A Crazy 16 Miles

First and foremost, I made it. Another record distance for me! And I actually felt better when I was done with this run than I was with the 14 miler.

But on to the craziness...

This was, without a doubt, the wildest run I've ever had in my life. It all began at 3:15 am (yes am) when I woke up to get to the gym so we could be running at 4:00 am. Nothing unusual there, just wanted to let you know how early I was up on Saturday! I was expecting two others to run the initial 6 miles with me and then meet up with the rest around 5:00 am to run the last 10. Only one showed up. Great! At least it wasn't just me! So we start out...slow! I was obsessive about keeping us at a 10:00 mpm pace or slower. 16 miles is a long way to go and I wanted to be sure to make it the full distance.

Honestly, the first 3-1/2 miles were uneventful. As we were running up Ring Road (a fairly busy 4 lane road with a "suicide" turning lane) I noticed a car coming toward us driving awfully close to the edge of the sidewalk. Then out of nowhere it drove INTO the curb and blew out it's front tire. It was very loud and it happened very quickly right in front of us! We ran off the road into the field to get as far way as possible. I'm pretty sure, based on the way the car was swerving, the driver was drunk. I wish I'd had my phone on me to call 911, but the only thing I was thinking at that moment was run and run away fast. (BTW - no one was injured, the idiot stopped in the middle of the road and changed his tire. Oh yeah, without any lights on. Where are the cops in Etown at 4:45 in the morning?) After we got some distance on the car I looked down at my watch and saw we were moving at a 9:00 mpm pace! Adrenaline, what a wonderful thing! We slowed back down to a reasonable pace and made our way back to the gym.

After a brief stop at the gym, we were off for the final 10. Soon after we started we were passing by McDonald's and noticed a group of kids running around. Each of them around 10-12 years old. Apparently they thought it would be funny to run with us. We asked them what they were doing out so early/late and one of them replied that they were bored at home. Hmmm. Then I said, "We're going 10 miles, are you up for that?" To which one of the kids said, "Oh yeah!" Then someone else asked them if they thought their parents would be ok with them running/talking to strangers. After that, they seemed to drop off and we didn't see them again. (Emma, I'm putting alarms on all the doors in the event you "get bored" at 5:00 am.)

Now, you'd think that would be all that happened...well, no, there is more. After our water stop we were running up a hill by Target. At the traffic light there were two cars full of (I'm guessing drunk at 6:00 am) college kids honking and hanging out their windows yelling at us - not in a mean way, but in a "Hey we've been out drinking all night and we don't mind making jackasses of ourselves" kind of way. Of course, all we could do was laugh and wonder what else can happen this morning?

We got the answer to that as we were running down the main road in Etown (31W). Someone drove by us honking and pointing at us like they knew us. Of course, none of us could figure out who that person was. But by then, we weren't surprised that it had happened.

Fortunately, the last 2-1/2 miles were uneventful. We made it in without anymore kids, drunks or horns honking. And just like that, the 16 miler was done. I honestly hope the 18 miler next weekend is not as wild as this run was. Who knew Etown could be such a crazy place!