· Date: Sunday July 28, 2019
· Where: Saratoga Springs, New York to Lebanon, New Hampshire
· Total Distance Covered: 133 miles
· Running Partner: Everyone
Everything was damp. I guess that’s what we get for sleeping outside. We had set our own alarm last night figuring the rooster wouldn’t be able to find us on the roof. When the alarm went off, the sun had hardly even come up, which just made it seem even more of an ungodly hour than it was. Last night, before crawling into our sleeping bags for the night, we had stored muffins in our sleeping bags so that we could eat them watching the sunrise. Although it was a great idea, there were trees everywhere along the horizon which blocked our view. It was still the best breakfast we’d had!
Today, I was the oddball out in the van who didn’t have a partner. I ended up running with mostly everyone who was still able to.
At first, I ran with Aspen and Erin. They were partners and both were recovering from injuries as well. I was impressed by how far they both ran after having not run consistently and it was fun to talk with them too. I hadn’t officially run with either of them yet because of the shuffling around of partners due to injuries. So even though I already had great conversations throughout 4K with them, it was still fun to talk and run together.
Then, as Erin stopped running, we joined Bea. This was also a good combination and I think I ran a couple of miles with only Bea as well.
With five miles left to go, I ended up running with Rob and Caroline who also had five miles left to the eleven-mile day. I was most excited about this because, throughout the trip, I had numerous deep conversations with them both. I still hadn’t had a day of running with Caroline either, so was glad to have been able to run some miles with her. At one point, I remember Caroline asking me a question that I had never been asked before.
“Was not doing treatment ever a consideration?” She asked when we were talking about my past with cancer.
I told her I had never been asked that before.
That’s when I realized how lucky I was. Testicular cancer, even at the advanced stages it was for me at the time of my diagnosis is a very curable disease. To me, not going through with treatment would have been extremely ill advisable and like giving up on life. I knew that my diagnosis had always been a great prognosis, somewhere in the eighty percent likelihood of survival. Until now, I had hardly even contemplated this. I had hardly acknowledged that some people’s diagnosis could even bring about this question. At one point during treatment, before my largest surgery, I had accepted death and come to grips with it. But thinking about a reality where all you could do was wait for this, brought forth a lot of emotions. Even now, this is a question that is hard for me to answer and contemplate but regardless reminds me of just how lucky I am. For both Caroline’s parents, this question was a reality during the time if their diagnosis.
For the rest of our miles, we came across a detour due to construction. Rob, Caroline, and I finished our miles in the darkened, shade of a dirt road and it was amazing. It was a much-needed cushion to our joints, and we loved it. Running here also brought about many funny jokes among us. Caroline was from Lebanon, New Hampshire. So, as we were running through this area of the route, with only trees to be seen everywhere around us, Rob kept asking Caroline if she recognized anything.
“Do you recognize that?” he’d joke, pointing to a large tree. “What about that?” he continued jokingly pointing to a rock or stump.
It had us both laughing and when the conversation got tough or had periods of silence, Rob always helped to break it. I was so glad to have finished my miles with them but even happier to eat a muffin when we finished!
At this point in the day, we had crossed into Vermont and since we finished out miles, had to drive the remainder of the way to Lebanon, New Hampshire. It reminded me of crossing through Indiana in one day and I found myself asking why Ulman had brought us all the way up here just to go down south again. But regardless the scenery was beautiful, and I have always loved Vermont and New Hampshire. We passed by Killington Ski Area and saw signs to Okemo, both of which I had been to before. It felt weird because from now until we reached Boston, most towns and places we ran through, I had at least heard of if not visited. Even Saratoga Springs, our host location yesterday, I had visited before to see the horse races.
At one point, we stopped at Quechee Gorge, in Quechee, Vermont. We all thought this was a hilarious name for a town and had lots of laughs about it. Our route went right over a bridge that overlooked the gorge and immediately we were all jealous that the other van had been able to run here. We stopped off at a gift shop and realized that there was a trail down to see the gorge. If we had more time, we would have loved to explore, but Caroline’s friends were hosting us for dinner, and we had to be in Lebanon soon. The man who explained the trail for us was funny. When he heard us try to explain what the 4K for Cancer was, there was no getting through.
“You’re running across the country for aging adults who can’t see?” He asked in confusion. We laughed about that one for a while.
For some time, my parents had been talking about a beautiful gorge and area of Vermont that they had visited. It wasn’t until almost a year later, when they showed Annalyse and I this Gorge, that I realized we had gone through Quechee. I had known what they were talking about the entire time. Of course, when we visited a year later, I had to run across the bridge just to say I had. I was finally able to take in the view as we looked off the side of the bridge.
That night, we went to Caroline’s friend’s house for dinner. I honestly do not remember much about it. As regretful as it was, I was extremely distracted with my class registration for Fall 2019. Even though it was a Sunday, I was getting emails from the nursing department about the registration process for one of my classes that had been difficult to sign up for all summer. Today was finally the day I could sign up to register and I was having difficulty doing so. I ended up calling my advisor, on her weekend to make sure that I had it done. I was so thankful and appreciative of this. Because of the alternate reality Team Boston was living in, I hadn’t even realized it was Sunday when I asked my advisor to do this. I was so thankful.
The host was an extremely tiny church with no air conditioning. People's stuff was on top of things everywhere and we slept in a damp basement. I went to sleep as soon as possible but had trouble because of the humidity and heat. It was the first night I hadn’t slept in my sleeping bag and simply blew up my sleeping pad to sleep on that. As I opened the sleeping bag to dry out from the dampness of the morning and prevent mold, I hoped it would dry. Luckily, it would. Even more lucky, I would sleep soundly. I didn’t even hear everyone come back from visiting late at Caroline’s house!
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