Over the Line...

The Crazy Craig Climate Challenge team wrapped up its conquest of the JFK 50 Mile course at about a half hour after dark last Saturday, November 18.

What a incredible run! Our NWF team covered 150 miles in a little over 29 hours. It was a great personal accomplishment for me and a wonderful effort on the part of our NWF team and everyone who supported us. I gave myself a little runner's pat on the back for finishing this run by immediately signing up for next spring's Boston Marathon.

Andrew Pinger crossed the finish line with me. From about mile 24, we had an ongoing, enjoyable, disjointed, absurd conversation about par for two people more than tired and sore. Pinger found me wandering in the Potomac River floodplain, staring at treetops and uttering raspy, loud whispering sounds. I was trying to augment my bird list for the course. Andrew got me somewhat back on track.

Team member Dave Strauss surged ahead of me at around the 3 mile mark when we began to traverse the fourteen mile long Appalachian Trail section. I never saw him again until I crossed the finish line at 5:20 PM. Seeing Dave at the finish was one of the greatest joys for me. No, I wasn't all that happy that he was so much faster, but Dave has a way of wandering off course, or slamming his toes into rocks and his shoulders into trees. This day, he was at the top of his running form.

The day was nearly perfect with temperatures well above freezing but never warm enough to become overheated. Easy enough with my 12:30 minute per mile pace.

People made the day from before sunrise to our finish after sundown. My wife Jean was with me in spirit all the way and supplied smiles, hugs, liquid and food throughout. Our Reston Runners colleagues gave us inspiration, enthusiasm and a lot to laugh at.

Dave, Jean and I started the day at a nearby Denny's which Dave insisted be called Lenny's. Breakfast included the most watery oatmeal ever known in the city of Hagerstown but our waitress had a good sense of humor and brought out the non-stop coffee, bacon and pancakes on time and tasty! A couple of other runners/breakfasters joined the verbal fray of good-natured insults and what might have been severely worrisome race updates-- that the start location had been changed; that the course had been modified to include two water crossings, etc.

We arrived at Boonesboro High School with plenty of time to line up for the Reston Runners team photo, throw jibes at our team mates, exchange last minute course strategies and then line up to use the rest room. Runners do not like to carry breakfast with them on the trail. For whatever reason, the bathroom line for men at the highschool moved at a glacial pace. Well, given global warming, that phrase doesn't really fit the slowness of movement. With a race start over a half mile away, there I remained, in line at 6:45 AM for a 7 AM start. But within minutes, Dave and I were out the door, running that extra half mile, striving and striding to get to the front of the line before the gun went off.

While running up main street in Boonesboro with the race about to start, I was dodging others who were less concerned about being at the front of the pack of 800 runners. I was trying to keep up with Dave-- no problem at this point before the race. I was operating my trusty little SONY digital recorder, making notes from the field, tallying overhead flights of starlings and rock pigeons, questioning whether I was hearing eastern meadowlarks or starlings imitating meadowlarks, and approaching the start.

At 7 AM, the gun went off and the crowd surged forward. Dave and I were only 50 yards behind the front runners, cruising over curbs and sidewalk and on our way! The two mile uphill along Rt 40 began.

Crazy Craig