Craig and Becca Maughan: Outback in the Ozarks

I don't consider myself a runner.

But a few months ago, Craig and I signed up for a relay (similar to Ragnar) here in Arkansas, through the Ozarks. It is a 200 mile race that is run by a team of 12 (or less) people. So we started thinking about training!

How our original team of 12 was lined up, Craig would be running 3 short legs (a little over 3 miles a piece) with one of them being a huge climb in elevation. Mine were a little longer, so I went on a few longer runs. But we didn't train near as much as we should have. Oh well!

Angie, my sister, generously agreed to come watch our kids during the race and visit for a few extra days! It was sooo fun having her here! Sisters are the best!!

Picture taken by Calder. I am quite impressed with his skills.

Ang and I had a great time. She brought Kenzie with her (her youngest daughter) and it was so much fun seeing Adelaide and Kenzie interact with each other!

This window is the perfect height to look out of!

While Calder was at playgroup one morning, we went to Crystal Bridges and walked around. It was gorgeous!

I love the random picture frames they have set up along the trails there!

Race day came. There had been a few changes in our team of 12. We knew we were down to 11 people, and that we should have trained more. The morning of the race, we found out we were actually down to 10. Someone bailed last minute! So everything we had expected to run was now changed, and was now harder! Yikes!

Craig was the first one to run from our truck. He did awesome!

Craig finishing his first leg. He doesn't even look phased.

My first leg was on a trail for the first 5 miles. It was gorgeous, and so much fun to run through, actually.

At the beginning of my first leg

Getting ready to hand off!

So the Ozarks aren't huge mountains, but they are beautiful. And they seem huge when you have to run up and down them. I loved how they were wooded, and then would open up into green fields where cows or sheep would be grazing.

We met and saw a lot of interesting people. When you think of Arkansas, it turns out there is definitely some truth to the hill-billy generalization that comes to mind.

The kids we passed seemed thrilled that there were people out in their neck of the woods. This kid was having fun showing off.

The van and truck from our team.

The truck was really nice to have. After running, we would get to lay in the back with our feet up during the whole time the next person was running. I hated having to give that spot up!

Each time we had to run it was harder, and harder.

We ate dinner in a small town in the Ozarks, and tried to rest for about an hour, before we had to meet back up at the exchange zone to run again. We ran through the night, and didn't end up being able to lay down to sleep until about 5:30 in the morning, just to have to get up at 7:30 to run again.

I ended up running three legs at 6.2, 7.4, and 4.7 miles. Craig ended up having to run 4 legs: 5.1, 6.5, 4.8, and 4.7 miles. I felt so bad for him! He went in thinking he was going to run 3 5ks, and ended up running almost a marathon! But he was a trooper, and handled it all so well. To the outsider, it didn't even look like it was a struggle for him.

We did it!

Craig was able to cross the finish line for our team. Our team was made up of 10 people - 8 boys, and 2 girls. Because we didn't have an even number of boys and girls, we fell under the "men" category. By sheer luck of circumstance, we ended up placing first in our category. Hooray! It is impressive to say we won first in the men's division! There were some really strong runners on our team.

The team - minus one who had to leave early.

Now I remember back and say "that was a lot of fun!" Even though at times, it was miserable. But we did it! And if we ever do it again, I think it is safe to say we will train a little more.

Our kids did surprisingly well while we were gone. I was a little stressed about it, but they did great!

We took Angie the next day to a place called War Eagle Mill in the Ozarks - actually where I ended my first run. Again, another beautiful place! We had a good time taking pictures and going on a little walk - the perfect Sunday afternoon activity!