The goal for Bandera was to give something back to all the wonderful people who helped Stephanie and I have a great race at Sunmart and raise money for 50 miles for smiles.  We’d heard so many good things about the race we had to sneak in a little personal time and run the 25K.   Between our run, aid station duty, and possible trail breakdown duty, I came into this event prepared to not sleep a wink for the weekend.  I pretty much managed to succeed on that one!

            After a late arrival to our cabin, and my usual bout of insomnia, I kicked off my Bandera weekend with a prerace mocha and some decongestant.  The cedar pollen and dust were flying high.  5 minutes into my run, I realized I was too after my hearty morning does of stimulants.  I loved the course and the scenery.  If ever there was a race for out of towners to come to for a “Texas” experience, this is it.  The climbs were huge, but the views and unique landscape were worth any effort.  I felt terrific the whole way and had one of those perfect runs where aches, pains, and fatigue never enter….and it was over before I knew it. 

            A quick lunch and shower, and then Stephanie and I were off to volunteer at crossroads “out” aid station.  Some nice folks from San Antonio staffed it.  The daytime was a blur of 50K folks, bees, wind, dust, a stray lab named Midnight (luckily taken home by a park ranger), and lots of 70’s classic rock from satellite radio.  When the 50K folks saw us they only had a couple miles to the finish so most were happy to motor on through.  As it got dark and the 100K folks stated coming is when it really became fun.   The daytime crew left the aid station, and the relief, if there ever was really was any, never showed.  The crossroads “in” folks said not to worry…they’d help us as they could and were happy to share their beer with us.   We agreed a few drinks were a good idea….

            It was fun helping all the different “styles” of runners.  There were the “order givers”.  Before they’d even get to the table the runner (or pacer in some cases), would start yelling their order: “Hot soup, 3 endurolytes, and half a cup of coke!”.   Usually their orders were very specific.  “Water filled to the line only!  Only 2 endurolytes, not 3!”  The order givers always said thank you and were polite through it all, but it was a two-person job to get them taken care of.  Then there were the “Whole foods” runners.  They needed very little from us as they had all kinds of little baggies with powder and pills.  They usually just wanted water to mix their powders with and to take their pills….hey whatever gets you there.  There were also the Lazarus dudes.  These were the guys that looked and felt like crap on their first loop, and now here they were hours later on their second loop.  Back from the dead….there was one runner in particular we’d heard rumors of all night that would be coming our way.  He spent 2 hours sitting at crossroads out on loop one.  2 hours!  And, he made through for loop 2 and finished.  He deserves the King of the Lazarus Dudes title. 

            The cross roads in folks increased the alcohol flow and kicked over our tunes to the 80s.  This is when our aid station went into full slacker mode.  We were running out of everything.  Our soup was cold.  I pictured the other aid stations with neat little rows of candies and crackers and steaming soup.  We had sticky tables with dead bees in our dishes and empty beer cans.  As folks filtered in, we didn’t always have what they wanted.  I tried to use my nurse’s skills of quick assessments, and using kind firmness to correct the situation. “ Your stomach is upset…you want coke?  We don’t have coke, but you WILL eat these saltines and 7-Up and they WILL work.”  Maybe this helped folks, maybe it didn’t.  I enjoyed some great moments with runners lined up in every one of our chairs trying to get them what they needed despite having had a few cocktails and a few 80’s sing alongs too many.   Luckily the Cross roads in girls liked Madonna and The Cure as much as I do.   At one point we fresh stews arrived, and it was pointed out to us the thing in the corner under a mountain of dirt was a Coleman stove.  Hot soups put back on, and a new bottle of coke was delivered.  The beer cans remained though, so our slacker image was not completely obliterated.  The last runner came through and by 3am Steph and I were in bed for a little nap before course tearing down in the am. 

            Course tear down was fun too.  I hope we got all those little flags…they were everywhere!  By now fatigue was creeping in, and we headed out to get back home at a decent hour. 

            Thanks to all who did the real hard work, thanks to Meredith for sleeping arrangements, thanks to Henry for getting us our awesome shirts, thanks to Jim and Gabe for finding amusement with slacker crossroads out, and thanks to the SA folks for letting us join them.

            One last word:  I don’t think we got a single taker on the HEED, except a gentleman during the day who washed his face with it.