Joe and I did HIS first ever 18 mile run on Sunday. And well….he did very well …considering ….he now has a claw as a hand…
The carefully laid out running route took us from the center of Rehoboth towards Gordon’s Pond which is part of Cape Henlopen.. There is a wonderful path that takes you around Gordon’s Pond and is quite scenic… ..we were delighted with ourselves to find such a great path… shaded, dirt and gravel.. .Joe made the comment that, “Wouldn’t it be nice to get most of our long run done on this?”.... Euphoria only lasts so long..
“Joe what did that sign say?”…
…the DO NOT ACCESS… or DO NOT ENTER.. or DO NOT DO something sign we missed… we just sort of went around it.. the “path” was now overgrown weeds, sand and muck.. I justified that it was still a “path” because we passed a bench… never mind that the weeds had grown up around the bench…. but see still a path… I am getting that really uneasy feeling that perhaps this particular part of the path is closed ….
We were just humming along …… just us and nature…. and…“what’s he doing?” I see Joe waving his hands about… …. Frantically…then something illegible and a few expletives… the man is crazy..”What the h-ll is he doing?”….. I catch up to him and he mumbles something about flies…so we turn around to head back and Joe takes off…he is in a full tilt sprint….. hands waving over his head, across his back… around in circles.. I can somewhat see that he is being chased by groups of wild…. very energetic green flies…amazing enough most of the flies leave me alone except the one that decided to get caught up under my sunglasses…
I wasn’t sure if I should cry or laugh… cry that he left me to get “eaten” ….I don’t think he turned around once for a mile… even the “YO.. wait ups were unacknowledged”…. or should I laugh that he was under siege and boy was it funny…poor Joe.. we were only 5 miles into our run and still had 13 miles to go..the buggers finally gave up after a mile!! Geez….
As we were leaving the trail we noticed that Joe had gotten bit on his hand and his hand was double the size of what it should be.. it was HUGE , not sure where the fingers were as it looked FAKE.. his entire hand was now a CLAW.. I almost tripped as we were running because it really was that unbelievable… .. I suggested that perhaps we should get some Benadryl?
Some people are tough, some people are pig headed.. some people are persistent and some people have an ironwill.. and some people are just plain umm.... my Joe is all… he and I ran the remaining 13 and got some ice cream….. after a few days the swelling has gone down.. he doesn’t appear to have any residual effects except perhaps he does glow a bit… .I think he will do just fine on November 2nd (at the C&D Marathon).
