RC Cola / Moon PIe 10 Mile Race

I quit football in junior high because it was too hot. I thought I had properly sheltered myself from overexerting myself in overwhelming heat. For the last 16 years this has been successful.

Then today happened.

The RC Cola Moon Pie 10 Mile race is held in Bell Buckle, TN. It is a little country town with one restaurant that celebrates the heritage of the RC Cola and Moon Pie. I woke up this morning at 5am and headed out to this country town trying to beat my time of 1:27 (8:48) pace from last year. However I knew this was not likely due to the heat and due to still being a little sluggish after an injury that sidelined me the first 4 months of the year.

The race started at 80 degrees (according to my car temperature gauge) and the first 2 miles were directly into the sun with no breeze. At mile one I was already seeing people turn around and heading back to the start. I have never seen a race where so many people were aborting a race especially at mile one! At mile 2 I felt ok but I knew it was about to get bad. I started seeing runners that were wearing previous marathon running shirts starting to walk. I was already getting exhausted due to the heat but I was able to force myself on.

After running by some cows that kindly mooed at me (I assume it was an encouraging moo but I don't speak cow), I came to mile 4. Mile 4 has the biggest hill I have ever seen on a race course. It is a 200 foot ascent in 1/4 mile. I guess that is like 15 - 20 stories? I remember last year being one of the only people around that didn't walk this and while I remember being way more exhausted for this race, I wanted to try it again. This time I looked ahead and counted. There were probably 75 people in front of me and only one was running it other than me. I am not sure how I made it but somehow my ascent up Bell Buckle's Everest was successful. I was completely exhausted and now only had 6 miles to go.

People continued to stop and walk all around me. At mile 7 it was my turn to stop. I was frustrated because I have never stopped in a race shorter than a half marathon. I tried to not be too frustrated. I had never run this long in this type of heat and my goal was simply to finish this race. I felt myself getting dehydrated and nauseous. I gave myself one minute to walk and then I started running again. I told myself I couldn't stop again until I ran 3/4 a mile. However once I got there I was finally in some shade and decided I could go a little farther and then a little farther and then a little farther. I kept thinking of that finish line and how wonderful it would be to cross. I never thought about stopping again.

Finishing on a dead sprint I raised my hands in relief that I had finished this horrific challenge. I finished approximately 8 minutes slower than the same race last year. However I didn't care. It took much more inward strength to finish this race and the accomplishment was so much greater.

I have never run in a race where I have not thought in the middle of my run how stupid I was for signing up. There has always been a time in every race where the pain has been too great and a battle has been waged in my mind whether it is really worth the fight. If you are a runner, isn't this the greatest part of the race? It's the part where you silence all inward critics and you tell yourself you are going to finish the race no matter what it takes. If you have to crawl the last mile, you will be a finisher. I cried at the end of my first an only marathon as this feeling was only multiplied.

Well I crossed the finish line unofficially at 1:35.36. After a bottle of Gatorade and a chicken sandwich I went straight to the car. The car said it was 93 degrees.

And to think I quit football.