The
Extra Mile
By:
Thomas Nagies Age: 19
As with most races that I enter, I
am usually excited about the upcoming event. When the days roll by and the race
day gets closer, I find myself wondering why I signed up for these. Especially
on race day, I think “Why on earth am I doing this? I want to go to bed! This
is stupid…” but that does not make me quit first thing in the morning because I
find that I am generally happy once I get further along in the run.
This time, I was attempting The
Last Annual Vol State Road Race 500k run which is 314 miles for those who
are not familiar with kilometer distances. Also, it is always called ‘the last
annual’ but it is more of a joke I think. I had been looking forward to this
since it ended the year before. My mom had asked me if I had wanted to do this
race and I said yes. Months pass by and I did not think about the race too
much, but as the New Year approached I began to feel excited that July was
getting closer. About a week before the race, I began to feel doubt. Could I
really complete something this long? The furthest distance I had ever completed
before this was 66 miles at one time and this race was almost five times that
distance.
Indeed I do call this a race, but it
is not like most races. Usually people will think of races as being extremely
competitive and doing whatever it takes to win. In extreme distances such as
this though, completing it is the ultimate goal. Most people are friendly and
will aid each other along the way if needed rather than focusing on the
necessity of passing the person ahead of them. Due to this, friendships are
built along the path of the journey.
On the morning of July 9th
(2013 for my reference if I decide to look back at this a long time in the
future), I packed my bags and made my trip down to Chattanooga, Tennessee. My
mom lives up here and she was going to help me get everything I needed for this
race because I had decided that I wanted to try to be in the ‘screwed’
category. There are three categories for this race, ‘screwed’, crewed’, or
‘relay’. ‘Screwed’ means that I will not be allowed to receive any outside
assistance from people I know and that I will only be able to use what I had on
my back. ‘Crewed’ means that someone can have a car meeting up with them to
hand them anything such as food, water, or whatever else is needed. Last,
‘Relay’ means that there is a team of people running and they can tag out and
let someone else continue from where they left off when they need to rest.
My mom helped me pick out a small pack
that would not bother me when running with it because I cannot stand to have
something bouncing on my back when I run. For those of you who wanted to know
what pack I was using, the brand was Salomon and it was the ‘skinpro 10+3’
edition. I did make some modifications by attaching things to the front and
taking the water bladder out of it but I will provide a picture of it at the
end of this report. I like to carry handheld water bottles so mom gave me
Platypus bottles to use that fold up when you drink water out of it so that it
takes up less space once it is empty. I got a couple waterproof bags and a
waterproof case that I put my phone and iPod in and a 100% silk sleeping bag
liner which became very useful.
The next day, I headed out early to
meet the tour bus near the finish line that would be driving the course
backwards for us to see. The entire drive ended up being about nine hours and
we stopped about halfway at the ‘bench of despair’ to eat and get a milkshake
if desired. Before getting on the bus I had set a goal to finish this race in
five days, but after driving the whole thing backwards I began to feel happy
with ten days if it took me that long. After arriving at the hotel about half
an hour from the start line, we all had our ‘last supper’ at Ryan’s buffet and
were told to report our mileage twice a day at 0730 and 1930 once the race
began. Realizing that I had forgotten a couple things I walked over to the
nearby Wal-Mart. The bus was going to be heading to the Wal-Mart later that
night, but I did not want to wait that long because I wanted to get as much
sleep as I could. I walked in to Wal-Mart and got a double-USB wall outlet so
that I would not have to carry two separate ones and then headed to Dollar
General to buy a couple ponchos in case of rain. Realizing I had yet again
forgotten something, I went back to Wal-Mart to buy a small needle and thread
kit which I thought I would use for blisters. This kit had also come with a
small pair of travel scissors which I will talk about later. On my way out of
Wal-Mart I met a couple other runners who offered me a ride back to the hotel.
When I arrived back in the hotel, I pulled out my maps and began to write a
couple notes on them. Since the mile numbers were too small for me to read, I
began to write down the number to about every 5th mile for all 314
miles. Once finishing this task, I packed up my bag so that it was ready to
wear tomorrow morning and went to sleep.
Finally it was race day, July 11th.
Waking up at 0500, I did not feel like I was the happiest person in the world
but I took a shower, ate breakfast, and got on the bus to head towards the
start line. Interestingly, in this race we have to take a ferry across the
Mississippi River in order to get to the start line and then take it back to
continue so standing on the ferry actually ends up being about two miles of the
race. After crossing the river, we all step off the ferry and go about 50 feet
in order to be in Missouri where the race starts.
The
moment had now arrived. With everyone standing at the start line in Dorena
Landing, Missouri, we waited for the ‘cigarette lighting’ to start the race at
0730 (I think it actually started at 0731). Everyone rushed a whole 50 feet on
to the ferry and waited for it to cross the river. I went to the front of the
ferry for a little while just to be able to say I led the race at some point
and then found a place to sit down in the shade. Once the ferry reached
Hickman, Kentucky, we all got off and I started a slow walk. I am not a big fan
of getting stuck in crowds during races so I usually start near the back to let
it all spread out even though there were only about 50 people in this one. With
my headphones in and my music playing, I began to feel less like “Why on earth
am I doing this?” and more like “This is going to be a fun adventure.” About a
mile in to Hickman, someone in the National Guard asked me what all these
people were doing so I explained the race to him. Coming across shocked, like
most people, he wished me luck and I continued on my way.
After getting past the outskirts of
town, I started to see row after row of cornfields. For the next ten miles or
so there was nothing to look at but corn. My mind began to wander trying to
think of things to occupy the time so that I was not thinking about moving, so
I began to sing along to whatever song was currently playing through my iPod. After
a while I went past a driveway where somebody offered me cold water, but since
I could see the city limit sign to Union City up ahead I refused. I knew there
was a Subway that I wanted to stop at in Union City at mile 18. Seeing the city
limit sign made me think I was close enough to not need a refill on water… Boy
was I wrong. I learned the hard way that these city limit signs tend to be
about four or five miles outside of town. I kept thinking I would be getting
there soon, as a mile went by I began to get frustrated. Had I made a wrong
turn this early in the race? I kept moving thinking it would be just one more
mile ahead. Eventually, I reached Union City and pulled out my map and
directions to get to Subway. It was supposed to be easy to get to but I had
taken a wrong turn on one of the streets and gotten lost. I found an elderly
couple doing yard work and asked them for directions. They told me I was on the
opposite end of town and they asked if I was doing the marathon. A lot of
people seem to think a marathon is the largest distance and say “oh you are
doing the marathon aren’t you” so I usually reply with “yeah, something like
that” or “Actually it is about twelve of them.” Thankful for their directions,
I refused water yet again because I knew that Subway had to be close since I
was in the city now. After taking my tour of the city, I finally arrived in
Subway.
I saw a couple runners in here and
sat my stuff down near them. This was mile 18 and I was really hungry by this
point because I had not eaten anything yet. I did buy a pack of beef jerky
early in the race as emergency food since I do not really like it much but it
has a good source of protein and salt. I walked up to the counter and ordered a
six-inch pizza sub and sat down. This is where I met Paul, whom had been here a
while before I arrived. I ate, talked with him for a while, and rested there
for about an hour. When Paul was getting ready to leave, I told him that I was
going to get ready as well. As soon as we pack up we notice two more runners
come in to sit down. I sat back down for a little bit to converse with them and
then noticed I had a spec of dirt on my leg so I tried to flick it off. It did
not move, when I started pulling it I noticed it was a tick and started to
panic a little bit. Thankfully Diane, whom had just walked in, pulled it off of
me and disposed of it. After thanking her, I wished them well and Paul and I
headed out to the road.
I asked Paul what his goal was, and
he said he wanted to do at least 40 miles a day. I said my goal was 31.4 per
day to make the ten day cutoff but that if I could do more I would so that I
could have a safety cushion just in case I had a bad day. We headed towards Martin, and it was nice
having somebody to talk to along the way. At mile 24 or 25 we noticed a small
store on the other side of the road and walked in hoping they had something
cold to drink. We were greeted by a very beautiful girl who I later found out
was going to be a junior in college the following fall semester and she told us
that there was a vending machine to our left and that she would get us some ice
which we gladly accepted. Sitting down on a coach and drinking sweet tea, she
came over to talk to us and ask how we were doing and we told her about the
race. Two other girls, amazingly beautiful as well, stopped to talk to us for a
little bit. I began to think that it was too bad I did not live around here,
but it was time for us to continue. They wished us luck with the rest of our
journey and we got back on the road.
Arriving
in Martin at about 8:00 P.M., I had said that I really wanted some pizza so we
stopped by Pizza Hut. The waiter said they were having a special today where we
could get a large pizza with unlimited toppings for ten dollars. We ordered a
large meat lovers pizza with extra cheese and some sweet tea. He had asked us
what we were doing, so we explained the race to him and he was very gracious to
us. This Pizza Hut was at mile 29. We asked the waiter if it was alright for us
to take a short nap here and he said it would not be a problem, so after
devouring the pizza we sat with our legs long ways in the booth and slept for
about half an hour. This was my first sleep of the day.
Around 9:30 P.M., we got our stuff
together and I noticed that I had begun to chafe in an area that I did not want
chafing. Paul told me of Desitin which he uses for blisters and chafing and let
me borrow some. Upon paying for our pizza, our waiter ended up giving us an
even bigger discount making the total out to be almost seven dollars for
everything. Happy that they had allowed us to rest and had been so nice about
everything, we gave a substantial tip and continued on our way.
There was a sign in Martin I had
noticed before reaching Pizza Hut that had said National Cheerleading Champions
and listed a bunch of years. I was joking with Paul, saying that I wondered
where these cheerleaders were. As we were leaving Martin, an SUV full of girls
with writing all over the glass with typical high school sports statements
drove passed us and yelled “We love you!” out the window. I turned to Paul and
said I think we found the cheerleaders.
About eleven miles later, we reached
the town of Dresden. A couple blocks before the town square we saw Brian (whom
everyone referred to as ‘giant backpack’ because he did bring a huge Ironman
backpack that looked full of everything he could possibly need) getting up from
a nap and he walked with us until we got to the town square and he kept going.
At the town square we decided to take a half hour nap on one of the benches so
I got to pull out my silk liner for the first time. On our way out of Dresden,
a police officer found us and offered us water and chatted with us for a little
while.
After leaving Dresden, which was
about mile 40, we decided to continue through the rest of the night. Gleason
was the next stop at mile 48 and we knew there was a nice café with great
breakfast there so it would be perfect to make it there by the 0730 check in
time. About three miles outside of Gleason I hit a ‘low’. I just felt like I
could not continue anymore. I was maybe sustaining a 45-minute mile. Paul kept
waiting for me and pulling me along not letting me give up yet. I ate some of
my beef jerky for the first time thinking it would have to save me. It did make
me feel a little better but I still continued on in death march mode. At the
time, I was getting so pissed off at Paul waiting on me because I felt like I
was holding him back even though he had already exceeded his goal of 40 miles
this day. Looking back on it the next day, I was glad that he had pulled me
through my low spot that night.
Finally, close to 0730 we had arrived in Gleason and sent
in our mileage report as we ate breakfast at a café. We had come 48 miles in
the first day! Well past my goal of 31.4 which would give me about a seventeen
mile cushion in case something happened. I know that eggs, bacon, and toast
sounds like a typical breakfast, but they had never tasted so good! After
eating, Paul noticed that they had ice cream and asked if he could get a huge
bowl full. When they brought the bowl to him, it was massive. I was just about
to order another round of eggs, but when I saw that I asked if I could have a
bowl full as well. I think there was about half a gallon of ice cream in each
of our bowls because they had to go to the store to buy another gallon of ice
cream after we asked for it. Under normal circumstances I probably would not
have been able to finish all of it, but I ate every last bite of this vanilla
ice cream. When I went to pay for my meal, the ice cream ended up costing way
more than my breakfast, but I did not mind at all. We decided to rest for a
couple hours in this café before moving on. When I woke up, I noticed an angry
red spot on my left ankle and decided to ask my mom about it. It did not hurt
or itch even when I poked it, and my mom had replied to get some hydrocortisone
cream and to stop poking it. I went to the drug store next door and asked for
the cream and then explained about the race I was doing. As I was about to pay
for it, an older lady says, “Wait, stop, don’t make him pay for that!” I
thanked her and she handed me an antibiotic to put over the cream that would
help it heal.
The next stop was McKenzie. It was a
nine mile stretch between these two towns and now I had begun to walk slowly.
Not as slow as I was when I hit my low the night before, but I was feeling
really tired. These half-hour naps were not doing much for me mainly because I
could not sleep the entire time. I started thinking that maybe the reason a lot
of older people tend to do so well at these extreme runs is because they can
fall asleep at will. When I try to take a nap, my mind is always racing with
thoughts and I cannot get to sleep right away. I could not keep going at Paul’s
pace, and he would get a bit ahead of me and then find a shady place to sit for
a bit while I caught up. Again, this was making me mad that I felt like I was
holding him back. I wanted him to be able to go at whatever pace he was setting
his goal for and to not have to keep waiting on me to catch up to him. While I
was catching up to him at one point, a car full of what looked to be either
junior or senior year high school girls stopped next to me and asked if I
needed any water or something to eat. Gladly taking the water and beef/cheese
sticks I thanked them and continued. I got to Paul and he asked where I had
gotten the water. I told him and apparently they had passed him by.
A few miles outside of McKenzie, a
woman parked her car in a random driveway, got out leaving her keys, phone, and
everything else in the car, and walked towards me. She asked if I had any
blisters, but I told her my feet felt fine. So far my feet had not developed any
blisters thankfully, but I had seen some people’s feet that were covered with
them. She had decided to walk with me for a while and we talked about the race
I was doing. We caught up with Paul and we all walked together until we got to
the town of McKenzie. Once arriving there we walked in to a café and she ended
up buying us lunch before leaving to get her car again. As stated above, I was
in the ‘screwed’ category and was not allowed to receive help from people I
know, but if I do not know the person then he/she is considered a ‘road angel’
and I can receive aid from him/her. I would have to say that she was probably
the nicest person that I met along the course.
By now, sleep deprivation was
catching up to me. I told Paul that I needed to lay down and take a nap. I
needed something more than sitting in a restaurant and trying to take a short
nap, so I went to the town square and tried to sleep in the gazebo. A couple
hours went by, and Paul joined me asking if I was ready to continue. I could
not really get to sleep with the heat of the day and the cars going by so I
said I planned to stay for just another half hour or so longer. He decided to
rest here with me until I got up. Eventually deciding that I was not going to
be able to sleep at all, I got up and ready to put my socks and shoes back on.
This is when I noticed my first blister on my left pinky toe. Usually when I
get a blister I will wick them and then put tape on them so obviously I did the
same to this one but I had made a mistake this time. The pinky toe is the
hardest place to fix a blister on my foot. For one, it is hard for me to get my
foot at a good angle for me to see it and also it is annoying to put tape on a
toe because then it sticks to the sock. For those of you who do not know what
it means by wicking a blister, it is when you take needle and thread and go
through both ends of the blister with it and then put knots on each end and
leave the thread in there to let it air out. If not planning to continue
running, tape is not needed after the thread is in there. When I tried to wick
this one, I had pushed the needle too far under the blister and went through my
skin. This caused my toe to burn to the point of tears and on top of that, the
thread I was using was not silk. It was some cheap little kit I bought at
Wal-Mart so it hurt to move the thread in. I decided to call my mom and ask for
advice before continuing and she told me that it would be a good idea to just
take the thread out, tape it and try to keep going. I thought it hurt to get
this thread in there, but it was nothing compared to pulling the thread out.
With tears rolling down my face as I pulled the thread out, I tried to hide it
from Paul so that he thought I was alright. I finally put on my socks and
shoes, gathered everything in to my bag, put on my sunglasses and said I was
ready to keep moving.
I thought I was ready to keep moving
but every time my left foot hit the ground; it sent a screaming, burning pain
through me. I tried my best to not let it slow me down and keep up with Paul.
It hurt so much I could barely stand it. I tried to make it where the left side
of my left foot never landed on the ground, but I remember my mom saying that
if I alter the way I move then it would only lead to more problems so I
continued as if the blister was not there. For the next couple miles, I let
tears roll down my face. I was glad that I was wearing sunglasses so nobody
could really tell. Eventually, I could not produce anymore tears and after a
while the blister had finally stopped hurting. My body had gotten used to it
and I could not feel it anymore.
The stretch to Huntingdon was not too bad. Paul and I
arrived there the second night, took a small break in the town square and then
headed out towards Parkers Crossroads. A mile past Huntingdon we passed a
hotel, and I told Paul that I was going to sleep here tonight. He still wanted
to move on and get his goal of 40 miles a day so this is where we parted our
ways at mile 68. I had stayed with him for about 50 miles, and was glad to have
the company but I could not operate on little naps because I could not fall
asleep. When I talked to the lady at the desk, I was given a thirty dollar
discount just because I was doing this race. After checking in to the hotel, I
took a shower, pulled the pillows off the bed and slept on the floor with them.
I used two head pillows to elevate my feet, and the two longer ones at both
sides of me. I do not necessarily like to put my head on a pillow, but I like
to hold a really soft pillow to help me sleep. I planned to sleep here just
from midnight until 3:00 A.M., but I ended up sleeping until 5:30 A.M. Due to
this, I decided that I might as well wait here until breakfast since they
served it at 6:00 A.M.
(My friend, Paul. This picture was taken later on in
the race)
After being able to sleep and eat at
the hotel, I felt so much better. Between where I was and Parkers Crossroad, it
was a fifteen mile stretch… I thought it was ten. I had looked at my directions
which did tell me it was fifteen miles, but sometimes it was a bit confusing
since next to each town it would say “mileage from last” instead of “mileage to
next” town. Now I had truly begun to do this race alone and this would end up
being one of the hardest portions of the race for me.
Five miles went by, and I was
getting really hot and hungry. On top of this, parts of my legs were burned
because I had forgotten to apply sunscreen there. My mom told me that “less is
more” so I did not put enough on and quickly learned my lesson. I found a
church with grass-like carpeting on their stairs and decided to lay down here
and eat the rest of my beef jerky. I called my mom asking if she could use
Google Maps to find some place to eat because the directions said there was not
going to be anything between the last town and the next one. I do not know why
I did not search on my phone, but during these races my brain is not always at
optimal condition. I thought surely there must be something, and my mom found
the location of a barbeque place on the route. She tried calling them, but
nobody answered. She said I was just a couple miles from them and that they
should be open for lunch but she was not sure. This kept my hopes up to keep
going. I ran out of water and food now and knew that if there was nothing
within the next couple miles, then I probably would not be able to make it to
Parkers Crossroad. A mile went by and I noticed this old country store. When I
walked in I realized it literally was a country store. They sold nothing but
boots and other country attire. I was greeted by a nice man whom had already
known about the race because he said that people had been stopping to rest on
the porch here for the past five years. I asked if he had any water and he said
there was a hose around back. I moved to the hose and tried to use it. It was
one of those old fashioned ones where there is a lever that comes straight out
of the ground. I started pumping the lever and then pulled the water hose and
only a few drops came out. “Great…” I thought, I would have to pump this lever
for a long time just to get some water but I was getting desperate for water so
I did not care. For the next five minutes I pumped the lever up and down
constantly. After trying the hose again, still only a few drops came out. This
was really frustrating me, I decided maybe I have to do it faster so I gave it
my all and then I heard the water turn on and off. I realized that when the
handle was pulled all the way up, the water would be on, and when it was down
the water would be off. I felt so stupid for not knowing how to operate this
thing, but I pulled the handle up and left it there. The store owner had warned
me that the water might be a little hot and to let it go for a while to cool
down, but I was extremely thirsty. I put the nozzle of the hose in one of my
bottles and pressed down. The water came out with such force that it shot my
bottle to the ground and then my hand started getting wet. That is when I
realized that this water was almost boiling hot! I let it spray for a couple
minutes to let it cool down, but it either wanted to come out with so much
force or none at all. Long story short, it took me awhile to manage to fill my
water bottles but I was glad to get some water before hitting the heat of
Tennessee again.
(This picture is similar to what the water lever looked
like)
Now that I was rehydrated, I was
still hungry. The barbeque place was a little less than a mile away now. I was
determined to make it there. A bit more than half a mile down the road I
noticed a gas station. I was so happy to find a place to eat. I walked in
hoping that they had warm food instead of just snacks I could buy in bags and
they had a large assortment of food under heat lamps. I bought pizza, chicken,
sweet tea, and Gatorade and sat down at a small table in the back. Someone
working in the store had to fill up bags of ice next to me and would talk to me
and tell me what would be down the road for future reference. After eating, I
did not want to get back up because it felt so nice to be able to sit down but
I knew I had to keep going. I thanked the guy for telling me about locations
ahead of me and he had even told me that his house was a few miles up the road
and if I felt like picking some apples as I passed it by then he would not
mind.
About a city block down the road
from the gas station was the barbeque place, but it looked like it had been
closed down for years. Upon passing this, I was so glad that I decided to stop
and rest in the convenient store. The only problem with stopping is that my
blister would hurt when I started moving again. It would only hurt for about
ten minutes before I could not feel it again though so it was tolerable. I
called my mom to tell her I was doing alright and that I had found a place to
eat even though the barbeque place was closed. She told me there was a Dairy
Queen when I got to Parkers Crossroads so that is what I would be looking
forward to until I got there.
Once arriving in Parkers Crossroads,
I went in to the Dairy Queen and got a blizzard with my meal. By this point I
could really smell myself, and I knew I smelled awful so I tried not to stand
too close to anybody in line. After eating, I asked if they would be okay with
me taking a nap here in one of the booths and they said they would not mind at
all. I set my pack on the table, plugged up my phone, and tried to sleep.
Although they had told me that they did not mind, I felt as if they did not
want me there. I felt a weird vibe there and looked out the window hoping to
find another place to sleep. Just across the street was a small family owned
buffet so I decided I would try that place. When I walked in, they greeted me
and I asked if I could get some sweet tea and rest here. They were more than
happy to let me rest here when I told them what I was doing and they took me to
the tables in the other end of the restaurant so that I would not be disturbed
by people coming in to eat. I propped my feet up in a chair and laid my head
down on the table to sleep. I slept for about an hour or two before getting
back out on to the road. They did not make me pay for the tea, but I still left
a good tip because they had let me take a nap there.
My next stop in the race was
Lexington. I had called my mom and found out that she was on her way and she
said she would probably be in Lexington before me because I said I was moving
slowly. Once my blister stopped hurting I felt like I could move quickly so I
did. It was ten miles between Parkers Crossroads and Lexington, and as far as
me currently being in the ‘screwed’ category, it was the fastest ten miles that
I had covered so far in the race. Just on the outskirts of town, I passed by a
house where I knew there must have been a party going on. There were way too
many cars parked in that one little driveway to just be people living there. As
I passed the house, I could hear a group of people and then someone behind me
yell “Ey girl, get yo ass back over here!” It was pitch black outside and I did
not stop moving but I thought that they might come after me so my body tensed
up in preparation as I kept going. I heard screeching tires and thought that they
were coming after me now. Trying to think of how I would defend myself if that
type of situation arose, I quickly went through different scenarios in my head.
I was too far from town to yell so it would be a worst case scenario choice,
and, although I was moving fast, I would not be able to sprint quickly after
traveling about 90 miles. I could hear the car getting closer now with the bass
thudding out of the windows, but to my surprise it passed me. Feeling relieved
I loosened up and kept my steady pace. I called my mom when I arrived in
Lexington to ask if she was close but she did not expect me to get there for
another couple hours since I had told her it would probably take me a long
time. I decided I would keep moving towards Parsons and see if my mom would
find me near there but I told her not to come find me unless she told me
because I did not want to be surprised at this point.
Still feeling strong, I moved past
Lexington swiftly, but started to slow down about four miles out of town. I
started death marching again, and could not find a place to lie down. It seemed
like I always passed by plenty of churches whenever I did not need to rest, but
when I wanted to lay down there would be nothing for miles. Barely trudging
along, I found a school on the side of the road and went up to take a nap on
the concrete entrance area. Here I found Brian just getting ready to wake up
from his nap. Seems like I always ran in to him when he was getting up from his
nap and I was about to take one. He told me that he had went to Wal-Mart to buy
a smaller backpack and hand off his giant backpack to Carl, which he would not
get back until the end of the race since he was also in the ‘screwed’ category.
When I awoke from my nap I noticed my Jeep, which my mom was going to use to
help crew people along the race if they needed help, in the parking lot in
front of me and thought I was dreaming. I rubbed my eyes and saw that it was
still there. Thinking that I was just seeing things, I packed up quietly and
kept going. I passed a convenience store around mile 99 and it was starting to
become daylight again. A mile up the road there was a lot of writing with
bright chalk and a line drawn to where the 100 mile part was. When I saw this
line, I stopped for a couple seconds and starred at it. If I passed this line,
it would be my first 100 mile completion. After taking in the moment, I stepped
across the line and kept moving. A short while later, Joe had caught up to me
and talked with me for the next couple miles. My mom drove up to find us
shortly after Joe caught up to me and she took plenty of pictures. Joe told my
mom that he had completed his second hundred miler at that point back there and
then I had told him that it was my first. With great excitement, we high-fived
while we were walking.
I was moving slow and Joe asked if I
had any food in my bag because I should probably eat something to get my energy
back. I had a can of chicken noodle soup, so I opened that and began to swallow
it all straight out of the can. The food helped, but around mile 105 I was
death marching again. I told him to go on and that I would make it to Parsons
eventually since it was just two miles down the road. These two miles would be
the slowest two miles I did during the entire race. I felt like I would never
reach Parsons. It ended up taking me two hours to cover those two miles. My
body was aching; I was so hungry that I felt like I could just fall over right
there. It was becoming hard to hold myself up on my feet so I found a sturdy
branch on the side of the road and started using it to hold myself up. My arms
were not as tired so it was easier to hold myself up by pushing the ground with
this branch as I moved. I was still barely making any progress, but it was
better than standing still. I could see a gas station up ahead and it looked
like it might have been maybe two or three football field lengths away up the
hill. It took me about half an hour to get to it but it was closed. I could not
stand it anymore, if I did not find something soon I began to think I might
die. My brain was really arguing with my body now. I made it in to town,
passing my car dealerships and churches until I finally found a Subway. I was
ravenous by the time I made it inside and decided to order two pizza subs each
with chips, a drink, and half a dozen chocolate chip cookies. Taking the chips
and putting them in my subs, I ate every last bit of what I ordered. It tasted
so good! When I left I noticed a Sonic a couple blocks ahead and decided to
stop there as well.
At the Sonic, my mom met up with me
and brought my little brother Suel. I wanted to sleep at the Sonic for a while
to get out of the heat of the day because it was almost noon. My mom told me
there was a hotel four miles down the road that I could sleep in and it would
be a good idea to try not to stop until I made it there. I got a Vanilla
milkshake and tried to keep moving. Not long after I left the Sonic, it began
to sprinkle. I stopped and pulled out my poncho and put it on. I knew I was
still a little less than four miles away from the hotel so I kept moving but
little did I know that this rain would affect me so much.
The rain was pounding on me now. I
started running with my shoes slushing in the slightly flooded road and my feet
completely soaked inside my shoes. I already had one blister that hurt
immensely, but I knew that with the rain causing my feet to get wet that I
would end up with so many more blisters. The wind kept blowing the hood to my
plastic poncho off of my head and it was pissing me off. It was raining
sideways at my face. I tried holding the hood while I ran but it just felt
awkward holding my arm up there so I stretched the plastic until I could put
the hood into my mouth and hold it in place with my teeth. The hotel had to be
drawing closer, yet I was still so far away from it. As each car drove by me it
would splash water up my legs. When the rain finally stopped I had no idea how
far from the hotel I was. I could not take it anymore! I was fed up with this
stupid race and having to deal with all this shit that I was going through. I
could not just stop where I was although I was so tempted just to lay down by
the side of the road and hope that I car would run me over. I started to cry,
cursing the world for making it rain on me, cursing the cars that drove by me
without even moving a little bit to the other lane to avoid me. I wanted to
quit right then and there but it was not an option because I could not use my
phone since I was drenched. I had never cried so hard in my life (Even when the
first person I ever truly fell in love with ended up leaving my life forever). I
could not see with all the tears rolling down my face and having to wipe my
runny nose the whole time, so I stopped running. I continued to walk until an
SUV stopped across the street and a woman ran towards me asking if I was okay.
I tried to hide the fact that I was crying too the best of my ability but it
was still noticeable. I told her I was fine but that I was not allowed to get
in to a car because of the race. I asked her if she could tell me how far away
the hotel was and she said it was just a mile down the hill in front of me. I
thanked her and she said that looking at me, how young I was, and my ankles
being completely red was making her about to cry so that is why she pulled
over.
I reached the top of the hill and
started down. I thought to myself that there was no possible way that I was
going to make it one more mile. I began to realize that I would get behind the
ten day pace and if that happened that I would not be able to finish this race.
I continued to cry, and as these thoughts came to mind, I ripped off the poncho
I was wearing out of anger. I could finally see the hotel, and in front of it I
saw a figure dancing with a sign. I thought it was someone trying to get people
to notice the hotel or something but as I drew closer, I realized that it was
my little brother Suel holding a sign that said ‘GO TJ’ and this made me cry
even more. My mom was taking pictures of my approach to the hotel and did not
realize that I was crying until my brother Suel all of a sudden drops the sign
and tells mom that he thinks something is wrong with me since I was crying. My
mom runs up to me to ask what is wrong, but I could not make any words come out
of me. Just tears were flowing as I reached the door to the room she got for
me. I got inside and mom made Suel sit in the Jeep while she talked to me. I
finally got to the point where I could tell her that I just could not take it
anymore. I said that I felt like a failure, that I was afraid that I was
letting everyone down who was cheering on me because I could not finish this
race. I said that I was useless to even try stuff like this anymore because I
just could not do it. “I’m done, 111 miles is good enough and I want to go
home!” I told my mom as I pulled my shoes off. She told me that if I wished to
go home that I could as long as I took a nap first and made my decision when I
woke up. As I pulled off my bag and got ready to take a shower, my mom was
telling me that she had been in this situation before. She said that races like
this will get to your mind as well as your body and that you will have lows
that are more emotional than you will ever feel in everyday life. She kept
trying to convince me that I would be okay the next morning and to just sleep
it off. I knew what I wanted. I wanted to quit! The whole time she was telling
me this stuff I was getting even madder inside wishing she would just leave
already. Since she had to go back to work she said that after she left she
could come pick me up the next morning if I still wanted to quit. I thought of
course I will still want to quit, I already told you I am quitting! When she
finally left, I stood in the shower until I could not stand anymore and went to
the bed. I slept.
When I awoke, I looked at the clock
and thought that I slept for just a few hours. Not realizing that it was now
the next morning rather than night, I looked again and noticed that I had slept
for sixteen hours! My mom had called the hotel phone and I picked up and told
her that I still was not planning on moving. She asked me if I wanted to switch
to the ‘crewed’ category and have her crew me, but I was really stubborn and
said that I am either doing this alone or not at all. My body felt fine now,
but my mind still said to quit. I picked up my cell phone and noticed that I
had messages from about twenty people, but one really stood out above the rest.
Someone had told me that I had been kicking butt out there and to keep it up.
This really raised my spirits and I decided that since my mom would not be able
to get here for a while to let me go home anyways, I might as well keep moving.
I got on the road and it felt good
again to be moving. I had pushed through the biggest low I would have during
this race, but I had also fallen behind ‘Oprah’ which is the ghost of the
course that travels it at a steady 31.4 miles per day to the finish. If you
fall behind ‘Oprah’ you will not finish this race so I knew I needed to get
back past her. A couple miles down the road I made it to a bridge that seemed
to be a mile long. I was crossing the Tennessee River and stopped to take a
couple pictures. The breeze on the bridge felt amazing. I made it to a
convenient store where I bought a hamburger, an entire pizza, Gatorade, V8
juice, chocolate milk, and sweet tea. I ate and drank everything except the
hamburger and decided to put that in my bag although I never ended up eating
it. At about mile 127, I was barely moving again and found the graveyard that
my mom had told me about so I stopped to lay down here and eat the rest of my
second pack of beef jerky. It had a pleasant breeze that helped me fall asleep.
My mom called to ask how I was doing since she had tried calling the hotel and
I was not there. I did not call her to tell her I was leaving because I could
not remember her cell phone number (even though it was in my phone, my brain
was not functioning at peak performance). I told her I was a little ways past
Linden but that I had just eaten the rest of my food. When she looked at the
map she noticed there was a convenient store a mile down the road and told me
that they were closing at 7:30 P.M. This would be the last place for the next
15 miles to restock on food and water and they were closing in forty-five
minutes. I was a mile away, and although it sounds like an easy task to travel
a mile in forty-five minutes, I had already traveled 127 miles so I was tired
and really hungry. I made it there about 15 minutes before they closed and bought
some cheese sticks, chocolate milk, chicken noodle soup, beef jerky, and a pack
of Mamba fruit chews as well just on impulse since I wanted something sweet.
After paying for everything they noticed that the cheese sticks had expired
back in December of 2012. I decided to trade them out for a pack of peanut
butter crackers and talked with them for a few minutes before heading out. They
had asked me what I thought about Tennessee and I told them that I had never
realized that there were actually armadillos in Tennessee. I said I had only
seen dead ones as road kill all along the route. They told me to stop on by if
I was doing the race next year, and I said I would if I was but I was not sure
if I wanted to do it next year and I, yet again, hit the road.
It was 15 miles to reach the town of
Hohenwald. I moved at a steady pace, but after about seven miles I had to find
a place to sleep. My mom told me there would be a gazebo half way between
Linden and Hohenwald that would be cluttered with random junk. When I finally
found it I noticed there were outlets on the ceiling so I stood on the picnic
table to plug my phone which was on the verge of dying. Of course they did not
work, knowing that I had a battery brick to charge my phone with I plugged it
up to that and lay down on the top of the picnic table. I planned to take a nap
for a couple hours and keep moving through the night. I was at about mile 135
by this point and fell asleep. Every once in a while my body would wake up
aching and then I would fall back asleep. At about 4:00 A.M., I woke up and
could not move. My body was so tense that it felt as if I was stuck there on
that table (For those of you that do not know me, I cannot physically fell
cold. I was born with nerve damage and thus usually have enough sense to see
that if my hands are changing color maybe I need to put on some gloves and
such. Due to this, my body had begun to freeze but I thought I was just tense
from being sore because of the race.). I had been stuck at that table for about
eight hours. I managed to call my mom and tell her that if I was going to
complete this race, I could not do it alone and wanted to switch to crewed. My
mom picked me up and drove me to a hotel to be able to really get some sleep.
I
had gotten to experience living like a homeless person, except with a bank
account, for the past four days. On day five I awoke around 10:00 A.M. and
started being crewed. I was 20 miles behind ‘Oprah’ now but I was reassured
that I could catch up since I was crewed and did not have to carry my bag
anymore. My mom dropped me off back at the gazebo and I moved on with just my
water bottle and iPod/phone pouch. Mom said she would meet me three miles up
the road for me to sit down and rest. At first, it felt amazing to not have to
carry anything anymore, but I soon started to feel the pain. I moved slowly
towards her but by this time my shins began to hurt worse than my blisters. It
felt as if someone was sticking needles through them long ways and lighting
them on fire with every step I took. The sun was baking me and I was sweating
now, but I knew I was getting close to my mom so I pushed on slowly but surely.
Once I reached her, I told her about my shins and how I could not take it
anymore. Once more, I had wanted to quit. This was at mile 140 and she told me
to sit down and let her put some type of ointment on my shins and then put wet
washcloths over top of it. She started telling me that I had people following
my race from all over the world and said that someone even called her offering
to pay my way through any college I wished to go to. This lifted my spirits,
but I still wanted to continue sitting. I sat there for a while, not wanting to
move, but she pushed me to try to keep going. She said if I felt like quitting
after she went to the hotel and back to find me that she would pick me up where
I was and take me home. She then handed me an umbrella to carry, which I
thought was a dumb idea at the time, and I got up and kept moving.
About an hour later, mom found me
and I asked how far I had come from the last spot. She told me that I had made
it five miles and I did not believe her because it felt like two. I truly had
made it five miles in the past hour though. She set up the aid station and I
sat down to rest again. With the same ointment treatment on my shins as before,
I ate some popcorn chicken and then headed off. Again, I covered another five
miles in an hour. I felt amazing and this umbrella was keeping me from sweating
or getting so hot! I made it in to the next town still moving quickly and
stopped by a locally owned pizza place to stop and get some meat-lovers pizza.
Mom fixed my shins again as I sat in the booth and ate pizza. I could not
stomach much of it. I only ate about two slices but mom put the rest in a to-go
box just in case I wanted it later. I hit the street and continued moving
again. I was still maintaining these five miles per hour and resting cycles.
Again and again I did this, and towns were passing me by. I reached mile 157,
which was the half-way point of the race, and still felt strong. Nightfall was
approaching now though so mom said she would make a place for me to change in
to the tights so that my legs would not freeze overnight. By this point, I said
that I would change right where I was standing, but I got behind the Jeep and
changed. They were hard to get on and I said that I could never be a super hero
because there was no way I would wear tights all the time. They did not hurt,
but they sure did what their name suggested! Having to pull my knees up and
down to get used to them, I got ready to keep moving.
I was still maintaining my five mile
cycles, and I passed through Hampshire before I knew it. After a few more miles
though I knew that if I was going to keep this up I would need to sleep again
like I had the night before. A little ways outside of town I told my mom to
come pick me up after I finished running down the long hill. I felt like I
could keep doing these cycles, but I did not want to burn myself out and hit
another really big low spot the next day. She picked me up and took me to a
hotel to sleep. I had covered about 30 miles in the past twelve hours and at
this rate I would catch up to ‘Oprah’ in no time! My grandpa Jack had come in
from Atlanta to crew for me the next day while my mom had to go back to work so
he was already at the hotel by the time I got there to sleep.
The next morning I woke up with a
few more blisters on my fight foot now. My grandpa drove me back out at 6:00
A.M. to where I was on the course. I told him to go up about five miles but if
I did not reach him within an hour and a half, to come check on me. I was
moving a little slow since I had just woken up, but I did make it five miles
within the time I gave him so he did not have to come find me. At about mile
170, I told my grandpa that I had wanted to get some breakfast so he drove me
in to town to eat at Shoney’s. After Shoney’s I went back to the hotel to get
my little sister, Lillie, to treat my shins. She had decided to stay with my
grandpa to help crew me but she was still asleep. My grandpa tried to wake her
up but she just kept going back to sleep. Once I started to get frustrated I
asked for the ointment and washcloths and said I would do it myself but she
finally got up to help me. I had wasted an hour there, but now that she was
awake she helped me quicker when I would rest further on in the race.
Afterwards, I was dropped back off and continued on. I made another five miles
and finally reached Columbia. I stopped in Hardee’s to get some sweet tea and
continued moving. I finally reached the Shoney’s again and when I walked in
they asked if I had been there this morning. I told them about the race I was
doing and they quickly got me some sweet tea (which was becoming a staple on
this race) and water. By this point I had made it to about mile 179.
I knew that at mile 185, there was a
place called the Glendale Market that sold amazing milkshakes. I was determined
to get there so I told my grandpa to meet me about three miles up the road to
see if I was doing okay and if I thought I could make it to mile 185 without
resting. When he found me I told him I felt strong enough to get there and to
come find me if I did not make it there in another hour and a half. After an
hour passed, I finally made it to the Glendale Market. I knew I wanted a
milkshake so I went in and ordered a vanilla one. After drinking it, I felt
like I wanted another, so I got another and they even gave me the leftover from
making the milkshake so I ended up drinking about two and a half of them. I got
my grandpa to take my picture on the ‘Bench of Despair’ with my milkshake and
then also take a picture of me getting up from the bench because it had been a
custom that everyone who has ever made it to this bench and decided to actually
keep moving has finished this race. The only bad news is that, although I was
catching up to ‘Oprah’, I should have made it to this bench eight hours ago to
keep on the ten day pace. I tried sleeping on the bench, but not being able to
stand the heat, I decided to rest for a couple hours in the store. I discovered
a few more blisters on my feet which I knew would bring trouble as I
progressed. I did not really want to leave this place and I had told them that
their milkshakes truly were worth running 185 miles for, but I pushed on.
Those milkshakes really hit the
spot. I felt like I could keep moving for quite some time, but as the hours
passed by and night approached again, I began to feel fatigued. My goal was to
make it to mile 210 before 7:30 A.M. the next morning. As I hit about mile 190,
I began to slow down drastically. I asked my grandpa if he could find some
meat-lovers pizza for me and he said that he could. He said he would go check
in to a hotel and then get pizza and bring it to me on the way back. I was at
about mile 194 when he arrived with pizza and I grabbed a slice. I told him I
did not know how much further I would be able to make it tonight. I said that I
at least wanted to make it to the town square of Lewisburg which was about mile
201 but did not know if I could make it that far. He said that he was going to
drop Lillie off at the hotel and meet me afterwards to see if I wanted to keep
going or get some sleep. I hit another low this night and was stopping to sit
down an almost every guard rail that I passed. There were some guard rails that
were about a sidewalk’s width from the edge of the road and I thought that
those were too far away to walk and sit down on. A police officer eventually
pulled off on the other side of the road, shined his spot-light on me, and
asked if I was doing okay. I asked him if he knew about the race since so many
others had already been ahead of me and he said he did not but he had wondered
why so many people were out on the road. I told him I was trying to make it to
the town square of Lewisburg and he said that it was only three or four miles
away. After I told him that this was about mile 197 or 198, he said that I must
have monster blisters and I chuckled and said that he was correct. Thanking him
for the information on how far away I was from the town square, I kept moving.
Now I was getting to the point of staggering side to side as I progressed
towards Lewisburg. My grandpa came back to me not long after the police officer
left and I told him that I needed to sleep because I did not feel like I could
keep moving like this.
The next morning my mom called and
told me to stay at the hotel until about 9:00 A.M. because she was on her way
to help me. There was an overturned nitrogen carrier on the interstate though
so mom had to take a detour and did not make it there by then. She told me to
get back on the road and that she would find me as she got closer. I felt
horrible when I got up that morning. The skin on my feet was becoming more of a
blister than skin. I taped up pretty much everything on my foot, put my socks
and shoes on, and got my grandpa to take me back to where he picked me up. I
kept moving but the blisters were painful. I wanted to quit right here, but I
was so close to 200 miles that I wanted to pass that mark even more. When I
started to reach a sidewalk in Lewisburg I noticed a dog in front of me. I
crossed the street hoping to avoid it, but it noticed me and ran across the
street. I froze where I was and stared at it hoping it was not a mean dog and
reached out my hand to let it sniff it. Eventually he allowed me to pet it and
I kept moving. For the next mile this dog would wander off exploring yards but
always staying within eyesight of me. Every time I passed by a house where dogs
would start barking at me, this dog would run up to them and bark back. It kind
of felt like he was a guardian or something like that. About seven blocks away
from the town square, the dog decided to run off and find something else to do.
As I reached 7th street, mom called and I told her I was five streets
away from the town square but that I did not want to continue after that. My
mom met me a bit past 5th street and gave me sweet tea. I told her
that once I made it to the town square that I would be done with this race. I
made it to the town square, got one more block and had my mom pick me up.
Mom drove me to get a milkshake and
would constantly keep saying things like, “So, what would you like before you
get back on the road?” or “I need to go get something so I will drop you off on
my way.” I kept saying I was done. I had enough with this race, everything hurt
to move and I did not want to leave the car. After drinking the milkshake, my
mom parked her car in the shade to let me rest for a bit and then asked if I
wanted to continue. I still declined. She drove me to where she picked me up
and told me to just try to keep going one last time and that she would pick me
up after that but again I declined. She tried to convince me by saying that if
I was done it meant we had to go pick up my little siblings and drive home with
them. I told her by this point I would rather pick them up than move. She
parked the car and went around to my door and said that I should at least try.
I told her that she did not understand that everything hurt so much, I could
not move. Still trying to be persuasive, she got me out of the car and handed
me the umbrella and said, “If you at least make it down that hill I will take
you home.”
Being out of the car hurt and I was
already crying from the pain. I did not get my iPod or the water bottle. I only
carried the umbrella sort of hunched over. Every step I took hurt me so much
but I kept going. I could not stop crying but right now I had no choice but to
get down this hill and in to the car. I passed by a car wash where someone asked
me if I wanted water, but gave a thumb down because I could not speak right
now. With tears leaving wet traces down my face, I reached the car. My mom
opened the passenger door and told me I could get it. I fell to my knees at the
door and tried to climb in to the seat but could not get myself up there. My
mom said, “Go ahead, get in the car.” I yelled “I can’t, I just can’t do it!”
and continued crying. I could not pull myself up on to that seat no matter how
badly I wanted to be in that car, but my mom had finally picked me up and put
me in the car. I was furious at her making me do that, but she ended up telling
me that the reason she made me keep going was so that I knew whether I had
pushed myself enough or not. At that point I had made it about 201 miles, and
thus I had pushed myself the extra mile passed 200.
Mom drove me to a shaded park and
let me sleep in back of the Jeep as she tried to organize all the stuff she
took out of it. After a few hours of sleeping, I told her I could not sleep
because my legs would wake me up aching. She packed up and we headed out. She
asked if I would like to continue now that I slept, but I was done. We went to
the hotel and slept. The next morning, finally realizing that I was not going
to keep going, we drove back home to Chattanooga.
Was I glad that my mom had pushed me
like she did? At the time when it was happening, it made me furious. Looking
back on it though, I am glad that she pushed me to keep going. If she did not
push me to keep going at mile 111 when I wanted to quit I would have regretted
only making it that far. If she did not push me to keep going at mile 140 when
I wanted to quit again, I also would have regretted not even making it to the
half way mark. Having her push me around mile 200 to continue when it was so
unbearable and I felt so weak, I am glad she made me realize I was done there
and I feel happy about making it past 200 miles.
Over
the course of this race, it has changed the way that I see certain things. For
instance, when I see a gazebo or a picnic table, I see a nice place to take a
nap and not just a place to sit down and enjoy a meal. I now tend to spot every
vending machine, wall outlet, gazebo, shaded church porches, or other places
like that since I had to live day to day searching for where my next place to
rest would be and where I would get food for the first four days. I realized
ways of spotting civilization from cues that are miles away so it can bring me
hope if I do another adventure like this one. Ultimately, my experience with
this race was a positive one. I do plan to come back one day and complete it,
but as for right now I am happy to be home again.
