A guest post from my sister Carrie - who did a 25 mile dawn-dusk hike on the same day as Zack's 50 miler. Hers was also a fundraising effort for our adoption. It was amazing and humbling to have her do something like that for us! Thank you times a million! I asked her to write about her experience:
"When Zack asked me if I wanted to run a fifty-miler with him to help raise money for his and Rachel's adoption fund, images of a shriveled-up me collapsed at mile fifteen flashed through my head. If there's one thing I know about running, its that getting those distances in takes a whole lot of time. Living a state away where I can no longer just stroll next door to grab my brother-in-law for an evening trail run, I began to brain storm about other ways I might help.
Charlottesville, my residence at the time, is located not far off a piece of the A.T. (Appalachian Trail). My friends who have hiked it say that twenty-five miles is a fairly reasonable estimate for a good day of hiking- ambitious but not impossible. So I decided that while fifty miles of running might just kill me, I could handle twenty-five miles of hiking on the A.T.
Charlottesville, my residence at the time, is located not far off a piece of the A.T. (Appalachian Trail). My friends who have hiked it say that twenty-five miles is a fairly reasonable estimate for a good day of hiking- ambitious but not impossible. So I decided that while fifty miles of running might just kill me, I could handle twenty-five miles of hiking on the A.T.
I was really excited and encouraged when five or six friends agreed to join me and co-workers and friends from way back volunteered to pledge donations per mile hiked. By the time we started the solidarity hike on the fifteenth of June I felt like I had a whole team with me.
Hiking the A.T. has been a dream of mine for awhile so I was pumped up and determined to carve away the miles. Honestly the first eighteen were not bad at all and not even boring really. The woods had their charm and that entertained for quite awhile. By mile twenty I was more than ready for the rest stop we had planned. We laid in the grass, visited the hole-in-the ground bathroom and ate our now mushy peanut butter and banana sandwiches. In hind sight I wonder if this break at mile twenty was worth it because it was a long enough rest to trick our bodies. Aches I hadn't noticed for the first twenty miles were now settling in and making themselves known.
The last five miles were tough. We ran much of this last part just to use different muscles and to see the end come sooner. Every now and then I would think of Zack and imagine that he was quite possibly still running, having started his journey an hour and a half before us and with twice the distance in mind.
At the end of the trail we had completed 24.9 miles so a few of us ran laps around the parking lot until we had safely covered a point-one-mile distance.
I was sufficiently tired, but it was the best kind if tired. I knew I could now tell my donors of our twenty-five mile distance. With all my team of friends with me, we piled in the car and celebrated with pizza: the dinner of champions."
Hiking the A.T. has been a dream of mine for awhile so I was pumped up and determined to carve away the miles. Honestly the first eighteen were not bad at all and not even boring really. The woods had their charm and that entertained for quite awhile. By mile twenty I was more than ready for the rest stop we had planned. We laid in the grass, visited the hole-in-the ground bathroom and ate our now mushy peanut butter and banana sandwiches. In hind sight I wonder if this break at mile twenty was worth it because it was a long enough rest to trick our bodies. Aches I hadn't noticed for the first twenty miles were now settling in and making themselves known.
The last five miles were tough. We ran much of this last part just to use different muscles and to see the end come sooner. Every now and then I would think of Zack and imagine that he was quite possibly still running, having started his journey an hour and a half before us and with twice the distance in mind.
At the end of the trail we had completed 24.9 miles so a few of us ran laps around the parking lot until we had safely covered a point-one-mile distance.
I was sufficiently tired, but it was the best kind if tired. I knew I could now tell my donors of our twenty-five mile distance. With all my team of friends with me, we piled in the car and celebrated with pizza: the dinner of champions."
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