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!