Assorted Nuts - Course Map

My "Run, dammit!". For those of you that may not be aware that I said this, I was not aware either as I was finishing my last leg and said this in my sleep as I handed the baton to Lee while running him over in the transition zone. You'd have to hear him tell the story to get how funny it was as I apparently have no clue. I laughed until I cried when he told me.
Team quotes " Go Nuts!", "You look mahvelous", "It is better to look good than to feel good" and "Let's go nuts!"
I loved running in the dark. We couldn't be psyched out by the giant hills that we had to run, because we couldn't SEE them! Remember how pitch dark that night was?! It was neat to have to use your other senses. Legs feeling tired and breathing harder and harder--going uphill. You had to remember to lean into it and pump your arms. Then, the feeling of reaching the peak--legs recovered a bit, breathing came easier. Then the downhill, and who knew how long that would be? Shorten your stride, coast a bit, catch your breath, enjoy it while it lasts and prepare to FEEL and attack the next hill when you came upon it. Many on my team ran much faster during those "hard" legs than we ever would have if it were daylight. It was so cool to realize that we could accomplish more than we thought. You always hear that phrase, and it always seem to apply to others, but for many of us it became a reality that we actually experienced ourselves!! So very cool.
Liz asked Bill Reinarts what he wanted during his leg," I want water, gatorade, I want you to tell me I look wonderful...."
Our silly horns were the best!! We saved our voices yet made our point. Who would have thought they'd work out so well?!
On each of her legs, Dawn would give the truckers the "honk your horn signal" --that was fun. I bet she got at least one honk from every truck, if not two!
The STANK in the vans. Did a squirrel die under Bill's hood? Is it the catalytic converter? Check the oil. Fill the tire. What could it be? What will we do if the van dies?
I think one of my best memories of this event will be how we all kept stumbling out of our vans as if on autopilot, to cheer on our teammates. Just the whole symbolism of it all was so inspiring to me. How could we not get out when they were out there running for the team as well as for whatever their "cause" was--whatever or whomever they were lifting up their leg for. How could we rest when they were working so hard in the dark, the rain, the hot sun, the shady horrible humidity... I guess we will each take away our own interpretations of what transpired, but that is what I saw, and what I loved, and that is why I will be so happy when I see you sometime again, you selfless, inspiring nuts!
Van 1's "Check engine" light that we didn't have the heart to tell Bill before he ran his next leg. After his leg, we told him and he simply responded, "It's been that way for a long time."
My favorite quote "Schmidtknecht for sheriff." I know I will keep hearing that forever.
GO NUTS!" I just love that, I laugh thinking of it...it kind of says it all (I'm easy to entertain.)
There was the unscented vs. fragrance free conversation in Van 1. How can "unscented" still mean it has a scent?! - Check out Look What I Found In My Brain!
Liz loved it when she told her Van 1 peeps about a guy who passed her and completely ignored her as he passed even when she said "good job" to him and they said to Liz, "Oh, you mean CP (crabby pants)?" They had named him that well before Liz ever said any thing to them. It cracked her up!
"We stopped for ice cream and smoke." I am not sure if it was Kari, Katie or Dawn that said this, but it cracked me up! We stopped at a little ice cream shop and the woman who was working was very interested in what we were doing, and as we told her we were running 207 miles, she lit up a cigarette.
Bill's van incident of "I don't think you belong in here"
Lee's van incident of reaching over some dude sleeping to get his camera thinking he was digging in our van....but wasn't
Daren almost accidentally shoplifting a juice and as the cashier ran out after him "Uh, are you going to pay for that?"
Sue's sleepy comment of "That is what the body does when it wakes up"
Kari's answer when we asked her while she was running if she needed anything was to yell out "Chipotle!" and laugh her butt off
The night time questions to random runners we couldn't identify in the dark "Are you a Nut?"
Liz's infamous "That was Dennis, wasn't it?" when she handed a person she thought was Dennis water in the middle of the night - it was indeed Dennis
Liz's "I stepped on a dead raccoon" after her night leg
Katie's "I ate too many Tootsie Rolls."
Bill "Give me water every 50 feet, tell me I look good and that I am a wonderful person" (both are true by the way)
A whisper from Dawn in Prescott "I forgot my number"
"Hills and Heat my 2 favorite things" said so believably by Bill Reinfeld as he was running in some hot ass weather and running up a hill that Lee came back and told us that Bill truly loved running hills in the heat
Lee"Now, have you actually seen that movie?" said to Liz when she was asking Kari if she had seen "Best in Show" shortly after she had talked about the Blair Witch Project...which she has never seen.
Kari saying in a cheerful voice and a grin on her face "I'm driving now so I get to decide where we stop."
Katie sitting in the back seat of the van listening to her i-pod with a cloth over her nose "It stinks in here! ....but I'm too tired to get out of the van."
"Why did that guy take a picture of Dawn?" Said by me when I saw some random guy on a street in Prescott take a picture of Dawn as she ran by in the middle of the night/morning...turns out she knew him.
Dawn as she is trying to pry Lee's water out of his hands in the middle of the night.... "Do you want some peanut butter?" Also her repeated "I can't believe how big those lily pads are. Those lily pads are huge!" Others finally looked and they were HUGE and it was one of the first moments we slowed down enough to notice the beautiful scenery.
And our name alone lead to so many great sayings "Where are our nuts" "Are all our nuts in the van" "Is that a nut on the road?"
Deb and Katie's constant "I'm fine" everytime I asked them if they needed anything during their runs
"I have only known her for like 24 hours and I just handed her my wallet and asked her to pay for the gas." Liz's comment, mostly to herself, on how obviously comfortable she was with Dawn having all her credit cards and a couple hundred $$ in cash.
Hearing from Lynn over the phone that Daren was flying on his leg to end in stillwater...was it "running like a bat out of hell?"
"...there wasn't a bad nut amongst us" - Daren, ain't it the truth!
"We/he/she smoked 'em"
"Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." - Lou Holtz
And our Nuts have attitude!
"Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach." - George Sheehan (That one is for Sue! )
Lynn giving us a little air guitar after making a difficult climb on her way to Hastings
Deb grinding out the hot, hilly miles and making the extra effort to make sure the bracelet was securely wrapped on my arm at the exchange
Big Bill passing runners on the hills of his first leg
Daren running like a man possessed
Seeing Katie with stomach problems at the beginning of her leg and smiling broadly at the end
Deb – “I could be your mother!” This was said to a group of college kids at an exchange.
Lynn – “You were the last person on our team to be passed.” Told to me as we were waiting for Daren to come off a trail.
Daren – “I know what I have to do.” He said this at the exchange point just before Stillwater and proceeded to sprint up the hill to catch the Minnesota Red runner in front of him.
Big Bill – Just let it go
Lee – “Bite me… Bite me… Bite me…” This is in response to some folks giving him a hard time on his last leg and telling him to run as fast as the van that was pacing him.
Liz - “You were choking on a bug you swallowed” This was in reference to my dry heaves at the end of my first leg.
The guy on the porch – “I’ve seen a lot more than 2” His response to me when I asked if he had seen 2 runners go by. I thought I was lost.
The bears, snakes and other creatures requiring the big flashlight.
The one mile to go maker that was two miles from the exchange point.
The exchange point with no one mile to go marker
Sleeping on the track.
Drinking coffee in the cave.
Wondering how many stickers were on Dennis’s shoes.
The three turkeys in the bar
Trying to get in the wrong van
Lynn flagging me to turn here.
The howling sled dogs
Seeing the pelicans flying at dusk... or was it dawn?
Looking forward to seeing the next van
Hills and heat – it just doesn’t get any better that this.
"Look at those huge lily pads"
"I can't tell if I smell anymore"
"Could you let me out please (from the back of the van)"
"Does anyone need to go upstairs (the storage on top of the van was called the upstairs in Van 1)"
"Should I squirt CP? (crabby pants)?"
A few moments that stand out in my mind are when someone, I think Liz, smacked my leg, I believe we were in the car, to hit a fly or gnat or something and I was so comatosed, my only reaction was "Thanks". (Dawn)
Then there's the time that I ran out to pick up Lee's water during his night run. I could never see him very well but I knew if I reached my hands out I could feel the bottle and grab it. Only this time he didn't want to give it up. He was keeping this one on his run. So I then offered him the jar of peanut butter that I had in my hands. Why did I still have the jar of peanut butter in my hands? (Dawn)
Tall Bill's "Tell me I look good and I'm doing fine and give me water every 50 feet".
Deb's "I talked to the cows, and they talked back" after the long, grueling, and hot Leg #32.
Sue's "I need your whistles - I wore all of our's out"
Dennis' "Warm up? That's miles one and two!"
Not-as-tall Bill's "I had a great sleep on the track...until the runners came"
"Schmidtknecht for Sheriff !!"
Lynn's "Do you do that often?" after my sleep deprived, run fatigued, road weary, and cell phone chatting self walked out of the gas station without paying for an orange juice, and getting reprimanded by the clerk.
"His pace is so smooth, and fast!" from everyone of us in van 2 everytime Not-as-tall Bill was running.
"Go Nuts!"
"There’s a mad man running in the streets, And he’s humming a tune, And he’s snarling at dogs, And he still has four more miles to go."