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The above trophy was evidently for the relay teams, although this is the medal and buckle I drooled over.
We followed each other all the way to Louisiana, and it was a long long ride. We found our motel, and then hurried to the pre-race meeting.
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I tried to rest and nap a little during the day Friday, but did not have much luck. I did sleep well Thursday night, nut could not catch any winks during the day Friday. Our wave started at 8:00 pm.
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We ambled over to the starting area, picked up our race numbers, goodie bag, and hung out for a while.
It was dark when we started, and it rained about as soon as we took off so I did not carry my camera or phone. There are not too many pictures of the course. But I'll describe it. Flat, long, flat, gravel roads, flat, a little muddy in places, and flat. I ran with Roman, and his race consisted of several 10-15 mile segments. After his first segment, Caroline ran, and on Roman's second leg, Jeff and Candice jumped in and ran with us for a while. We were supposed to run right by an old leper colony, and a burial area where there were qhosts. Who knew just what we would see??
Along the way we heard voices behind us. I was surprised anyone was behind us, particularly someone who would be rapidly catching up with us, but it happened. A young girl who looked like a high schooler came up behind us and asked if we had a cell phone. She was clad in Capri tights and a sports bra, and jogged in place while Roman dug his iPhone out of his pocket. She then asked Roman to dial a number and tell someone where she was. Roman got a voice mail, and left a message. Then this girl, Marjorie, told us she wasn't in the race, and was supposed to be pacing someone way behind her but they were going too slow (that's a good pacer, huh?) and she just took off running. She asked us where this race ended, and I expected to freak her out by saying it finished some 100 miles further down the road in New Orleans. But she was happy about that and told us she was gonna run all the way and win the race. Her plan was to win the race outright and the media would be there and no doubt she would be offered a college cross country scolarship! (A fairytale story if I ever heard one!) This girl had no water, no food, and although I am sure she was a decent runner, 100+ miles is a long way to run, walk, or crawl.
Me: Have you trained for distance running?
Her: Oh I have been running since I was in the 5th grade. I run cross country, and just run all the time.
Me: What's you longest run?
Her: I have run 15 miles.Oh I can do this. I can run all the way. I think I'll need to just run 7 minute miles to win it. That's just what I'll do. I've run a 3 minute mile before.
At this point, I was cussing myself for not having a pen to ask for her autograph! I was running with a world record holder. Jeff gave her a drink from his water bottle, and she took off. Every so often, we'd her her yelling/singing? We weren't sure. I had the idea that SHE was a ghost. I mean 1. she showed up out of the darkness--no light or anything. And 2. anyone knows a ghost could not dial a touch-screen phone, and that's why she had Roman dial it. We decided that we would hear stories from other people about this mysterious girl who showed up out of nowhere by the leper colony running. She was probably someone who died back in the 60s or 70s. Candice said more like the 80s or 90s because of how she was dressed.
About 3-4 miles later, we heard her ahead yelling at some cars that were on a gravel road beside the levee. This particular stretch of gravel road was off limits to the crews. It may have been a private road, it did go by a prison and the leper colony, and where ghosts were occasionally sighted. But mostly the road was off limits because it was muddy and these cars had gotten stuck. Marjorie was yelling at them, and I thought she went down to them. She left her shirt that she was carrying, a water bottle that a runner ahead of us had given her, and some other stuff, and I figured her race was over.
Move down the trail about 3 more miles. We came to a community of shanty-like houses, and a man in an SUV hollered out to us, "What, are you guys training for a marathon?" (Bwahahahahaha!!!!) I popped back, "yup, we're doing a little 100 mile training run and then we're gonna do a marathon." No response at all. My humor was wasted. He asked if we had seen some young girl running through there with no shoes? Mabel, Marley or something like that? We told them that she was back with a couple of cars that were stuck in the mud. He said that she had ran through the town a while back, and had left her shoes. He had them and needed to get them to her. Ghost reason 3. She was disappearing and appearing at different places at different times. I suspected Bubba was not so much worried about her well being as he was wanting to get better acquainted with her. A half mile later near our crew stop, there this SUV was, and I figured Bubba was gonna address my smart comments. But he asked if we had seen a young girl running barefoot, and between him and our Jeep, there she was. She was asking if anyone had any socks she could have. Well, Jeff--always the gentleman--offered her a pair he had in his bag in the Jeep She took them and assured him he was going to heaven. She put the socks on, and her shoes back on, and was again taking off to win this race.
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We caught up with Marjorie not long after that. She was standing in the trail, and I told Roman she had bonked. I figured she had maybe 20-25 miles done, and with no distance training, this was the end of her race. But when we reached her, she informed us she really needed a bathroom. Did we have any toilet paper? Nope, we did not, but the next check point was just ahead and she seemed relieved to hear that. The check point had a few cars there, and she ran down the levee to ask them for TP, and they drove off just as she reached them. WOW, did that ever piss her off! The girl that needed to potty had a potty mouth. She had collected a lot of stuff along the way. She had stuffed in her sports bra some Cheerios, 2 bottles of water, and had picked up some litter along the trail. She stayed with Roman and I for another mile or so, and when we reached Dana and our Jeep, we got her some TP, and some water and Gatorade. This was the end of Roman's relay leg, and his partner Caroline wasted no time getting down the trail. I left out about a half mile behind her, and was behind Marjorie who was on a bathroom mission. She has walked down the river side of the levee, and I said to myself, Please let her wait until I'm by. Please!!!
A nice shot of my nephew Jeff. This is a new hairstyle for Jeff. He let his cousin cut his hair, and to "even it up" he ended up nearly bald.
On and on we went. It turned night, and somewhere along the way, Jeff jumped in and ran the rest of the way in with me. This whoe part was a blur. I ran, and would evidentally doze because I'd stumble in the grass at the edge of the gravel road. There never was a real danger of falling into the river, but I suppose one could trip and fall and tumble down the steep slope of the levee. I was losing the ability to do math, a problem common to many distance runners. On fresh legs, we can calculate miles to kilometers, and the necessary pace needed to reach the finish line in so many hours and minutes. But at this point, I was not sure if I was over a hundred or under. Roman had mentioned that his and carloine's last legs were about 10 miles each, so in my thinking, when Roman started his last leg, I would have 20 miles to go. No problemo, right?
Wrong. My sleep issues, extreme fatigue, blistered feet, and general grumpiness had slowed my my running pace to a senior citizen's huffle, and my walking pace to nearly stationary. The course turned us through a refinery area, and for what seemed like 10 miles, we had oil tanks on both sides. The river when in sight looked murky and oliy. It was not a stinky area like the refineries in Tulsa sometimes are, but it was not at all scenic.
But as is always the case, when daylight came, I got a little hop in my step.
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After running with Mardi Gras in our sight for three miles, we began to pass bulidings. I should have read and reread the last page in our map booklet, because I did not know where the finish line was. Neither did Jeff. That's a big mistake on our part. I was in no condition to make a wrong turn, and when we saw an orange arrow pointing across a couple of railroad tracks, I sent Jeff down that way to see if that was where we were supposed to go. The arrows did not say "race" or R/O, and in my stupified condition, I thought they might have been for some of the Mardi Gras goings-on. But after standing around being stupid for around 30 minutes, a relay runner sped by and headed down the street the arrow pointed to. It seems there were MANY arrows, but the massive amounts of cars lining the streets blocked them from our view. had I had my phone with me, I might have googled the Audabon Park and made my way right there, but then again, I was not wearing my glasses.
Kathy was the FIRST to cross the finish line. She and Bill ran together the whole way, ignoring bad feet and fatigue and sleepiness, and managed to run almost a perfect race. As it turns out, there were two men who started in the second wave who had faster times than Kathy. So, kathy was first woman HOURS ahead of the second place female. Despite crossing the finish line first, she finished 3rd overall, and Bill was 4th overall. Amazing. Amazing! Amazing!!!
Roman and Caroline were around 30 minutes ahead of me. Sorry I do not know the exact times of any of us. I am still a little brain-dead.
I crashed and napped for an hour after the race. Nothing like a bit of concrete in the sun after being up for 2 1/2 days. It was almsot as good as a bed.
A post note: About three of the above pictures are borrowed from Brian. They're the good ones. I also swiped a couple of trail pix from Google.
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