The end is the beginning; the beginning is the end.
It’s the dawn of another year and to kick it off, I was out in Ocala before the sun rose. I opted to join the 5 AM start which meant my alarm went off at 2:30 AM, a mere few hours after Mariah Carey dropped the ball on her rockin’ NYE performance just before the literal ball dropped.
It was a good 20+ degrees warmer this morning when I arrived for the seventh and final time at the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway Park.
It turned out there were probably 10 of us looking to take advantage of the early start, each with a reason as varied as trying to catch an early flight out of town or just to get things going before the temperatures skyrocketed into the low 80s. Whatever the reason, we all once more lined up at the floured start line, it’s visage dulled by time and wind and weather, by cars crossing it over the last 7 days not to mention the numerous feet of runners lining up and taking off into the darkness each morning for the past week.
Amongst the crew were all four of us attempting to run all 7 days of the Savage Seven. That included me, Rich, Frank, and… shoot. I feel like a jerk. I’m blanking on his name. He was a really nice guy, came all the way from India to do this challenge. Maybe if they post the results I can figure it out. He was proudly wearing bib number 26, a fitting tribute to the mileage we all were traversing each and every day.
EDITOR’S NOTE (1/3/2017): The fourth runner’s name is Sivabalan Pandian.
Some folks had already completed their individual goals — Vincent Ma was back to SoCal to run a couple of ultras this weekend; Liz Gmerek finished up yesterday, overcoming a prior day’s struggle to kill her last day. They were missed. But we did have a woman doing her very first marathon. And another celebrating her five-year anniversary of a running steak — she’d run at least a mile every single day for the last 1,461 days. Individuals are amazing and astonishing in all their personal goals and achievements and these were just a few from today.
It was a dark circuit amongst the loop-de-loop course. I apparently got cocky as I took a wrong turn for the first time in 31 loops — that first time round I went right when I should’ve gone left and added an extra 0.25 miles to my distance. Even in the starlight darkness of pre-dawn, I could tell the course felt… different. At least it was only a quarter mile — it could’ve been a lot worse.
Round and round I went, especially careful at the point I veered off course during each loop. The sun finally rose somewhere in the middle of my 3rd loop (loop 33 overall), and it provided a bit of warmth and relief to know I was closing in on the end.
Ultimately, I clocked in at a (long) distance on my Garmin of 26.75 miles and a time of 3:24:33. I hung around as Chuck hoped a local reporter was coming but he or she never showed after an hour. I was cool with it as it afforded a chance to snap a few photos… and by doing so I was able to see if anybody beat my time who started at 6 AM. No one did which meant what Chuck told me when I was crossed the line at 8:34 AM today held true. I apparently came in first every day of the Savage Seven this year… or is it last year?
Whatever the case, here’s me with Chuck and my bling.
It was a violet ribbon for the seventh medal; pretty close to ROYGBIV then and I can sing a rainbow…
Thanks to Chuck Savage and all the volunteers and runners for a great way to end 2016 and start 2017.
By the way, it turns out Chuck only had a few mugs left at the start of this thing so I got one of the last ones on Day 1. He did give out license plate holders with the distance total on them. For the Savage Seven, I logged 183.4 miles.
