A few months back, Dale started looking for a half marathon to run. We determined May 21st was the day we could get away. He sent me the following email, “The choices for a half marathon are Richmond or Sunset Beach, NC. Which would you prefer?”
I responded, “Is this a joke? One of them is at a beach.” (No offense to all those who love Richmond, but I’ve seen the giant cigarette plenty of times.)
I quickly booked a hotel in nearby Ocean Isle Beach. I was hoping for a family get-a-way. Unfortunately, Christian Youth Theater hijacked our life back in September and has refused to budge. Gabe and Zeke had rehearsal. Abby (who is getting a teensy bit miffed about constantly having to cover for her parents while they go away on holiday) held down the fort.
We drove down to North Carolina on Friday. I remarked to Dale that since it was at the beach, at least the course would be flat. Friday night was still cloudy, but walking on the beach looking for shells, breathing in the sea air helped lift from me the heaviness of the week. We ate spaghetti and meatball for dinner. (I find it odd to get one giant meatball on my spaghetti instead of five normal sized meatballs. I have seen this giant meatball on several menus. I fear Mom may adopt this rule to settle a whole lot of squabbling and the counting out of meatballs.)
Saturday morning, Dale was up at 0500 eating microwave pancakes with peanut butter. I was in a daze. We drove on the causeway bridge over the Intercoastal Waterway to the start of the race. The humidity and the gnats were thick. There were 1500 runners. In the picture at the start, you can see Dale’s white hat on the far right. He started running and I walked to the start of the causeway (between mile two and three) to cheer him on. After he ran up the bridge, I walked towards the beach figuring I had an hour to wait while he ran the route on the mainland. The humidity was stifling, I got part way to the beach and thought, “I better bring some water.” When I got back to the car, it started to rain heavily and I thought, “I’ll take a nap instead.” Dale kept running in the pouring rain.
When the rain stopped, I went back to the causeway to watch the leader run down towards me. The woman next to me remarked, “I ran this last year. That bridge is a killer.” Suddenly, it dawned on me, “If Dale is running this bridge twice over the Intercoastal Waterway that large ships sail underneath, this is not a flat course.” When I finally saw him run back down the bridge (between mile eleven and twelve), he did not look very happy. I cheered loudly to pep him up.
When the half marathoners arrived back on the Island, they were joined by the 5K runners. The combined group ran south away from the finish line. Dale watched the turn point ahead with anticipation, but when he arrived, he was told it was only for the 5K, he had to keep going south. This was his moment of discouragement. Meanwhile, I was at the finish line watching all the happy finishers get their huge medals. The finish announcer loudly announced everyone’s name who crossed the line. One of the half marathon leaders (I think he finished third) looped back around to cross the finish line arm and arm with his granny who was running the 5K. It was a sweet moment.
Dale crossed the finish at 1:57:04 (official chip time) in 90th place. I cheered when his name was announced. He finished in under two hours which was great. It was not the time he hoped for but then again, the flat course wasn’t flat.
His recovery consisted of body surfing in the ocean and a really long walk on the beach with his wife at sunset. (They wouldn’t call it sunset beach if there wasn’t a sunset.) I got sunburned which was great because it meant there was actually a sun out to be burned by. I saw a guy who was fishing from the beach catch a three foot long shark. We had hoped to see a turtle digging her nest in the dunes, but we only saw a completed nest marked off with police tape. We also discovered a mailbox where people come to write notes of encouragement, thankfulness, memory… We heard one little girl explain to her friend, “Alls I know is there’s the dunes and then the mailbox.”
On Saturday evening, we went out to a seafood restaurant for dinner and the waitress took our drink and appetizer order. We decided what we were ordering for our entrees. After awhile, she came back and said, “Has anyone told you about our specials tonight?”
I replied, “We ordered already.”
Confusion spread across her face. Dale laughed and said, “No. We haven’t.”
She was our waitress after all. If we had ordered, she would know.
A half a marathon for Dale – A half a mind for me.