especially after getting some
lunch). We are headed for an Alabama PowerNap (hahahaha) before we run
again tonight.

We did have some drama already. Lee and Holley both has some crazy
drivers about run the off the road. Nicole had an elderly lady give
her an inappropriate gesture.

However, despite these minor things we are having a great time doing
this event for a great cause. A big thanks goes out from Team B to
the American Cancer Society for giving us the opportunity to champion
such a great cause.

Bryan

Team C - Thursday - 2:45

And we are off! Stephanie and Brandon have ran thier legs with a very respectable pace,  Tabatha (below) is running now, the rest of us are waiting our turn. Just left the police escort and we are on our own! Thanks to the B team for the greasy hand off. 

Nicole

Team C - Thursday - 1:10

The runners! Still waiting for the first pass.

Team C - Thursday - 12:40

Team C - Thursday- 11:00 AM

Rv is ready to go, we are ready to go, A team has handed off to B team
and they are in action! We are waiting on one team member (no names
need...) but very excited! Currently telling war stories about past
years! Can't wait for our stories this year. Our RV dominates
compaired to last year... Very excited about that! Check back when we
hit the road...

Nicole

Team B - Leg One

Hey everyone! So the fun has begun for Team B. Our team is the coolest team in the relay. Team B consists of Nicole, Jennifer, Kathleen, Holley, Bryan, Waymon, and Lee. Our drivers are Denise, Rosa, Cherie, and Ben. We are all super pumped, and can't wait to begin our run! We are wonderful Anniston traffic right now, and Bryan is doing a lot of running in place. Check back later for more exciting stuff!!!

Team A-Day 1

Greetings from Team A--aka The A Team!

And, they're off! It is currently 5am, and we just boarded our sweet RV. Next stop: the Alabama-Georgia line for the first leg of the Run for the Reason. Leonard got us to our hotel around 11pm last night, and we were able to squeeze in a few good hours of sleep.

The lineup for this morning starts with Thomas-our fearless leader-followed by Brooke, Jared, Trey, and Christine, and Chesley. We start at the state line on Hwy 78 and end just before Hwy 78 meets Hwy 431 between Anniston and Heflin.

We'll check in with you guys along the way. LET'S GO!!!
----------------------------------------------------------------
Take care,

Trey Hayes

*This message was composed on my wireless device; please excuse any typos or brevity.

Team A- Day 1-minus: And We're Off...

Brooke here. So, here we are at Inverness. All introductions have been made (Brooke, Christine Trey, Leonard, Jared, Thomas, Chesley, and Obi Wan) and its quite clear that the A-Team is a group of strapping young gentlemen, who are all quite experienced RTFR'ers and all apparently avid runners. Christine and I are ecstatic to be the team anchors...not so much "anchor" in the typical sense of a relay team where you assume the clutch position, but rather "anchor" as in what drags a boat down. I digress. Time out - must pause in blogging to better acquaint ourselves.

Time in - Ok, its now 3 hours later, and we have thus far experienced the following delights:

1. A man asking us for gas money who will in return bring us a cooler of nondescript fish and reimburse us plus (get this) $5 in interest.

2. Watching the men of the A-Team for an hour try to rig the TV in the RV to play an iPod. Thank goodness for Jared figuring out that if we put the Slow Jamz CD in the dvd player on mute we could simultaneously listen Chesley's finest hip-hop mix.

3. Calling Kevin M ad nauseum to ask questions about everything under the sun, including but not limited to finding the RV keys and our hotel keys.

As a point of clarification, big ups to Kevin for setting up the A-Team. I think this is going to be a beautiful thing. More later.
**Sent from my BlackBerry**

Team C

And we are back in action…

The C team is preparing, this week, for our journey across Alabama. We are the last team out of the shot-gun, and we are excited for the adventures that are ahead of us. We have a wide background of runners, but we are all anxious. There has been a ton of training involved and we are counting down the hours now. Many of us are returning from the years before and excited for our new teammates to join the coolest group… or at least we think so.

Shout outs:

-Kevin – Doing and awesome job of getting us “Team” ready… Get ready “A” and “B” team… C team is going to be ready to RUN! Thanks to Kevin.

- Jeff – Seen him at plenty of races this year… I know he is faster than last year. Flashback to Mercedes: Jeff FLYING by me! Excited to see your progress. He is Quite the runner!

- Brandon – You ready… Skirt and all… we are going to top it in 2010, making magazines and everything. This year… TV!

- Christina – Girl… most impressed by you. I can’t wait to run with you. This year has been huge for you running-wise, and I can’t wait to see you in action!

-Tabatha - Girl it has been too long… Can’t wait to catch up with you! GET READY!

-Stephanie – So I have to admit, I stocked you on facebook! CUTE son. I can’t wait to get to know you. You are in for a weekend, with our group but we are excited you are on board!

-Carey – Hey even though we did not get the chance to GPS out the course I am excited to spend a weekend with ya! AHH! The memories of getting lost and driving the RV! Can’t wait for the DRAMA! So excited to see you.

- David – So for those of you on our team that don’t know him… he’s a good addition. I have MBA class with him, had EIT class with him, we have seen each other every day for the past 3 years, pretty much. I am excited about him jumping on… he is going to fit right in! (and I will get him to run next year!)

- Trei – Well glad to hear you are with us… Get ready for some good songs and dancing on the back of the TRUCK! And we are going to con you into running some legs with us!

- Delacio – Stocked you on facebook too! Don’t be scared. It’s a BLAST… You are in for a weekend! Can’t wait to meet you!

Driver and Runners… we are ALL ready for the start line. See ya in a week!

Nicole

Why Participate in Run for the Reason? - Thomas

I am participating in the Run for the Reason to honor my grandparents, three of them lost battles with cancer, and my remaining grandmother is currently battling breast cancer. This will be my 6th year participating in the event, and it has been a meaningful part of my life every year that I have ran. The folks that I have met and shared an RV with over the years have been more than just fellow runners, they have become great friends.

Thomas