What a weekend! We went to VA to run the Promise Land 50K, the toughest 50K in the country! (at least that's the claim) We drove down with Marie and Tony and because there are no hotels very close to the start of the race and it starts at 5:30 AM we decided to camp at the start along with most of the other runners. Yes, we pitched a tent!!! We got the tent up without too much fanfare and then the rain came. What can be worse than camping? Camping in the rain. We made the most of it and fortunately the rain stopped well before our 4:30 AM wake up call. Neither Frank nor I slept much but we were "rested" and ready to run a tough 31+ miles! A few words of encouragement from the race director and we're off! The course starts uphill and then you reach some downhills and that seems really fun until I realized that I would have to go back up! The hills were brutal but usually followed by a rewarding downhill! Not too bad I thought, I can do this. Then I got to what is called "The Falls! This is a very beautiful section about 3 miles and you're surrounded by several sections of waterfalls with a spectacular falls near the end. It took me 1 1/2 hour to cover that 3 miles! I could not believe how tough it was. Straight up, sometimes stairs, sometimes rocks but you were always climbing. At one point I didn't think I could continue moving forward and wondered how I'd be able to get out and finally concluded I'd have to be air lifted out! I dug deep and somehow managed to get to the top! I was so happy although that did not last. I thought I only had 3 miles to go and then realized I had 5 or 6 miles to go. This was a Horton race and he prides himself on Horton miles which are never what he says they are. The race is always longer and this one was no exception. The conclusion is that it's about 34 miles instead of 31. The good news was that the remaining course is almost all downhill, the bad news is that its probably 6 more miles and even running downhill hurt. Again I sucked it up and ran/walked until I reached the finish. I was actually able to pass a few more people on the way so I felt good that I hadn't slowed as much as I could have. There was hope! Finally after 9 hours and 10 minutes, my adventure was over. I was greeted by cheers and tears at the finish and soon was eating and celebrating a great accomplishment. Frank had a tough day out there as well and thankfully he has no desire to do that one again either. It was a very hot day out there which didn't help but at least the rain held off. Shortly after I finished the skies opened and it poured. I felt bad for the runners still out there as well as the volunteers. I was so happy I was not caught in that downpour. The rain subsided and we were ready to go home. We took the tent down and everything was pretty wet. We just threw everything in the back of Marie's van and would dry it out at home. We were exhausted! After a 4 hour car ride, we were finally home. It was a great weekend and we had lots of fun but in the words of Dorothy, "There's no place like home". It was great to be home with our little "Chico" and in our own bed, an air mattress just doesn't quite do it. Sweet dreams!
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