You see, it was a long run like any other. Except that we started almost an hour late due to Mother Nature's fury (aka, thunderstorms). But once we got started, it was like any other long run. I had the privilege of running with fellow FASTie, Kristi again. This time I didn't bombard her with stories of "Oh that's where I buy cat food" and "Hey, I looked a these apartments when I was apartment-hunting 10 years ago" and "The floor in that McDonald's is really slippery". You're welcome, Kristi!
The first 8 miles passed quickly and we felt strong. It was raining on us a little bit, but at least there was no lightning or torrential downpours. Then Kristi noticed something small and brightly-colored on the road. It was a little rubber duck. Just lying in the middle of the road. Looking lonely and unloved. How could anyone abandon their rubber duck like that? I'll never understand. But I took pity on the poor thing and scooped it up and carried it with me for the rest of the run (yes, I held a rubber duck for 14 miles). And isn't it cute? I like its snazzy giraffe print. It shall henceforth be known as my Lucky Duck.
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There were several people who started their run after us. We expected to get passed by a few of them eventually. But we didn't expect them to do it invisibly. People that had been behind us suddenly appeared ahead of us. And it happened twice. At first, we chalked it up to the other people taking a slightly different route, even though it didn't really make much sense. But when it happened a second time, Kristi and I began to wonder if maybe we were disrupting the space-time continuum somehow. Had we entered a long run parallel universe where everyone who was once behind us suddenly was in front of us? I hypothesized that perhaps we were running so fast, our relative time had slowed down, while everyone else was experiencing normal elapsed Earth-time. Those of you not familiar with the Theory of Relativity might want to brush up on this concept. I'm positive that's what happened to Kristi and me.
After about Mile 15, Kristi took off ahead of me because, well, she is a much faster runner than I am and frankly, I was holding her back. I assured her I didn't mind if she went ahead. It was truly awesome of her to stick with my for 15 miles, although I think she mainly did it because she knew I knew the route and she didn't want to get lost. Or maybe Kristi did want to hear more of my awesome anecdotes and I disappointed her by not telling any, so she took off. Yes, I'm sure that's it. *nods wisely*
The rest of the run passed uneventfully, although I did get honked at by fellow FASTie Melody, who happened to be driving by when I was at about mile 19.5. She actually stopped her car in the middle of a very busy road, and stuck her entire torso out of her car window to wave and yell at me. I was glad she stopped her car in order to do this. Otherwise it may have been like *honk honk wave wave crash*. Seeing her gave me just the pick-me-up I needed to sail through the last 2 miles. Thanks Mel!
So there's the run in all its glory. People who live and run in the area will immediately recognize that we pretty much ran from one side of Peoria to the other and back. That's not something people do every day. I feel pretty accomplished, despite the fact that it's not my first 22-miler. It was certainly my fastest 22-miler, though.
And it was all because of my Lucky Duck. Oh, and because they told me there would be coffee and bagels at the finish. Mmmm.... coffee...
Peace. Love. Train.
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