American Cancer Society Relay for Life, Team Awesome's attempt to be Awesome washed away by the weather.

On June 11, the ACS was scheduled to put on an Relay for Life at the park where I run short loops with Enzo.  I decided to sign up and hoped to be able to run for 8-10 hours of the night logging maybe 40 miles total.  In a normal 12 hour run, I could potentially see over 60 miles, but this was for fun and for fundraising, so 40 was my goal.

Last year I did this as a fundraiser and as a way to celebrate my 5 years being cancer free.  This year I decided to make a tradition of it an celebrate 6 years. Rather than just ask people to donate cash, I invited people to come join me.  To join the team it is a $10 donation to the ACS.  Since the park has a .8 mile loop and the walkers would only be on part of that loop, it is a good park to run as part of the relay.  In contrast, ACS relays are often on tracks, so runners are not able to find the room to run freely.  It is a walking event, so by running through crowds of walkers, people may get frustrated.   However, here in Woodbridge, we can walk through the walk part of the loop and when the walkers turn left through the field, the runners can head off on the "big" loop to run as fast as we want. 

Johnny arrived at 5-ish to check thing out.  He planned to hang out with me all night. 

I arrived next with Enzo.  I figured he would get to spend sometime getting used to crowds and my parents were coming for a few hours, so they could take him home when they left.  It took about 10 minutes for Enzo to be ejected from the event.  Apparently no dogs are allowed at the Relay even thought the park is dog friendly.  I did see some dogs later in the night, so I suspect just no crazy dogs are allowed.

My parents arrived next and we able to take Enzo home.  Martin showed up ready to run a few laps.   Alanna was next, then Robin M, who drove about 2.5 hours from PA for the chance to run all night.   Meredith made it as well as Rebecca. Both did a few laps.

After Alanna and I walked the survivors lap, we decided to start running at 7:40 p.m.   We did about 2 laps before Robin arrived and then we stopped to help her set up.  We would run a lap, then stop to be social with our friends and family.  By 10 pm the Rain started to come and Tamra had just arrived.

We did a few laps with Tamra and by 11 pm, the Event organizers had advised us that we are all leaving due to the impending T-storms.   We packed up our gear, but Johnny and I planned to just run alone all night even  if the event staff left.  But the park was going to be locked and they requested that we not stay... so we complied and went home. 

On my ride home, all 4 miles, the weather shifted and the rain stopped. However, Alanna reported that just a few miles away she was hit hard with down pours and Thunder/Lightning.  So it is all for the best.

I did find another event next weekend, so if all goes well I may call a do-over and see if I can run all night in Galloway.


Oh and for the record, I ran 15 laps... 12 miles instead of 12 hours.