· Date: Tuesday July 2, 2019
· Where: Billings, Montana to Broadus, Montana
· Total Distance Covered: 181 miles
· Running Partner: John-Hanson and Anna
Evan and I had run less mileage than everyone else yesterday, but I was still exhausted. I didn’t want to wake up at all this morning. I hadn’t been able to sleep well last night, or the past few nights either. I think maybe I was coming down with something because there was a cold going around the team. As it made its way slowly from one teammate to the next, I prayed I wouldn’t get it. It was just some sniffles and postnasal drip, but I didn’t want to share this part of the trip with anyone. We had slept in a band room last night and all I could think about was the amount of spit that must be on the floor. The image of brass players emptying spit valves throughout high school and college band practice rolled on repeat through my mind. It’s a wonder we hadn’t all gotten sick already from sleeping in the various band rooms, locker rooms, and gym floors we had stayed in throughout the trip.
All of this, I thought about as the rooster walked around before five and woke everyone up to start the morning process. The only thing I found the courage to do so early in the morning, was to retreat further into the depths of my sleeping bag and hide my face from the bright fluorescent lights illuminating our morning. These lights were unpleasant and so was the feeling of overwhelming exhaustion that was still hitting me in the face.
Hiding from everyone else in the morning was something that I had started to perfect. Normally, I am a morning person and love to wake up early to enjoy the peace and quiet. The first week, Rizwan and I were always the first awake. The first day this happened we were both surprised to see each other awake twenty minutes early. One morning, we woke up at 3:30 to do this. But we agreed we liked the “calm before the storm,” as we put it. The chaos of sharing one bathroom with twenty-seven other people who had their morning routines was scary. With the increased mileage and exhaustion as the days ticked by though, this ritual Rizwan and I had, quickly disappeared.
Now, I started to enjoy the peace and quiet from the depths of my warm sleeping bag. Listening to everyone else start to stir, putting in earbuds, and then getting up at the last possible moment seemed to work more effectively for both additional sleep and staying out of everyone’s way. I think Rizwan, John-Hanson, and a few others were beginning to have similar ideas. Throughout the rest of the summer, everyone became cognizant of how much time we all needed to get ready in the morning and pack ourselves up. Like waking up for an eight o’clock lecture in college, knowing how much time we needed to get ourselves ready for the day became a challenge. John-Hanson took the prize with this though and had perfected his morning routine to less than five minutes.
Today was also one of those mornings where we didn’t have a lot of food. Luckily, Tyler B. was nice enough to share some beef jerky with a few of us. I never thought that beef jerky with peppermint tea for breakfast would hit the spot, but it did. I made a mental note to myself to try this out for morning runs once I was back home.
A 4K for Cancer Alum from a few years ago was also in the area today and ran a few miles with us as we made our way out of Billings. The morning was a bumpy one though and was reflective of how our miles were going to be throughout the day. The alum had told us she would bring breakfast for us early in the morning, knowing we would want an early start. Today we each had to run fourteen miles and probably weren’t going to finish until later in the day. However, we ended up waking up early and waiting for over an hour. Although we were appreciative of the food and the time, we got to spend with her, this had put us off to a significantly later start than we wanted. The rest of the day, we had to constantly gauge the time to the host since we were having a community dinner.
On top of this, our van was giving us troubles again. The first van had broken down in Salt Lake City on our ninth day and couldn’t be replaced until Pocatello, two days later. Now, our replacement was giving us the same trouble with the transmission that had caused our first van to break down. We were experiencing precisely why Enterprise was phasing out their rentals of fifteen-passenger vans.
To accommodate our van troubles, the first van adjusted our route today to include a detour to a service garage. The plan was to spend whatever time we needed there to get the van fixed and then move on. This would put us even further behind schedule and had us stressed about how we would make up the lost time. However, if there was no van, there was no way we could make it to the host.
On the way to the service garage, we got to talk with the 4K Alum who had met up with us this morning. She ended up running about six miles with us and it was fun to compare stories and experiences. I wished that more 4K alumni knew of our routes and wondered how many others would have joined us for some of our miles.
After the service garage finished fixing the van, the noises it was making before seemed quieter but could still be heard. It seemed to be haunting us and warning us of what was to come. We put bets as to how long the van would last. To help stretch the life of the van, we stopped using the air conditioning and kept the windows open. The only time we used the air conditioning was when we were done running for the day and had to drive the second half of the route to the host. Now, it was miserably hot, humid, and uncomfortably smelly inside the van. Part of me hoped the van would die sooner so that we could get a new one.
Despite these technicalities to the day, the delayed start, and the fact that this was the first day with drizzly, gray weather, it was an incredible day of running with John-Hanson and Anna.
This was the second time I would run with John-Hanson again, but I wasn’t disappointed. I still had a few people left on the team to run with and get to know, but John-Hanson and I had amazing conversations when we ran together on day three. Because of this, I was looking forward to our conversations and time together again.
This time through Montana, we had to be extremely diligent. In Lassen National Park, where we had run together last time, we were able to run side by side on the wide shoulders of the road. Now, we were struggling to find enough space to run in single file on the tight shoulders that wound their way through the rolling hills and farmland. When the van offered to shuttle us through some questionable areas, John-Hanson and I refused. I think given both of our connections with cancer; we didn’t want to give up. We knew that if we were careful in these sections of the road, we would be okay. John-Hanson was running in honor of his mother who had passed away from cancer and was extremely motivated to try his hardest throughout the entire journey. We were often on the same page for everything and I think when it came to the topic of shuttling, we both felt it was like cheating. Although others were doing it, and it was recommended by Ulman, we wanted as strong of a line across the country as possible, with as few missing segments as possible. John-Hanson didn’t want to let down his mother and I didn’t want to let down Laurie.
There were more hills than we were expecting in Montana too which made our legs burn. It seemed we would go up one hill just to go down and then back up another. The cattle, sheep, and deer that we passed throughout the day seemed to laugh at us as we passed by. Twelve miles of this certainly was a good workout.
One thing led to another and soon John-Hanson asked me to coach him on how to run faster. I showed him how to use his arms to propel himself forward, how to lift his legs higher on the uphill areas, and how to let them fall on the downhill. I explained how your foot is like a ball that rolls through the motion and I showed him how to control his breathing at faster efforts. John-Hanson understood and applied it all and he loved it. Even now, over a year later, John-Hanson tells me that he still uses the tips and tricks that Rob (who also helped John-Hanson when they were partners), and I taught him throughout the summer.
In our third run, John-Hanson and I booked it. We kept pushing harder and harder and ended up negative splitting. For non-runners, this is hard to do. Essentially, each mile of our leg was forty-five seconds faster than the previous one. John-Hanson demolished his times and enjoyed doing it! I think this ended up being one of his fastest runs of the summer. He pushed himself so hard that he puked once we arrived back at the van.
I was so proud of John-Hanson and he was so excited. John-Hanson has completed over ten marathons and even a few ultramarathons. He is an incredible distance runner who I was super excited to share this accomplishment with.
Throughout the day, we talked about John-Hanson’s process of getting a Ph.D., since he was attending George Washington University for Biochemistry. Like my brother Kevin, who was also pursuing a Ph.D. in biochemistry, John-Hanson loved science but was burnt out. We talked about what it’s like to lose interest in something you can’t lose interest in, and how that affects your goals in life. I really would love to connect Kevin with John-Hanson because I think they could relate on so many different levels.
By the end of the day, we had named ourselves “Team Bombs Away” and had run fourteen miles together. This was the longest mileage of any day so far. Naming his running pair for the day was something that John-Hanson had started doing with all his running partners and we were confident it would stick with us!
Once we were within four miles of the host however, Anna still had to run her last miles. Her partner had an injury that flared up early into the day and was unable to finish all her miles. Since Ulman’s rules restrict anyone from running alone on 4K, Anna was not going to finish her miles either. However, I wanted to run a little extra since I was still feeling good and I also knew that Anna was feeling great as well. So, we ran the last four miles of the day together as we arrived at the host. This would put me at a total of eighteen miles today which was the most distance I had ever run in one day. Previously, I had run sixteen miles in a single day, but this was in one continuous run. Today, it felt easier since the mileage was broken up over six different runs. Regardless, once Anna and I got back to the host, I made sure to stretch my muscles, roll them out, and give them the proper attention they deserved.
Running with Anna was also the first time I got to speak one on one with her. Last year, Anna was living in Mexico, working for an orphanage. She had previously participated in the 4K for Cancer of 2018 and was on Team Baltimore. We talked a lot about what she learned from the 4K for Cancer and what made her want to repeat it. Coming into the trip, a lot of people on the team had trouble adjusting to our different abilities and lost sight of what 4K for Cancer was all about. We agreed, this is isn’t about getting any personal bests, racking up mileage for a good base, or training for post 4K for Cancer plans. It’s about connecting the cancer community. It’s about running with our running partner and bonding. It’s not necessarily about becoming best friends with your running partner or teammates, but it’s about bonding and telling each other your whys. It’s about learning from each other.
When we arrived at the host, we were greeted by members of the church we were sleeping in. Broadus was a town with a population that was hardly over 450 people. Their faith and commitment to service were not underrepresented, however. Their town had six churches. After a wonderful community dinner, the pastor and some others invited us into their homes to shower. I was in the larger group that went to the pastor’s house next door. About fifteen of us cycled through showers in her house. We limited our time in the shower to the length of one song from the radio per person. We were worried about running the well dry, which the pastor insisted was not going to happen.
Things like this, which appeared somewhat normal during our time running across the county, are things that completely baffle me now. Looking back, I don’t know anyone that would be willing to do such a thing for twenty-eight sweaty runners. I also don’t know many people that would be comfortable enough to accept the offer!
Regardless, the amount of hospitality, generosity, and graciousness that we were greeted within Broadus stands out from the surrounding towns. The conversations with the pastor and the community members as well as the food with which they provided us, were incredible.
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