The End to The Beginning: Day Thirty Five

What has puzzled us before seems less mysterious, and the crooked paths look straighter as we approach the end.
Jean Paul Richter

Today’s journey actually started 10 weeks ago. Sarah’s dear friend Courtney wanted to set up “Mystery Runners” for Sarah and Wren on their quest for the Holy Grail. Courtney and I exchanged a number of emails and decided once the women got closer to the end of the 20 milers I would jump in as the “Mystery Runner”. This day has come and I am excited to share in the long run with my wife and her close friends.

Thursday came around 12:10AM for me. The demons that have plagued the mind of my oldest daughter from a movie days before, has seeped their evil doings into me. This is the third night of less than 2 hours of full sleep and it is taking its toll. Last night I wanted to hold a demon removal ritual in our home to help my daughter get past the thoughts that demons were summoned on our house from years prior to the house even being built by a pagan. My daughter was not interested in an exorcism of the demon that haunts her instead, she wanted to sleep in bed with me during the night. I would have rather tried the exorcism than be a part of another sleepless night, but if it was going to make her feel better, than that is what we will do. Sarah left our room around 10PM with her pillow in tow as she made her way to sleep alone in Grace’s room. I, as the guardian of the home stayed with my daughter in our bed to ward off the evil doers that manipulate her mind and put her at ease so she can finally get a night’s rest.

Sharing the same bed with a pre-teen who has slept alone for most of her life is less than restful. She tossed, she squirmed, she snored, she pulled the sheets off me and she kicked, jabbed and one point shared my very own pillow with me.

For 6 hours, this act of disturbance continued until at 4:21AM, I decided I had enough. Of course, I did not awake the slumbering child in the bed, instead, I got up and removed myself from the bed. I proceeded to dress, pack my stuff to head off to Master’s a little early, well half an hour early.

The ride over to LTF like the last week has been forgiving. The lack of sleep places me in a Zombie state of mind where I run on instinct driving to the gym. I cannot seem to shake October’s hallows that linger in our home.

The Master’s Swim was sparse this morning. There was about half the amount of swimmers than usual and I suspect that the upcoming holiday months will deter more swimmers from the Tues/Thurs class.

Coach Mike’s Swim:

300M Warm Up
200M Choice. I did paddles and buoy.
4 X 300M @ 5:30: Plenty of rest…45 seconds +
3 X 300M @ 5:20-Plenty of rest…25 seconds +
200M EZ
50M Fist Swim
150M Kick Left side, then right side
4 X 25M underwater Power Kicks (length of pool) with fins. Tough but made all 4 underwater.
6 X 50M All out. After each 50M we were on the deck doing core work. It was tough.

The rest of the swimmers started on kicks but I needed to part the pool to head home. Grace had a school council meeting at 8AM and Sarah was off to her 20-mile run. I was going to drive Grace to school and then head off to the Columns to meet the runners for a portion of their run as the “Mystery Runner”.

I dropped Grace off at school after making her a Chocolate Elvis and a bagel for breakfast. I am proud of my daughter for being elected by the teachers at her middle school to represent all the students on this council. This is a huge responsibility and she is up to the challenge of representing her student body. She is in for great things in her life and I am glad I am her father to witness her growth from a baby into a bright and intelligent girl.

After the car pool drop at the school, I started my voyage from Forsyth County to Sandy Springs just inside the Perimeter. At 8:15AM, I knew I was in for a load of bumper-to-bumper cars. Traffic is traffic not matter where you go.

At 9:30AM, I arrived at the Columns parking lot. I expected to see the Red Minivan parked in the dirt lot, but Sarah’s car was absent. I thought, “Did they change venues?” However, as I got out of the car and headed to the restrooms I saw the ladies coming my way. Quickly, I ducked into the men’s room and peaked through the crack in the door. All four of them, Sarah, Wren, Courtney and Susan were refueling at this point. As they gathered, their supplies for their next journey out I dodged between cars towards the Honda and prepared myself to meet up with them. Fuel belt, shoes, hat, glasses, check and $3.00 for the parking fee. As I headed to pay, I saw my cohort in the scheme that she had designed. Courtney quickly stated that they had headed down the path and I can catch them. I told her I would talk to her later and took off heading east on the Columns dirt path. I was hitting it hard to catch up to the three runners and as I crested a small hill, I saw them about 500M’s ahead of me. I settled into a good clip knowing that I would overcome them in a few minutes.

As I ran, I wondered what I would say. “Hello”? “Hey, what are you doing here”? “Sarah, is that you”? Well, as I approached on the dirt path with the gravel kicking up under my feet my wife, Sarah turned around and saw me just as I made my way up next to her.

The group was very surprised to see me, the Mystery Runner. A few laughs were exchanged as I caught my breath from the sprint and I settled in at their pace.

We ran the Columns loop as a group of four runners and I felt privilege to be running a long 20 miler with Sarah, Wren and Susan.

We chatted about the normal stuff athletes chat about, injuries, races, doctor visits, the upcoming marathon, Bart Yasso and Courtney. Courtney? Yes, of course, since she was heading right for us at this point running solo. Courtney is a good friend to Sarah and Wren and I am proud to know someone who is a giving person who thinks of their friends and organizes these runs for them even though she is running a 20 miler on the same day. Did I mention solo? Courtney is running her 20 solo for the fact that she is training for a trail marathon the weekend after Thanksgiving.

The group of four runners made the second 3.5 mile loop on the dirt trail and I asked Sarah if when we pass Courtney if I should split off from them and run the wood trails with Courtney. Sarah thought this was an excellent idea since Courtney has been running these runs solo for so long and heading off into the woods alone can be, well a little, scary.

After about 20 minutes after the idea, we saw Courtney heading towards us on the path and I advised Sarah that I would break off for a little while and run with Courtney into the wooded paths around the Columns.

As we approached the trail runner, I slowed and changed my direction 180 degrees away from Sarah, Wren and Susan and fell in stride with Courtney. Courtney said, was I going to be able to run this slow. I did not answer.

The two runners ran on the path and headed for the wooded trails ahead. As we approached the opening to the entrance of the wood, Courtney said, “after you”. My quick response was, “what?” “I am not here to lead you, but to follow, you lead us”. Now, Courtney has run the wooded trails around the Columns a number of times. As we progressed into the deep foliage of trees and bushes along the trail, I was amazed at her awareness of the area. We continued, up, down, across, over and through obstacles and all the way she pointed out every root, rock and hill along the interconnect paths.

We chatted about, this and that, but as I quickly learned while running trails is that the only way to carry on a conversation with a fellow runner is to look down. Every attempt to look at your partner in the run causes you to come across the root, rock or stick that Courtney knew had described to me. After the third “trip” I decided to focus on the route below and not on the person on the side of me.

Our adventure on the paths in the wood leads us to a small pond that Courtney had described to Sarah and Wren from past runs.

As we, crest a ridge the pond opens up in front of you. It is about 100M wide, by 75M long. The water is a welcoming sight on a fall day as the bright colored leaves from the trees dance reflections across the calmness of the pond’s waters. We made our way around the west end of the pond to the backside of the water’s edge. The path was narrow and technical but I felt as this was uncharted area and was interested in where the travel was to lead us. We ran the pond’s trail and almost came 360 degrees when Courtney stopped at a tree. She squatted down and dug a small whole with her hands at the base of a tree. She placed an object in the uncovered Earth and then covered the object up with the dirt that she had removed.

Leaving the pond Courtney told me that she had made a offering to the Pond for a few family members that are going through a difficult time. The gesture of the offering was for them and their well-being.

This act brought up the conversation on how fortunate we are as people, families and athletes to be blessed with great families and friends. There is nothing to be sorry for or complain about in our lives.

We made our way back into the thick woods and the trails. After 10 minutes, Courtney suggested she drop me off at a trail intersection in order for me to hook up with the runners below. We ran up the trail to a section that would drop me off at the 3.75 loop below. We “high fived” and she went back into the wood as I made my way to civilization.
I headed down the path at a fast pace wondering if I could keep this up for 26.2 miles of roots, mud, rock and leaves. It is a challenge I need to study more in the future but for now the goal was to hook back up the runners below.

After 15 minutes, I reached the end of the wooded trail as it dumped me out on the dirt loop that Sarah, Wren and Susan were continuously motoring around.

I decided to head the opposite direction in an attempt to come up on them on the path. Within 5 minutes, I saw Susan running towards me alone. 10 seconds later, here came Sarah and then Wren. Susan continued ahead as I passed her in the opposite direction heading for Sarah and Wren. In my absence, a few issues reared its ugly head on their journey as I let Sarah go ahead and I turned to run with Wren for a while. Sarah was looking strong and I thought I would hang with Wren for a while. Highs and lows had settled in and Wren was addressing the issues as she forged ahead. I kept pace with her to help her meet her goal of the full 20.

As we hit a curve and Susan and Sarah went left, Wren told me to catch up to Sarah. I decided to head towards Sarah knowing that a water fountain was ahead for a refill of my bottle.
Sarah ran around the parking lot as I refilled and I merged in with her as she passed me as we headed for the last 2 miles of the run. Ahead of us was Wren were I had split off from her and as I came up on her I offered her some fluid. She took the drink (1/4 Gatorade, ¾ H2O) and quenched her thirst as the three of us maintained the pace towards the end of 20.

Wren took in more fluids and it seemed the more she drank the better her pace was. I figured she was dehydrated and it was having an effect on her during the run.
We rounded the bend of the path and could see the parking lot, which was the finish of the 20 mile run for Sarah and Wren.

The three of us went for the cars to pull out recovery items, water, chips, sandwiches, Cokes and ice bags. During the recovery Courtney appeared to broadcast that she had a little more than 1 mile to go as she headed down the trail.

Here is a shot of Sarah and Wren stretching and icing at the end of the run.

Click to enlarge

We waited for Courtney to finish and reflected on the run. There were highs and lows during their adventures in and around the Columns on this day. In the end, everyone accomplished the goal of either maintaining the 20 at pace or just to finish 20 in the wooded trails of Sandy Springs.

The paths we each took this day was filled with turns and long endless straights of graveled pathe but in the end the mystery of whether they could achieve the challenge that lay ahead of them was accomplished.

These are three remarkable women on their quest for their Holy Grails.