In any case, besides West Virginia being an uphill state, it was also my 15th state.
So, how did I get here? Mike texts me one day and says "West Virginia - you have nothing for September and I know you haven't done West Vrginia. I'll drive. You show up!". Had to check the calendar but seemed like it fit. DId I fail to mention, I like the Freds? Hanging out with them is awesome so why not...?
I guess the race slogan of "26.2 almost heavenily miles" should have been a dead giveaway. It would have if I had looked at the elevation map. Oh well.
We decided to leave Saturday approx 3pm. In the morning, I ran 4ish miles. I then worked at the ymca as a guard. Glutten for punishment but since I'm not teaching, I figured I'll take the extra money plus they were short staffed anyway, so let me help out.
Meanwhile Mike went to work in the morning as well. He finally texts me that he's on the way. Took him a long time until he got to me. Didn't make sense until he told me that he forgot his shorts at home and had to turn around to get them. Oi...
Finally, on our way. Little bit of traffic to get out of NYC. Once that was done, it was mostly clear sailing.
We did see a huge accident at one point close to our destination. It was bad. SUV on it's side. I saw a firefighter from a far and warned Mike about it. Guy was really hard to see in the dark. After that, we also encountered a down power line and had to get detoured a little.
By the way, it's worthwhile to mention that the Fred's and I really think alike. I brought my dinner. They brought food as well and we ate as we drove. Still, I need to mention my jealousy of other people's stomachs. At one of our real quick pit stops, Maria bought 6 Dunkin Donuts. Mike ate a few without issue. Wow... Jealous.
Anyway, we finally got to our destination. I found a place to stay that was about 10-15 minutes away from the parking and shuttle. It wasn't great but it was clean and it had indoor plumbing and it was cheap.
In the morning, we got ready and left. I signed us up for "same day packet pickup" so that was good. I didn't sleep that much since we only got there around 10:30pm and my stomach needs consideration but that's ok.
We talked to a couple of guys who were going to walk to the start. In retrospect, we should have done the same. It was that close to the start/finish but I didn't realize it. I looked at where we were supposed to park. Oh well. We drove to the parking area, parked, got ready and then went to the shuttle. The shuttle drove right past our motel to the start. Oops... Oh well.
The guy parked next to us was Halbert, a 10 star Maniac. We didn't realize it at the time. Later, we saw him at the start. The Freds knew him, I didn't. They also introduced me to Melissa and Peter.
I set a new PR that day: I managed to do a sitdown at the port-a-potties 4 times at race start and that's after the usual crazy number at the motel and after a 1 pill pre-emptive strike. I then took another pill. This is not an auspicious start...
Right before we started, the RD said something like "Who we are?" (I don't remember anymore) and everybody around us screamed something out. I asked... It was the local Football team. The start/finish was at a stadium so that made sense.
We (finally) started. I didn't understand why Mike was standing next to Maria and me and he talked about going slow and such. I didn't really believe him... Well, 25 yards in and he was away in typical Mike fashion. That's ok.
I can't say I was in love with the course. There seemed to be a lot of meandering around. We went a block, then turned and came back the other way, 1 block parallel. Then we did that to the next block etc. Seemed like they were just collecting yards to get the distance in.
At one point, a little old lady yelled out "You're almost there...", I said outloud to no one in particular, "To what...The 3 mile marker?". People laughed. Unfortunatly, it was sad. We did then reach the 3 mile marker. Listen, unless we have 1/2 mile or less, I don't want to hear "almost there"...
At that point, I started talking to a young guy. His name escapes me but I think his last name was something like Wachovia. He was training for his first Marathon and today he was doing the half.
We talked for something like 3 miles which was the split for us. I wished him luck and left. He made a right and I made a left. Very little after that, I started talking to Lauren. Really nice person. We hit it off. We ran together until mile 26 but I'm getting ahead of myself as usual.
We talked a lot. Really a lot. I got the feeling that she's a single mother but I didn't pry. Considering the conversations we had, that was lame but that's ok.
Just to document things for no other reason than documenting and in no (TMI) order:
A little more on those things here.
Chafing: Yeah. I knew it was a bad one. One nipple (mine) was getting some loving from my shirt. Inner thighs were the real bad one. Later I realized I had a 3 inch gash on each inner thigh. She had some on the left boob. We did see a medical station and I got some vaseline and dealt with the nipples which weren't that bad and the thighs which were. The vaseline helped some but the damage was already done. I then cleaned my hand on my shorts which was awesome since it looked like a handprint on my behind. She didn't take any vaseline.
She did need to use the bathroom though and we kept eyeing potential port-a-bushes for her when an actual port-a-pottie came into view. She sprinted. I waited. She was very very happy after that.
At one point, we got to an aid station manned by a church and I asked for some soda and was told that someone has in his car. I didn't want him to go crazy for me so I declined but before I knew it, dude was hauling butt up this crazy grass incline. My hero... Unfortunatly he brought a Dr. Pepper which I never had before... I thanked them profusely and actually tried it. It was vile. I guess it was like cherry coke. I did have a little but eventually spilled it.
I did find someone eventually who got me a coke and I felt better. Much better...
By the way, we kept leapfrogging a new MM friend named Erin. She convinced her friend to join the Maniacs with 3 in 90 days and so she was doing her job of pulling her friend. This was number 1. She was smart though in that she got her friend to sign up for them ahead of time. Nice!
Another conversation, as noted above, was about gels. Lauren said that a non-runing friend asked her what a gel was and that she wasn't sure how to answer. Of course I had an answer. Here's the conversation:
ME: So there are 2 ways to answer that question... There's
a PG version and a not PG version.
HER: Give me the PG version first.
ME: Ever get a custard donut at Dunkin Donut? Well, a gel is the
yummy gooey inside filling.
HER: Ok...
ME: Do I have to explain the not PG version.
HER: Nope (*laughing*)
ME: Good. For a second, I thought I blew it... (*more laughing from
both of us*)
Yes, we definitly had fun. By the way, I have to give credit where credit is due. This was not her first rodeo and when she was in "shape" and training, she PRed with a 3:58 or 3:59 I think. Today wasn't those conditions so we just had fun. Well, as much fun as 2 people can have while constantly climbing hills, hills and more hills.
At around mile 18, we had just finished a climb and we got to a "T" intersection. There was a cop there to stop traffic so we can make the left turn. As is my custom, I thanked him for being there. Say what you want and feel what you want, but these people were keeping us safe and I will say thanks for that no matter what. Anyway, as I thanked him, he told us it's all downhill from here. As we had just turned into another uphill, I turned to him and said "I can see your smile from ear to ear so I know you're not telling the truth...". Yeah - he was just joking... ;(
We still had 8.2 more miles of climbing and we knew it. If there's one thing we figured out about this course, is that it was a climbing course. I had also heard that the last mile was a huge hill. Hm...
Still, we had fun. We did. What else do people do while climbing climbing and more climbing?!?
Mile 24: Lauren and I, for a small time, picked up a young female athlete. She was in her early 20s and her boyfriend was up ahead trying to get her to move. We were just the motivation she needed and she stayed with us as long as she could but alas she really couldn't keep up. I mean, she would finish..., but not with us. Still, for a few minutes anyway, we gave her a reprieve. It consisted the three of us, while running, belting out Sir Mix Alot's classic tale of him expressing his love. If you still don't get it, the song was "(I like) big butts".
Yes, we were screaming it out and enjoying ourselves immensly. I think right before we picked her up, they had icicles and I actually stopped to get one but Lauren at this point wanted to be done so I just grabbed a couple of bites. At mile 25, we turned away from this stretch (24-25) that was near water I think and I thought was beautiful. Lauren didn't like it so much. Still, right there at 25, was an impromptu aid station and they gave Chocolate kisses and I took a few. Glad I did. I knew that the "worst" hill was at mile 25. I just didn't realize what it was.
The last hill: The Mile between 25-26 was a hill. The hill...Reallyc a misnomer since at least to me, a hill suggests a cute little incline. This wasn't that. If you run local to me, then this was very similar to doing MD Row and climbing up from Community Blvd. Nasty incline through a turn in the road so the road was pitched. Call it whatever you want, it was ugly. It was long. It was a mile long.
Mile 25 was at the bottom. Mile 26 was at the top and was the entrance to the school. At this point, Lauren said that I need to leave her and that she will see me at the finish. She got me. She really did. I didn't ask for this but she knew what I wanted. I took off. I was just aiming at people. I was passing people. I chased this guy down whose family was trying to warn that I was coming. I clapped him on the shoulder and he started screaming (with a smile and a wave) at me. I took off. I chased another. I finished.
Mike was there. Even tho he took off immediatly, he "died" on the course. He tried to do something here but ultimatly came in about 3 minutes before me. The humidity and hills got to him. Turns out that at mile 26, he said to some kid that they should open up and chase people. The kid agreed and dropped him like nothing. Funny.
While waiting for Maria, he told me that the course reminded him of Yonkers and he bets Maria will say that too. We waited. Lauren finished and I met her kid and her Mom. Awesome time we had.
Maria finished without her glasses on her face. She couldn't see because they fogged up badly. She went off course a few times because of it. Luckily, the volunteers stopped her.
As soon as she finished, very uncharacterically of her (she usually doesn't curse but she was D.O.N.E ), she said "F**K ME!". Very characterically of Mike tho, he not only said "OK, let's go" but also made sure that the RD heard it. Luckily for him, she was done but she is also used to him... ;)
We got some food (pizza, cherry turnover, some other stuff), some more swag including a couple of shirts from the West Virginia National Guard and went to board the shuttle. We all changed at the car and headed home.
The drive back was terrible. I really thought about going to Krav Maga at 6:30. I thought I'd be home by 7:30 to still eat with the family. Eventually, I told them to eat. Eventually, I told them to go to sleep and not wait up. We left at 1:30pm. We arrived at 10:30pm. It was a terrible drive coming close to NYC. We did almost get hit by a hawk who decided to check us out.
Jeremy was up and he sat with me while I ate cold pizza. Finally went to sleep. The next day, Elizabeth and I drove Jessie to school, came back and picked him up and took him to his roadtest in Garden City in the rain. After he passed it, we took him to StonyBrook and came back home. I went and ran my streak mile with Elizabeth and called it a day.
All in all, I enjoyed (when don't I?) the race and the company during the drive as well as during the race. I didn't enjoy the slog into NYC tho.
Lastly, the chafe was one of the worst I had. About 3 inch bloody gashes on the inner thighs. My legs were fine but everytime I got in and out of the car, I would open them back up again and bleed. It's been weeks since that day and it looks like I have 2 new scars.
