Tag Archives: running

We’re Hot Very HOT

us

“I talked,” Suzanne tells me wide eyed. I look at her puzzled, she talks all the time. Not as much as me, but she carries her share of the conversation. When we start our training Suzanne tells Jack, her husband, that before it’s all over she and I will know everything and more about each other. And we do for sure cover a lot of territory. But this is her confession after we wave the runner below on his way. “You don’t understand,” she continues. “I don’t talk to people. Ever. I just can’t. It makes me too nervous.” I tell her that she talked to the runner very competently. A big smile spreads across her face. Marathon training brings all sorts of bonus victories.

About 1/2 way into our run we see a guy coming towards us. There’s a real runner proclaims S. As he approached he flags us down and asks if we run this route regularly. At our nod he asks if we know where the Marathon starts. Boy, has he ever asked the right people. We tell him and then discover he doesn’t know about the connecting path to KH and the start. He is delighted as he usually stops short of it and turns around.

Our new friend is visiting his parent’s home nearby. S is right, he is a real runner. He has run 15 marathons, he has run Boston, he has run 70 miles straight. He admires my Garmin and we compare notes on my new model versus his older one. We wave goodbye and continue on.

We’re in, we grin. We are recognized as real runners!

first metal

My first ever medal

Suzanne & I have agreed that running some smaller real races before the main event is a good plan and sign up for several local ones. We do well placing in our age brackets regardless of the competition. Below a tiny comedic post about the SandBar 5K our last small race before we run the Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll half as prep for the OBX Marathon.

Rising tide, a small gale blowing, too many runners with a hard stride digging holes in the sand made this a tough race. But we prevailed. S came in third in her division. I’m not sure whether my right or left leg crossed first but at any rate I beat myself to win 1st place in my division.

This is a recap of our first long run from Kitty Hawk to Corolla where Jack works.

It’s been awhile. We’ve been trying to keep up but the summer schedule makes it a challenge sometimes, plus humid hot weather is not runner friendly.

early morningToday we bite the bullet and head north alongside a spectacular sunrise. We’ve started early, we want to reach our goal before it gets too hot.

20.5 miles later we’re there. Along the way, we get our feet soaked by the incoming tide, run bare foot awhile to let socks and shoes dry out some, discover the Audubon trail in quackerland, dart across an airfield, get lost in PI, lose the trail entirely after that and have to resort to roadside shoulder trekking, and finally, finally reached the birthday boy, Jack.

Sore toes and a few chafes are our only casualties. We’re hot, oh yeah very hot.

Leave a Comment

Filed under OBX Marathon 2006, Running