TUPELO MARATHON 2016 Race Report

Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead!

Skull and Crossbones Medal.

Long sleeve tie-dyed, winter shirt.

5 a.m. start-time on Labor Day Weekend.

Air-conditioned finish line inside arena.

Dressing room showers & free BBQ.

These amenities await the finisher of the Tupelo Marathon. 

Not to mention an annual dose of running on the hallowed ground where the King of Rock n' Roll was born.  

I left Madison, Alabama @ 1:16 p.m. on Labor Day Saturday headed to Trails & Treads for packet pick-up between 1 and 5 p.m. CDT. 

Minor details can become major details when living in the Central Time Zone and close to the Eastern Time Zone running in Chattanooga or Atlanta as we did last week. Two to three hour drives quickly become 3-4 hour drives on the face of a clock and can make the difference between a relaxed, leisurely start or a panic filled drive. 

The Heart of Rock n' Roll is in Tupelo

I wouldn't have to worry about a time change this week like last week. Or about running until 3 a.m. in the morning. Or sleeping on gravel for two hours afterward. Or running in the dark. At least not running in the dark for very long.

I welcomed the rare 5 a.m. start, because I generally don't sleep well the night before a race, and being out of town alone, I prefer to get up super early instead of waiting around. 

The early start allows for a cooler overall run and the psychological advantage of being 10 miles into your race when the sun comes up. Since most races start at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., this unusual start time for marathons is an added bonus. 

I stayed at the Baymont Inn on North Gloster Rd. less than 3 miles from the start-finish at BancorpSouth Arena on Main Street. I would not stay there again, because there are too many other hotels close by to choose from. And at 3 a.m. there was a loud-talking couple in the hallway or in their room with the door open.

YETI Snakebite 50K Race Report (2016)

(L-R) Liz (photo credit), Allie, Lindsey, Megan
Rick, Cary, David & Ryan
Not Pictured: 2 Cool Guys Named Martin & Spencer

A romance novel best describes my race experience:

'Boy meets race. Boy treats race with indifference. Race finds boy contemptible, boy finds race contemptible--yet they cannot seem to stay away from each other. Boy and race fight the growing attraction. Boy ends up finishing race and hugging race director.'

I now realize the following race description was open to interpretation:

"50KM races designed to help runners achieve a new distance and allow veteran runners to run a speedy time or tune up for upcoming fall events. Both races utilize a variety of relatively easy trails, including weaving single-track and broad open fields, as well as narrow trails along the Chattahoochee River. With moderate hills and trails, the course is designed for fast times and for those looking to try their first trail ultra."

Not.

Should've known better when I saw that the cutoff for a 50K was 11 hours. I think the RD went to the Lazarus Lake School of Race Directing; therefore, believe nothing you hear or read. Just show up ready to run and overcome the mental obstacles.

I'm honored to be associated with the group of finishers, winners, and overcomers in the pic above.

First Major Hill on Loop One

This race was not a "new distance" or a "speedy time" for me, but it was a "tune up for my upcoming fall event," The Georgia Jewel 100 Miler.

My Garmin Data: Yeti Snakebite 50/50

They say it's where you end up in life, not how you get there.

Okay, maybe nobody says this. In fact, I believe the opposite, but it applies to my finish of the YSB50K. I came away from this race feeling great, but that's not how I felt the first 11 miles.

RACE REPORT: Native Jackal Trail Marathon

I ran only the last marathon

The fifth and final marathon of the Jackal Trail Marathons, near Jackson, TN, is the toughest of five marathons in five consecutive days from Saturday thru Wednesday, and it will certainly test the human heart.

I've run 20+ marathons, but yesterday's marathon was by far the hardest I've run. I've run 50Ks with more elevation gain over an hour faster. 

This marathon differed from all the rest based on one factor: HEAT. And horseflies. As if 26.53 miles is not enough, welcome to increasing heat and horseflies on every 2.65 mile loop that must be run 10 times.

One hundred and four degrees heat index by 3:13 p.m.

We started at 8:30 a.m. I finished at 4:00 p.m. 3 hours drive one way. Bananas and Ensure on the drive up. Hot wings, fries and coke on the way home. 6 hours of loud music. 7 hours & 30 minutes of testing. I passed. I resisted quitting for hours. A handful of times I thought I may get to the point of danger and quit out of fear for my health. 

It subsided. 

Photo: Karl Studtmann

I took pictures throughout the first loop when the course was shaded and spirits were high. Very few horseflies then. I took my pepper spray like I try to do now on every run. In a state park, what could happen?

Two loud-barking and charging dogs at the top of the longest hill. That's what could happen. Great! Only have to pass them 9 more times! I was ready. Each pass, I pulled out my spray and ran confidently by the house while my strength weakened in the heat of the day. 

So glad I had it.

Another thing I was glad I had by the end of the run was my frogg togg towel. Not necessarily because I could squeeze water out of it onto my head occasionally, which was helpful, but because I could swing it like a horse's tail to fight off the yellow jackets and biting flies. By the 8th loop, I really wondered if the bugs would not be the cause of me choosing to quit.

Our (Sin) Debt, Not The Old Testament, Was Nailed To The Cross

A popular phrase among Christians when describing the entire Bible is that “The OT is the NT concealed, and the NT is the OT revealed.”

Acknowledging this phrase means that one admits s/he is interpreting how the NT relates to the OT.

It means in some ways the OT & NT are the same, but in other ways “the two covenants,” as they are sometimes called, are different.

10 years ago, I believed and taught the word covenant was a better translation than the word testament, but now I realize how this contributed to my legalism back then.

By legalism, I mean a sincere attempt to keep all of God's commandments, but that unintentionally obligates God to save me, because I have kept all His commandments (in the NT). I  now realize that my previous interpretation of how the OT & NT relate was that the NT was basically "Old Testament Light."

Of course, keeping "all the commandments of God" even if only in the NT, is impossible, and so must be reduced to a handful of "steps" and especially  "acts of worship" that must be repeated perfectly every Sunday.

I believe that there are two major assumptions that contribute to this way of thinking.

One is that we are "under contract" with God and the second is that The Old Testament was nailed to the cross.

The OT was not "nailed to the cross" (Col. 2:14), so that the NT could be kept the exact same way with fewer laws to keep.

What was nailed to the cross was our sins or the record of our debt of sin to God. This is what the "handwriting of ordinances" and "written code" means. These phrases do not refer to the OT.

I believe translating the word "testament" as "covenant" is one reason some believe 5 steps and 5 acts must be kept meticulously in order to sustain this forgiveness, but that this actually hinders God's grace through an attempt to keep all of God's commandments in the NT.