A Day in Hell....with Michael Jackson!

Yes, I survived Hell again this year. And what a day it was. My day started at 3:15 a.m. when my alarm told me to get up and start moving. I was meeting my running buddy, Mel, at 4 to head for Hell (really it was Pinckney, but hey, they’re so close). Mel was running the half and I - the full marathon. We took off right at 4. We drove through a torrential downpour for over an hour and as the sun began to rise, the rain backed off a bit. Things began to fog up, so we knew it was going to be a steamy run. We arrived in time for me to jump in with the early-starters at 7 a.m.. For anyone who doesn’t know, they allow the slow runners to start early so that (theoretically) most marathoners finish within a certain allowable period of time. I just knew I wanted to get started. I was excited and a bit nervous. Hell is hilly. Very hilly. So Randy Step, the race director shouted “GO” and all 40 of the early starters took off. But unlike a normal start to a race, where I get passed by 95% of all the runners, I kept my place on the trail. After a while, I looked around and realized I was among my peers….the slow runners. It just hadn’t occurred to me earlier that the early start meant “slow people”. I felt like a real Olympian until this realization sunk in. Oh well…..

Because I took off like a bolt of lightning (joke), I experienced some shin-splint pain that is very unusual for me. I just slowed my pace a bit, and within 3 or 4 miles, the pain subsided. It was a clear, wonderful morning on the trail. Birds and frogs competed for air time and provided a musical background. As I ran up and down the hills, through the marshes and into the woods, the frog sounds changed like the landscape. Being married to Danny makes me think of these things (thanks, Danny). As I was running up a particularly big hill at mile 6, I heard very fast footsteps and as I turned, I saw the first two non-early-starters approaching at a very fast pace. I jumped off the trail to make space for them as they sped by. I’m sure they meant to say thank you, but damn, they were running too fast to utter a word (why such a hurry?). By the time I finished climbing the hill, they were completely out of my sight – never to be seen again. The miles continued and I enjoyed myself very much. After the first half of the race (this marathon is two- 13 mile loops), I felt great, although I was a bit shocked to see that it had taken me 2 hours and 50 minutes to complete. Yikes.

Mile 13-14-15-16-17-18-19 - plugging along, feeling good, with one exception. I had a Michael Jackson song running through my head and it would not go away. “Change….make that Change!!!!”, he sang. Oh Michael, go to Hell!!!!! He stayed with me throughout the remainder of the race. And the remainder was not much fun. About mile 20 I began to feel bad. Really bad. The temps had gone up to well over 80 degrees and even though we were in the woods, the sun was bearing down. Hot…it’s hot in Hell. Very, very hot. Mile 21, feeling light headed. Mile 22, oops, there goes that banana I ate a while back. MICHAEL, SHUT UP!!!!! You’re making me throw up. Mile 22.5, an aid station. Yay….I tell them I’m sick, I need help. They make me lie down on a cot, take my stats….I’m fine. Just dehydrated. They feed me bananas and Gatorade – ACK. Another banana….more Gatorade. I need to leave this aid station…they are trying to kill me with bananas. And Micheal…he’s still there. SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP. I shuffle along. I run into old running friends, believe it or not, at mile 24.5. They cheer me up. They run ahead (like everyone else). Clomp, clomp, “make that change”, clomp, clomp…make that…..Change!! I finish. In 6 hours and 33 minutes. Are you kidding me!!!!??? The friends I ran into a mere 1.5 miles before the finish line finished 35 minutes before me. That was one loooonnnnggggg last mile. What a great day in Hell!