Seneca7 2014 Recap

The Seneca7 was this past Sunday. After enjoying the shit out of this race last year, I was all in favor of doing it again in 2014. Our team was slightly different - Mary, Greg, Amanda, and myself were "Inside Voices" veterans from our 2013 team, but we lost Don, Chris, and Jill from last year and instead had Ken, Curt, and Solveig. We also had to rent a minivan since no one had a big enough car to fit everyone.

Our name was "Fellowship of the Run!" for all of those LOTR nerds out there.

Not much to say about the race except that the normal relay ridiculousness ensued. Peeing in the woods, stupid inside jokes, stress trying to get from one checkpoint to the next ahead of the on-course runner, massive porta-potty lines, getting into a *small* fender-bender with another rental van. All of which are normal things (maybe not the fender-bender). The shirts they gave were nicer this year than last year (no belly-shirts - yay!) and were green! (my favorite color). We finished in 10:43 which I think is respectable. We were about 10 minutes slower than last year, but who really cares. We were just there to have fun and hang out with each other anyways!

It was also Solveig's last full day in Rochester, as she moved back to Madison, WI on Monday to embark on a new life as a graduate student! So that was bitter sweet. My Rochester family keeps getting smaller and smaller.

It's fun seeing everyone out there running and loving it. It also reminded me of how much I love and miss racing! I felt like I ran pretty strong for all 3 of my legs so that gives me some confidence going into the Buffalo Half Marathon 1 month from now.

It definitely took me an entire day to recover from the race. I like spending time with my friends, and I like running, and I even like driving around, but 12 hours in a van is a lot. The whole time was fun and no one got tense or angry with anyone else, but when that race is over, you (or at least I) just want to be DONE. I can only handle so much time being overstimulated by running/racing/people EVERYWHERE. But.. because Solveig was responsible for the van and she was staying with me, it was the two of us that had to return it to the airport. We didn't finish up with that until 9:45 pm, made it to Chipotle at 9:55 pm to get some food, and I wasn't in bed until at least 10:30. It's safe to say that I was ridiculously grumpy on Monday! I am pretty weird in that I need some *me* time basically every single day (at least, I think this makes me weird, as more normal people seem to appreciate socialization a bit more than I do). Even if I am on vacation, or staying with someone, I need to be able to retreat somewhere for at least an hour. That's why I had so much trouble staying in hostels in Europe, and why having house guests is sometimes problematic for me. I can survive, but I am not very relaxed. So the Seneca7 is like WHOA PEOPLE ALL DAY and then I wasn't able to come down from that feeling until Monday after work where I drank a beer on my couch and watched a silly girl movie all by myself (and Fiona). And it was GLORIOUS.

Anyways..

Some photos for your viewing pleasure!

7 am in the Canandaigua Walmart parking lot behind the wheel of a minivan

in the Smith Opera House before the race

Mary and I taking a "Jelfie" - selfie with Jeff

ran into Mark O.!

(most of) the team in the van!

towards the end of the day it gets a little crazy in the van!

finished in 10:43!