· Date: Friday June 21, 2019
· Where: Sparks, Nevada to Austin, Nevada
· Total Distance Covered: 170 miles
· Running Partner: Abby
Today started early and we had gotten only a little amount of sleep. Once the “Why” meeting was called to a halt, some of us had trouble sleeping. I know I had trouble. Allowing myself to process what had happened to so many of us prevented sleep. The slightly somber mood was broken by a funny story.
A few of us had stayed up to talk and process the events of the meeting together. Everyone else retreated to their respective sleeping bags. Given the fact that we could throw down our sleeping pads and our sleeping bags anywhere, a few teammates took advantage of the nice weather and slept outside in the courtyard. Their peaceful night was quickly ended by the sprinklers though. As Mason, Erin, and I were talking at the table inside, we heard the spray of the sprinklers go off followed quickly by a bunch of startled yelling. Within seconds, our teammates were back inside with hair plastered to their faces and soaked sleeping bags. It was hilarious. Although I am sure the wet belongings weren’t appreciated by those who were in them, this event soon became a running joke throughout the summer.
“Make sure there aren’t any sprinklers out there!” we would joke when a group said they were sleeping outside.
Without this story, I don’t think some of us would have had such high spirits the morning after such an emotional and personal meeting last night.
The only road from Sparks to Austin is Nevada Route 50. This road is also called The Loneliest Highway and the name doesn’t come without any meaning. There are no towns between Sparks and Austin. We only ran on one, two-lane road the entire way with hardly any turns. The Loneliest Highway is one of the roads from out west with nothing for miles and miles. If you’ve ever been there, you have probably thought of the old western movies with cowboys. “There ain’t enough room for you in this town!” was running through my head for a good part of the day. Once we got to Austin, it wasn’t a town that had much. It only had a population of about two hundred people and the buildings were old, run-down, and dirty looking.
Throughout the day, we could look left, right, forward, and backward, and only see the road in front of us. There was no other sign of civilization. I don’t think we even saw ten other vehicles on that road. It was wild. The few cars that passed us gave us the strangest looks, especially when we weren’t anywhere near the van. They were probably asking themselves how or why a group of runners was running in the middle of the desert with no food or water.
What made running today even more psychologically difficult was the fact that we would get out of the van and watch it drive three miles ahead of us. It never left our sight. In the previous four days of running, the van was typically out of our sight within a few seconds. Today, we were watching the van the entire time we ran. It was almost impossible to gauge how far it was until our leg was done, without looking at the mileage on our watches. The mirages on the road played tricks on my mind and made it seem like the van never got closer until we were within a minute or so from the door.
To avoid the heat, we ran in groups of four today and I ran with Abby, Brenna, and Tyler. Throughout the trip, the directors would decide whether we would run in groups of two or four. Since the mileage for each day was designed for groups of two, I didn’t agree with running in larger groups, even if it was to avoid heat. I always thought and still do, that if those fighting cancer could suffer through the entirety of their treatments, we could run in a little bit of heat. Running in groups of four meant that our mileage was cut in half and we drove the remainder of the day. Although Ulman says we were technically running our miles, today made it difficult to trace a direct path that we had run between Sparks and Austin. This was exactly why I didn’t like this. We had told people we would be running across the country, but today had a significant portion where we drove. But again, we had to do what Ulman told us to do and one of those rules was that we were not allowed to run in heat hotter than one-hundred-and-ten degrees.
There were two people named Tyler on the team and the Tyler we ran with today was also called Ladyler. The other Tyler was called Guyler because one Tyler was a girl and another a guy. Sounds funny, I know, but it was how we started to differentiate the two early into the trip.
Despite my apprehensions about running in a group of four, we had an amazing conversation during our miles together. We all talked about our past, our plans for the future, and about the “Why” meeting the previous night. Talking with them about what was said during the meeting helped to process everything. We realized so many of us had had similar, yet extremely different experiences that brought us together. Reflecting on last night, made me realize that I wasn’t alone in my thoughts and feelings about cancer. I wasn’t the only one who resented their past. I especially was not alone in striving to create a better outlook on my experience.
As we continued running throughout the day, we saw small desert shrubs with lizards hiding in the shade. The mirages continued, and the road progressed from long gradual uphills to long gradual downhills and up again. The group in my van saw only one other sign of civilization during our part of the road. This was a government testing facility named the B-17 Naval Range. A small sign on the side of the road was the only indication that this facility was even present. There was a small dirt road with a fence going miles into the horizon on our right. It’s a good thing we never went down that road and it is easily missed due to its limited marking. It tests radar and missiles. I guess if something were to go wrong, no one would get hurt for at least a one-hundred-and-seventy-mile radius.
We finished our miles before the other van today and were able to explore the only tourist attraction Austin has. On the highest point of the town, there is an abandoned castle that was built in 1897. Called Stokes Castle, this was more of a tower than a castle that was intended to be a summer home. Due to the expenses to maintain the building and the isolation that surrounded it, the family only used it for two months. Since then it has remained unoccupied and is part of the National Register for Historic Places. Looking back, I am still not sure why someone would want to build such an expensive building here in the middle of the desert. But the view from this part of the town was stunning. You could see for what seemed like the entire distance back to Sparks.
At one point, we talked with some locals who owned a gift shop. They asked us what brought us to the town, and we signed into their visitor’s log. They told us it wasn’t every day that they got a large group like us and thanked us for what we were doing. Their appreciation was by far the most sincere and heartfelt we had been given throughout the entirety of the trip thus far.
Later, a few of the guys on the team paced me for a mile time trial. After talking with Tyler S. and Evan in the van today, we realized how much I wanted to break my pre-cancer mile time and how much they wanted to be a part of it. The time trial was terribly hard. After running twelve miles that day combined with the fact that we had climbed to 6,605 feet in elevation throughout the day, my legs were exhausted. I couldn’t be more thankful that Tyler, Rob, Evan, and Luke were so generous to pace me though. I think I ended up running just shy of a six-minute pace. Considering the elevation and the mileage we had put in that day, Tyler told me not to beat myself up. We’ve decided to call this goal and the journey to breaking this time Project:Return. However, this is a blog post in itself.
Overall, the day was as successful as it could be. The moral was low since there were no businesses to obtain food donations from, and there were little options besides the gas station to buy food. We were all tired. The heat of the day, the elevation, and the lack of sleep were getting to us. But we looked back on the day optimistically since it was another one-hundred-and-seventy miles closer to Boston. The two groups from the vans joined each other for dinner which was a box of spaghetti and five bags of grapes for the whole team. As depressing as this was, we traded stories and made the most of it.
It was always interesting to hear the highlights from the van you were not in during the day. The other van had stopped on the side of the road and run up the side of a massive sand dune that was located about a mile off the road. The pictures looked like they were from another continent! They even ran into a French man who from my understanding was biking across America on his own!
As we went to bed, I realized what a strong support system I had with me to carry me through the summer. Not only did I have my family, my girlfriend, and my friends back home encouraging me, I also had my team here. We were a team and we were a family. We all wanted to get the best out of each other and to make as much of an impact in the cancer community as we could. More importantly, we wanted to do this together.
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