The sixth recap for the GAP Relay is written by my little brother, Mike Bruno. He has a 2:42 marathon PB, a 3;43 marathon BLINDFOLDED and a 3:29 marathon pushing his daughter in a stroller.
Jokingly, I told my teammates, I’d like to lead off because I have a high on-base percentage and blazing foot speed. I was bestowed the honor of getting the party started with the 6:30PM late wave departing from the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex en route to Cumberland, MD. Toeing the line on the Steelers’ practice facility, two of Coach Tomlin’s go-to sayings resonated in my head; “We need a splash play” and “The standard is the standard.”
And the gun goes off and within 3 minutes, a runner two decades junior to me with a sweet Prefontaine mustache (**EDITOR’S NOTE, EVERYONE ELSE SAID FREDDIE MERCURY) debunked my theory of “blazing foot speed” and making a “Tomlin splash play.” I was chasing the young buck down the trail for the entire first leg and rolled in a minute and half behind him at the exchange. I passed the bracelet to my teammate.
Elijah, in a panic, said to me, “where is your brother Tony?” Trying to catch my breath, I blurt out, “I handed him the bracelet.” He replies, “that was Scott you handed off to.”
And the panic begins. Where is my brother Tony?
He ran the first leg as a warm up and never made it to the exchange zone for leg 2. The team that was in the lead let me borrow a bike and I went to look for him. Thankfully I was less than a half mile out and got a call from Elijah that he arrived at the exchange zone.
And this debacle set the tone for our 2021 GAP Relay. We found ourselves in second place with our game plan in complete disarray. Time to shuffle the deck and change our original leg assignments. Steve from the other van agreed to run his leg earlier than he planned. Curt, the van driver of van 2 kindly backtracked from Boston to Duquesne to get Steve there for the exchange. It wasn’t until around 50+ miles in when one of our stallions, Brett, surpassed the young bucks and we never relinquished it. Brett handed off to Eric, another one of our best performers. We are in good shape since our top guys are now putting in work. Eric handed off to Jim, another top grandmasters runner in our area. Jim agreed to run 2 consecutive legs to help maintain our newly established lead, only to find Elijah still in the van not quite ready to run. Once again, Steve reacts and steps up, grabs the bracelet and takes this leg without a warm up. Just when you thought nothing else could go wrong. Steve hands to our captain, Scott and a couple miles into his leg, he tears a tendon in his glute. Scott, being the maniac that he is, fights off the pain and limps the last 2 miles of his leg. (Once Scott got his diagnosis after the relay, the guys were lighting up our group chat with- “he busted his ass out there” and “Scott ran half-assed”) Unfortunately, he is done, once again we have to figure out who will run an extra leg.
My 13th visit to the bathroom was recorded in Ohiopyle and finally my GI distress was subsiding just in time for my leg up the trail in Ramcat. Bryon Perry, the Executive Director of the GAP was manning the exchange at Ramcat. We conversed as I warmed up back and forth as I passed his table. I was looking forward to leg 2 -man vs. elements at 3:30 in the morning. Here comes Eric, it’s time for my 2nd leg. I take the bracelet and 40 feet into my leg, I roll my right ankle and let out a loud “F-bomb.” I knew from prior experiences, don’t stop running and deal with it later. Up the trail I went into the dark forest of the Allegheny Mountains. At times, my headlamp indicated that I wasn’t out there alone. I was being watched by many sets of illuminating eyes. My destination was Turkeyfoot Valley High School about a half mile up a hill off the trail. A solid leg 2 was completed as I handed off to Brett.
The sun was rising as we arrived in Meyersdale at the train station. I grabbed a coffee and pulled up Barry Manilow – DayBreak on my phone as suggested by Big Dave, our van driver. I sipped on my hot coffee and sang off key to all of my teammates on the van. Like they haven’t suffered enough yet?
In Deal almost at the top of the mountain, my right foot from my ankle roll was acting up and sending a sharp pain every step walking around at the trailhead. Time to get out the bands in the van and see if I could loosen it up. Luckily I was the second to last leg and still had time to try some last minute rehab on it.
As the weather started to get cold and rainy, I sat on the van with an angry ankle and the other teammates on my van drinking beers because they were done. And now it only gets better, the trailhead is one mile down a huge hill with close to 300 feet of elevation for me to climb. It begins to rain harder, the temperature is dropping and my teammates continue to pound beers. As I exit the van, and jokingly tell them, “I hate all of you guys.”
And here comes Brett blazing a 5:13 mile down the hill. I take the bracelet and begin my agonizing ascent. As I started to cut tangents on this country road, the sharp pain in my ankle made me realize that I had to stay in the middle of the road to be on the crown. It was a grind getting up this mountain. Finally I was back on the GAP and knew that gravity was finally in my favor for the next 4 and a half miles. After about a mile on the trail, the pain in my right foot was finally subsiding. I thought to myself, the faster I get done, the faster I can join my teammates for a beer. Cranking as hard as I could down the Cumberland Valley, I knew my boys would have a beer waiting for me at the exchange. There was Jim waiting for the bracelet and ready to finish off our 150 mile quest. It was great to see him break the tape for our 3rd consecutive win- The Threepeat.
Some of my fondest memories as a runner were in college and high school as a member of the cross country teams. The bond and commoratory was something I’ll never forget.
Although our GAP relay team didn’t train together like we did in high school and college. The parallel was that you gave nothing less than your best for your teammates. This year we had an amazing, selfless group of great guys that continue to inspire me to train hard and get after it. Thank you to our captain Scott, my brother Tony, Elijah, Steve, Eric, Jim and Brett for sharing another great experience at the GAP Relay. Dave and Curt you guys were exceptional at getting us where we needed to be.
I look forward to sharing another GAP Relay with you guys in 2022.
N of 1 Running 