It has taken me a few days to process the race from over the weekend. It's still sort of a fog, and I'm sure I'll be going back and editing some of it in the next few days when I snap out of a stupor and say Hey, I forgot about that part?!?!? I don't remember where I heard about this race, an innocent relay with an option to run the whole 126.2 miles as a solo ultra. Having been in a slump with 100 mile finishes, I worked hard to snap my DNF streak, and finishing Mother Road and then Rocky Raccoon left me feeling very confident in a good finish in this--the longest run I have ever done. This race began in Baton Rouge, and ran along the Mississippi River atop the levee. Most of the route was gravel roads, sometimes almost like chat, usually with bigger gravel, and always a little on the muddy side. As is usually the case, when I made my intentions known, Kathy joined in the fun, and then Roman and Caroline signed up as a 2-person relay team. Then Bill Ford, fresh off a nice first finish at Rocky Raccoon, joined in on the fun. For me, it was seeing what I was capable of, pushing the envelope just a little further. It was also for the bling. This race awarded all finishers with a medal, and the 126.2 finishers with a belt buckle. I thought it would be nifty to own a shirt that said 126.2. (IT IS AWESOME!)
The above trophy was evidently for the relay teams, although this is the medal and buckle I drooled over.
And so, last Thursday morning, very early, we met at RunnersWorld to begin our caravan to Baton Rouge. Joining the runners on the trip were Dana/crew-babe, Brian/crew-dude (for Kathy and Bill), and Candice (for Roman and Caroline), and Jeff my nephew to help with crewing and pacing.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.
Race Directors Denver Benton and Jeff Beck put this race on, and did a great job for this first year event.
Dana chats it up with Roman and Jeff, my nephew.
I like this shirt. An attitude like this will get you to the finish line most of the time.
Brian, Kathy, and Bill pay attention to what is being discussed. I should have paid better attention myself.
Later, the next day, I had the chance to visit with Denver as he was helping to set up the stage for the starting festivities.
I borrowed this picture from the R/O FaceBook page. Yup, that's us over there.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.
About the time the sun was going down, all of us runners changed clothes and began the final prep for our race. Body glide, bandaids, Sac-so-soft, foot powder, Garmin, Bandana, anything else??
Kathy has the look of confidence. Bill is stoked and almost psyched out thinking about getting going. I just look tired. I was worrying about running through the second night.
By contrast, the relay runners look calm and collected.We ambled over to the starting area, picked up our race numbers, goodie bag, and hung out for a while.
Dana takes a picture, and I snap right back at her.
A couple more pre-race shots.
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.
I took her picture, and I wondered if she was a ghost if she would even appear in the picture, but she did. The picture was very foggy, and I had to clean it up to even have her show up in the frame.The sun did not come out, but the night did wane away. Jeff and Candice stopped after the previous segment, and Roman and I forged on. Running in the light lifted my spirits, and we jogged mostly with a few walking breaks.
It was cool seeing tug boats and barges along the mighty Mississippi. The tugs mad a low hum/roar as they inched the heavy cargo upstream and downstream.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!!!
Fortunately I made it by before she paved the levee. I caught Caroline and we ran together to the next check point. I wondered where Marjorie was and if she was even capable of running. Just as we reached the next aid stop, I saw her about a half mile back standing in the grass halfway towards the road looking into the sky. I told Dana to wait and give her some more Gatorade and electrolytes. I suggested she call the RD and tell them a runner was in trouble. They would come and see she was not in the race, but would surely give her a ride somewhere. Dana later told me she went to the paved road, took her shoes off, and did some cart wheels and head stands, and then ran barefoot down the road. She said her feet were too blistered for shoes. (And she ran on asphalt???) Dana did call the RD who called the sheriff, and I hope they got her to wherever home was. We think she was either on something, or was manic depressive and in a manic stage. Maybe she wasn't a ghost.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.
Jeff ran between around 40 miles--he thinks it might have been closer to 50. He did this in shoes that were brand new (Brooks Cascadias) and did not get a single blister. PUNK!!
Later in the day, Roman and I were at it again. The forcast had called for rain off and on all night and all day. There were reports of sever weather and tornado warnings in New Orleans, but we were still a long ways away. (A long way by river miles, but a whole lot closer as the crow flies.) Shortly after this picture, it began raining. We had to get down off the levee because of a huge pipeline, and just when we reached the road we had to ruyn a short way on (a road with no shoulder no less) a monsoon commenced, It rained sideways. It even seemed like it rained upways. The big drops of rain stinged our faced, and I scrurried down into a ditch against some reeds. (A good place for a water snake of some kind.) I still got soaked, but there was not much more I could do. Funny thing, I was sitting in a small ditch that was dry, and when I got up, my whole butt was under water.
Here's Roman's crew babe Candice. She was up for as long as we were, as was Dana. One would think they could catch a cat nap while waiting for us, but a Jeep is not at all comfortable enough to sleep in.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.
By now, the remaining trails were paved. It was a road race from here on. I thought we were surely 12-13 miles out, but I was told we were 6 miles further enough times that I finally believed it. ARRGH!! Jeff and I thought by now we should see some of the buildings of new Orleans, and I had no idea if we would veer to the east, or the west, or which way was east or west. The only thing certain, was to follow the trail and make sure the Mississippi River was on our right.
These last miles seemed to just grow. It almost made me mad as in angry, but I told myself I signed up for this, and it was no fault of the course or the race itself that I was struggling. This song found it's way into my brain, and seemed to settle me down.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.
With the help of Candice, who saw me shuffling around like Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett Show, I made my way to the finish line. I was glad to be through, and hoped I was last. I got my money's worth.
Of course, I made a feeble attempt at hotdogging while crossing the finish line. Actually I was all smiles, and on top of the world!
My running friends were waiting/napping when I came in. It was good to be home.
My whole life can be summed up in this one dumb look. SOmetimes it's just ghood to be clueless.
This is Jeff Beck. No, not the guitarist, although Jeff might pl;ay a guitar. Jeff and Denver Benton are co-race directors of this race (I think I mentioned this earlier in the post) and they have a gem of a race. I think this race can explode as a relay. They'll fine-tune this and it'll be an even more amazing event next year.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.
While napping, this gentleman worked on my feet. I actually slept through some of it. Bill took the picture.
Big thanks to Jeff, who kept me going through the night. I would have been a wandering blubbering mess out there without him.
But most thanks go to my sweetie dana aka Taturcakes. She was awake for almost 60 hours straight, and 40+ of those were crewing me in this race.She kept me fed, hydrated, encouraged, griped out, and she gave me a good butt kicking when I needed it. No doubt, I would have had a DNF without her. She's priceless. (Plus, I get to take her home :-) :-) )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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