State #40 Jacksonville, Florida

26.2 with Donna The National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer

February 11, 2018

The heat, humidity and hill repeats have done a number on my poor husband! That means I get to drive us back to Jacksonville, Florida.  The whole time I am running visions of a big regular "coke" dance in my head. After my stomach issues are resolved that is...I can't even eat the "free pizza" provided as I wait for my husband to finish! The heat leaves him wiped out so I go get the car~parked a mile away~while he recovers. Once we finally make it to the Courtyard Marriott, it's time to enjoy some ocean views while soaking all our achy parts in the spa! Maybe, just maybe, we are getting too old for the double marathon business.  I can honestly say, I am not excited about doing another 26.2 mile run tomorrow morning. The idea of finally hitting my 40th state is the motivation that keeps me going!  After soaking for as long as possible, we climb out of the hot  water before we turn into complete prunes. Time to try and find something good to eat. It doesn't take long for my iron stomach to recover. We read reviews and pick a place, but once we arrive at the destination, there is a ginormous herd of people waiting to get into the restaurant along with a long line to valet park. We are too tired to wait and find a place called "Burrito Gallery."  While it is tasty enough, it still doesn't compare to the Tex Mex style of "Rubios" or the authentic taste of El Rosal!  Maybe, I am just a simple creature of habit, but with ten more states to go, I am still looking for something amazingly delicious. Let me just say I am not getting my hopes up if it doesn't happen. Once we organize for the morning, we are so exhausted that there is no work involved in falling asleep...No need to listen to the radio or cover the microwave light.

Looking forward to getting here!

It is one of those magical nights...just close the eyelids and we are out to the world! On the way to our car in the morning, we find the Mile 19 marker in front of the hotel.  In a few short hours we will be at this point with a mere seven miles to go.  If only it were that easy. This marathon is a little easier than most because of how inspiring it is. The "power of pink" energizes the day and empowers us all. Everyone has a story and everyone is impacted by cancer is some way and when people come together to fight it, what a powerful force it can be...

The drive to the parking lot can get congested and to alleviate any stress~especially for my hubby who always frets about the parking~we get up extra early to arrive with plenty of time to spare.  We get a nice spot close to athlete village and enjoy the extra time relaxing in the car. It is much better than being stuck in stop and go traffic worrying about whether we will make it to the start line on

1984 Olympic Gold Medalist

time. There is a booming voice making announcements between songs and encouraging words from  Donna, Jeff Galloway and Joan Benoit Samuelson which we enjoy from the comfort of the car. Once it is time to make our way to the start we leave a bag at bag drop.  The race finishes at the Mayo Clinic and runners are bused back to the start. I most definitely will need a jacket after the race even though it is expected to be an extremely warm day.  We chat with runners in the potty line...many of whom are running their first marathon in honor of friends and family. There is so much positive energy flowing. My husband decides to try the Galloway walk-run method and I find my corral near the four hour pacer.  I know that is a lofty goal, but I set my sights high to start. The first couple of miles are tough.  It is always hard to get started on the second day and it doesn't help that it is so hot and humid.  There is not even a hint of a breeze.  One guy yells out after the first mile, "Only 25 miles to go!"  Another guy yells, "Oh you are that guy that nobody likes!"  The first guy says, "Ya that's me... the guy that nobody likes!"  I end up near the guy that 'nobody likes' and his buddy for much of the first ten miles and they are pretty obnoxious, his self-awareness turns out to be spot on. Runners are given some relief with a cool breeze around mile three as we get close to the ocean and run through the enthusiastic beach communities.

The streets are lined with tons of people. It is fun running through neighborhoods of people out cheering. It is a never ending block party with music blasting, champagne drinking and even bubbles being blown our way.  Even on tired legs, I can't help but smile and feel loved and encouraged by all of the support. I am making no progress in getting ahead of the four hour Galloway pacer group.  They seem to be running for 30 seconds followed by a short walk. They get ahead of me and then I pass them when they walk and it continues like this for miles.  I definitely do not want to run and stop so often...it seems too difficult to get going again!  When the pacer leaves his group to run ahead for a potty break I never see the group again! A man who lives just outside of Washington D.C. strikes up a conversation with me and we run off and on together for about five miles. He takes walk breaks, but catches up to me each time he starts again.

Galloway is definitely working for him.  He has run Boston nine times and is thinking about doing New York  It is nice to share miles and stories with a fellow runner. Running with someone else is energizing until my stomach starts to act up again. The course is full of twists and turns, a nice way to break up the monotony. I prefer mixing it up rather than running one long straightaway.  Just after mile 15 we make a sharp turn across some grass and a row of potties are readily available.  All my hopes of a sub four hour marathon is dashed when the four hour group swooshes by while I am in the outhouse! (Thanks for waiting until my bathroom break to pass me up!)... It is a little less painful that way! I see the four hour pacer later at the finish line festivities, he also has his shoes off. After my bathroom stop the momentum is gone. The fatigue factor sets in and I decide to just enjoy the ride.  The high level of support along the way is inspiring and uplifting even on

wobbly legs. It is easy to keep running when thinking of the many challenges  people face while fighting cancer. I find myself gaining new strength with each mile even as my mile times decrease. I pass half marathoners running in groups with matching pink shirts and relay runners pass me up so easily. All are here in solidarity to fight cancer. *F**k* Cancer  is written on the back of countless shirts!!!  That pretty much says it all...Jacksonville and the surrounding beach towns do an impressive job of supporting and uplifting all participants. The event is not only fun, but it brings awareness while raising money and providing support.  

Some homeowners are rather graphic with their depictions, but it is all in good fun!! When I finally make it back to Mile 19 (the hotel is right there and as tempting as it is, I just keep going) the  remaining 7 miles seem possible until I reach the the last 3.5 miles which are all on a freeway that leads to the Mayo Clinic.           

Runners climb a half mile curving freeway ramp before finishing the last three miles on the freeway. It is the most challenging  section with the hot sun rising into the sky along with the rough slanted camber of the freeway doing a number on the feet! The remaining miles are rather symbolic of the struggle and fight required to beat cancer! As runners make the final steep climb, a man on stilts welcomes exhausted runners with a high-five. The challenge is followed with a nice downhill grade to the exit ramp before the final turn to the finish line. Thankfully, the last .2 seems shorter than usual! I happily cross the finish line in 4 hours and 14 minutes, but the last few miles leave me with some very tender toenails and a huge blister. The correlation between blisters and oozing toenails and double marathon weekends is  becoming evident. 

Another reason I may need to rethink doing them. For now, it is time to rest up for awhile before my husband rolls across the finish! I text him warning him about the last three and a half miles and he says he is taking it slow. My first priority is to get my shoes off and my flip flops on. After sitting on the curb, I finally recover enough to find something to eat without any cash the limited food choice is~chicken noodle soup~but there is unlimited beer. While drinking my beer near the awards I hear my name called. I place 1st in my age and get my picture with Joan Samuelson! What an unexpected surprise and thrill!! (But I can't find the picture anywhere in the proofs...and the official results the next day add a runner to 1st 

 place moving me to 2nd place...oh well.) Another beer is in order as I find a chair in the sun to rest my aching toes. It is fun to sit and watch all the runners relish their accomplishment as they shuffle along before I do my own shuffling back to the finish in time to see my husband victoriously cross the finish line! After the bus ride back to our car, we make it back to the hotel and breathe a sigh of relief.  We did it! After

showering we have some dinner, at "Ragtime" and our waitress is the nicest person ever, before calling it a day.  We are too tired to even go to the spa or walk along the beach.  The next two days are for resting, relaxing and recovering...

Spent a few hours on the beach...they drive on their beaches in Florida!!

Walk on the pier after dinner...husband had alligator bites!!

I Wonder if I will visit every lighthouse in America...

Is it really necessary to climb 200 stairs the day after back to back marathons?

...and tour the Daytona 500 Speedway with oozing toes??

Always nice to be home, and see kitty patiently waiting for me!!

State #39 Hilton Head, South Carolina

February 10, 2018
Hilton Head Marathon

Sometimes this is all you need!!

We hit the ground running on January 14th with great results at the Louisiana Marathon, but it is followed by a five day stint~not including the three post marathon rest days~on the couch with a flu bug...ugh!! As the days pass without a run or any movement, my mood diminishes. There really is something to  endorphins...my necessary drug of choice. Once I am able to get rid of the pounding headache and can somewhat breathe, it is time to get back to the pavement. For sanity sake, I can't go eight days without a run again! The husband agrees...apparently I am not the easiest person to live with when I don't have my natural high! After a four mile run, I meet my husband for lunch and he says, "Welcome Back...from the dark side!" With little time remaining, we must pull it together before

the upcoming double marathon weekend. Our last double was in October 2016 when we did two doubles (New Hampshire and Maine followed by Missouri and Iowa) so one little double is a piece of cake...right?  On paper or computer screen it seems easy enough, conceptually speaking anyway, but sometimes executing the plan is a bit more challenging... 

 We start the trip with a meet-up with our daughter before making our way to the airport. She meets us for some shopping! ~Well, her dad does her taxes while his girls shop~ Eating dinner and just talking with our little princess is the best part of our trip!  Where does the time go...how can she be all grown up! The time ends too soon as she drives home while we drive to the airport for another night flight. Our travel is uneventful and after a quick four and a half hour flight, we are on the road to Jacksonville in another nice new Rogue rental car! Reunited with my heated seats!! We stop at the expo for our Sunday race, The Donna Marathon! It is a race against breast cancer and a celebration of those battling it. The race director is a three time cancer survivor and her enthusiasm in fighting the disease and supporting other affected by cancer is very   

Donna...race director and cancer survivor!

inspiring. It is a weekend of hope and  community celebration with lots of love and encouragement. We feel the positive energy when we arrive Friday morning and it stays with us throughout the entire weekend. But before we take on the Donna race, we must make our way to Hilton Head Island to run our South Carolina state. Before the long drive, we try V Pizza. It really isn't very tastiest, but Jacksonville workers sure do love it...as the lunch crowd pours into the place with a line out the door as we leave. 

With pizza and diet coke~they go together, don't they~in our bellies, we settle in for the three hour drive to packet pick-up located at our hotel.  In the final hour of the drive the rain joins us. While looking around the hotel we got pelleted with buckets of rain.  Limited sleep and pouring rain made the pasta dinner at our hotel the reasonable choice.  Pasta dinners evoke memories of Alabama and extreme food poisoning from our first double marathon in 2014. Yet, it doesn't stop me from stuffing my face and forcing three raisin oatmeal cookies down my gullet. One good thing about pasta dinners is the camaraderie between other runners. 

We are joined at the table by a runner from Colorado who is trying to get a BQ in every state.  He is on state 38 and runs all his races under 3:30 or less.  He has many runs under three hours.  Another couple joins us and the wife has run 243 marathons...she has completed all the states and has run a marathon on all seven continents. Over 200 of her runs are under four hours.  Wow, now we are feeling like chump change. The wife isn't even eating dinner, she is just sitting with her husband.  Little do I know, I am talking with my competition for the grand master's award and no surprises here...the one who does not stuff their face usually wins the race.

Race morning does not get off to a great start with the realization that there are no potties at the start, WHAT??  There are seven potties over at the park, but the lines are ridiculously long and although the race has chip timing, awards are based on gun times only.  What to do!!  I do not have the patience for the lines and do not want to start minutes after the official start. Not to be graphic~running while having to go potty~is not a good thing!! Let's leave it at that! It ends up being the longest 3:59:14 of my life. Where is everyone you may ask...they are all a half mile away waiting in a meandering snake like potty line. One man is standing guard while his wife goes behind a concrete partition.  Is this really the levels we must stoop to in the crazy world of marathon running!! Enough venting!!... 

Needless to say, I struggle through the miles.  The first two miles are through a park setting before we make our way to the highway section that leads to an infamous bridge that we end up running up and over four times. If ever I need my phone or i-pod as a distraction, it is during the long lonely stretches of this race.  I run alone for long periods of time and mistakenly pass up a porta potty at mile 8ish which I regret for the next seven plus miles.  At one point I look behind me to see if anyone is even behind me. Am I going the right way...I ask myself and strangers out walking their dogs.  The roads are not marked with paint, but I keep moving forward.  During a stretch in a private gated neighborhood I stop to look around.  There are lots of roads and possible directions to take, eventually I see a person with a flag and make the correct turn. Miles 10 through 13 are navigationally challenging, but my confusion comes to a screeching halt when the 3:45 pacer passes me just after I cross the 13.1 timer.  On the bright side at least I know I am going the right way and now I have someone to catch. My hopes of catching the pacer are dashed at mile 15.75 when I finally make a pit stop.  After  a 2 minute and 20 second battle in the little green hut, I prepare for the third climb up the bridge.  As I catch one runner, who passed me up during my break, he gives me a knuckles high five which gives me new energy for about ten seconds.  I have my sights~laser focused~on the lady just ahead of me who also passed me up during my timeout.  I chase her for the next 9 miles. Water and aid is

available often enough, but there is no GU on the course and I can't stomach it anyway.  I try to enjoy the homes and the nature scenes, but my energy is quickly fading away. On my last trip down the bridge (mile 23) my husband is on his way up and he captures my misery.  It is going to be a long finish for him as the heat and humidity increase. At mile 24 the four hour pacer passes me up.  I just shake my head letting him know I won't be getting on his struggle bus. Defeat sets in as my target~the lady in shorts who is still just slightly in front of me~catches a ride with the four hour pacer. I concede, I don't have the energy to catch her. Today, there will be no final kick to the end or thrill of catching and passing

other runners.  I just hold on to my saddle's horn and coast to the finish line hoping I will not be thrown off in the final .2 and fall into the alligator filled pond.  There is no medic to hold me up today and no exhilaration in obtaining a PR, just an urgent need to make it to the bathroom.  They can't all be pretty!!  My utter joy today is an open available stall with a roll of paper towels!!

...Although my extended bathroom break at mile 15.75 cost me my first shot at the Grand Master's award envelop containing cold hard cash (the Texas lady from dinner the night before, the one with 244 marathons and the wisdom not to stuff herself) wins the award. I happily settle for a first in age group medal!