AND DONE!

Finished the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee and became a RAT (as everyone in this race has affectionately been calling ourselves based on the race acronym) on Sunday afternoon, June 28th! 59 days (gun time) but 58 days since I registered on May 2nd! My journey? And how did I finish in less than half the time I expected to use to complete running 1,021.68 kilometres? (ICYMI, this is where I stood after the month of May running this race). Here is my obsessive runner mind works:

WEEK 1: Registered and decide to only run—because I’m a glutton for punishment? Perhaps. But also because I think I approached it as I would running a marathon. And I never plan to walk for a marathon… Purposeful, active walking (that is, you can’t just take the distance from your FitBit for your daily steps) and hiking is permitted and encouraged for this race, in fact, but I’m stubborn and I decided I’m only counting running.

As I kick off the race, I’m nervous about running 8.5k daily so that I can finish August 31st (and scared I might really regret joining this race), but figure I’ll run longer some days so I can have some days of rest.

WEEK 2: I’ve been run streaking since April 19th (before the race started), so might as well keep this run streak going. No days off.  I can’t bear having a 0 in the GVRAT daily miles!

WEEK 3: Oh. I’m pretty low in the standings. I better up my distance, so I start running 15k on some days. Rest days? What’s a rest day? NO REST DAYS.

It was around week 3 that I read Laz’s FB post that the top 3,000 finishers win something special (not sure what it is…probably a pin?), so I become obsessed with moving up into the top 3,000 finishers (I think I’m around 12,000th spot at this point).

WEEK 4: “If I up the days I run 15k to 16k, then the miles in the daily miles column will be double digits…” (15k is 9 miles, whereas 16k is 10 miles) so I up it to 16k at a minimum. And whaddyaknw, holy moly, I’ve run 450 kilometres in May!

WEEK 5: My friend and fellow GVRATer Aylin asks me if I’m finishing in June. No, I tell her, I’m finishing around July 4th…but I immediately take out a calculator and start figuring out if June is feasible. With 18k daily, and a few 22k run days, I can finish by June 30. What’s 18k when I’m already doing 16k at a minimum, after all? It’s just another 2k, what’s another 2k daily? ALSO, NEVER HAVE I BEEN SO UPSET THAT JUNE ONLY HAS 30 DAYS.

WEEK 6: Remind me why I decided not to include all of the walking and hiking I do? At this point I’m running 2-3 times a day and am pretty scared of getting a stress fracture from overuse. I’ve dialed back my pace a lot and I halfheartedly do some stretches at this point. How have I been run streaking from since mid-April when I have always said I’m not designed for run streaking?!?! Why can’t we have a group rest day like a few people posted about in the FB group?!? The handful of days I fell asleep before adding my daily mileage I’ve fallen about 100 spots in the standings so I can see what logging a 0 with a rest day will do to my current position in the race. And this is all knowing that this being a virtual race and self reporting, we are all racing with different circumstances—some are running phenomenal mountains with dramatic changes in terrain and we are all dealing with different weather conditions, some are walking all of the race, and yet I’m still obsessed with finishing this race as high in the standings as I can.

WEEK 7: I’ve been in the top 3,000 for a few weeks now, and keep moving up the standings, so I’m happy, but I figure a lot of people are aiming for June 30th…and decide I should aim for June 29th…so when I can, I add a bit of distance on top of what I have set out in my calendar…

WEEK 8: If I run more every day, and rejig what I have planned for the next few days, I can cut out yet another day and finish on June 28th… In anticipation of finishing this race, I finally get around to watching the documentary Barkley Marathons: The Race that Eats Its Young and am amazed with the runners who attempt this brutal race.

Sunday, June 28th: Even though it was beyond hot and humid, I ran 35.5k on Sunday (the most I’ve logged in one day for this race) and completed 1021.68k! Plus, I reached Volt Level on the NRC app (Volt Level is 15,000 km!) in the morning, so it was a super big day for running for me! (More on reaching Volt Level in a post soon to come!)

Aylin came out and did this little finish line for me and Billie Jean (in the video clip below). Billie Jean ran 850 kilometres of the race with me (due to the heat, I left her at home for some runs), and with that I CAN’T BELIEVE IT BUT AM DONE! I forget when I broke into the top 3,000, but I finished 1,229th! And 524th female (btw, there are more women registered in this race than men, yasss!).

I was uncertain when I registered for the race if I’d come to really regret committing to such a long distance, but the GVRAT has truly been saving me during this pandemic. To have this running goal to fixate on and to occupy my time when I’d likely otherwise be at home getting more stressed and anxious about life and everything happening in the world, it’s really been the best thing to come out of living under lockdown.

So now what?

Lazarus Lake commented on my FB post in the group (which is the closest I’ll ever come to being connected to the Barkley Marathons, hahahahaha!), asking if he was going to see my at the 1,000 mile mark or back at the start—you see, there’s the option to run Back Across Tennessee! So…I’ve registered to run BAT! I’m undecided if I’ll run entirely back across Tennessee or just aim for the 1,000 miler (which is “just” another 600 kilometres). I have two months to complete it, but I will definitely be including my active, purposeful walking and hiking into my distance and taking my time for the return as I’d like to have more time to enjoy the summer weather, cook more (it’s fallen by the wayside with all the running) and to give my body a break (I don’t think running 1,000+ kilometres in two months was very kind to my body).

Here we go back across Tennessee!