Saturday, May 12, 2012

Ruby's All Nighter!

     I just now feel 100% recovered to finally write about this first for Ruby. No it wasn't an all night camping trip, it was Ruby's first all night driving trip and by driving I mean slow and lots of stops. Ruby was a SAG wagon of sorts for our relay team in the Run to the Sun Relay. This was my second time to participate in the relay and Ruby and Paco's first time. The cause Beyond Batten has a place very near and dear to my heart. I have a beautiful soul in my class that I have had the great fortune of teaching not one but two years. She is the reason that I looped with my class last year. She motivates and teaches Me something new everyday.
     So Ruby began her journey on a sunny Saturday morning. We met the rest of the team at school in the afternoon and drove to Enchanted Rock, the starting line this year (it was backwards this year.) I rode with Paco and we jammed (does anyone even use that word anymore-really dates us) to Jim's legendary cassettes. The rest of our fabulous team was riding in the luxury passenger bus with it's own driver. We took time to decorate the bus as she paled in comparison to Ruby. Ruby was covered with messages scribbled on her with shoe polish. She was glowing!
     Our team consisted of mostly teachers and a few exceptional parents and our trainer who I will dub Abs! She is the most selfless person I have ever known. She worked our tails off for months for free to get us in shape for this run. Not only that she is Beautiful inside and out! With her training I knew we were in good shape to win the entire relay. :) We were also blessed with another friend who rode her bike on many of our legs. She too is selfless and beautiful to boot!  No but seriously we were a pretty fit and good looking group. Ok I am rambling on but it is hard to remember everything. Our first runners, kindergarten teachers extraordinaire were off. In my opinion they had some of the hardest legs in the midday sun and up out of a valley! But they were strong and ran both of their legs early on.
     Then the rest seriously becomes a blur! Everyone ran at least two legs consisting of 4 to 7 miles. Ruby was our lifesaver offering cold water, gatorade and encouragement. Because I didn't want Paco to drive alone I mostly rode with him and had a blast. I yelled, danced and even mooned my friends. It was my favorite part of the journey. Paco was a navigating machine mapping out the miles and knowing when to give the runners space and when we needed Ruby the most, like at the top of ?/@#$%  hills! So here is a list of Ruby's top ten moments from the relay...

1. Getting shoe polished!

2. Witnessing all the amazing heel clicks that Mr. B made famous

3. Making tunnels for all the runners to run thru

4. Watching all the strong runners giving it their ALL

5. Handing out gatorade, cold washclothes and ice cold water

6. Driving past the beautiful wildflowers and scenic hill country

7. Being the only one out on the road besides our runners (that is because we were winning)

8. Giving the runners Hope and motivation to get up the hill

9. Having a big enough sliding window to moon one of my bf's

10. Being part of this incredible experience for such a wonderful cause

Friends words will never be able to fully describe the feeling that I have still in my heart after this experience. A heart full of gratitude, love, friendship and HOPE. You are all so amazing and I can't wait to do it all again. Thank you to everyone who donated to this cause. You know that our team raised almost $18,000 and won team spirit! And we know that really we won :)  Until next year keep getting out there and soaking it in. Peace and love! monamie
Video of our Relay

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