Jamey. It's all his fault damn it. He actually enjoys it there. I don't. Well, I do enjoy seeing some of the people and there are a bunch of different people that I know who swear up and down by this race.
Once again, Jamey decided to do this as a fundraiser for Merrick JC. I also wanted to help Tomsky break a 5 hour Marathon and it seemed prudent to have him do this but with a late start. I would come in at night, run Tomsky into a sub 5 and then help Jamey. JAmey hounded Salty Mcnulty getting an official late start is cool email (AWO - Against Wife Opinion). Tomsky meanwhile went on the 8th grade class trip overseas and finally got back Tuesday morning. Of course, he didn't run at all and last minute decided that this race wasn't happening. Yup - called it.
And so, decisions decisions. Do I start at midnight or just come in at 6pm? Well, 6pm means I get to sleep some of the night and so hat was it. Next decision battle was how to get there. IT would have been nice to go with Raina and this way, she could leave whenever she wants and I would drive his car home. Did I mention that this years goal for Jamey was 125 Miles? But it was unclear when Raina would go and if she would even go and so I drove my own car there.
And so I did and signed up last minute and by the way, paid for that privilege too...
One of the reasons I went earlier besides getting some sleep was the fact that Jamey seemed to be ahead of schedule. Turns out it started hot as hell and then the rain came and while everyone sheltered, Jamey went back and put some of his fastest miles down. Nice...
Anyway, I got there and registered. Lots of familiar and friendly faces. And then someone at the picnic tables started screaming. This woman was there with her husband. He took a break from the race to eat something and as he sat there, he became unresponsive. She started screaming for help. Salty McNulty's wife, Jennifer, was a little nasty about it. I get it that she's sleep deprived AND stressed AND screaming help help help without details is stupid but this woman was freaking out and she could have been a little more gentle. She did turn things around tho so that's good.
Anyway, he became unresponsive probably from the heat and exhaustion and they iced him while I called 911 and let them use my phone to describe where we are. Meanwhile dude started vomitting the food he atee and things got louder. But then he suddenly "woke up" and all was better and when EMS showed up, there was nothing to do except check vitals.
The race finally started. I signed up for the MArathon so I could support Jamey even tho they have me listed as a 6 hour runner. I was the only one doing "just the Marathon" and I kinda felt a little wussy about it knowing that everyone else is putting some miles on the course.
Fiona seemed happiest to see me and she took advantage of me (I feel violated ;) ) by using me to get her miles in. Meanwhile I kept my eyes on Jamey at all times. Sometimes we ran together. At other times, I was behind him. He looked good. Tired and exhausted and chafed but good. We were together and he "knew" the Raina wasn't coming. HA! I knew she was and she did and surprised him. She stayed together with him I think for a loop and after that she cut the loop in half constantly to get stuff ready for him. Nice... Meanwhile, I tried to get as many miles in so that I could finish with him BUT he had enough and especially since Raina was there, put some speed and suddenly he onlu had 3 miles to go while I had 8. Sucks...
Since, I drove down there, I figured we would caravan home together so I would make sure he would get home ok. Why am I mentionting this? Well, Raina was gonna go home. She had enough and wanted to sleep. She said goodbye to me but I looked at her and said, you know that he's going to be done in less than 20 minutes, right? And so she waited. I continuued on. He finished and I wasn't anywhere near by - sucks. Raina made him take a shower while she had a beer with Salty and yet I was still out there. Finally, I had a loop and a half to go (1.5 miles for those who are mathematically challenged) and I saw them drive out. She was gonna caravan home with him so that's good and I don't need to worry about that. Still it kinda sucked. I wanted to do this for Tomsky and that didn't happen. I was gonna run Jamey in and that didn't happen tho I'm sure it helped mentally that I was there. I wanted to caravan home mainly for him and to an extent for me but that didn't happen either. Oh well. Batting a thousand I guess...
There was an Ella sighting which was cool. Because of scheduling, she was only able to run a shorter distance and left but she came back to help out the dude who crewed her the previous year. NICE!
I finished and didn't feel like showering either. I was going to buy food on the way but then realized that that's stupid... Especially with how much I paid and so I got some food.
When I initially got there, I met this dude. Can't remember his name right now. Anyway, I think he did run some but also spent a lot of time volunteering and in so was also busy ingesting liquid carbs AKA Beer. While not a fan of Beer, I have no problem with him imbibing in this case. Point is: He was in a good mood. While he may always be in a good mood, I'm sure the Beer didn't hurt and certainly may have helped this little tidbit to happen.
Setup: I had just finished my not so favorite race, Jamey left so I was gonna have to dribe about an hour and a half by myself and I made the decision to get food there. Now, I LOVE eggs and so I went in search of eggs. The conversation went something like this:
M: Hey... Again thanks for being here. H: No prob. Can I get you something? M: Eggs? Please? H: Sure... How many eggs? M: I LOVE EGGS. You choose. H: How many you want? M: Dealers choice. (* Meanwhile we are both smiling at this entire exchange *) H: What D'ya want? I got 2, 3... 4. M: (* Getting into it now *) Why you gotta be so cheap? (*With a big grin on my face*) H: Oh... It's like that... (*He goes into the fridge and comes back with a tray*) H: I got 10 eggs here. M: Now you're talking my language. Why are we still talking? H: You gonna eat 10 eggs...?!? M: Only if you finally start making them. H: Oh it's like that, ha? (*He starts frying them*) H: How do you want them? M: Fried well please. I don't want them to be runny. I just ran. Don't need the eggs to run. (*Yes it was corny but Beer helps and he's cracking up*) H: That was awesome. You just came up with that? M: YUP! M: The woman behind you is watching you. I think she's Quality Control... (*Now she's cracking up as well*) H: Here are your eggs... I'd like to see you eat all that...! M: Thanks and seriously no problem...
And so, I took my eggs and sat at a picnic table with a can of Seltzer that I brought with me. At the same table, a husband and wife were also sitting but they were sitting with their feet outside the table as they were talking to Salty. His sister was standing next to him listening as he was talking.
A little background. His sister is awesome. Always a hug opportunity and she usually makes pizza in the middle of the night or even better: FRESH COOKIES. That night, she made Peanut Butter Cookies with a Hershey's Kiss on top. Salty has a booming voice, was sleep deprived and was into his Nth Beer which only made his voice that much more booming.
And so, I sat down and was busy eating while they talked. Salty was explaining how he had kids but then re-married (Jennifer) and that Jennifer also wanted kids which of course led to a small description of his Vasectomy which led (OF COURSE!) into a much longer description of how they reverse Vasectomies. Where a Vasectomy is a quick 45 minute, mostly painless thing, a reversal apparently is much more involved. He recounted how he sat there, his legs spread open while his junk is just hanging out, everything affected by gravity. And then he explained how for 8 hours he sat there like that as people were poking and pulling and more pulling stuff and causing him to be annoyed. He went into great detail about the pulling of his insides etc. He then realized, that I was sitting there eating and he said "Here I am talking about how I sat there with my balls hanging down to the floor while people are pulling it in all directions and this guy is eating" to which I immediatly announced that I was of course eating eggs... I truly didn't care. What the hell do I care what people talk about while I eat? I know it botheres people but NOT me... By the way, through out all this, his sister is just standing there while nursing on a beer, listening to him and looking at him like he's nuts. It was kinda funny.
I finished my eggs and before throwing out the plate, I went back to the egg guy. I called him over and he tried to take the plate away and I was like "nah dude... You don't clean up for me... I will throw that out BUT I wanted you to see what 10 eggs look like after you eat them". And I showed them an EMPTY container. Oh yeah... He was amazed and shocked but I love my eggs.... Thanked him again and headed home.
By the way, got my swag in the mail... Long sleeve flannel shirt with the logo which our daughter already laid claim to and another vest.
Every so often, I was also running with Heather. She looked so familiar. I'm convinced I have seen her at races. She also recognized me. We both did Shore To Shore 50K even tho she was ahead of me. We got along swimmingly but every time her friend joined for a loop, I felt like I was a 3rd wheel. The 2 girls just could not deal with another person. Oh well.
One little other cute story: I was almost done (finally) with my loops when I down the hill after the food, I saw 2 girls sitting on the grass and working out. Of course, I had to say something so as I approached I fake coughed the word "SHOWOFF" twice. The girls laughed. I apologized for having something in my throat. There was a guy who was about 25 yards ahead of me and he totally appreciated what I did and while laughing, thanked me for it. Next loop, we repeated. I coughed and yelled out SHOWOFF. They laughed. The next time, they were done so I thanked them for not having to cough again to which one of the girlies told me that they were going to offer me something to drink for my throat. We both laughed...