1:00am – Alarm goes off. Time to get up. We get in our running gear and pack up our room.

1:30am – Meet in the hotel lobby. Load up the van, boot up the computer & GPS, and head off toward our first exchange point on the outskirts of London.

2:30am – We arrive at the exchange point and greet the team that is just finishing the 9pm-3am shift. We exchanged some encouraging words and check-in to see how everyone is doing. I eat some of my granola bar and sip some diet coke (for the caffeine, since I’m running 2nd shift and we can’t find coffee).

3:00-4:30am – Lansing runs his leg. We follow in the van to support.

4:30-6:00am – I run my 10-mile leg.

6:00-7:30am – Brynn runs her leg. We stop at no less than three McDonald’s looking for coffee. No luck. None are open yet.

7:30-8:30am – Sunil runs through the suburbs of London, toward the center of the city. We pick up Paul who will run the final 2 miles into the London exchange, since he is from the UK.

8:30am – We park in Hyde park, drop off Paul to run the final leg, pick up Sunil and head to the Tube, which we take to Trafalgar square.

9:00am – We arrive at Trafalgar square just in time to catch the very end of the exchange event there.

9:00am-12:00pm – Our team walks around London with a photographer, taking shots of us in front of big landmarks: Buckingham palace, Big Ben, Millennium Bridge.

12:30pm-3:00pm – We battle intense traffic leaving London, driving on to the Dover ferry station.

5:30pm-8:00pm – Ferry from Dover, England to Calais, France. Dinner on the ferry: our first hot meal of the day. So good!

8:30pm – Pick up our new van and drive to our hotel, which is not far from the ferry port, thankfully!

9:00pm – Head to bed to catch a few hours sleep before we need to get up in time to make the next 3am shift.