The Moose returns!

Sunday, September 16, 2012 · Mike Davis

Happy Sunday!

As I sit here I am a bit sore, tired and thrilled to be passed another “Reach the Beach”! However I started out the relay race with one mindset and may have finished with another. Here is an excerpt from my weekly email to my half marathon group I am currently training.

Well, despite the lack of sleep, the balmy temperatures, the off color humor and the run, sit, run, sit, run, we “Reached the Beach” and had a great time! So much of what running has evolved too for me is represented at a race like RTB. Many teams show up with competition on their minds and the race is exactly that; taking home a top ten finish. The team I participated on had one main goal; stay healthy and after that maybe it was not to kill anyone in our vans and in the end that translated into just have fun! Our van (the teams breaks into 2 vans of 6 runners), did get into a little competition with another team, despite them not even knowing. There was a team off all ladies called the Tutu’s, who ran and dressed as their team name would indicate. Well for 20 something hours they were kicking our butts and our van was not taking too well. Then on leg 33, a crazy guy wearing a moose hat closed the gap between these evil woman disguised as ballerinas and our team and with a half mile left in the leg he reeled her in and trotted by before handing over to our next runner. The crowd went crazy, the moose was in his glory and our next runner went on to open up a lead that would be insurmountable. The completely unknowing evil tutu’s were defeated and embarrassed (again unknowingly). What a race! Lots of ups and downs with being tired, sore, dirty and finally jubilant, but in the end our van of 6 had a blast! Not because we finished ahead of a group of what was probably a great group of nice ladies, but we had a wonderful time because of the laughter, the shared misery and being a team! In the end we didn’t take home a trophy for finishing ahead of one team, but our goal was not to take home a trophy. Coming into the race each individual had different goals and most of them were probably just to get it over with, but by Saturday afternoon, we were a team and we had fun as a team. Running has different meaning to everyone, but unless you are truly elite, in the end it’s a whole lot more rewarding if it’s fun. I hope you enjoyed a little insight into van 2 and through the eyes of a moose. I was pretty much certain that this would be my last year of RTB, but now I’m not so sure. Keep it fun and I will keep coming back.

So I am not so sure that another “RTB” is not in my future, I will leave that decision for another day. I will say that in many ways; “RTB represents much of what running has become to me, a chance to have fun with some great people. In the days ahead I will write more about the experience from some different angles, but for today, I just want to enjoy the passing of another Reach the Beach. Long live the moose!