On An Adventure

So what do the Marathonettes do when they are hot and tired and still need to add some miles to their log?

They create an adventure.

The driveway is an off shoot of one of our favorite running spots when the heat's on, Old Nags Head Woods Road. We try to turn down it on pre-5K day thinking it is the path to the meadow, only to be rebuffed by a not so friendly lady who happens to be driving out just as we turn in. Go, go, she waves us off. Okay, okay.

Curiosity reigns today and we wander down the curving paved lane, looking for bail out places and seeing nothing but dense undergrowth and marshy bamboo. Still we venture on. S more cautious than I.

We'll turn back after the next bend, I assure S. We just need to see what that lady is protecting. S being a good sport, grabs a few sticks to thwart the imaginary or otherwise dogs and we keep going. The lane twists more than Colington Road. And then we hear it. The sound of a vehicle coming toward us. No!

Run, I shout to S who needs no prompting. We are sprinting at an amazing pace back up the lane. I realize we are not going to make the main road before being overtaken. Slow down, I shout, look like we're just out for a run. We'll look less guilty that way. We slow to a fast run, the vehicle stays behind us. By this time we are near the road, one steep hill and we're out. We turn right knowing there is no vehicle outlet that way and keep running. The vehicle turns left. We round a bend and stop. Did you look? No, did you? No. Well, they're gone now. Let's go back.

We return and venture down the lane again. Finally we can see a sprawling house and the sound just beyond. The view is flat and panoramic with just enough trees to be breezy looking. The lane has yet more bends but we stop in a clearing and take pictures. Close enough for today we decide. We jog back to the road.

How'd you like that hill training, I grin at S?

We're So Vain

13+ run/walk miles today in the humid sub-tropics. The best half was a long run on the flat beach of South Nags Head. A nice ocean breeze cooled things off a lot.

In our travels we have lost and found a variety of objects starting with my car key, which I actually lost well before we began our Marathoning. Since we were circling the monument that day it was basically a matter of recircling until said key was spied.

From there we jump into Marathon training and the list of things l&f while running reads like this:
1. one cheap watch lost and found when not even bothering to look for it.
2. one expensive digital camera lost and found when seriously looking for it
3. one jacket lost and found when neither of us even realized it was lost (we were circling the monument that day too)
4. one crystal lost, among the briars we thought, and then found in the laundry weeks later (okay so not while running but still found)
5. one 5K bib lost and then found two weeks later quite by happenstance.
6. AND, the latest, one gel energy pack lost but not worth looking for when we discovered the casualty miles later. Curses, I think, there goes our perfect l&f record. We'll never find such a small thing, it could be anywhere. Oh me of little faith, upon our return, which was not an exact repeat of the going out course, we find ourselves eventually back on the original trail anyway and therein layeth the lost gel pack squished once by a bicycle but mostly intact.

We take all this to signify, we occasionally wander but are pretty much on the right course.

What Does This Mean?

Not too much to anyone but the Marathonettes. After signing up for Nags Head Woods 5K run two weeks back, I almost immediately lost SW's bib. Only because S saw hers wiggling out of the bag as we ran along exploring the course layout, did we stop to check all the bags and found no bib anywhere for SW.

Tired, as we had already run 18+ miles, we only retraced our steps a mile back to the registration folks and explained. They laughed and issued SW a new number. Race day brought personal successes but no visual of the missing bib, not a concern anyway just a curiosity.

Jog forward two weeks and find us taking a turn through the broad meadow where the 5K made its loop. We had run this far with bags in hand two weeks earlier, but like I said were too tired to jog back to the meadow unless we really had to.

Wouldn't it be something to find that number mused S, I had totally forgotten about it. I began scanning the grasses as we headed into the field. And there, through wind and storms but no grass cutting tractor, patiently waited yet one more of our lost objects.