Deer Widow Relay

Sometimes you just have to make up your own race because making it to any of the real races that day just ain't happening.  Sometimes you just have to stand beside your sister and her crazy, hair-brained idea and say, "Of course I need to run 8 miles Saturday".  Sometimes you don't finish the box of wine, but you do finish the race and that's what really counts. Sometimes.
Of course there is a bit of a story that comes with an introduction like that.  I mean no great story ever started with, "I ordered the salad..." and also "well-behaved women rarely make history" so here's our history from this past weekend. Deer. Widow. Weekend. (DWW 2017)

Now if you are lucky enough to have married a non-hunter type of person hallelujah, praise the Lord, consider yourself lucky!  I was not so fortunate and neither was Mird.  We both married hunters and I for one have a husband who is fanatical about hunting.  He shoots anything that is legal to hunt and occasionally things that are possibly not so legal to hunt. Just kidding. He follows the rules as far as I know.  Yes, as crazy as I am about running, my husband is all the more crazier about hunting (that is really horrible grammar in that last sentence, but you get the idea-he really LOVES to hunt).  So in my world, deer widow weekend is a real thing. A big thing.  A life altering thing.  Last year, I actually donned fake antlers in hopes of catching my husband's attention in late November. That is how desperate I was.  Seriously.

This year it wasn't just a weekend either. It was actually an entire week of nothing but hunting. My husband took an entire week off work to prepare for and actually go hunting. And he did so in possibly the worst weather for opening day that I have experienced with him. There was actual sideways rain for a better part of the day, it was very windy and it was cold too.  And the only running Mird's hubby has been doing lately is "running away" to their cabin to deer hunt.  Anyhow, the point all this is that Mird and I decided to celebrate being abandoned by our husbands together this year. For the past few months, marked in Red Ink on my calendar November 17-19 was "Mird's House-Deer Widow Weekend".  And as a substitute teacher, I don't generally write on my calendar in ink these days just ask my friends.

Anyhow, a few days prior to our special weekend Mird texted me and said, "I have a crazy idea, if you are willing to run 8 miles Saturday!?"  Well, of course, I am always willing to run 8 miles, or 12 miles, or however many cotton picking miles you ask me to run (within reason) and I am certifiable crazy at least when running is involved..  I immediately responded, "Of course I need to run 8 miles Saturday...What's your crazy idea?"

Mird's Crazy Idea aka Deer Widow Relay 2017

Mird lives on a country block in Ithaca MI=4 miles square.  It is flat land with farms and windmills all about you.  Her grand idea was to enlist our friend Marisa and take turns running around the block (4 miles) with partners while the left out gal watched all our kiddos which was 7 kids ranging in age from 19 months to 11 years.   I ran legs 1 and 2, Mird ran 1 and 3 and Marissa ran 2 and 3 and we were all AWESOMESAUCE!  It was a huge success and so much fun. By the way, we won!  We all frickin won! And not that winning is everything because it's not, but every once in awhile it does feel good to be the WINNER!

Thanks for the memories ladies.  Looking forward to Deer Widow Relay 2018.  We have big plans for this one!

Deer Widow Relay 2017

Ithaca, MI

Vern Out