Skunk

F3 Sixth Sense Palmetto 200 – The Movie

I’ve written, re-written, and re-written this Back Blast 4-5 times now… and this is the version I’m going with! Unfortunately, a Back Blast doesn’t do justice to what our F3 Sixth Sense Palmetto 200 Ultra Team just accomplished… but it will have to do until the movie comes out!

The Thang:
Pretty simple… get 6 runners together, pile into a van on a Friday morning, head to Columbia/Lexington, run 205.4 miles, then come home… right??

Moleskine:
To say I’m extremely proud of what our team accomplished, and thankful for the men I got to share this experience with over this past weekend is an understatement.  I will try to capture more thoughts later to share with others, but I want to get this out sooner than later!! I’ll keep this short and sweet…  This was an INCREDIBLE team effort!

For the numbers, we completed the course in just over 27-hours, so I think the math turns out to be right at/or just under 8:00 min/mile.

205.4 miles isn’t easy with 9 guys, 12 guys… heck with 36 guys!! We chose the challenge of running with 6 runners:  Sensei/Slim Fast, Dory, Cheese Curd, Sacagawea, Mr. Brady and Gerber.  Mermaid was an original runner, but through an untimely injury, he served the team as driver.

Anyone that has run in a relay like this, including BRR, knows that injuries, jobs, family… life…. require pluses and minuses from the team. Ours was no exception.   We had team changes in November, December, January, February, and as late as 10-days before the run.

On paper, our strength as a team was noted by several fast runners… Mr. Brady, Sacagawea, Gerber, Dory… those of you that do running workouts with these guys know how fast and strong they are.

But our true strength showed in how we overcame many obstacles before and during the race. This is what I wanted to recap in the Back Blast.

1. Unfortunately, one of our runners wasn’t feeling fully recovered, so we needed to find someone within 10 days of the race. Cheese Curd answered the call!  Sensei and I ran the Palmetto 200 with CC last year, and I think I remember him say things like… “Never again..” “Count me out…” “No means No…” “I hate you Slim Fast…” or something along those lines. But he stepped up in a HUGE way. I know he hadn’t trained for this, but he said “Yes” anyway. Before the race, during the race… He always said “Whatever you need…” CC ran nearly 25 miles over 6 legs, which included taking an impromptu extra leg when Gerber was running late to meet us on the course. We can’t thank CC enough!!
2. So why was Gerber running late to meet us on the course? In February, he took a new job (t-claps) but quickly learned his first 2 weeks of orientation would require him to be in Charlotte through lunch on Friday of race day. We initially thought we had a replacement for him, but then we ended up needing him. So we started the race without Gerber, and anticipated Gerber to meet us around 3:00 on the course.  Unfortunately, Gerber’s meetings didn’t END until 3:00 PM on Friday afternoon… He still drove down and met us at Elloree to start a 7.4 mile leg at 6:30 JIT!!! He hopped out of his car, ran 7+ miles… then 8.8 miles 3 legs later. HUGE thanks to Gerber for making it work… we couldn’t have done this without his desire to support the team even with the scheduling complexities! STRONG! Gerber ended up with 33 miles over 5 legs.
3. Sensei and I have run together many miles. When we talked about running the P200 as an Ultra Team, Sensei and I knew we would run the legs together, and that we would need to train a lot. And we did!! Sensei is incredible! We put in 25-30 miles/week in Jan/Feb/Mar… the increased training caused him some leg/achilles pain, but he kept working through it. Sensei runs fearlessly… as he does everything!  On our 2nd leg, which was leg #5 2.6 miles, we were on Hwy 178 with 18-wheelers, big trucks, small trucks, cars, etc passing us at 55+ mph.  We had the white line and about 1.5 feet of asphalt to the grass… and Sensei never stopped!  He’s UNSTOPPABLE!!  Unfortunately, after our 4^th leg for 18+ miles, the injury returned, and it was just too much… Sensei had to drop out. He battled all the way until he couldn’t go further. I know it killed him to not run his final 3 legs… but we both learned a lot about our training approach, and what we’ll do differently for the next Ultra team we run with. Sensei has nothing to be disappointed about, and I know he will come back stronger from the experience.
4. Those who workout/run with Dory know how strong he is. He brought his A-game to Palmetto quietly, and confidently. Unfortunately, similar to Sensei, Dory experienced some IT band issues during his 4^th leg Friday night. We had to replace him in the middle of a leg even though he wanted to keep going… he was basically limping along. And similar to Sensei, it killed Dory to have to sit out, but it was by far the right answer. There was no reason to push it. Dory kept encouraging the team, and gave everything up until he couldn’t run further. Disappointed, I know… but strong in adversity! Dory ended up with 26 miles over 4 legs.
5. I didn’t know Sacagawea prior to the Palmetto 200… so our first meeting in person was in Arbo ABC parking lot. I’m not going to say Sacagawea is a strong and fast runner, not because it’s not true… but because I don’t want anyone stealing him from any teams we put together! This was his first relay experience, and he calmly comes out and runs sub-7 minute miles for his first 5 legs… then maintains low/sub 7-minute miles for his 6^th leg which was a long 9+ miles on Saturday morning onto Isle of Palm. Ask anyone who has run that Leg #31… it is a KILLER… Sacagawea SLAYED IT!!! But not only is he a great runner… he just a plain great guy! I am so thankful to get to spend the weekend with him and getting to know him… and I can’t wait until we get to do something like this again! Sacagawea ended up with 35.6 miles over 6 legs.
6. Then there is Mr. Brady… He denies it, but this was his bird-brained idea to begin with!  Back in the Fall he said something stupid like… “Hey Slim Fast, let’s do the Palmetto 200 as an Ultra Team… You, me, Sensei… we’ll see who else will join us…” So that’s what we did. What a team joined us!!   Mr. Brady and I have done many CSAUP events together… Mud Run, 2x BRR, many tweet and meet runs… RumRunner, Ghost Runner, Night Train, Soul Train, Train Train… I digress. Mr. Brady is just strong no matter how you slice it! Ok… he sweats a lot… but he earns it! Mr. Brady rented the van for us, picked up the van, returned the van… More impressively is that Mr. Brady constructed a shelving system in the back of the van to hold all of our stuff! It was PERFECT! But he’s not just another pretty-faced architect! Mr. Brady’s first two legs were 10.5 miles, then 8.5 miles… all within about 4 hours! If that wasn’t enough, Mr. Brady jumped in for Dory in the middle of the night to finish the leg he was injured on, and then picked up one of Dory’s remaining 2 legs. Mr. Brady ended the race with 43+ miles over 7.25 legs. That is nothing but STRONG!  I can’t wait to see what crazy event he’ll talk me into next!
7. I have to finish by gushing over Mermaid! He was one of our original runners, but as many of you know, he experienced a meniscus tear during training. He was devastated… we were all devastated!  Mermaid has driven for our BRR team the past 2 years, but only drove this last year because he said he committed to drive, even though he was fit enough to run. Mermaid is a man that honors his commitments! So I thought this would be the chance to have him run with us! Unfortunately that wasn’t God’s plan.   However, in the end, I think he filled a bigger role than he could imagine. Mermaid drove our van for 36 straight hours… he drove from Charlotte to Lexington, he drove all day, all night, Saturday morning and drove home from Charleston. He encouraged, he was always there for runners coming in… it was HUGE! I know he wanted to run… and I will make sure that happens… but for this race this year… his role was absolutely critical! Mermaid showed an incredible servant heart, and we all want him to know how much that was demonstrated, recognized, and deeply appreciated!!

I know these guys didn’t make any of these physical and personal sacrifices for recognition… they made these sacrifices because that is what Brothers do for each other in good times… and in times of adversity!

I wanted the PAX of Area 51 to know what these men did over this last weekend!  Everyone contributed to the team effort!  They did more than just run a relay… they exemplified the true spirit of F3!

I was honored to be part of their team, and I’m honored to call them my Brothers! Aye!

Slim Fast