Lesson 478: Relay

Hello, Readers.

It's Eloise with a bonus Sunday blog post

to tell 'yinz all about a really cool thing I just did:

the Pittsburgh Marathon Relay.

These paws got me through another one.

As sore and ugly as these dawgs are,

they deserve a little praise. 

The event was so neat,

I deemed it blogworthy,

and will relay the lessons learned from it

to all of you.

You can't help but feel the power of Pittsburgh when you visit it.

The rivers

bridges

colleges

 hospitals

highways

byways

stadiums

churches

and bars.

The infrastructure of Pittsburgh is as steely as its tough talking locals.

Native Pittsburgers are a friendly sort,

with accents so identifiable:

one part toughness of a sharp New Yorker

mixed with the  drawl of a West Virginia hillbilly.

Put yourself somewhere in the middle of those two places

 and you've got yourself a little Pittsburghese.

The folk who live there hardened by winters in the north,

and softened by the soft breezes off of the three rivers.

They are die hard fanatics of their 

football,

baseball,

and 

hockey teams.

We got to experience a downtown Pittsburgh bar

during the Penguins game last night.
What fun!

The ladies and I gathered in the hotel lobby at 9:00 pm

for a Race-Eve Pow Wow.

Here I am with some of the 30 plus people

from the Erie area.

How nice of me to cut off all of their heads.

Don't shoot the photographer, girls.

You'll have no scrapbook photos to remember this by.

If you consider doing the marathon relay,

find yourself four friends and register.

I heard some gals talking about it at my workout group last fall,

and I inquired as to what they were up to.

I can do that!  thought Old Eloise,

so I signed us up.

If you aren't keen on big events,

or big cities like me,

I'd recommend doing the first leg.

There are many advantages to it.

It's a little over 5 miles, but it's flat,

and you get it over and done with quickly.

There is no waiting other than at the start.

The only disadvantage that I could relay to you

is that the crowd at the start is big and tight.

30,000 people!

Standing shoulder to shoulder with strangers isn't my cup of tea,

but I called upon all my calming techniques:

breathing exercises,

counting,

and looking around at the architecture

through my lens.

I like to look for things when I run to pass the time.

Today I looked for cool signs.

I even found a few to help Ellen with her driving.

I was all alone in the crowd at the start of the race

as I got separated in the potty line from the rest of my friends.

I wished I wasn't by myself

 but I allowed myself to wallow in the nervous uncertainty.

That's when true growth happens--

when you hang onto your faith and wait patiently for things to work out.

Sure as $h!t,

my friends found me less than a mile into the race,

and I trailed them the whole way back to the relay check point.

We went over bridges,

and highways closed off just for us!

We weaved five miles around the city,

discovering all kinds of cool things.

In the end, 

they got me back to the correct spot,

and to two of my biggest fans.

As much as I loved my great big team of

my sister

my sister-in-law

 my cousin

 my new friends

and my old friends--

I didn't do this race for them,

or even for me.

I did it to show my girls what a big city race was like.

I didn't want them to have to wait until their 40's to experience this.

And sure as $h!t,

Ellen said,

Mom, I could do this.

I want to do this someday soon.

Natalie said,

Hotel and pool and pizza.

Relayed message from daughters to Mother Eloise:

Another race like this will be in our future.

Congratulations, Team!

'Yinz did great!

If you are interested in doing something like this someday,

ask one of today's participants for more information.

If we can do it, 

you certainly can!

ELOISE

 Bib #30398-3