On Friday June 9th I flew up to Albany, NY with my favorite 11 Gtown law students to participate in the inaugural running of the Green Mountain Relay - http://www.greenmountainrelay.com. 
The Green Mountain Relay is a 200 mile relay race across the state of Vermont from Jeffersonville to Bennington. It is broken up into 36 legs of varying lengths and difficulties meaning everyone on the team gets to run three legs. The first person on the team runs from the start line to the checkpoint at the end of leg 1 where the second team member is waiting to take off. The second team member starts running for checkpoint 2 where hopefully the third team member is waiting and ready to run. All the teams ride in vans from checkpoint to checkpoint and stop along the way to cheer on their running teammate.
We rented a couple vans at the airport in Albany and drove a couple hours up to Middlebury, VT where we stopped for some drinks and the t-shirt presentation befo
re treking up to Burlington, VT near the start of the race where we crashed in a hotel for the night. Our starting time in Jeffersonville was 9 a.m. on Saturday where Loren led us off. It turned out to be a cold rainy day, probably in the 50's during the day and 30's at night. I got to run legs 12, 24, and 36 - the last one meaning I got to cross the finish line for our team. My first leg was a pretty flat 5.7 miles and our 11th runner Mark arrived around 6 p.m. It was a good first run though I didn't see any other runners on the road. I definitely flashed my bare ass to our vans when they were driving by and to another set of vans that I thought were ours mistakenly. At the transition point for my second leg there was a high school track team waiting for their runner who turned out to
be right on Mark's heels as he passed off to me at 3:30 a.m. for my second run. The second leg was 4.2 miles - the first 500 yards or so straight uphill, then straight downhill for 2 miles, and then flat to the finish. I took off with the high school track star like 5 steps behind me. I tried to run up the hill at a moderate pace because I wanted him to pass me so I would have someone to chase on my run. I heard his footsteps behind me the whole way up the hill but he didn't go by until we reached the crest where he sprinted by and then we both took off chugging down the hill. It was so much fun sprinting after Mr. high school track star for four miles. He didn't really get more than 30 paces ahead of me until about a half mile from the finish where h
e somehow had a kick left in him that I didn't. My third leg was 5.0 miles - the first two and a half straight uphill and then flat with some rolling hills on the way into the event's finish line in Bennington. Mark passed off to me around 10 a.m. and I took off up the mountain. I really didn't think I was going to make it but my team was there cheering for me at the top and I was re-energized to bring it home. Chad, Paul, and Jennie met up with me dressed as scantily clad as I was about 500 yards from the finish line and we all ran across together. In the end we crossed the finish line at 11 a.m. after 25 hours 51 minutes 50 seconds of non-stop running (7:51 mile pace for the 200 mile course) good enough for 2nd place overall and 1st place in the mixed division.
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