After throwing up everything in his stomach (even with the phenagran) we are reordering the legs to give Goose a break. Goose claims that he has been attacked by a rogue stomach virus, but we think his eating and training habits are to blame. Weeble is out now, but not until after he had dropped the kids off at the pool.

We have been overtaken by the teams with 12 members. Many of them have two vans and one van is sleeping while the other van runs. It is almost 4:00 AM and none of us have had more than a few minutes of sleep between shadowing the current runner and all the getting in and out of the van. We have no respect for these other guys

OK, Fulshear has come and gone. Weeble ran another strong leg, Mav torn up another relay leg, and T3 hobbled through his. Here is a pic for the ladies:

Here is a pic of the inside of the Piraña Mobile.

Needless to say, it is a pit. We are getting in and out and trading seats and eating and sweating and boy it is a mess. We keep saying we should clean up a little, but no one wants to waste the energy

We gave Goose some phenagran and kicked him out on the road, he is doing well and we are shadowing him to make sure he stays that way. The trick is to get enough fuel and fluid to keep running without eating or drinking too much and getting sick. This can be tricky. It is 2:34 and we are heading on down the road.

OK, now it is midnight. The witching hour. We are a van of cramps, vomiting, funky odors, and other things we can’t even describe to those who are not here to experience it. Everyone is still running (more or less) and no one has actually turned into a pumpkin. We just exchanged at Wallace:

And ran into the race director again:

Here is a pic of the Piraña Mobile with Big hiding behind it

It is dark and cold (compared to midday). When you run you are hot and sweaty, when you stop you cramp up and get the shakes from the cold. We are working hard to get food and fluid into everyone, but sometimes nothing tastes good and eating or drinking is the last thing you want to do. By the time it is your turn to run again you have gotten so stiff you can barely bend your legs. This is SO MUCH FUN! Weeble is out on the road. Maverick is on deck and T3 is in the wings.

BTW: T3’s parents asked if we were really having fun. That is hard to explain. We are crabby, stiff, smelly and sore and not one of us would choose to be anywhere else Is that”having fun”? We think so. This is hard, REALLY HARD, but we love each other and this gives us a chance to be together through some tough stuff. This is what cements the bonds of brotherhood.
BTW2: Will the barkeep please cut Keith off. He is getting WAY TOO SAPPY.

Well, it isn’t midnight yet…but it is getting late. T3 ran a great leg, 6.7 miles at 8:23 pace. Leg still hurts, but there is no stoppin now. The exchange was at this enormous grain elevator.

Goose started throwing up during T3’s run. Maverick got some pretzels and water in him and he is out on the road. We are guessing that Goose’s dietary habits are not working out for him on this run

Currently, maverick is changing clothes in the van and got a cramp while he was basically naked. Very interesting contortions and by a naked man to boot. Sorry, no pics

We are still running…Maverick really picked it up trying to catch the team ahead of us. Now Big is out on the road and doing fine. T3 is up next (keep your fingers crossed).

It is getting hard to get good pics. We will try though

Here we are waiting for goose at Altair. Not a really happening place. In fact, the race probably tripled the population tonight.

Maverick is ready to go.

We are all getting a little funky smelling, and sleepy. Time to make coffee! We have a french press and hot water pot with us in the van, so we are GOOD TO GO!

We found Goose’s place:

So far, so good. Thanks for the comments, they keep us going and we look forward to reading them!

Maverick found some road kill to play with. It is (was) a BIG hawk.

It is VERY likely that things are going to get a LOT worse before they get any better

This exchange makes T3 feel right at home.

Weeble came in ahead of schedule and handed off to Goose.

Maverick found a friend! He also got a hug from a cute chick, but we didn’t get a picture of that.

The sun is going down now (thank goodness) so we trade the heat and solar pickup for running in the dark.

We have plenty of reflective and flashy stuff, but it can be a little funky running in strange places in the dark. We will be “shadowing” our runner from now until it gets light, meaning we will go up the road a ways and then wait for them, then move up again, etc.

BTW: this is what it looks like at every exchange:

At Columbus we had run 80 miles at an average pace of 8:48 which means we have been running for 11 hours, 40 minutes and 45 seconds when T3 handed off to Weeble. The sun is starting to go down as we wait for Weeble, so we are getting out the flashy flashies and the blinky blinkies and the reflective stuff. Safety First!

BTW: Our very cool hats are also VERY reflective. We will take a pic once it get dark to show ya.

Here we are in the big town of Columbus, TX. T3 is not doing well. Something wrong with the right leg. Weeble is out now and chasing a chick with a tramp stamp, so he has an incentive to catch her.

This is a tower that is next to the County courthouse. Other runners have spread blankets on the lawn of the courthouse and have pillow and blankets and are actually sleeping! There is no rest for the Piraña Brothers though. With only 5 runners (compared to 8 to 12) we have to run too often to sleep.

Maverick said T3 took so long getting into Columbus that he had time to start a business

Next up to run is Goose.