50 Miles for 50 Years

Sorry for the delay, but I have been out of the country; in Egypt. 50 years brings up images of some person who is half a century old & limited in their physical & mental abilities. As I constantly mention, most all boundaries are self set so by default, we limit our abilities in practically every way, financial, mental, emotional & physical. For my 50th birthday, I wanted to run 50 miles. It was well planned out & many friends participated in various capacities. K1 (aka Trail Zombie) & I had planned to start from his house near Turkey Mountain at 7 PM on July 10th, head down 71st Street across the Arkansas River to Riverside Drive. We would then head south & then @ 91st & Riverside, turn east & run out to Northeastern State University. Unfortunately it was still plenty warm & in the 90's. Kathy, Roman, Russel, Bobby & Marvin met us @ 96th & Riverside while Lenice started out with us from the start & Craig joined in @ 71st Street.

Heading east along the Creek Turnpike Trail, we began to spread out a bit. K1 & I was constantly aware of our pace. K1's wonderful wife Dana was our crew & was sure to keep us hydrated & fed.

As the sun went down, the temperature dropped a bit but not as much as I had hoped. It stayed really warm (actually hot) for most of the night. Although Dana had us well taken care of, passing the restaurant signs brought on pangs of hunger.. K1 was constantly on the telephone as friends were checking on us most of the night to see where we were & to join in when they could.

The shirts that I had made for my birthday run were great as the logos really stood out. Many thanks to Julie Rock @ Rock Custom Wear.

While K1 & I were still on our outward journey, Craig & Marvin were already on their way back with about 5-6 miles left for them to have completed as full marathon.

By midnight, Dana about had it & headed home after running a few friends back to their cars. She did think of us though as she left ice chests for us to find on our way back. At this point, they were like pots of gold.

Now a sane person would have long said that "they couldn't do this", but I am here to say to you that with proper preparation, anyone can do this. You CAN erase those mental & physically boundaries that you may have set years ago.

As the sun rose, we got to 71st & Riverside where the construction is & low & behold, there was "a boundary". And seeing as we "know no boundaries", we opted to check out the new trail.

Just before we made it here though, we were hit with two shocking signs -

I can promise you that we had NO INTENTION of turning around & if we went any slower, we would be going backwards!

At 31st & Riverside, Dana brought us a frozen cappuccino. It tasted heavenly but after about 5 minutes, I realized it was a mistake. I had not trained with it.

We finished up at 10 AM Saturday morning with smiles on our faces and only a single blister.

At the end of it all, I can say THANK YOU to K1, Dana & all of my friends who made my 50th birthday run unforgetable.

And as I always say, Know No Boundaries.