Today was another tough day on a director level, but a good day overall. In the morning, Patti provided a good breakfast and Sunny D. I haven’t had that in a long time and drinks other than water area always tasty :) I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that they got outdoor bathrooms donated for us so that was really cool. For our dedication circle, we had a deeper circle and everyone shared more than just the name of the dedication, but why. I shared about gram and how she became my huge why and that she is the reason I am able to get through it. I also dedicated today to TJ. I have been dedicating a good amount of my days to him, but yesterday he passed away. I was able to talk to him on Facetime and hear about him through a teammate who is close to him so to hear that news was terrible to hear. I also dedicated my day to Carley. If you remember her from 2020, I learned about her through a movie, Kiss and Cry, and reached out to her sister and the foundation. They’re an amazing foundation and dedicating a day is the least I can do besides supporting them through momentary donations. To this day, I still wear the ring that says “Always Smile” which was what Carley shared all the time, even through her cancer fight. (If you want to learn more about Carley and her impactful story – check out the link below). Today was a shorter distance day – only 4 miles! We decided to run together as a team in South Lake Tahoe (our destination for the evening). We drove there first and got some breakfast before starting our run. We were able to have a rider run with us too so that was fun! The 4 miles were really good and its always nice to run with as many people as possible. After the run, we went in the lake and you could walk out for so long before it was deep. We walked out for like 8 minutes and it still was at my hips, which I thought was really cool. For lunch, we had pizza donated and it was delicious. After that time, we went to our host to unload. We’re at a Synagogue for tonight and tomorrow (a rest day!). I got a nice cozy spot to sleep. They are so kind and are providing us dinner and food for all of tomorrow and breakfast the next day! They’re also just so nice and welcoming. We went to a recreation center for showers and they worked out nicely. We decided to later get ice cream because a local place in town gave us 50% off! I got a vanilla waffle cone and then we watched the sunset. When we got back to the host, we had to take the food out of the van because of bears and then I went right to sleep :)
0 Comments
Today was a good day and we made it to Carson City, NV (from Austin, NV last night)! We woke up at 4:15 and I did not have the best sleep. There were SO many huge crickets (morman crickets if you want to look it up) at the host and it was a little uncomfortable that they would jump on us. I set up a spot in a corner on a rug for sleep thinking I would be okay, but nope I was wrong. As I was trying to fall asleep, a beetle jumped (or crawled I don’t know!) on my scalp and I felt it and jumped up swiping it off. I turned my flashlight on and found not one but two big beetles moving around. I quickly crushed them and had to take a walk after that. It felt like the middle of the night but it was actually only 9:30, I just went to bed that early. I decided to then switch my sleeping spot to the middle of the gym – because they like corners? I was able to successfully sleep there as far as I know and it worked out okay but it was so hard to wake up this morning. I was in the van today with Dan and the group ran 16 miles, some more. One person actually ran an ultra-marathon which is 31 miles. I have that goal to do some day after 4k too – but just once haha :) Today’s dedication was for TJ and Jamie – two people I learned about through 4k. It was an interesting day of terrain. We passed through the real desert today and it was really cool! We also passed something that looked like area 51 – it wasn’t though, but it was cool to see in the middle of no where. After a couple of legs while we were waiting for one group to finish, Dan, Jane and I had a 30-minute dance party in the middle of the road because we could see cars for miles. It was on the lonely highway so if they came we had a whole mile to get out of the way. It was so much fun and I even laughed. We stopped at a little town on the way through and by little I mean there was a bar/restaurant and some RVs. I got a tshirt there because of the pony express! We passed a sign that said that too but I didn’t see anything else. We also had a water stop with the bikers from a friend of the host we were headed to and she was so kind. It was right next to the shoe tree too and that was really neat. We also saw rocks where people made words with them and that was so interesting. I put one together that said “4k” For lunch we got subway again, but they weren’t able to give a donation so we just got it with our venmo account. Then we treated ourselves with some Sonic and I got popcorn chicken! Next we headed to our host which is about an hour away from our stopping point. It was a lot of miles today so we had a bit of driving to do in addition to our runs. Our host that night was amazing! Patti had done Keys to Keys before (which is another event that Ulman does). She also hosted 5 or 6 4k teams in the past. She was so nice and even reads these blogs too to keep up with us :) I ended up falling asleep early and slept for an hour because I didn’t feel too good before waking up around 8 to go downstairs and find some dinner. I had some chicken for dinner and then went back upstairs to call my mom (notice the time change – she is too kind to talk to me). There were some director things that needed to be handled later that night but afterwards I quickly went to sleep. The mattress was memory foam so I slept really well and didn’t have any hip pain sleeping there. Today I am so tired so this will be short. We ran 10 miles today and I dedicated today to Mrs. McKenzie and TJ. My shins hurt a little bit, but it wasn’t too bad. We were with the riders a lot today so that was fun! Today a few of the riders decided to do naked miles so that was… interesting. I honestly don’t know it how it was comfortable haha but I stayed fully clothed. Some runners decided to do topless miles too (since we’re in the middle of nowhere on the lonely highway) but again not me – I was there though behind them! It definitely made the miles go by faster and it was so cool out today that it was almost cold. We slept in until 6 that morning so that was so nice too! Towards the end of the miles, a huge, oversized load came by and of course with that came police to escort it. That means they got a little warning that it wasn’t okay. Since there were multiple groups, the cop must have gotten angrier as he drove because by the time, he got to our vans that were over a mile away just sitting waiting for lunch, we got yelled at. He threated to arrest all of us and told us to grow up – he was talking to the wrong crowd though because we were all fully clothed and not even on bikes! Oh well, maybe he was having a bad day, but that definitely gave me a scare. After, we finally ate our sandwich lunch (probably the same time you sat down for dinner with this time change) we headed to the hosts where the showers were locked at first. I decided to just do a wipe down shower with my body wipes a co-worker told me about and my hair was okay because I got it French braided this morning by Mary. It was my first official body wipe shower so that was exciting – as it can be without a shower haha. Later we had burgers for dinner and I had a hard time eating it again, but a friend shared some mac and cheese. After dinner, they had a “4k wedding” as a social event. It wasn’t real, but everyone was given a part to play for the time. I was the florist and was pretty proud of how the bouquet came out. Unfortunately I didn’t catch the bouquet at the end hahaha but my character really wanted to because of her love of flowers. It was actually a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. My character also wore white to the wedding (which was a $1 dress that I got at thrift shop) so that was fun to wear a dress again. After that I got changed and went to bed. The night was interrupted with a ‘tiny’ creature – check out tonight’s blog to see how. Today was a driving day and it was an okay day. I’m counting down the days until its over honestly. Today we made it to a church in the middle of nowhere near Eureka, PA. At the first pull over point today there was a cool train coming by so I stopped to take a photo and at the same time someone else was taking a photo. He shared that it was actually his friend driving the train and we chatted for a bit before he decided to donate $20 to our run across the country! It was so kind. The team ran 11 miles today and we were able to see the bikers a bunch on the route. At one point (since we’re in the middle of nowhere) some of the guys decided to do naked miles (apparently it’s a 4k tradition) but they held there clothes where you wouldn’t want to see! The last person ended up getting pulled over because of it, but it ended up being okay thankfully. For lunch, the riders were able to get us some lunch from Subway so we met up with them and I had a ham sandwich with chips and a cookie. We later went to the host and took turns showering with the one shower. I was able to set up a spot for bed in a room with only one other person so it was nice and quiet. For dinner, the riders got food again and it was chicken sandwiches and burgers. I tried to eat a burger, but for some reason I was super anxious and I’ve found it difficult to eat burgers on this trip. I eventually was able to eat most of it and enjoyed the fries. There was some director stuff that night but after that I went to sleep with my little fan and was able to sleep in the following day! |
AuthorCassidy Dunn Categories
All
ArchIves
August 2022
|