Dateline: Huntington, WV. I’ve been here before, having run the Marshall University Marathon in 2011. I vaguely recalled bits and pieces of the town itself… and George said part of that marathon course was in this 12 loop course. But I don’t recall running by the babbling brooks. It was a long time ago… and by the loopy loopiness I’m not sure I remembered much of anything.
My GPS broke toward the end — to the point that whilst running and the clock ticking away, the distance remained locked at just under 24 miles for a very, very long time. In the end, my watch says I ran 25 miles… and I know that’s not right. We were long again today, but much less so than yesterday. I’d peg it at 26.6 miles overall.
In any case, shots from the trail, starting from when it was really freakin’ early.
About an hour into the race, the sun came up.
And I finished just under the wire of 4 hours, and I can’t even blame the ducks crossing the road.
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Post run, I did wander the campus of Marshall. I felt compelled to make a pilgrimage to the memorial fountain for those they lost in that tragic plane crash of November 1970. It was a loss that devastated the town… a loss at least partially soothed by the Marshall football team rising once more, a tale told in McG’s best film ever, We Are Marshall.
Still, much like the Red Cross statues in Geneva, I felt weird smiling for a selfie ats such a contemplative place… even though it is in the heart of the campus.
I felt much more comfortable snapping a photo outside of the library. I really shouldn’t mock surnames… “Hanna Barbera,” “Hanna Banana,” and “Hannah” as a palindrome (It’s not a freakin’ palindrome, people! How many times do I have to tell you that?!). But still, on a college campus, I have to imagine there’s A LOT of jokes made about Drinko Library.
I like to imagine some enterprising Improv Group restaged one of the funniest sketches of all time, only introducing Vino Monster hitting the library looking for a bottle of wine:
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Anyhoo, after that I made the 75 minute drive to Paintsville, KY, site of Day 3’s marathon. Not too far up the road from there is Van Lear, KY, home to Loretta Lynn, the Coal Miner’s Daughter and her sister Crystal Gayle. For five bucks at Loretta’s brother’s minimart store, I took a tour of the homestead and heard some stories from the current proprietor.
But now is the time when I must crash… the miles, the hours, and the loops are taking their toll and I could use a nap. I wouldn’t say it’s a night’s sleep as these multi-day series are just a game of letting inertia carry you through to the next marathon until the whistle blows, as they might say at Marshall.
Until next time….