We Just felt like running?

#WHY

On October 5 John Gordon and I went for a 180 mile run from Concord, NC to Myrtle Beach, SC.

Why, would you do that? 

We just felt like running, and had a crazy idea that it could be done. 

 I have  been inspired for many years by people who accomplish the impossible. John himself has completed several 100 mile races, and rode his bike across the USA. . 

Both of us were tired of the rising cost of events and made a decision to start doing our own adventures. Running to the beach was something we have talked about for years. This past spring we decided it was time to put up or shut up

Early on we decided to keep talk of what we were planning minimal. Really, no one cares. This would be a private event, something to do for our own satisfaction. No belt buckle, no awards, no T shirt. 

We did decide we would try to honor God along the way and spread the gospel and extend grace and peace to those we met. Because we both know that with out God nothing is possible.

#DISCLAIMER

Running along the highway in the day and at night is not the smartest or the safest thing to do. There are no road closings or police blockades to keep traffic back. This is not recommended for everyone. If your not experienced at this type of running I recommend you don't try this. 

#GOALS 

We made a outrageous time goal that deep down we both knew was unachievable, but we needed that to keep us on motivated. We set a goal of 5 mph that would give us 36 hours of run time, sleep, bathrooms and eating would take up 12 hours and to give us a 48 hour finish but I was hopeful we could see the sunrise on Saturday morning over the ocean as we finished. So we put another 4 hours on for a 52 hour goal.

We wanted to also make this a team effort. The longest we have ever ran together was 20 miles. Running this distance alone is one thing but staying with a partner is a challenge. We start together, we finish together.

 #TRAINING

How do you train for something this big, stupid, crazy?
Time on your feet and running on tired legs were going to be the challenge. We never wrote out a plan but jumped right into 10 mile plus runs. Early morning and hot afternoons. We started off strong by putting up big miles through the summer heat and humidity. We  stayed on course through July then August came and the need to take care of life, family, and work cut into running time.
Our longest run this summer had been 22 miles with a recovery run the day after. Our original plans had us at peak doing 3 x 20 back to back to back. That never happened. 

#TIMETORUN

Over confident and under-trained it was go time.

3 AM Thursday October 5. 

John, his dad Paul and I packed up and hit the road.


About 5:45 we decided it was a good time for breakfast at McDonald's. 

The morning air was crisp and cool and perfect for a run.

The sun came up around mile 20 so we stopped at a church along highway 200. We packed up headlamps and raised the flag.

Along with our decision to honor God we also decided to honor country. With much negativity in the news about the flag, we wanted to show our support. (Running with it also increases our visibility.)

 The sun rose over the fields of cotton and soy. We had plenty of energy and excitement to push us on.

I asked if we were there yet and John replied," No but were closer than we were."

Just as we made the county line Paul  decided he was done. John talked him into sticking with us to, Oakboro. Where we could stop and get food while he waited for a ride. 

We found a small restaurant about 10:30 and with 30 miles in, it it was time to eat again.
Tammy's was a little cash only diner with great food. John had liver mush and grits, and I had eggs and hashbrowns.
 As we explained to the waitress what we were doing, she proclaimed "Oh My! I'm 70 years old and could never do something like that?" Johns dad quickly spoke up and said. "I'm 69,"

Paul's wife arrived and after goodbyes and some photos we were back on the road. 

#742-HELL

Highway 742 from Oakboro to Wadesboro  started out flat. We had full stomachs and plenty of fluids. We knew it was 25 miles to Wadesboro and there was no place to stop in between. First the road became loose blacktop, then came the hills. The sun was warming the road and about 10 miles in and I was starting to feel like it would never end. Even though I still had plenty of fluids, I began debating if I had enough.

About 2:00 pm we had about 40 miles in. We found a small country store in Burnsville, A one light town in the middle of nowhere. I was so excited for something more than water, I picked one of everything. Gatorade, coke, water, a slushee, and some snacks. 

Two old men were sitting at a table out front in the baking sun. We sat with them and chatted about our run. They gave us the ya'll crazy look  and wished us luck. The cashier was happy to see we were flying the flag as we ran." Not enough people respecting that these days." she said

Back on 742 and the hills never let up, John kept talking about the road ending soon. " I remember these big pine trees just  before we turn?"
"Maybe there is more up ahead?"
"Things look different on the bike?"

Then John began to sing? He would get a goofy song in his head and start singing. This became a good motivator to push me back to running. Other times it would be such a goofy song it would make me laugh and break stride and walk.

5:50pm, Wadesboro, We turned off 742 and onto HWY 74.  The last two miles to McDonalds never seemed to end. Grumpy and hungry, I started  moving as fast as possible. Sidewalks were broken and weed filled but it felt good to be off of the hot asphalt and safe from oncoming traffic. John had the flag as we ran through town, We were getting a lot of  honks, fist pumps and many cheers from cars as we passed. 

We made McD's about  6:30 and had finished 56 miles for the day according to Strava. We  just wanted to sit and eat and get off our feet. We had earned it.

John had made it to the parking lot about 5 min ahead of me and was immediately greeted by a woman who was curious on why we were running with the flag,
He explained our story to he. She explained she and her husband are US Marines and live in Fort Brag, If our run was going to pass through Fort Brag, we were welcome to stay at their home.
After high fives, selfies and exchanges of info so she could follow along we finally were able to order our food and sit.

As we ate and recharged our phones and selves, it was time to make a plan for the night. Sitting in the AC was starting to cool us off to the point of getting the chills.
Kim ( Johns wife ) was still a hour plus from catching up to us and we had almost 10 more miles to run before our meet up.

#INTHEAIRTONIGHT

After a hour of food and rest, we talked ourselves into getting back on the road. We expected it to start cooling  off as the sun set, but the pavement was still generating stored heat from the day.I wanted to make the next stop by 9 and picked back up our original pace. John had to remind me that we had a long road ahead and we still needed to be conservative.
Highway 52 was starting to feel like 742,  long and endless hills.

#ROADANGEL

Kim had planned meet up with us around mile 60. She would be our saving grace, a voice of reason, our cook, nurse, cheerleader, spotter, rolling aid station, a true road angel.

Kim passed us as we ascended the hill to Morvin's truck stop. She was yelling cheers of encouragement. It gave us a boost of energy to finish the long hill ahead of us.

We made it and Kim was already setting up. She had chairs and water she was ready to make anything we needed. ( I think they paked a grocery store)
Our biggest need was fresh clothing and water, we were still full from McDonalds.

This was probably the most efficient stop of the whole trip. We decided Kim should go ahead and we would meet her in the morning between 7-9 in Bennetsville another 31 miles away. We asked her to set out some water bottles about 18 miles away for us since all the stores would be closed.


#TRAINKEPTAROLLIN

11:00 pm

Weather was perfect and we had a full moon to guide us along. We only needed our lights to make us visible to oncoming traffic. Running in the dark always seem to make the intimidation of the long endless hills go away.

12:30 am

We crossed the state line and were now in South Carolina.

Sleep deprivation was starting to wear on us and I decided we needed to find someplace to rest a hour or two. Task master John said we could afford maybe a half hour if we wanted to make it to the hotel before check out.
I started looking for a church with a picnic table or some sort of shelter. We found a small AME church just off the road and decided their from porch would be a safe spot. It wasn't cool enough to make a tent but some extra layers kept me from getting cold. I set a timer for 30 min and fell asleep. Not able to get comfortable the alarm went off and I re-set it for another 30. When it went off John was all business. "Lets Move! We have a lot of ground to cover before we meet up with Kim."

2:00 am

When slogging through the night you can either laugh or cry, but you just cant stop.  We joked back and forth, made up songs and found little thing to talk about to keep us awake.
Most of the morning became a blur to me. My hearing tanked out and conversation wasn't going to happen. John kept talking about our timing and rambling on about something, I finally had to tell him I can't understand a word your saying? He started mimicking Uncle Lewis from the movie Christmas Vacation. We joked about how I wouldn't be able to hear a dump truck in a nitroglycerin factory.

Mile after mile we just pushed on. Run a little, walk a little, just keep moving forward.

As our water drop at mile 18 approached the only thing I could think of was let me sleep some more and drink that red bull. My pack was starting to get irritating and dig into my shoulders. "ARE WE THERE YET?!!"

5:00 am

We found the roadside shelter with our water drop around 5 am. As I sat down to drink I fell asleep. I slept another 15 or 20 minutes, downed a Red Bull, refilled the camel back and we were on the road again.

As sunrise approached morning  traffic started to get annoying.  Who am I kidding? Everything became annoying, the sound of my own breathing was irritating, my shadow from Johns light was irritating, this race vest is digging in my back, my feet hurt, the squiggly tar lines in the road...
"ARE WE THERE YET!!?"

The sun finally was up and gave us a little renewed spirit. We made the final push into Bennetsville and as we approached downtown, Kim came out to meet us and guide us in. "ARE WE THERE YET?!" It seemed for a few min that we would never reach the hotel. I was in a bad spot, tired, hungry, I was struggling in my head to keep positive. I felt like I was at such a weak point and so overly spent that for the first time thought this could be over. Do I really want to sleep? Will I wake up when its time to go? Will my legs hurt? Do I have the strength, and fortitude to keep going? "ARE WE THERE YET?!"

Another 31 miles for a total of 95 miles 27 hours. Our over night push slowed us to a 16:28 pace.

Breakfast, shower, sleep. It felt good to be clean and to lie down on a bed. It took about two seconds to fall asleep.
Two solid hours of sleep was refreshing.  We ate at a local diner, and made plans to have Kim meet us every 3-5 miles.We would be able to drop our packs use hand held water bottles.

# EASYSTREET

1:00 pm Friday
Our legs were as fresh as they could be and we had a decent rhythm of run/walk. The sun was in its full glory and the road was burning hot. Our first stop with Kim should have been water and go, but the heat was getting to us. We just wanted to sit in the shade, relax and have a beer.
We refilled waters and forced ourselves to get going. I was already mentally out of it for the day Kim had to yell at me several times to make sure I understood where she would be next.
It took a quarter mile to get our legs ready to run. The new asphalt was burning our feet and melting our shoes. The few clouds would be no help and the only shade we could find was on the other side of the highway. I attempted to cross over a few times, but the added effort of crossing 4 lanes and the median , just wasn't worth the quarter mile of shade.

We made it through another 3 miles to find Kim parked at a church. We were going for a quick pit but John had to adjust his shoes and rest his right shin. So I took the opportunity to sneak across to a new gas station and get some AC and a drink. I probably sat way to long but the AC felt great. But once again the road was calling.

Next stop, Dillon. This was a critical decision stop. Stay here and push for 66 miles on Saturday. Push on into Marion another 20 miles and only have 46 to finish Saturday?

#DillonSC

22.4 miles at a 16:40 pace

We drug our tired weary souls and soles into the truck stop. Kim immediately recommended we get a room, But we were still debating going on? Or at least John did. I was just hungry and didn't really care?
By the time we ordered our food, Kim had secured a room at the Hotel next door. She went over to set up the room. Since we were stopping for the night I took my time eating and charging my phone. I sat so long that my hips and legs locked up and I made a loud moan and nearly knocked over the table standing up. Everyone near me turned to find out what was going on. It gave me a good opportunity to explain what we were doing.
One truck driver said "Like Forest Gump?"
"Just like that" I said.

As  I walked out of the truck stop to go to the hotel, It looked like it was ten miles away?

After a soak in the pool and some family connection, it was sleepy time . As I fell asleep Kim put essential oils on my feet to keep me from snoring? I guess it worked?

John and I wanted to be up at 3 and out at 4. Kim recommended not out before 6?

#BURNINGDAYLIGHT

I woke up about 3 and went downstairs in search of  coffee. John texted me just before 4 and asked what was going on. I said lets hit it were burning daylight. We hit the road just after 4.
The sleep did us good, we made the next 15 miles in 3:22 moving at a 13 min mile. As the sun rose we could tell it was going to rain. John mentioned he felt sprinkles but realized it was just my sweat flinging off onto him. ( Those July training runs were gonna pay off today) SC humidity was no joke.

We cut through the business route into Marion and made a water stop, and a bathroom break. It started to rain but only lasted a few minutes. Kim found us  just before we  were out of town. We supplied up and decided the stops would be farther apart today to keep us moving. We had 45 miles to finish this thing. If we could keep this pace a 8 pm would be a possibility? Kim would move ahead 7 miles for our first pit stop.

The SC roadside began to get worse. The white line was on the edge of the grass. Rumble strips were wide and deep. Finding a run-able line was tough at times. I started praying for sidewalks. When we did get them they were broken cement with clumps of dead grass. I don't think they get much pedestrian traffic?

We found Kim fairly quick as we still had some pep in our stride. I was even able to do a little jump kick for a picture as we approached the pit stop. She was waiting in Rains, SC. I had a ginger beer and John had a real beer. 38 more miles to go.

#DEATHROW

The next few miles was a section of swamps leading up to Galivant's Ferry. It has always seemed desolate and scary to me on the drive. In the 5 mile section of road I probably counted 100 road kills. Deer, raccoons, possums, fox, turtles? The road had a good wide roadside for us to run on I had no fear for us but the wildlife didn't have a chance getting stuck there. As we made it past we found the store at Galivant's ferry and stopped for Gatorade. We were still at a 13.50 pace and felt strong?

Kim was waiting at another 5 miles away in Aynor . All I could think about was fries and a frosty. Then the rains came, first a sprinkle, then a downpour.. I started laughing cause yesterday I had prayed for a little rain. It reminded me to be more detailed and specific when asking God for things.

 As we entered Aynor we were greeted by sidewalks. They were the same broken condition as every one we had come across in SC.  However broken they were , I felt they were a blessing to get us off the asphalt and away from the rumble strip from hell.

We arrived at Wendy's about 1:40 pm. It was good to have shelter and a break.The radar showed it was going to clear up so we ate and changed clothes. Kim would move ahead to a coffee shop about 13 miles away in Conway. And at 2:50 pm we were back on the road again.

About 5:00 We had about four more miles to meet Kim. I asked John if he could get her  to come back and meet us. I felt the cloudy day and the sun going down we needed to get our vest and lights.
45 minutes later we were re supplied and geared up for our final push (19 miles) to reach the sand. We were on the far edge of Conway and ready to be done and on the beach. If we could maintain our pace we could still finish by 10.

#PLAYINGINTRAFFIC

Passing through Conway we still had light I wanted to get over the bridge before dark so we pushed through our pains and ran more than walked. As we passed over Lake Busbee and the Waccamaw river, I kept looking for gators and snakes. Not that there would be any ? However in my head they were there, somewhere? I kept thinking , I didn't run all this way to get bit by a snake.

In my mind it would be flat and easy from here. At this point I hit the wall, any aches and pains that had come up over the trip started coming back, The run-able line on the side of the road disappeared again and was reduced to a foot width between the grass and the rumble strips. For the second time the entire trip I started to curse traffic. They had 3 lanes why were they in ours?!!!

The rumble strips were carved out divots about 3 inches deep  so you couldn't avoid running in them. This really started to effect my gait on the right side and was causing a lot of knee hip irritation. We tried to take it into the grass but much of that hadn't been mowed and was still really wet from the rains. My back was irritating me, my pack was cutting into my shoulders, I wanted something ice cold to drink. "ARE WE THERE YET!"

Kim was tracking us live and kept giving us updated on how far to the sidewalks in Myrtle. We finally made it to a overpass and some wider roadsides. As we picked up pace, John noticed we seemed to be on the wrong road? 501 was going one way and we were on a off ramp of sorts. We made our way over to the wall and had to climb the cement wall to get back on track.

#BIGFINISH

It was such a relief once we made it to sidewalks. We had made it, now we just needed to navigate Myrtle Beach and find the beach.

My running gait at this point resembled the Hunchback  kind of a hop and a hobble. I started telling John,"Ill race you to the fire hydrant?  I'll race you to the corner?"

My hopes all day had been once we reach this point a energy will come over us and we will sprint the last mile to the water. Yeah!? It will be like the run scene from Chariots of Fire.
NOT!
It was almost 11 pm and we still had nearly a 5k to go. Hop and hobble, walk ,Hop and hobble, walk...

We made it to Kings Highway and 3rd ave, now we had to make our way to 8th ave and head for the hotel? "Really?! another 5 blocks?"

We hobbled our way down along the t-shirt shops, mini golf courses, and breakfast restaurants. That last 5 blocks was hell.

11:29 pm We hopped and hobbled our way down 8th Ave, Kim was waiting and recording our finish. She led us through the hotel pool area and onto the beach.

We did it!!! We made it! It was DONE!


183 miles,
336,338 steps,
34,000 calories.

45 hours run time,
68 hours elapsed time.

Special thanks to God for giving us the breath and energy to accomplish the impossible.

Special thanks to Kim for all the support and logistics.

Thanks to my wife and family for putting up with my crazy ideas and dealing with me through the training.

If you've take time to read this to the end and are crazy stupid enough to follow our footsteps? Let us know. We are debating on making this a race.

**************************************************************

  We can no longer say that things are impossible. Yes was it epic? Was it dumb? I'd like to say it was both. Was it irresponsible? Maybe, we are both experienced road runners that took safety seriously on this. We stayed off the road and in the grass iron the shoulders where possible. We were well lit and reflective in the dark. 

Again I say  road running is dangerous and should be done

With extreme caution. Again I say don't try this at home. 

 Back to the original question of why? My answer is why not. 

This was a personal goal and may not be for everyone. I knew I could go 100 miles.  After a couple years with out a goal it was time to set a big goal. Go big or go home. 

What does this mean for the future? Not sure. I know

Now it's out of the way. I will take time to focus on family and take time to enjoy the little things. 

Throughout it all it was only possible with Gods help. He was with us The-entire journey. With this Giant out of the way I know

There is nothing I can't do. 

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