My first time crewing

As I just posted in my other blog there is not a day that goes by that I do not think to myself  "oh I should add that to the baby book or write it in the blog" but the baby books and blogs are not high on the priority list these days.  Back about a month ago I got to do something super cool and I have been wanting to share my experience here ever since.  I should be cleaning the boys rooms before they get to bed but I have put this on the back burner for to long already so the room cleaning is going to have to wait.
September 17th and 18th a friend of mine from my running moms group participated in the North Coast 24 hr endurance run in Cleavland Ohio.  Tara aka Ultara is one hell of a runner and not only did I get to see her run in a 24 hr endurance race I got to crew for her.  It had been a rough week for me trying to get into the swing of things with the children having just gone back to school, playing catch up from not doing much for 6 weeks because of  my broken big toe, dealing with the new puppy we had and worst of all my cousin passed away at just 24 years old.  I felt overwhelmed and when I heard Denise one of Ultara's crew members was in the hospital leaving Kaci as her only crew member I canceled my plans for the night and drove down with Candice to help.  (as it turns out fortunately Denise was released from the hospital and able to help crew a bit after all) The race started at 9am on the 17th but Candice and I did not leave until 6pm to drive down.  We were unable to leave MI until 6pm which put us in Cleavland about 9:30pm.  We figured this would be a good time because we could then give Kaci a break and Denise could go home and sleep since the girl should have been home resting anyways. lol you could not have kept that running mama away from that race, even with the migraine she had. 
The drive there seemed to take forever, probably because we were anxious to get there.  We were so excited to meet Denise, Kaci, and Tara.  (did I mention that even though we are all friends we had never actually met?)  We found Tara's tent and met Denise and Kaci, the excitement of finally meeting them quickly wore off as they explained to us that there was a discrepancy between what Kaci had written down, the race volunteers had and what Tara thought she had lap wise.   Candice and I were showing up at the worst possible time of the race and she and I both thought "OH SHIT what did we get ourselves into"?  This was both mine and Candice's first time crewing and we had no idea what it was all about.  The OH SHIT thoughts only increased when Denise asked us if we knew what to do if Tara got a blister.  LOL  I am sure I had the same deer in headlights look on my face that Candice had on hers.  Denise agreed to giving us a crash course on blister care before her departure.  Just an FYI I am very thankful that Ultara does not typically get blisters because quite frankly the thought of draining another persons blister and applying moleskin makes me nervous.  Just as Denise finished first aid 101,Tara came around again and I got to get a glimpse of what each lap would be like.  Denise said her good byes and left for the night, while Kaci started putting Candice and I on information overload.  The ultimate crash course in ultra crewing.  There is a serious science to being able to run for 24 hrs.  It was our job to make sure Tara's body could keep going.  Which meant making sure she had the right amount of calories, fluid, and electrolytes in her system.  Thankfully someone was smart enough to make a spread sheet where we could log what she ate, drank and when she took the electrolyte pill.  The spread sheet was exactly what I needed.  Another smart move was to put snacks into little baggies.  Each baggie was 100 calories each so there was no need to guess at how much she ate.  We were told that as Tara ran past she would shout to us what she needed/wanted and all we had to do was have it ready for her on her next lap.  Sounds easy enough but I was so nervous and glad that Kaci did not want to go to bed for a little while. 
Tara's next lap around I went with her.  This race called for no pacers but since Tara at this point in time walking due to her broken toe and what was suspected to be a fracture in her foot.  (yes I typed this correctly this woman chose to run for 24 hrs on a broken toe and an injured foot which was suspected to be a fracture.  Making me seem like the biggest wimp of all time for taking 8 weeks off of running for my toe... sigh)  I at this point got to formally introduce my self to Tara.  It was so cool to finally meet her in person and I was in aw of what she was accomplishing that day.   She filled me in on what the medics at the race recommended for her foot and we chatted about her daughter and my boys.  That lap ended and every hr or so I would walk with her again.  Knowing what to talk to Tara about was challenging for me.  I just talked about stuff trying to keep her mind off of the pain that she was in but I did not know if that was what she needed or what she wanted.  I was not sure if I should be pushing her to go faster or talk her into calling it quits on the race so she would not make her possible fracture a solid break.  I did get to hear the story of the gun man on the lose at her last race, which made both of us laugh so I hope that my keep her mind off the pain approach helped. 
When we were not walking with Tara, marking down what she ate, or getting her what she needed we were all chatting and desperately trying to keep warm.  For those of us who were not running it was a very cold night, in fact my face hurt for several days after due to the wind burn that the cold wind gusts gave me.  We laughed about how we were dressed with layers upon layers of clothing  (I had on a t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a fleece sweatshirt, another sweatshirt on top of that a winter hat and gloves and a blanket wrapped around me and I was freezing) and yet there was a man running who we all called naked guy.  He had on shorts (kinda flesh colored) socks and shoes, nothing else.  Naked guy kicked ass though and although I do not know his name to find out how he did I know he rocked it!!!  At one point in time Tara joined us cold asses so she could put ice on her foot.  She must have been in some serious pain to not only sit down but to put ice on her foot when it was that cold out.  As time went on it became clear to us that the goal Tara set for herself was in reach.  She wanted to do 100 miles.  Can you even fathom this?  100 miles is like traveling from my home in MI to where the race was in Cleveland.  (no joke I drove just over 100 miles to get there)  Even after witnessing it I still have trouble wrapping my brain around it.  Anyways I think Tara realized how close she was to her goal because she started running again.  The look on her face when she passed our tent when she had something like 2 hrs left and under 10 miles to go (exact numbers I have forgotten since I waited a month to write this) was a cross between sheer determination, serious pain.  I could not help but wonder what was going though her head in that moment as we all stood and cheered for her.  We knew it was going to be close and as her crew member I did not know what to do.   I was not sure if we should push her despite the fact that she is in serious pain and the medic told her not to run or just let her do her thing.   Tara gave a great push to get to that 100 but the pain in her foot was so intense that she had to slow to a walk once more.
With just minuets to go in the 24 hr race Denise was already back and the 4 of us girls set out to walk Tara around her last lap.  Such an amazing feeling to be walking with a woman who just accomplished such an extreme task.  In the end Tara ended up with over 97 miles.  97 + miles in one day, one day!  She came in 45th place over all out of 185 runners.  AMAZING!  I had such a mix of feelings running though me at that time.  I was so proud of her and amazed by her but I felt guilty that as one of her crew members I did not get her to her goal.  That guilt faded away fast because 97+ miles on a broken toe and possible fractured foot is fucking insane.  Excuse the language but come on you know I am right!   This girl is incredible!
On the drive home both Candice and I were exhausted, the lack of sleep and cold had gotten to us.  I was out of it and Candice being the sweetheart that she is was desperately trying to not fall asleep, despite the fact I told her she could.  Then we saw a cop in the road, out of his car, flagging me over.  LOL  I did not even know how fast I was going.  According to my ticket 78mph which in MI is acceptable but in Ohio where the speed limit was 60... yeah not so much.  The cop was not happy with me and sadly was kinda a dick.  That woke me up and gave me the energy to go for another hr or so before having to pull off at a rest stop.  I was not hungry but needed something to munch on just to keep me awake.  It was at this point in time that I received an ab workout like no other.  Candice bought a pop and between the two of us it took us a good 10 min to open it.  To tired to open pop?  I am seriously laughing out loud as I type this.  We were so damn slap happy that we both laughed until we had tears.  Looking back I realize that we should have taken a nap before driving home.  Will do that next time!
Over all it was an amazing experience and I feel like I learned so much that day.  I got to witness some amazing athletes do something I could never fathom myself doing.  I got to watch my friend just keep going despite her pain even when people around her were dropping out.  I felt good about what I was doing and being where I was and for a short time my mind was taken off the loss of my cousin and all the other crap going on.  Best of all though I got to officially meet 3 of the most awesome women, women I am proud to know and call my friends.