Sunday, June 20, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Hatfield McCoy Marathon West Virginia
Before running this marathon, I did a little research on the area that I would run. I read the book Night Falls On The Cumberland. A man on a flight back from Louisville recommended the read. This man lived in Littleton Co, and ran the half at the Derby. He was in the same ward as Don and Sheri Peterson. Small world! He actually lived in Kentucky before moving to Colorado. He told me it was a depressed part of the country. Poorest county in the country. After reading the book, and finding out where the mountain people came from, who they intermarried with and how the cole mining executives tricked them into risking their personal safety for the all mighty dollar having them spend their money in the mining companies commissaries no wonder their poor. A psychiatrist who was waiting in line at Walmart with me at Pikeville explained why the checkout lines were so long, like after Thanksgiving in Utah. He said the people can't pass drug tests to become employed. He continued to say that the Holler Doctors prescribe oxycotin to the people here, granted he says they truly are in pain, and since they are not strict with regulations, the doc can continue to write out the RX's for a small fee. SAD!!! 40 percent of the houses are substandard, I wouldn't dare walk into one. No building codes for safety. The scary homes are the ones built in the hollers some resting on cinderblocks leaning into creaks, or crooked nailed up boards or trailer houses sitting right next to the mountains. In inner city WIlliamson, you can actually see the old mining homes and how the cole mine execs built it up several years ago. They are the homes with no screens or doors, roofs in repair, and filth everywhere from the cole dust and human litter. A train carrying cole ran all night through the city which enabled me to get any sleep. The screeching of metal on metal the train made was a hideous sound that ran almost all through the night. Between the train screeching, domestic fighting, and the hot humid night, sleep was impossible. I was tired when I woke up to run. Should have taken the lady up on the offer to sleep in her house when I was registering for the race the night before.
I started my morning with two bananas, and water. I tried to fall back to sleep after dressing. A group of us caught the bus in town to arrive in Goody to start the race. After hanging out at the local market for a few hours and talking with several nice people from Florida and Kentucky, and using the potty more than my fair share of times, the race was about to begin. David Hatifield the RD explained the course. I was on team McCoy and they began their running feud after a beautiful prayer imparted by David. He even prayed for himself to get through the day of being a RD. At the start my legs were lethargic because of the high heat and humidity. My muscles felt sticky and tired. I knew this was going to be a long, hard race. After running into the race about 4 miles, we heard thunder quite close, and then buckets of rain poured on us. It felt so good. My running shoes became slosh, but still it felt sooooo good. Quite honestly, I believe the rain saved me on this run. A tender mercy of the Lord.
The course was gorgeous, I mean it. It was green with the unique foliage. Unfortunately too much litter lined this beautiful run along creek beds and roadway. I tried not to add to that by dropping cups in garbage cans. The course was hilly with a hill around mile 7, that I ended up walking. SMART MOVE, because I ended up passing up everyone on the last six that kicked my bottom up the hill. The hill was a about a mile long, but a gradual hill for at least 2 miles before. We ran around all the Hatfield and McCoy feuding landmarks and houses of the clan. At the McCoy house a big tall white house adjacent to the Hatfield McCoy park, there were about 5 woman cheering us on and asking where we were from. Very Fun moment on the course. Most of the residence in the city just sat in their rocking chairs on the porches and would wave if you waved to them first and said good morning. They were very shy to say the least. The people who manned the water stops were incredibly kind. They were cute as well. One young girl was pregnant and she wore a sign that said Barefoot and Pregnant while passing out the water. I had a burst of adrenaline at about mile 16 when a dog came out of no where and tried to get me. I SCREAMED so loud I scared him off. Through sweltering humid heat resulting in thunderous spots of drenching rain, over holler and dale and last but not least over the dreaded swinging bridge, I finished this marathon 1st place in my age division with a time of 4:09:46. I would like to run this race again for the challenge and the people. MISSIONARY MOMENTS: After shop hopping through 10 different quilt shops through West Virginia and buying a different panel to sew into a West Virginia quilt that was displayed, I was able to tell many people I was from Utah. THEY WERE SHOCKED I CAME ALL THE WAY FROM UTAH TO VISIT THEIR QUILT SHOP HOP! I had to tell them I was really there for the marathon! Some great conversations were started and friendships unfolded when telling these cute gals about Utah. On the plane way to Louisville, I had a great conversation with a girl about the church. She had been living with her boyfriend, and wanted to make a break hoping to be selected in a new position at a Texas Roadhouse. She said she had learned her lesson about shacking up. I told her about our church and our moral code as nice as I could without hurting her feelings. I had another great conversation about the church with a man flying out of Louisville going to Oklahoma. He had been training Islam citizens how to shoot guns. He had to stay in a secured compound for 4 months at a time. He said one of his fellow trainers was LDS and he loved this man. My conversation was just one more seed planted for this man, even though he ordered a whisky and coke for his refreshment. On Sunday morning following the marathon I greeted the missionaries (one from Washington and the other from California) at the Pikeville branch, (this branch looked like a toy church), where I attended their meetings. President Stump who was married to a Korean and his cute little family of 5 boys, was very kind. Originally from SLC, his wife clearly did not like living there. She tried to get me to move to Pikeville. No chance, this place was great to visit, but not for a long term residence. An elderly sister I talked to at this branch told me of her her Grandmammies conversion. Two missionaries were caught by a storm in her Grandmammies holler. Having no place to go, they asked her Grandmammie if they could stay. She consented if they did chores to pay for their board. She said her Grandmammie learned alot from these fine missionaries while they lived with her and she can still remember the words her Grandmammie said "I was like a frog leapin' from stone to stone until I finally found the truth". Her posterity has never drifted from the church, as I testified of this sitting next to her 95 year old Granddaughter in a branch of no more than 35 people that were present that warm humid Sunday morn. I LOVE THIS CHURCH! TOURIST SITES I visited: New River Gorge Bridge, Cumberland Gap, Frankfort, Charleston (the state capitol museum and quilt show), Buckhannnon, Elkins, Harrisville, Parkersburg, Beckley and Hunington!
I started my morning with two bananas, and water. I tried to fall back to sleep after dressing. A group of us caught the bus in town to arrive in Goody to start the race. After hanging out at the local market for a few hours and talking with several nice people from Florida and Kentucky, and using the potty more than my fair share of times, the race was about to begin. David Hatifield the RD explained the course. I was on team McCoy and they began their running feud after a beautiful prayer imparted by David. He even prayed for himself to get through the day of being a RD. At the start my legs were lethargic because of the high heat and humidity. My muscles felt sticky and tired. I knew this was going to be a long, hard race. After running into the race about 4 miles, we heard thunder quite close, and then buckets of rain poured on us. It felt so good. My running shoes became slosh, but still it felt sooooo good. Quite honestly, I believe the rain saved me on this run. A tender mercy of the Lord.
The course was gorgeous, I mean it. It was green with the unique foliage. Unfortunately too much litter lined this beautiful run along creek beds and roadway. I tried not to add to that by dropping cups in garbage cans. The course was hilly with a hill around mile 7, that I ended up walking. SMART MOVE, because I ended up passing up everyone on the last six that kicked my bottom up the hill. The hill was a about a mile long, but a gradual hill for at least 2 miles before. We ran around all the Hatfield and McCoy feuding landmarks and houses of the clan. At the McCoy house a big tall white house adjacent to the Hatfield McCoy park, there were about 5 woman cheering us on and asking where we were from. Very Fun moment on the course. Most of the residence in the city just sat in their rocking chairs on the porches and would wave if you waved to them first and said good morning. They were very shy to say the least. The people who manned the water stops were incredibly kind. They were cute as well. One young girl was pregnant and she wore a sign that said Barefoot and Pregnant while passing out the water. I had a burst of adrenaline at about mile 16 when a dog came out of no where and tried to get me. I SCREAMED so loud I scared him off. Through sweltering humid heat resulting in thunderous spots of drenching rain, over holler and dale and last but not least over the dreaded swinging bridge, I finished this marathon 1st place in my age division with a time of 4:09:46. I would like to run this race again for the challenge and the people. MISSIONARY MOMENTS: After shop hopping through 10 different quilt shops through West Virginia and buying a different panel to sew into a West Virginia quilt that was displayed, I was able to tell many people I was from Utah. THEY WERE SHOCKED I CAME ALL THE WAY FROM UTAH TO VISIT THEIR QUILT SHOP HOP! I had to tell them I was really there for the marathon! Some great conversations were started and friendships unfolded when telling these cute gals about Utah. On the plane way to Louisville, I had a great conversation with a girl about the church. She had been living with her boyfriend, and wanted to make a break hoping to be selected in a new position at a Texas Roadhouse. She said she had learned her lesson about shacking up. I told her about our church and our moral code as nice as I could without hurting her feelings. I had another great conversation about the church with a man flying out of Louisville going to Oklahoma. He had been training Islam citizens how to shoot guns. He had to stay in a secured compound for 4 months at a time. He said one of his fellow trainers was LDS and he loved this man. My conversation was just one more seed planted for this man, even though he ordered a whisky and coke for his refreshment. On Sunday morning following the marathon I greeted the missionaries (one from Washington and the other from California) at the Pikeville branch, (this branch looked like a toy church), where I attended their meetings. President Stump who was married to a Korean and his cute little family of 5 boys, was very kind. Originally from SLC, his wife clearly did not like living there. She tried to get me to move to Pikeville. No chance, this place was great to visit, but not for a long term residence. An elderly sister I talked to at this branch told me of her her Grandmammies conversion. Two missionaries were caught by a storm in her Grandmammies holler. Having no place to go, they asked her Grandmammie if they could stay. She consented if they did chores to pay for their board. She said her Grandmammie learned alot from these fine missionaries while they lived with her and she can still remember the words her Grandmammie said "I was like a frog leapin' from stone to stone until I finally found the truth". Her posterity has never drifted from the church, as I testified of this sitting next to her 95 year old Granddaughter in a branch of no more than 35 people that were present that warm humid Sunday morn. I LOVE THIS CHURCH! TOURIST SITES I visited: New River Gorge Bridge, Cumberland Gap, Frankfort, Charleston (the state capitol museum and quilt show), Buckhannnon, Elkins, Harrisville, Parkersburg, Beckley and Hunington!
Bayshore Marathon Traverse City Michigan
What can I say about this marathon than WOW!!! Michigan is a well kept secret in Utah communities. Everyone just thinks of Detroit. Murder capitol of the world, dirty, impoverished etc. Well this is not true about the West Coast. Unfortunately because I flew into Grand Rapids, I never made it over to the temple in Detroit. Everyone told me how ugly it was in Detroit and Mom told me how scary it was, so I opted out of the adventure. Plus where I was was drop dead gorgeous. Beautiful blue water lined every water outlet. Clean and safe. I went to Mackinac Island. No cars are allowed on this island, so I ferried across to the island with a bunch of Knights of Columbus. They have their annual meeting every memorial day at the island at the Grand Hotel. I told them I was from Utah, they didn't have much to talk to me about after informing them of this. I told them the LDS people loved the Catholic people. I didn't make any headway with this statement! The Island was charming! Horse and carriage or buggy transported luggage and people to their different destinations. Most were going to the Grand Hotel. This hotel is famous because not only is it gorgeous, it was also the place where they filmed Somewhere In Time with Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeves. The weather had been unusually warm and so the lilacs were in full bloom even though the lilac fest wasn't for 2 more weeks. LUCKY ME! I rented a bike and even though I had a sore knee that I was recently healing from having stitches resulting in a staff infection, I decided to tour the island. THIS WAS SO FUN! I enjoyed circling the entire island with the wind in my face and the waves breaking in my ear. THe beauty of the trees in full bloom along with the other natural beauties of this island was another testament to me of how much Heavenly Father loves me. Utah has been so cold, we haven't had a Spring so this was incredibly welcome. After returning from my bike ride, I went through the several shops and then rested in the library. I ate lunch in their park while I listened to the cannons fire in the background from fort Mackinac. I ferried back to Mackinaw city where I got my first taste of Smoked White Fish. Some fellow travelers told me about this delectable food only found in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. OH MY HECK! I ate the whole fish, which was not very smart since it had so much sodium in it. The next morning I woke up and felt like a swollen flounder! My knee looked bad the day before after biking, so I decided to rest my leg all day before the marathon the next morning. I was worried since the wound hadn't closed yet, and I hadn't been able to run more than 10 miles without pain. This was indeed a TENDER MERCY OF THE LORD MARATHON. I stayed overnight in the darling city of Charlevoix. The day before I arrived the town people had all gotten together for an annual party and planted petunias up and down their main street for about 2 miles welcoming people into their city. There is also a cute little draw bridge on their main street that goes up every half hour letting sail boats out of into the harbor. This is where you can catch a boat to go to Beaver Island. This is an Island where all the town people said lived a MORMON KING. I was very interested in this piece of information, so I investigated this story. Sure enough this king broke off from the church when Joseph Smith died. He didn't want to follow Brigham Young, so he started his own group. He eventually ran off every gentile from the island. He became a congressman and got the US government to install a lighthouse on the island. Eventually he even had his own people hate him, and one of his followers shot him. He eventually died from this wound. There is a marathon on Beaver Island. This is on my bucket list to do. More information about him later. I ate another smoked white fish for breakfast resulting in more floundering. I was full of water. I kept drinking 24/7 to flush the sodium out of my system. I picked up my packet and worried about the race in Traverse City. I didn't know how my knee would react. After a restless sleep, I woke up to prepare for the run. The run was on a trail that followed lake michigan for 13.1 miles. The coarse then turned around and came home. The trail had rolling hills, but was drop dead gorgeous. I took it really slow until mile 20, then I poured it on. My finish time was 3:56:44. I placed 4th in my age division with a bumb knee. I could feel it when I finished, but I babied it big time, and I'll watch it to make sure the infection doesn't go up my leg again. I never like the congestion of a half marathon being run with a marathon, but it wasn't too bad. They had cherry juice for an post race treat and a few other goodies. Everything about the race was fantastic. I love small home town marathons. Missionary moments: Telling everyone on the coarse about my wrapped knee! How two weeks prior to the marathon I had stitches with a red line almost to my groin filled with staff infection. I told them the story of the Indian Medicine Woman, and her miracle salve. I even told a few that her name came to me after intense prayer and going to the temple. Everyone was awed! This was truly a miracle marathon. The Lord has blessed me indeed! I know he wants us to have joy on this earth! After the marathon I traveled through the west coast to the most darling cities I have every seen. Fish town was one of these cities. Of coarse I got enough smoked white fish to take home for everyone to try! Cherry trees were everywhere through this beautiful countryside, I wished they would have been ripe! I quilt shop hopped through some of these cities finding material for Suzanne to make a quart jar vegetable and fruit quilt in memory of this state. The next morning I went back to Grand Rapids and attended church with a very forward single man that wanted me to sit by him. I was nice to him, but not too nice. The missionaries were there and I introduced myself to them. They had a good sized congregation there. All is alive and well in Michigan. I WILL TRAVEL HERE AGAIN!
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