So this has been an interesting, educational, fun, exhausting, and much needed vacation. Danny and I headed out on Friday, May 28th for Traverse City where I was signed up to run the Bayshore Marathon. We stayed at the cottage, and while being at the cottage is always a wonderful retreat from the world, Danny was very frustrated and annoyed as he attempted to get the water going and could not. We had other running friends planning to stay with us, so telling them that we could provide a place to sleep, but not a toilet was a bit embarrassing. Time to call the plumber.
Race Time
The Bayshore Marathon is a flat, fast, out and back marathon – and when I say out and back, I mean along the peninsula, so the scenery is beautiful. But the pavement, oh the pavement! It’s hard and hot which means my feet were on fire and so sore. Friend Dave just cruised along and beat, once again, his personal best by several minutes. Ridiculous! I, on the other hand, ran slow and finished 16 minutes later than my last year time. I developed the blister-of-the-century on my right foot which provided some really cool blister popping and excitement for me, but everyone that I shared my blister story with (including Dave, who actually sat with me while I popped it) got real sick of hearing about it. Except my wonderful father-in-law who, I believe, loves sharing foot stories as much as I do. Danny’s family has the nicest feet I have ever seen. All of them. It’s weird. But it’s Jerry Patterson who I most look forward to telling about my running-foot-blister stories with. Oh, and that brings me to the next chapter in this story…..our trip to South Carolina.
Vacation Time
Normally we visit Danny’s family on a whirl-wind trip over the Thanksgiving holiday. But last year, due to the rock slide on highway 40 in North Carolina, we were diverted through the mountains late at night, in the rain and fog, on windy frightening roads that led us to drink when we stopped in a hotel for the night….only one hour from the Patterson house. Oh, except that where we stopped happen to be a dry county, so there was no drinking, but that’s another story. So our trip this year we planned for May so we would be able to depend upon better weather and much more time to visit. During this visit, Danny’s mother, Carol, called Danny’s many aunts and uncles to come over to visit while we were there, so I got my first real emersion into the Hale/Patterson culture and family. It was a delightful week and I was truly honored to have met so many of “his people” on this trip. One of Danny’s aunts, Aunt Mary Ann, is a hoot, and during one of her reminiscent moments exclaimed “if a writing spider writes your name, you’ll die”. This comment caused great laughter among the group and I ignorantly laughed along but really had no idea what she was talking about…..I found out later….but I’ll get to that soon. I met Ed and Elaine, two of the loveliest 90 year old people I have ever met, Billy and Barbara, and Genevie. I met Aunt Jessie on my
last trip down….also a hoot. I love these people and am so lucky to be a Patterson!
We left Jerry and Carol’s place on Friday and spent Friday night and part of Saturday at the David Patterson household (Danny’s brother and sister-in-law, Pam). Being with David and Pam at their home is like being on a tr
opical vacation. Their home is incredible and their property, a cultivated jungle. I mean this place is amazing and words just can’t describe it. But the company is even better. David and Pam are a couple of middle-aged-Jimmy-Buffet-like-hippies and are so much fun to be with. But our visit at their place was brief because Saturday morning we headed out to a place near the Chattooga River where I was planning to run the Chattooga River 50k. Danny’s BFF (best friend forever in 21st century lingo) is Kelly Smith - 60 years old, a man hard to describe – taciturn and garrulous, lives the simple, natural life – a violin maker (which makes him even better) also one of the coolest people alive. Hearing Kelly laugh makes you immediately happy and crave to hear it again. Karen Hawk is Kelly’s partner - a war-protesting, peace-loving, cartoonist and librarian. Now can you think of two better people to spend an evening with??? When we first arrived, Kelly took us on a “hike through the property”, which I assumed meant a walk on a “trail”. When Kelly started pulling back braches and headed straight down a wild jungle hill, I knew we were in for a real walk. We made our way through his mountainous property, all the while Danny and Kelly identifying trees, birds, and leaves. I found two small newts along the way. Finally we broke through the wildness of the property and were walking down a two-track when Danny shouted “watch out”. Immediately in front of Danny and Kelly was a spider web like none I have ever seen before with a spider right out of my worst nightmare. And what else could it be but a WRITING SPIDER. Are you kidding me? I didn’t know spiders like that existed. I had an immediate flashback to Mary Ann saying “if a writing spider writes your name, YOU’LL DIE”. And she wasn’t kidding. I almost died of a heart attack on the spot!
The Chattooga River 50k – “Alone Again, Naturally”
Kelly drove us through the mountains to where the start of the race was to be the following morning. He, of course, and Danny, kept promising me that I had nothing to fear about snakes in SC. Kelly and Karen had only a handful of snake sightings in all their years of hiking, so “stop worrying”, they said. But naturally, 100 yards from the entry to the park where the race started, was a copperhead (dead in the middle of the road). Kelly turned the car around so I could have a good look at it so I’d know what to look out for on the 32 mile trail run ahead of me……and then he said “oh, normally they’re not that big. That’s the biggest copperhead I’ve ever seen”. Well, that really helped my mental preparation for this run that already had me more anxious than I’ve ever been before a race. Between the extremely high temps and humidity, the mountain terrain, snakes and “writing spiders” and the fact that this was an mostly unmarked, somewhat self-supported race, I was nervous, homesick, and scared. But the evening with Kelly and Karen was special…..a great pasta dinner and conversation over candle-light in their beautiful, natural home filled with violins hanging from beams. Perfect!
The morning of the race started early – 4:45. Kelly and Karen prepared a pot of coffee for us while we loaded the car. We headed for the start a little after 5. Danny was planning to volunteer because the race director, Terry Hayes, really wanted to run her own race….and since Danny and a few other experienced race volunteers were there, Terry got her wish. I need to stop here and say that Danny is unlike any man on this planet. He follows me around to these remote races, works for hours at a time (and I mean 12-18 hours at a time), and helps to keep the runners motivated, hydrated and fed. I wish every woman could be as lucky as I am! Anyway, back to the race. The race started at 7 and 58 runners headed into the most grueling, rugged mountain terrain imaginable on the east coast. The first section on the Winding Stairs trail was a 3 mile out and back, down a steep trail made of switch-backs. Great way to start a race, except for the 3 mile return up (ug), which led us to Big Bend that eventually led us to the Foothills trail along the raging Chattooga River. Foolishly when I read that part of this trail followed along the river, I assumed that the Chattooga River would be similar to the Chippewa River that I run beside every day….a nice, meandering, shallow river that I love to swim or float across on hot days in the summer. Not so with the Chattooga.
The section of the Chattooga we ran was along was a level 4 and 5 white water rapids river with waterfalls and a frightening 1,000,000 foot drop from the trails we were running. Okay, so I exaggerate a bit, but since I’m not good with measurements, this gives you an idea of the terror I felt on the trail. These trails were extremely rugged, rocky and above all else, rooty like I’ve never seen before. I wish I’d had a camera. The above ground root system reminded me of an old anatomy book I had with pictures of thousands of veins we have in our bodies….but these veins were not covered by anything. And the longer I ran, the more I tripped. Danny manned both of the 2 aid stations on the course and after mile 22, when I was tired and had already run 6.5 hours (yes, that is not an exaggerated time – these were not little hills), and suggested to him that I wanted to take off my camel-back and carry only my water bottle for the last 10.75 miles to the finish line, he protested. And thank goodness for that, because as I backtracked my way along the Chattooga, trying to recall landmarks, I got confused and was a bit dehydrated, which in my book means stupid and good-judgment-deficient.
This race, only having 50+ runners, meant that we all ran for very long stretches without ever seeing another person (the 1972 version of Alone Again, Naturally by Gilbert O’Sullivan kept going through my head). For me, those last 10.75 miles turned into about 16 of 17 because I made a very unfortunate turn onto (and up, and I mean UP) a very steep trail (I learned today that the first 30 miles of the race had a 20,000 foot ascent). During these 3 or so hours, I never saw another runner, but did see two hikers who said they had seen runners earlier. I finally reached the top of my giant mountainous mistake, and knew for certain I was lost (or off-course as Terry more delicately put it). I backtracked down the mountain and was trying to find the location of the last aide station where I hoped to find help, but fortunately ran into the race director, Terry, who was pretty sure we were still on the right trail. She convinced me to turn around (again) and backtrack. I, once again, started up the steep trail, a
nd immediately discovered that that had been my mistake. There was another trail going to the left but missed it both times. So I finished the last 5 – LLLOOONNNGGG miles with Terry – which was really cool. I was a dirty, smelly, crying, blistery, chaffed, dreadfully tired ultra runner who finished 40 miles (more or less) in 11 hours and 6 minutes. I do not EVER want to run 11 hours again – at least not 11 hours on a mountain. And Danny was out there in those mountains the entire time – waiting for me, helping the other runners, and cheering me on as I finished the longest day of my life!
Race Time
The Bayshore Marathon is a flat, fast, out and back marathon – and when I say out and back, I mean along the peninsula, so the scenery is beautiful. But the pavement, oh the pavement! It’s hard and hot which means my feet were on fire and so sore. Friend Dave just cruised along and beat, once again, his personal best by several minutes. Ridiculous! I, on the other hand, ran slow and finished 16 minutes later than my last year time. I developed the blister-of-the-century on my right foot which provided some really cool blister popping and excitement for me, but everyone that I shared my blister story with (including Dave, who actually sat with me while I popped it) got real sick of hearing about it. Except my wonderful father-in-law who, I believe, loves sharing foot stories as much as I do. Danny’s family has the nicest feet I have ever seen. All of them. It’s weird. But it’s Jerry Patterson who I most look forward to telling about my running-foot-blister stories with. Oh, and that brings me to the next chapter in this story…..our trip to South Carolina.
Vacation Time
Normally we visit Danny’s family on a whirl-wind trip over the Thanksgiving holiday. But last year, due to the rock slide on highway 40 in North Carolina, we were diverted through the mountains late at night, in the rain and fog, on windy frightening roads that led us to drink when we stopped in a hotel for the night….only one hour from the Patterson house. Oh, except that where we stopped happen to be a dry county, so there was no drinking, but that’s another story. So our trip this year we planned for May so we would be able to depend upon better weather and much more time to visit. During this visit, Danny’s mother, Carol, called Danny’s many aunts and uncles to come over to visit while we were there, so I got my first real emersion into the Hale/Patterson culture and family. It was a delightful week and I was truly honored to have met so many of “his people” on this trip. One of Danny’s aunts, Aunt Mary Ann, is a hoot, and during one of her reminiscent moments exclaimed “if a writing spider writes your name, you’ll die”. This comment caused great laughter among the group and I ignorantly laughed along but really had no idea what she was talking about…..I found out later….but I’ll get to that soon. I met Ed and Elaine, two of the loveliest 90 year old people I have ever met, Billy and Barbara, and Genevie. I met Aunt Jessie on my
last trip down….also a hoot. I love these people and am so lucky to be a Patterson!We left Jerry and Carol’s place on Friday and spent Friday night and part of Saturday at the David Patterson household (Danny’s brother and sister-in-law, Pam). Being with David and Pam at their home is like being on a tr
opical vacation. Their home is incredible and their property, a cultivated jungle. I mean this place is amazing and words just can’t describe it. But the company is even better. David and Pam are a couple of middle-aged-Jimmy-Buffet-like-hippies and are so much fun to be with. But our visit at their place was brief because Saturday morning we headed out to a place near the Chattooga River where I was planning to run the Chattooga River 50k. Danny’s BFF (best friend forever in 21st century lingo) is Kelly Smith - 60 years old, a man hard to describe – taciturn and garrulous, lives the simple, natural life – a violin maker (which makes him even better) also one of the coolest people alive. Hearing Kelly laugh makes you immediately happy and crave to hear it again. Karen Hawk is Kelly’s partner - a war-protesting, peace-loving, cartoonist and librarian. Now can you think of two better people to spend an evening with??? When we first arrived, Kelly took us on a “hike through the property”, which I assumed meant a walk on a “trail”. When Kelly started pulling back braches and headed straight down a wild jungle hill, I knew we were in for a real walk. We made our way through his mountainous property, all the while Danny and Kelly identifying trees, birds, and leaves. I found two small newts along the way. Finally we broke through the wildness of the property and were walking down a two-track when Danny shouted “watch out”. Immediately in front of Danny and Kelly was a spider web like none I have ever seen before with a spider right out of my worst nightmare. And what else could it be but a WRITING SPIDER. Are you kidding me? I didn’t know spiders like that existed. I had an immediate flashback to Mary Ann saying “if a writing spider writes your name, YOU’LL DIE”. And she wasn’t kidding. I almost died of a heart attack on the spot!The Chattooga River 50k – “Alone Again, Naturally”
Kelly drove us through the mountains to where the start of the race was to be the following morning. He, of course, and Danny, kept promising me that I had nothing to fear about snakes in SC. Kelly and Karen had only a handful of snake sightings in all their years of hiking, so “stop worrying”, they said. But naturally, 100 yards from the entry to the park where the race started, was a copperhead (dead in the middle of the road). Kelly turned the car around so I could have a good look at it so I’d know what to look out for on the 32 mile trail run ahead of me……and then he said “oh, normally they’re not that big. That’s the biggest copperhead I’ve ever seen”. Well, that really helped my mental preparation for this run that already had me more anxious than I’ve ever been before a race. Between the extremely high temps and humidity, the mountain terrain, snakes and “writing spiders” and the fact that this was an mostly unmarked, somewhat self-supported race, I was nervous, homesick, and scared. But the evening with Kelly and Karen was special…..a great pasta dinner and conversation over candle-light in their beautiful, natural home filled with violins hanging from beams. Perfect!
The morning of the race started early – 4:45. Kelly and Karen prepared a pot of coffee for us while we loaded the car. We headed for the start a little after 5. Danny was planning to volunteer because the race director, Terry Hayes, really wanted to run her own race….and since Danny and a few other experienced race volunteers were there, Terry got her wish. I need to stop here and say that Danny is unlike any man on this planet. He follows me around to these remote races, works for hours at a time (and I mean 12-18 hours at a time), and helps to keep the runners motivated, hydrated and fed. I wish every woman could be as lucky as I am! Anyway, back to the race. The race started at 7 and 58 runners headed into the most grueling, rugged mountain terrain imaginable on the east coast. The first section on the Winding Stairs trail was a 3 mile out and back, down a steep trail made of switch-backs. Great way to start a race, except for the 3 mile return up (ug), which led us to Big Bend that eventually led us to the Foothills trail along the raging Chattooga River. Foolishly when I read that part of this trail followed along the river, I assumed that the Chattooga River would be similar to the Chippewa River that I run beside every day….a nice, meandering, shallow river that I love to swim or float across on hot days in the summer. Not so with the Chattooga.
The section of the Chattooga we ran was along was a level 4 and 5 white water rapids river with waterfalls and a frightening 1,000,000 foot drop from the trails we were running. Okay, so I exaggerate a bit, but since I’m not good with measurements, this gives you an idea of the terror I felt on the trail. These trails were extremely rugged, rocky and above all else, rooty like I’ve never seen before. I wish I’d had a camera. The above ground root system reminded me of an old anatomy book I had with pictures of thousands of veins we have in our bodies….but these veins were not covered by anything. And the longer I ran, the more I tripped. Danny manned both of the 2 aid stations on the course and after mile 22, when I was tired and had already run 6.5 hours (yes, that is not an exaggerated time – these were not little hills), and suggested to him that I wanted to take off my camel-back and carry only my water bottle for the last 10.75 miles to the finish line, he protested. And thank goodness for that, because as I backtracked my way along the Chattooga, trying to recall landmarks, I got confused and was a bit dehydrated, which in my book means stupid and good-judgment-deficient.
This race, only having 50+ runners, meant that we all ran for very long stretches without ever seeing another person (the 1972 version of Alone Again, Naturally by Gilbert O’Sullivan kept going through my head). For me, those last 10.75 miles turned into about 16 of 17 because I made a very unfortunate turn onto (and up, and I mean UP) a very steep trail (I learned today that the first 30 miles of the race had a 20,000 foot ascent). During these 3 or so hours, I never saw another runner, but did see two hikers who said they had seen runners earlier. I finally reached the top of my giant mountainous mistake, and knew for certain I was lost (or off-course as Terry more delicately put it). I backtracked down the mountain and was trying to find the location of the last aide station where I hoped to find help, but fortunately ran into the race director, Terry, who was pretty sure we were still on the right trail. She convinced me to turn around (again) and backtrack. I, once again, started up the steep trail, a
nd immediately discovered that that had been my mistake. There was another trail going to the left but missed it both times. So I finished the last 5 – LLLOOONNNGGG miles with Terry – which was really cool. I was a dirty, smelly, crying, blistery, chaffed, dreadfully tired ultra runner who finished 40 miles (more or less) in 11 hours and 6 minutes. I do not EVER want to run 11 hours again – at least not 11 hours on a mountain. And Danny was out there in those mountains the entire time – waiting for me, helping the other runners, and cheering me on as I finished the longest day of my life! 
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