You should just do it. You should run the Smoky Mountain Relay. You will have the time of your life.
What is the Smoky Mountain Relay? It is a 200+ mile relay race, that you run with a team of 6 to 12 people really amazing people. Starting in Brevard, NC, and ending at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Bryson City, NC, the race lasts for two days and one night. What could be more fun than that? This face throws in some crazy elevation and some rugged trail too. Even more fun!
I knew going in that the first day of the Smoky Mountain Relay would be fun. What could be better than running, seeing gorgeous mountain views, and hanging out with friends who are crazy enough to do this race with you? But, I did have my doubts about the night and the following day. Would it be fun too? Well, I didn’t know for sure. I mean, 200+ miles is a long way, even to drive in a brand new Ford Transit Van.
Our bodies are capable of amazing things. God has created us fearfully and wonderfully. He has made us to be able to climb some “wicked steep” elevation, cover long miles, or even to stay up all night and still have energy to cheer your team on. He has made us with a will to find a way, even when mountains seem impossible to climb. We have also been made with an innate need for companionship, and that is what this race exemplified.
On day two, I had my longest leg left to complete. It was 9.5 miles of “challenging,” (not to be confused with “hard,” or “rolling tough,” or “quad killer”). I think we had all averaged around .0 hours of sleep, and I had been fueling mainly with Clif Blok gummies- excellent little pops of power to get you through a tough run, but nothing to give you sustained energy. Oh well. I knew I would get through it somehow. But little did I know my team would be what would get me through!
Every two miles or so on this 9.5 miles of challenging, I would come around a curve, or over a hill, to see a white van parked on the side of the road. Usually this would be a sketchy situation. But whenever I saw that van, a huge smile would break over my face and my legs would turn over a little faster because I knew that soon, five other stinky, spirited, and sleepy fellow runners would burst out and start dancing. Never in my life have I seen such uplifting twerking! When I finally saw my next teammate standing there with his hand ready for the slap bracelet I would slap onto his wrist, I knew that I had just completed one of the most amazing experiences of my life with the most amazing group of people, some of which I didn’t even really know before the race.
This race was a mountaintop experience, literally. I was struggling up a steep three mile incline. I had started the leg in the pitch dark. Every time I reached another switchback on the road, I would strain my eyes ahead and hope it was my last one. Turn after turn of the road was taking me higher and higher, but still the road was going up. Feeling tired, I looked up again, seeing another steep climb before me. But what else did I see? I saw my husband, cheering me on. “It’s the top! It’s the top!” he said. “You can make it!” He ran the last half of the hill with me.
When I reached the top, oh what a glorious sight! The earth was bathed in a golden glow as the sun was just starting to peek up over the edge of the world. I hadn’t been able to see it from the other side of the ridgeline. But now I could see straight into forever.
“See you at the bottom!” I shouted out to my husband, and I took off with tears in my eyes. I want to say it was the beauty of the moment, but maybe it was because I was a little sleep deprived. But probably it was both. As I raced down the edge of the mountain, each turn encountering another beautiful golden view, I shouted at the top of my lungs with what little breath I had left. This was a little glimpse of eternity for me.
There is so much more I could talk about: smashed crockpots, five guys, the miraculous power of cowbells, Track Girls, cemetery jokes, spikeball, negatory, inspired runs with numerous kills, wrong turns, and close calls, and that would only be from Van 2! I don’t even want to know what happened in Van 1… But this I do know. You should just do it.
Find a team and sign up here. https://smokymountainrelay.com/