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| It's the creature from the Titanium Lagoon. |
As you can see, I ran this race incognito. No cape, no head band, no superhero compression tights. Hotter Than Hell was all business for me. I wanted to show up, run around that lake 25 times and then leave. I had a big opportunity to get caught up with my Titanium quest when things didn't work out with the film competition, so I registered for two marathons this weekend. The big challenge was that the second marathon is 400 miles away! This meant that I had to be efficient, finish the race, drive all the way down to southern California, run the race, and drive back Sunday afternoon. Ambitious, probably. Insane, definitely.
Things didn't go exactly as I had planned. This 50k took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Aside from the scorching heat, the course was so incredibly boring. This wasn't like Nanny Goat where every step of the way, there would be a runner, volunteer, or spectator cheering you on. That 24 hour race was one big party. Hotter Than Hell was work. By the second half of the day, most of the runners had finished their 6 hours and went home. Ultra Woof and I spent part two of this race cranking out the miles around the goose turd-ridden lake. Because the final seven runners were spread so far apart on the 1.25 mile loop, we trekked the gravel road all alone under the blistering sun. Occasionally, another runner would pass us, but that encounter was brief and not enough to inject life into us. It seriously felt like the apocalypse had hit.
Woofie and I spent that second half with iPods blaring in one ear as we sang verses from Elvis, the Beatles, old Blue Eyes, Madonna, and the Felicity soundtrack to keep ourselves entertained. I'd like to make it clear that Felicity came from her iPod and not mine! At times, I would break out into a dance or two. Seriously, we pulled out all the stops to get those 25 loops in. By mile 28, we nearly lost it. Ultra Woof wanted me to drown her in the lake, just so that she would be taken out of her misery. I wanted a quicker death. Nonetheless, we kept plugging along.
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| The lake. |
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| Peeking duck. |
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| Yay, we're done. |
At the end of the day, I was happy to get this 50k done. Ultra Woof and I were out there for 11 and a half hours. I had wanted to get the job done in nine, but that just wasn't in the cards. After we crossed that finish line, the two of us packed up and went our separate ways. Alva returned home while I took off for southern California to run my second race of the weekend. About 100 miles into my journey, my tire warning light started blinking, and given what happened to me a few weeks ago with my tires exploding on I-80, I did not wanted to take any chances. These are brand new tires, so I'm sure it's nothing too serious, but I'd rather miss out on a marathon than be stuck on the Grapevine en route to SoCal! Hence, I turned around and went back home. It's all good because I got to run a DSE race the next day with my running club family! In the end, everything worked out because I was able to get another marathon counted toward Titanium and another DSE race counted toward my Mongo Trophy. These two races weren't supposed to have happened this weekend, so yay for me!
On another note, here is It Donned On Me's 2008 submission into the San Jose 48 Hour Film Project. You might recognize the title character, TwirlyBoy. Check it out.
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