Flashback Friday: Passing the Baton Edition

Nine years ago right now I was enjoying a nice, relaxing 200-mile Madison-to-Chicago relay with 11 other runners in two vans in some of the most sweltering weather in recorded history. We passed the baton for 36 non-stop hours with loads of sunscreen all day and reflective vests and road-finding spotlights strapped to our heads all night.

Fun fact: This all happened in a dark, purposeless, existential-void period in our history before smartphones and GPS running watches were invented (CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE?) and when people had something called "conversations" to pass the long hours of waiting in their leapfrogging runner vans. It was so bleak that WE ACTUALLY HELD SWEAT-STAINED PAPER MAPS IN OUR HANDS AND RELIED ON RANDOM ARROWS CHALKED ONTO THE GROUND TO FIND OUR WAY AS WE RAN ALONG THE RELAY ROUTE. And we hoped to hell that we didn't get lost on moonless, werewolf-filled country roads at 2:13 am because we'd basically have no way to figure out how to get back on track and/or how to let our teammates know where to find our fang-torn bodies come sunrise.