· Date: Thursday August 1, 2019
· Where: Portland, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire
· Total Distance Covered: 77 miles
· Host Van Partner: Rob
Rob and I had gotten the short end of the stick. There were forty-nine days to the trip. Since ten of these were rest days, that meant thirty-nine of the days required a host van pair to obtain food donations. Most people would be assigned this role twice, but a few would be assigned the role three times. Today, Rob and I were some of the unlucky ones to be assigned the role for the third time.
The host had prepared a massive breakfast with fruit, oatmeal, waffles, ham, sausage, and almost any other breakfast food you could imagine. It was incredible and I found as we ate, the team was getting off to a great start because of it. The warm food wasn’t something we always had and energized us for the morning. Even though we didn’t typically sit down for a breakfast this large, we only had six miles each to run today. Having a longer morning wouldn’t impact our miles at all.
Slowly, we migrated from the church hall and back to our sleeping area. We picked up our bags and our coolers. Packing the vans was getting much easier too. Every day now, we were cleaning them out. Throughout the summer various items, garbage, and bags had accumulated in the vans. It was nice to have them somewhat clean again, but the smells remained. Anyone’s nose could tell that runners had occupied the vans for the past seven weeks. Let’s just say, Rob and I were disappointed to be in the Host Van today, but we didn’t miss the smells.
Once the two running vans left and the team began their miles, I went back to bed for a few hours. For some reason, I was exhausted despite having slept so well last night. It seemed that no matter how much I slept, it was never enough. Perhaps the miles, sleeping on the floor, and the traveling were finally getting to me. While I slept, Rob went out to run twelve extra miles. So far, he was projecting his mileage this week to reach triple digits but needed to do some extra mileage this morning to do so. Caroline, Tyler S., and a few others were also projected to do the same and had been running extra miles this week too. I was excited for them and hoped they were able to reach their goal!
When Rob and I got started in the Host Van, we decided to explore a little bit of Portland. We were hopeful that some of the local stores could provide us some food donations. As we walked the street, we realized that Portland was mostly a tourist town and there weren’t too many stores that were willing to donate. We ended up stopping off at a donut shop called The Holy Donut. The shop is well known for its Maine Potato Donuts. So much so, Annalyse, who lives in Brooklyn and had never been north of Massachusetts, told me I had to try one of them. I ended up getting the chocolate glazed donut and it was amazing. Somehow, they were flakier than normal donuts but also lighter. At the same time, they still had the same greasy taste you get in your mouth when you bite into a donut. They were delicious and I wouldn’t have known they were made of potatoes if it didn’t say so! Rob and I wished that The Holy Donut was closer to our hometowns!
As we made our way towards Portsmouth though, we realized we were extremely fortunate to be in the Host Van today. The team had a few boxes of electrolytes and granola bars that we were trying to finish. We also had random assortments of nonperishable items that had been donated throughout the summer and no one had touched. Although none of us wanted to eat this odd assortment of food, we also realized it wouldn’t be right to ask for more food donations. Due to the short miles as well, there was no way that Rob and I could provide lunch to the vans, while they were running. Furthermore, dinner had already been donated by a teammate's friend. Rob and I were left wondering what we needed to do today.
We were hopeful though that we could obtain a gift card from a supermarket. It would be incredible if we could get a celebratory cake for the team because we would soon be arriving in Boston. Sadly though, this would not be the case. It seemed most places were too preoccupied with tourist season.
Just as we crossed the border into New Hampshire, we passed the Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, Maine. I became so excited because again, this was a place I had been to visit with my family. There were a ton of restaurants and stores along the main road in Kittery so Rob and I decided to explore and see what the businesses could donate. Although this was fun, we came up dry. In all honesty, it was depressing how many refusals we received. Knowing how little food the team needed as we reached our final days in the trip though, Rob and I just gave up. It wasn’t worth it.
At one point, Rob showered at a local pool. The manager was perplexed when he finally understood what the 4K for Cancer was all about.
“Oh, so why did you guys go all the way to Portland, just to run down to Boston?” He asked.
“That is a very good question,” Rob and I told him.
We had no idea. No one on the team had any idea why this had happened. It was already playing head games with most of the team. We felt like we were done running but hadn’t gotten to Boston yet. Rob and I were hearing from the other vans today that the morale was at an all-time low.
Soon, we arrived at the host for the night but weren’t allowed to go inside. There was a summer camp going on, and we wouldn’t be allowed in until the camp ended for the day. Once we were finally let inside, both running vans had already arrived as well. Rob and I felt like we hadn’t done anything at all today. We had come up dry with food donations and we hadn’t even unloaded the host van of everyone’s bags.
Once we were let into the host, Tyler S. and I changed our clothes and got ready for the time trial. We ran over to the Portsmouth High school which was about two miles away and we used this as my warmup. We met up with one of Tyler’s friends who ran in college with him, and she helped us during the time trial. As we finished warming up, the rest of the team arrived to help cheer us on. I was so excited to give it a try, especially in our new spikes. In the end, though, I got an even slower time than I had in Cleveland. Later, there will be a full recap of Project:Return once the daily blogs are completed. I will say that this was the first time where I failed to achieve a running goal since before my treatment. Since treatment, my body always strengthened, and my running performances always improved. But tonight, was the first time I hadn’t gotten a time I wanted, and I was feeling down.
After the time trial, the team went to Prescott Park in downtown Portsmouth. There, we sat on the lawn and had our dinner as a team. There were huge crowds because of an outdoor theatre group though and we had trouble finding a spot to sit down. A large portion of the park was closed off due to a play that was showing, and we couldn’t see much of what the park had to offer.
The crowds were also largely because the U.S. Coast Guard’s Barque Eagle was sailing through the harbor. As the massive, three-mast sailboat pulled into view, we noticed it being escorted by numerous smaller boats. Closest to the ship were other U.S. Coast Guard boats, tugboats, and police boats with their lights flashing. Then in front of the escort, behind, and on either side were countless civilian motor craft. Every boat was honking their horns, their fog horns, and ringing bells and whistles. American flags blew in the wind, and people hollered and cheered form the shore. It was a big deal seeing this ship come into the harbor, and although Team Boston didn’t know why it was entering the harbor, we thought it was incredible to witness. I found myself cheering with the crowd as the ship slowly made its way past us.
Seeing this display made me miss home even more. The Coast Guard Academy is in New London, Connecticut. Every month, their band has a free concert that my family and I would often go to see. I also knew a few people from my high school who had joined the Coast Guard. Seeing the ship, which every officer cadet was trained on, come through the harbor was amazing. I immediately called my dad to explain what we had seen!
Soon, the festivities died down and the boats were all out of sight. As the crowds dispersed and brought their attention back to the play on stage, we left the park. It was getting late, we were tired, and most of the team had many journals left to write in. For the remainder of the night, we would all finish the journals and hang out and talk to each other. We were trying to enjoy our last two nights together since tomorrow night would be our last.
At one point, I found myself talking with Rizwan. We talked about if 4K had given us what we thought it would. After the conversation had ended, we both realized this wasn’t the case at all. In many ways, we were both disappointed, but in many other ways, we were pleasantly surprised. It seemed everyone could agree with us. Team Boston was done with the lifestyle we had lived for the past forty-seven days, but we weren’t done with each other.