Cal.E. finally called me. We had a conversation a little earlier today. She and the warden, the warden’s daughter, and her puppy are traveling through West Texas on vacation this week. This is how that conversation went.
C.: HELP!!
d.: what’s wrong, my fine feline friend?
C.: The warden is taking me to pass by HELL!
d.: Cal.E. calm down. I am sure that this is a misunderstanding. What happened?
C.: Well, earlier today, the warden said that we were going to see armadillos. I started singing my favorite George Strait song about them:
Armadillo by morning, up from Santa's sleigh. I lost my wife to a girlfriend, I didn't know that she was gay.
He must have misunderstood what I was saying and thought that I was upset about our destination. He said that we would just change our plans and pass by hell. HELP!
d.: He probably just meant that y’all would go to El Paso instead of Amarillo.
C.: In one of your books, didn’t you say that there was no difference between West Texas and hell?
d.: I was just making a point about how bad the weather conditions were in West Texas. It is called using hyperbole.
C.: Well, I KNOW that is where we are going, because of the things I have seen today.
I have heard of hellcats. We passed by giant hairballs that I assume the hellcats are coughing up after eating pets and people. They must be huge!
d.: No, Cal.E. Those are just tumbleweeds..
C.: TumbleWEEDS?! Can I eat them, and it give me the same effect as catnip?!
d.: No, Cal.E. It is not that kind of weed. I would just stay away from them AND the catnip for now. Just stay in Lucia’s lap and be good! It would be a long walk back to Houston if the warden got irritated with you and decided not to take you with him in the car anymore. I must get back to writing my blog now. Just stop caterwauling and try not to cause trouble!
And now, chapter eighteen of "Beyond the Thirteenth Mile; The Iron Man Chronicles"
CHAPTER 18:
AND THEY SHALL MOUNT UP ON WINGS AS EAGLES
Run Course; Mile seventeen: I hit the ultimate runner’s high at the last mile marker. Now, this is no longer fun. Fourteen hours is still within reach, though. I just need to gather all of the energy that I have left. I am too nauseated to eat anything else. I should be sure to keep hydrated properly, however. I need some inspiration. Quoting my “life verse” should help that, as well as thinking about my first (and only) first-place finish in my division on a run course…
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"And those that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings as eagles; they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk, and not be faint."
Isaiah 40: 31
This is my favorite inspirational verse in the whole Bible. I read it before every race, run, or ride that I do. I even have a tee-shirt with part of the verse printed on the back. I have been told several times when I wore it to a race that it encouraged the people who saw the verse to finish the race, even when some thought that they couldn't go on and finish. That is the main reason I wear it.
That tee-shirt became a self-fulfilling prophecy on an extraordinarily beautiful spring day in Brazos, on my favorite run. This run, of course, is my favorite distance, ten kilometers.
I started the run at a 7:45 per mile pace, nothing spectacular, but good enough to stay in the top twenty, even though my shoelaces came untied twice. One-half of the way through the run, another runner alerted me that my right leg was bleeding. It seems that my $150 knee brace was rubbing a cut on my leg, prompting a steady flow of blood to trickle down my leg and bloody both of my shoes and both of my socks. At mile five, a deputy sheriff, who was riding support on this run, radioed the paramedics at the finish line that there was a bleeder coming through. That is if I even finished the run.
It wasn't nearly as bad as it looked, but I simply didn't have enough time to stop and pour cold water on it to stop the bleeding. I continued on bloody socks, shoes, and all, and finished the run at an 8:05 pace. It wasn't a spectacular time, but it was good enough for me to take first place in my division, for the first time in my life.
I suppose that it would be more dramatic to say that I dove for the finish line and touched it with one finger, ala Bill Bell at the Hawaiian Ironman, or that I mimicked Julie Moss in the February 1982 Hawaiian Ironman, and crawled across it on my hands and knees. The truth is, however, that I planned my race and raced my plan, and, for once in my life, it was enough. Not just for my first division win, but, for once, I knew that, if I could do the whole race over, I wouldn't have changed anything, except for my shoelaces, no matter how much I worried, planned, or trained. For once in my life, I truly soared like an eagle, and it was enough!
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