Just Plodding Along

We knew it was a possibility. With 8 newbies running a relay and not just any relay, one of the most difficult it seemed highly likely. I guess in the perfect 20/20 hindsight of the whole event when we were assigned the 5:45 start time maybe I should have requested that we be moved to 5 a.m. But would that extra 45 minutes have even mattered. Maybe not, maybe yes. Good Girls Gone Trail happily cross the finish line.  I mean what you have to understand is that this relay is freakin hard. Sure the legs are rated easy, moderate, challenging and hard. But my view of easy and the race director's view of easy are very, very different. Just to clear up any confusion I have described what each of those ratings actually mean: Easy = there will be hills, which means lucky you there will be some downhill but not as much as the uphill and some point during that uphill you will cry for your mama. Moderate = Remember when you cried for your mama, how naive you were back when you wer...

The thing about relays is that they just keep happening. Leg after leg. There is a sense of once one of your legs is done there is the immediate pressure of the next leg looming ahead. Now this particular feeling occurred more often for our team due to the fact their was only 8 of us instead of 12. This meant that several of us had five legs to complete and around 30 miles. I think in the end this probably slowed us down. It is hard to fight the fatigue especially with little to no sleep. Cathy ready to run! Even with the pressure of the next looming leg it was always exciting to see our runner charging up to the exchange for the hand-off. My teammates may disagree but I think in the end the exchanges were an area we could have done a bit better. Corrie finishing her last leg uphill. Seemed like most of the legs finished uphill. Actually seems like most of the relay was uphill. In the beginning we were really good at being ready for the runner coming in with the next runne...

This past weekend has been amazing. It was so much fun and so hard at the same time. I could not have had a better group of women to experience it with. Each one of these amazing ladies gave it their all every leg. I could not be more proud of them and us and I could not be more happy that we decided to have this adventure! I guess you start at the beginning. Thursday, after driving several hours and picking up our awesome van driver Sarah and other teammate Mary we headed to Brevard North Carolina to load up the van with food and hit the packet pick-up at Oskar Blues Brewery.  After some serious planning and eating some dinner from the delicious food truck the race organizers brought in we headed back to the hotel to make sure we got some good rest before we started the relay at 5:45 the next morning.  4:30 Friday morning we packed ourselves into the 15 passenger rental van and our teammate Kelcey's SUV and headed to Pink Beds, N.C. start line. And...

After several hours of crazy mountain roads, a rental van pick-up/teammate meet-up and a stop for lunch Good Girls Gone Trail has arrived in Brevard, N.C. ready to tackle the Smoky Mountain Relay!

This morning I went trail running.I love it so much every time. It is just so dang fun. And now I have trail shoes which makes it even more fun and less painful on the feet and ankles. Because I am dense I was skeptical that trail shoes would make a world of difference. They do! And unlike brand new road shoes, when your new trail shoes get all muddy and wet you are excited and think good job self, well done.  After frolicking through the trails singing the hills are alive (just kidding I was cursing at all the hills, Georgia is so hilly, who knew) it was time to pack for......THE RELAY!!!!! Hey true story hardest part of packing is my giant ass shoes. Big footed runner problems.My shoes take up more space than five running outfits. Two more sleeps and we are on our way to North Carolina! Can't wait!

For the last few months I and eight other awesome ladies have been getting ready to head up to North Carolina to run (or drive, thanks Sarah!) the Smoky Mountain Relay. We thought we would share some of our relay knowledge gained for those of you thinking of doing one yourself. 1) Pick awesome people to be on your team. If you can find someone who is good at getting sponsors, someone who is super organized, someone who has great attention to detail, someone who has a lot of common sense, and someone who is super calm about everything your team is pretty perfect and has all bases covered. Each person on your team is gonna bring something special to the party and that is what makes relays exciting! It is a group effort. A little relay planning a little wine- perfect evening. 2) Distribute tasks. You have a whole team. Let everyone contribute to the effort whether it is organizing the legs or gathering some supplies. No need to dump everything on one person. This is easier when yo...

I present to you the final member of our awesome Smoky Mountain Relay team Good Girls Gone Trail. Hi! I'm Dana. I'm way super excited to be a part of this team! Running is pretty new to me, or at least the consistency and sport of it. I never ran in high school unless it was some sort of punishment for missing notes or steps in Marching band. I was inspired by a friend a few years ago as she was training for the NY Marathon. She came to visit me from California and had a 9-mile run planned while she was here. I was 8 months pregnant at the time, and once I gave birth and had clearance to exercise again, I decided to give running a try. During my first planned run, I barely ran for 30-second before feeling as if my heart was gonna beat out of my chest. I thought about giving up, and had that moment that many people that I know have. "Running just isn't for me." However, I couldn't seem to let it go. I kept at it, and soon found myself being able...

It is always weird after a marathon. I am always a little lost. One because I like to take several days off after. Some people can just jump right back into it but I am too injury prone for that. So this gives me a weird amount of time to get into trouble. I mean I could cross train I guess but instead I just eat a lot and catch up on books and TV and act like my legs don't work. So after training for weeks and weeks, in the rain, at 5a.m. with the singular focus on this one race when it is over it feels a little empty.  Luckily I won't be lost for too long because one I have another marathon coming up on the 23rd. With Albany I was all set to go out and run hard and excited to see what I could do. With Publix I am all set to go out and have a great time running with friends up and down the hills of Atlanta. No real goal with that one....well to finish. It is still 26.2 very long miles. And it is time to start training for the Smoky Mountain Relay . My excitement level fo...

...until the Albany marathon. Whaaatttt. I am so excited. I thought I would be more nervous. Maybe that will come later....and I always get a bit nervous the morning of. I think the fact that I have seen a lot of progress this training cycle in my speed and strength gives me confidence that I can go out there and run strong. Goals: A Goal: Finish time of 4:20 or less. Just to put that in perspective that will be almost a 25 minute PR from my last marathon. This goal is ambitious and I feel ready to run hard and give it my best. B Goal: Under 4:44. That would still be a PR so still exciting. C Goal: Just to finish. The marathon distance is hard for me. I never quite know how it is going to go. 26 miles is a long time to stay focused and execute a race plan. I feel every time I cross the finish at the marathon it is a big achievement. It is funny the last few marathons I have run I have really enjoyed the training cycle. I feel like I have gotten stronger and become a bit faster...

Up next the amazingly brave Good Girl Gone Trail team member Corrie! She hasn't met the majority of us but is game for spending 30+ hours in a van and running through the Smoky Mountains with us at the Smoky Mountain Relay. We love her already! Well hey there! I first want to say I am so excited to be a part of this and I can't wait to meet everyone! Anywho, I have been a runner since middle school . It began as a fun social thing to do with all my friends but the more I did it the more I was addicted! I played sports all through high school so I did less running and more team practices. however, when I graduated high school I reminded myself of Forest Gump because I didn't know what to do so I just ran! I entered every local race I could and ended up running my first Half marathon with my sister in 2008.  I then ran my first Marathon in 2009, I definitely recommend running the Marine Corps Marathon in DC. It is a absolute beautiful course running past all t...

More Smoky Mountain Relay awesomeness here- Good Girl Gone Trail member Mary! Mary Smith, 25 years old BA English (University of Georgia), MA Theological Studies (Beeson Divinity School Samford University) English Instructor in Chattanooga, TN In high school, a ran a semester each of track and cross country in order to appease my parents. I did not particularly enjoy running at the time, however, and did not continue running with my high school team after my sophomore year. It wasn’t until I graduated from UGA that I began to run consistently on my own. I had just graduated, was looking for a job, and simply needed something to fill my time. So I loaded up my iPod with a running playlist and started running around the park across the street from my apartment complex. Over the next couple months I kept running . . . running farther, running faster, running hills, running at night, running in the rain. Every time I went out, I asked, Can I go a quarter mile farthe...

Meet Kelcey another wonderful member of Good Girls Gone Trail! For me, running has always been an extremely personal thing.  It has always been something I have done for myself and by myself.  I started running 4 years ago.  I saw some pictures of my cousins running the Marine Corps Marathon and thought, “I think I’d like to do that.”  And I did.  Completely on my own, I trained for 11 months and ran the Pensacola Marathon in 2010.  I believe I got into kind of a rut after that because I’ve only run one race since then.  Though I continued running regularly, it was not for any sort of training purpose.  It was for fun and general fitness. In the last few months, however, my running life has completely changed.  I got a job at a local running store and suddenly I was surrounded by amazing runners from all walks of life.  I found what I needed to get out of my rut—inspiration.  And there has been more than enough to g...