The Great Midwest Relay – Hour 9+ – Joggling in the dark
Hour 9.
I just finished my first leg. 6.6 miles in 46 min. Not too bad but I felt awful.
It was darker than the inside of Mamouth Cave. There were times that the path disappeard under my feet. My only light was a green flicker from under my drenched cap. It sparsely illuminated.
And the joggling was triply difficult. The new balls I was using glowed when they passed in front of the light. Good right? No. Bad. It was like trying to juggle with flashlights shining in my eyes. I had to lift my head up and juggle below my chin just so it wasnt blinding.
Proudly, I made it without a drop. Good thing because I’m not sure I wouldve found a dropped bag. The trail is a converted railroad track lined with trees and weeds.
It’s good to be done. I felt a bit sick. Too much trail mix I imagine.
Next up…some food and a nap. I’m slated for about a 5 am run next.
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Will you post pictures? I would love to see you tossing those glowing balls.
Yeah, pictures will be coming. As will a wrap-up post
Part of me thinks that joggling in the dark was actually easier than just running in the dark… I mean, the black. Not that I could do it by any means, but I think it may have given me something to think about other than the escaped convict that was surely sitting under the bridge waiting for me to pass over it so he could grab my leg, capture me and leave me for dead. It’s funny what the imagination does to you in the absence of light. I suppose it didn’t help running through the exact scenes I had seen in The Blair Witch Project, one of the Halloween’s and The Fugitive (not that bad things happened, but convicts were running loose).
I think running on that Wisconsin bike trail in the black is one of the scariest things I’ve ever done and defies just about everything my mother taught me about being safe. It’s also probably the fastest I’ve ever run 2.5-ish miles.
It’s true. I barely thought about the darkness as I had to focus so much on not dropping the blinding bean bags.