Part 1 - Jackson Family Reunion. First year without Grandma and Papa but still loads of fun.
Marie and I have been running a lot more lately and we both love long straight stretches so the Wayne County countryside seemed like the perfect opportunity for a nice long run. I think running is dumb, but, on the other hand, I also seem to be very curious how far and how long I'm actually capable of running so I officially entered Marie and I into the FIRST ANNUAL WAYNE COUNTY HALF MARATHON! The theme was - No entrance fee, No Swag, No Race Shirt, No Fun.
Marie and I were the only people involved in the race up until about 5 minutes before start time. I convinced two of my 13 year old cousins to join in the fun. One was pretty excited and one gives in really easily to peer pressure. At the starting line they asked, "are you going to run as fast as you can the whole time?" Of course the only answer I could give was, "of course I am." They were pretty disappointed when we started off at a slow jog. They spent the first mile running circles around us, jumping over fences, dodging cars, and doing other clever 13 year old boy kind of things. At about the mile mark, Marie dared them to sprint up the road to the top of a small hill. That was it. They never recovered. By mile three they were only walking. At mile four they yelled from way back down the road to wait. This was so they could tell us they were going to wait for the sag wagon (my mom) to come and get them. No problem, we thought - and kept on running.Only here is the problem. When the sag wagon got to us she had seen no sign of said 13 year old bozos. Marie was already worried that we had left them. One has a strong propensity for breaking bones. (oh - and I think he is trying to grow his hair out like those guys in Hanson) So anyway, we decided the only responsible thing to do is hop into the sag wagon and and head back the way we came to find the lost sheep. But we didn't find them. Nothing but cow pastures and straight roads. No where to hide but no where to be found. We made it all the way back to the starting line (and the boys' mothers) with no luck. Later we discovered (and once we couldn't find them we suspected) that another relative ran into them and took them swimming and they didn't think it really necessary to tell anyone. Like I said, bozos.
So we had the sag wagon drive us back out to where we had ended our run only she drove a different way so now we could see what was coming, i.e. hills. Oh - but before the hills we also picked up my siblings who were walking to the cemetery to say hi to papa, and my brother and brother-in-law just stood on the running boards while my mom drove like a maniac and tried to knock them off (only I'm pretty sure she wasn't doing it on purpose). It made me glad running was our sport of the moment instead of driving around with my mom. SCARY.
I wasn't really paying attention but it was also starting to get dark. And colder. Marie said something in the car like "why don't we just start here" but she said it too casually so I laughed at her and told her we would be disqualified from the race if we didn't run the whole thing so we drove on. Marie and I got out of the car and before the suburban was even out of sight she turned on me. I don't mean she turned and looked at me. I mean she turned on me, like we were no longer on the same team, or even friends, or ever going to wave at each other as we drove down the street again. It was serious. We hadn't walk/ran a block before she declared she was done and that this was stupid and that I was stupid and that she was cold and she would no longer be running. She was pretty upset with me so I was walking a very fine line here. Somehow I needed to make sure she knew that there was only one way to get back to our children and that did require some movement. She had also pointed out in her frustration that it was getting dark and that this made her mad. Again, I didn't quite know how to tell her that it would be getting darker and much colder if we didn't run. This however, did not seem the best time for logic. At one point I thought I would provoke her and get her really mad because sometimes if she can just yell at me for a minute she feels much better but she was frustrated enough that she wouldn't even yell at me. Now I was scared. I decided just to be quiet for a while and just see what happened. She was walking very fast, at least, so I decided to run close by at a very slow pace (but at a safe distance so I could get away from her if needed.)
About 15 minutes later I was running up a steep hill while she was beside me walking very briskly and she mentioned that she thought I was doing really well. THIS was a very good sign. She was starting to not hate me anymore and even though it wasn't the same thing as "sorry" I just pretended she said, "I'm really sorry I kicked rocks at you earlier" and then I could tell we were both feeling better. Another mile or two down the road she said something else to me. I don't remember the exact words but I just pretended it was another apology. Finally an hour or so later it was now really dark and we were starting to scare the deer on the road when the sag wagon came back around. We were both grateful to see it and hopped in without a second thought. We made it 10 miles in our two hours and the real goal (what later I learned was only MY goal - NOT hers) was to run 2 hours, so mission accomplished.
Race registration opens soon for next year. It should be big if we can overcome our marketing problem.
We forgot to look for our camera after the big race so we didn't get any pictures of Marie and Jim rappelling off of pig pen (big rocks...nothing actually to do with pigs), our kids both falling into cactus within seconds of each other, t-ball, the egg launch, or anything else.
