Tri State
31-hour run results in new friendships, sore muscles
Photos
For TriStateRunnur.com
SOUTH MOUNTAIN, Pa. – “That’s just wrong.”
Jim Rodriguez, athletic director for Carroll County Public Schools, wasn’t talking about a rules violation or a week’s worth of rainouts that cluttered the spring sports schedule.
Instead, the 40-something running veteran was speaking of teammate Fred Hudson and the truly unfortunate series of hills Hudson was obligated to cover over a 6.7-mile stretch atop South Mountain, Pa., mid-afternoon on Friday.
It was hot. It was difficult. And it was just the beginning, as Hudson, Rodriguez and 10 others represented the Westminster Road Runners Club on a journey – by foot – from Gettysburg, Pa., to Washington, D.C. The total distance covered was reported to be between 204.5 and 220 miles.
WRRC was one of more than 100 teams to participate in the inaugural two-day event, which began on rolling country roads in the heart of the Civil War heritage area and wound its way over mountains, through Micheaux State Forest, through Antietam Battlefield before finishing along the C&O Canal towpath and near the Jefferson Memorial.
WRRC team members include co-captain Bob McCubbin, Tina McCubbin, Abby Gruber, Kevin Spradlin, Gary Honeman, Fred Hudson, Jim Rodriguez, Chrissy Pennington, Bob Pacynzski, Frank Schaeffer, Ted Zaleski and Monica Zaleski.
It was meant to be a competition – and for many other teams, it was – but somewhere along the way for Team WRRC, it became merely a struggle for survival.
That’s hardly stretching the truth. In fact, it was on Hudson’s difficult first leg – each runner is to complete three legs varying in distances between 3.3 and 8.8 miles – that Hudson was forced off the road by an oncoming motorist. Hudson leaped to the side and into the safety of a roadside ditch and suffered
He persevered. However, he might not have wanted to live through that debacle if he knew what was coming. Late Saturday morning, Hudson – to whom it might have seemed he drew the short straw – had a vicious 8.8-miler on the towpath for his third and final section. It was near pancake-flat. In fact, there was even a slight down hill every now and again. But the 92-degree temperature made it nearly unbearable.
Such a multi-jurisdiction event couldn’t be successfully staged without the help and support of key volunteers. Among them specifically for Team WRRC (Team No. 94) include Sherry and Richard Clower and Glenn Smink, all of whom spent time at Ski Liberty in a blazing sun checking in runners at an exchange point and distributing water.
Also, Alan and young Sadie Pennington. Alan provided crucial moral support (read: ice-cold water) to many runners on Team WRRC who finished their legs in a level of heat most of the 1,100-plus runners eventwide were unprepared. And from the first parking lot, Sadie was adopted as Team Mascot just because she always smiled at the right times, sometimes even if she didn’t always know why.
Volunteers were a vital part of the event throughout the journey but one welcome aid station came in shortly after crossing the Mason Dixon Line and entering Washington County, Maryland. At Smithsburg High School, Leopards head track coach T.J. Hood and mentor Ray Shriver – along with more than a dozen of his track athletes of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes – greeted runners at the end of the first full leg in the dark. The student-athletes’ 12-hour day at the school began with a regular track workout and parents provided students with food throughout the day.
Complete results can be seen online at www.americanodysseyrelay.com.
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