Hike
Tuesday, Apr. 14, 2009 - 9:53 p.m.

I'm copying and pasting this from an e-mail that I sent to a friend. It's about the crazy adventure I had this weekend!
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My friend H and I offered to volunteer at this race at a huge park in IL this past Saturday night. It's a 10-mile course through the woods that people are doing 5/10/15 times depending on which race they entered. We decided to try the 10-mile course once to see what these folks are doing. Our running friend B came with us with a flashlight...we didn't even think to bring a flashlight. I just wasn't thinking at all! We started at our aid station where you could see some of the runners come out of one part of the woods, stop at the tent for water/gatorade/snacks, etc and go back to the trails. I had no clue what was in the woods.

So we start running slowly and ran most of the first 3 miles. I was in front so they could stay at my slower pace. These trails were crazy. I was cussing the whole time, and just saying how I couldn't believe how I was doing this. There were crazy steep hills, one has a long rope so we can pull ourselves up. Some hills were so steep going down that we had to take little steps. We walked across water that was knee deep, and waded through ankle-deep mud. I mean, this was INSANE. I was breathing so hard going up some of these hills...my thighs were burning. There was so much mud. We're holding onto trees to get through it, and I almost lost my shoes several times. I wanted to quit after the first 3 miles. There was an aid station every 3 miles, so I got water, ate a piece of banana and went on. It got dark - pitch dark! All we had was this little flashlight. Every 15-20 mins one of the actual people in the race would pass us, or we'd come up on guys peeing in the woods. They had these headlights on that were so bright. (Later, after I got home, I found out my husband had one!). I was leading and had the little flashlight and was just shining it on the ground looking for trail markers to make sure we're going the right way. All we could do was walk briskly, but small steps. Sometimes, I was on all fours climbing hills. At one point, I saw water, but we had no clue how wide the creek was. Fortunately, a runner came up behind us and shined the light for us so we could cross - it was about knee deep and about 10-12 feet wide. Nothing to hold onto, and a slimy, muddy bank to climb up.

This was so unreal. I was cursing the whole way, yet I felt exhilarated. The air was great, it was kind of scary but I wasn't scared, I was just determined to finish. I was thinking of a) it being the night before Jesus was resurrected - and in a cheesy way, thinking about how this was the hardest thing I've ever done physically, and how this was nothing compared to what Jesus did. And then I was thinking b)the endless plate of fried chicken I'd be eating the next day. Ha. We started at 6.30pm, and came back to our start area right about 10pm. Soaking wet, muddy, freezing. Crazy. It seems surreal to me now. I slept for 12 hours and my ankles are sore from all the impact. But I'm not too bad. I'm so proud that I did it! Can't say that I want to do it again in the near future - we're talking about doing it again next year. But a year ago, I wouldn't have made it a mile, especially running.

The crazy part being back at my aid station was watching the runners come out of the woods and go back in to where we started...knowing what the had coming up. And some of these people had been running since Friday, on their 50th, 60th, 70th miles! Crazy! I'm really proud that I did it though!