A dozen Polk County runners complete 135 miles in Virginia relay race
Caroline Gallagher, 55, of Lakeland was one of a dozen Polk runners who traveled up to Virginia on Sept. 8 to do Blue Ridge 208-mile relay race. Kristi Lawrence was the one who formed the Florida Flatlanders Team. Kandy Scimone contacted Gallagher and the team came together. Other members included Caroline Dees, John Scimone, Trish and Scott Primiano, Melanie Cookson, Kacey Ann Terry, Shawn Kincheloe, Tonyi Kincheloe, and Sharon Censki-Nance.
The race started at 5 a.m. on September 9 in Grayson Highlands State Park in Jefferson County Virginia. Lawrence assigned each runner the legs they would do. The legs varied in length and in altitude change, so she gave the participants their legs based on their abilities. Each completed three legs. A van, driven by Bill Lawrence, held the other runners who would wait at the end of each leg to change runners.
Gallagher’s legs were flatter and shorter because she is in training for the New York City Marathon in November 6.
“I was the first one out at 5 a.m., she said. “It was 3.9 miles and it was mostly downhill. It was almost like a downhill corkscrew.”
After the other 11 locals did their legs, it was Gallagher’s turn again.
“It was almost 12 noon when I ran again,” she said. “That one was 3.9 miles as well. It wasn’t hot at all and it was overcast almost all the way.
“It was a little bit of rolling hills in a park. Some of it was on a trail. But it started raining right at the end of that leg.”
Her last leg was 4.3 miles and in the dark of night.
“It was 5 a.m., it was dark, it was raining, and I was by myself,” Gallagher said. “We were with the back of the pack runners. All of the ones behind us didn’t finish.
“I had of dodge one or two cars. Then a truck came by me and slowed. It made me a little leery. The truck went around the bend and stopped.
“That made me nervous, so I turned around and walked back around the bend. Then I called our van and they came right back to get me.
“It turned out that the truck was the sweep truck of the race. So we weren’t going to make the time cut off. There was a point in the race that we had to make by 6 a.m. and we weren’t going to make it.
“Traffic was the other reason we decided to leave the race. It wasn’t density, but it was unsafe. It was on mountain roadways, so there was very little shoulder. We had to run facing traffic.”
The winning team was the Mucca Mad Bois from Palo Alto, California. They completed the test in 19 hours 56 minutes and 40 seconds, averaging 5 minutes and 45 seconds per mile.
In the end, the Florida Flatlanders covered 135 miles of mountains of crazy running conditions and 26 legs in 25 hours and 3 minutes, averaging 11:08 per mile. The end point was at the Highland Brewing Company in Ashville, N.C.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: A dozen Polk County runners complete 135 miles in Virginia relay race
