Ultra Marathon

Okay, so here goes my post on this Ultra Marathon. I've been so reluctant to post, not because it is distant from my mind, but because there is SO much to say, yet I don't know how to say any of it. I'll start from start to finish and hopefully can put a tiny dent into what is commonly known between the 5 of us as . . . well. . . I won't say that. . .I'll just leave your minds to wondering.

The race started out with the bang of a cannon. We were all laughing and giggling when we started. I have a funny run. There, I said it. I do, so as we're all running Jon tells Angela that she runs similar to me. She playfully acts offended. I laugh my head off. Jon thinks its funny that I'm laughing that she's slightly offended. See, pure giggles here, purely lighthearted. . . all is fun, all is free, this is great. . . running with my hubby, running with my friends, a beautiful Saturday morning. All is lovely. If I were a princess in a Disney movie I'd be singing a song with the birds right now. . . everything is just that wonderful!

We hit the trails, get to a rope that we have to lower ourselves into a small creek to cross, then put ourselves up with another rope. Fun! We're running alongside Sweet Water Creek. I'm telling Jon how we need to bring the children here. I'm thinking how my friend, Faith, would love this. Everyone is chatty.

We hit mile 11. Seriously Angela and I feel like we have run a marathon. Jon's never run a marathon and Doug has only run one. The trails have really done a number on us. We're all still fairly pleasant though. . . that is . . .

until. . .

we hit what is known as "Top of the World". I cannot put into words what this roller coaster of mountains is. It is up hill, down hill . . . like 5 times. Excuse me, not hills, mountains. Going downhill was way harder than going uphill. We are all talking and mumbling a little bit. We're all pretty overwhelmed. Chuck is saying, "I told you guys." I keep saying with all the creativity I can must up, "The only way I know how to describe this is it is very, very hard." Doug really liked creative description. Ha!Ha!

We make it and told there is a mile to get to the next aid station. Longest mile of my life. . . or so I thought. . .

They had a smorgasbord for us. It was great. M&Ms, PB&J, sodas, pretzels, potatoes to dip in salt, water, Gatorade. We all refuel. Chuck says he's going ahead. He goes. We stay and eat.

Jon's foot started hurting him as we headed up TOTW. He took an ibuprofen. We all start running. Jon is in ALOT Of pain. he feels like a knife is stabbing his foot. Doug and Angela go on ahead. Jon tells me to. I'm not having it. He reminds me of runner's etiquette (if another runner tells you to go ahead, it is considered rude to stay back with them). I told him, "I am your wife, and I'm not leaving you. I don't care about runner's etiquette." He pushes through the pain. The ibuprofen kicks in and we kick it up a notch. The next aid station we catch up with Doug and Angela.

We are all whining and complaining about how tough this thing is. The thing is, in order to complete the race, we had to do it all over again. This course was a double loop.

I'm going to say again how hard it was to go downhill. Up hill was not a problem for me, but it was so rocky and so steep going downhill, you just had to be very careful or you would slip and bust it very easily.

We're all running. Angela says to Doug, "Doug, you set the pace." He stops. Seriously. We were all dying laughing. We all laughed, whined, laughed, complained, moaned, laughed, groaned, laughed so much during this thing. Wanna talk about true colors being shown?

By this time we're making the 2nd loop. We had to make mile 17 by 4 hours 30 minutes or you couldn't complete the course. Sheww, we made it! Now it was time for the river crossing. This was the thing that I was dreading. I knew the water was going to be dreadfully cold. However, it was mile 19. My legs and hips were SOOOO tight I was about ready to dive into the river. It was glorious!!! This was my favorite thing about the WHOLE race. After we crossed the river the first time we headed up 2 miles worth of mountains. Crud!!! Doug is so dehydrated I'm praying for him and I'm really concerned. We cross the river again.

Then, we get to another food station. They had the best rice crispy treats I've ever put into my mouth. Jon meets a guy who is working the food station. He tells him this is his first marathon. The guy suggests a salt tablet. Jon takes it along with more ibuprofen for his foot. We all start running again.

The salt tablet Jon took must've shot a rocket up his booty. He takes off like crazy leaving all the rest of us. I'm struggling. Doug asks me how I'm doing, "I'm not good. I feel awful." We all eventually catch up with Jon and continue running. Although I was struggling I knew Jon wasn't going to leave me. I knew he just felt good and needed to run. I knew he wouldn't get too far ahead of me.

By the time we catch up with him, I've already lost my mo jo. Jon is starting to lose his, so we walk. . like so slow it is almost a stroll through the woods. Doug and Angela go ahead.

We keeping going walking/trotting, then we stop seeing the orange markers. We realize we've taken a wrong turn somewhere. CRUD!!! We turn around. This poor guy who was behind us had followed us too. We apologize. This is like mile 22. The sun is beating down on us. We have NO water. Jon didn't think we needed any. We'd talked about this before the race. His thinking was there were water stops every 4 or so miles, and we all can run 4 miles without water. He didn't realize how different running trails and running the road was.

We are so parched. We see another stupid mountainous hill. Y'all I can't even describe how we were feeling. HORRIBLE is probably the best word I can come up with without just being downright ugly. We are having headaches. We're dizzy. I knew we were both dehydrated. We come to a creek, bend over, and start lapping up the water like we are dogs. Seriously. I kept saying, "Oh, this is so good. This is so good." It was almost like what you'd see on TV when people are in the desert and they come and find water. That is the best visual picture I can give of the both of us. Before we got there Jon said he was so desperate for water if another runner passed us who had water he was going to ask them for a swig. (Those who know Jon know this is TOTALLY out of his character). That is just how desperate we were. By the way, Jon apologized to me for being so adamant that he didn't think we needed to carry water with us.

Here we go, Top of the Stinkin' World AGAIN!!! Hill, after hill, after hill. We'd get to the bottom of one and then realize there was another one. Grown men would be hunched over this was so grueling. We make it, and there was water. It so revived us. We're heading to the food station and we realize we drank creek water out of an Atlanta creek. We then start thinking, "No kids, your parents didn't die from the race, they died because they drank out of the creek."

We see Doug and Angela. Told them what we'd done. Angela later told me she thought I was going to cry. They gave us their camel back to finish out the race with.

We see the food station. I must've looked like death warmed over because one of the volunteers told me to sit in a chair, under the tent, and she gave me all sorts of food. As I was reviving myself with PB&Js she and I become new BFFs. She thought I was 22 or 23 and Jon was 30 or so. I think I told her I loved her. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did. Jon had to practically pry me away from her. I was enjoying being social once again, rather than feeling like I was knocking on death's door.

We had to pull out though. We learned at this point they added 2 more miles to the race. Now instead of 31 miles, we will have run 34 (counting us making a wrong turn). Originally the time limit for 31 miles was 9 hours. Even though they added 2 more miles (our goofing the extra mile up wasn't their fault), we still wanted to make the cut off. We really wanted to finish this thing strong.

So, here we go, encouraging one another we could do this. We get to a water station and ask how much farther. They tell us 2 miles. We get to another water station and ask how much farther. They tells us. . . 2 miles. At this point I'm so mad. I told Jon, "If someones tells me one more time we have 2 more miles I'm going to be ugly." We keep running. We've run more and faster this leg of the race than any other. We'd just been do demoralized if we'd missed the 9 hour cut off by seconds or even minutes.

We see the finish line up ahead. Jon says, "Let's go babe." We came in at 8 hours, 56 minutes. I was done for! I was so teary eyed, yet so exhausted and dehydrated, my tears stayed in my eyes. Chuck, Angela, and Doug were right there cheering us on. We made it!!! They were wonderful to us. Chuck had us seats and water ready. He went and got our food tickets. Doug and Angela finished at 8 hours 25 minutes and Chuck finished around 8 hours 8 minutes.

Pure physical torture was the way I described it to everyone.

Ultra Marathons don't give out medals like half marathons and marathons do. They want to set themselves apart and be different. They gave us all a hat I wanted a picture with our hat. Jon said he wasn't wearing it.

He did later. . . for a picture with me. . . after he'd come back to life.

We get home. Jon's parents are taking the children to a passion play that night. Jon was so desperate for something to drink he called him mom and asked her to bring it our house (he never does stuff like this). We walk in and see these 2 sweet letters from the kids.

That says, "Thanks that you came back alive. Hanna." I guess she thought we were going to die.

Love ya'll. Get some rest. Love, Alec.

Jon and I get clean and get in the bed. It is about 7:00 p.m. The kids get home and they had to lock the house up and put themselves to bed.

The next morning Jon wakes up mad, mad that we didn't stay with Doug and Angela, that we didn't have the fortitude. You're kidding me, right? I was just so happy we finished in under 9 hours. We all swore during the race and even while we were eating afterwards that we'd never do it again.

We head to that morning church. I managed to get my heels on. Jon sees Doug in the choir. Doug points to his shirt. That crazy thing has his Sweetwater shirt on under his button up and tie. He was cracking us up! I think I saw him closing his eyes several times during the service. I'm just going to assume he was praying and not sleeping.

Everyone was so sweet. People coming up to us that I didn't even know knew we ran the race after church. Everyone was so supportive and encouraging. The Friday before the race we'd had a Good Friday service. A friend of ours (John C) who is an older gentleman came up to me and said, "I just wanted to tell you goodbye in case you don't make it, and, I'll be seeing you in a few years." Ha!Ha! I think he was glad we made it (ha!ha!). Angela, Doug, Jon and I and our families stayed after church talking about the race. They want to do the thing again. I just couldn't believe it. I told them, "Y'all know I don't like to miss a party, even if its a bad one. So, I guess I'm in."

What in the world have I done?