Tuesday, July 26, 2011

It's gonna rain: Week ending 7/17 + 7/24







It's Gonna Rain Part 1 - Steve Reich from Lost Highway on Vimeo.

Well! That was one hell of a two weeks.

Week 1: 69 miles.

Yeah, 69. You know whatimsayin. Hell yeah, bro.

This week is significant. Great Lakes Relay. Crossing the northern half of the Lower Peninsula in three days. 270 miles. 9.5 team members. Something like 4 cases of Oberon consumed.



It was an amazing weekend. Freel. Ashley said, upon bursting out of the woods: "That was the fastest I've run since high school track." My brother (a non-runner) said: "I ate dem. I ate those muthafuckahz like food. I was a shark. I said to dem: YOU FOOD!" Anya ran her 'brain-bake' leg of the course despite not having to. She said she just wanted to run 3 miles up and down sand dunes. In 95F weather. No tree cover. At the end of a 15 hour day. Yeah, girl.

Mentally, this weekend was huge. I mean, I didn't run more than I have in any one given moment, BUT that did not mean I was also prepared for this particular running feat. It was fucking tough, man. "Car #1, you'll have runners for Legs 4, 6 and 8. Be at the end of leg 3 for the hand off. Car #2, you get 2,3 and 7. Do have laminates of the directions for your runners? Car #3..." etc. etc. It was a shit load of logistics. And it was hard.

The course was gorgeous. Having been a Michigan resident for 5 years and having visited my family here in the South East corner...I had really no idea what this state is all about. Now, I get it. I won't make fun of those Pure Michigan radio ads anymore. This state is beautiful and I regret that I won't be able to see more of it in the immediate future because...


I'm moving to Chile in three weeks. I'll be teaching some English in Talca. This has been in the works for the entire year, but now it's official. I have a plane ticket and everything. So, that's that. No more pancake Midwest. Instead, I'll have seemingly-infinite stretches of decidedly not-pancake-flat patagonian mountains. Yeah. I've had this as my computer backdrop since december as a focus point:



I need to be sure to not take my good health for granted. I bitch about that shit too much to suddenly become hypocritical. If you can: Get out and do it.

It's going to be an intense couple of months here coming up. It's been an intense couple of months going down right now. When it rains, it pours...which is titties...assuming you're thirsty.

I love everyone. Kill'em all.

3 comments:

David said...

Awesome post!

Keep them coming when you're in Chile!

Keep posting too!

EXCLAMATION POINT.

Can't wait to hear about the journey. -Dave

JessiePants said...

Mercy, what an exciting post, P.!
Brilliant on the relay, sounds like a pretty stellar experience.
Chile, I AM unbelievably jealous, but so excited for you. I really hope as Dave said that you'll be able to post your adventures.
Good luck, my friend!

Patrick Thurber said...

thanks for the well-wishes! i expect a flurry of posting to accompany the move, as well as a whole lot more alpaca-milk recovery drinking.

dave, i hope you're tender tendon is tensioned terrifically, at last (not in the dirty way).


Jessie, i'm not sure which i find more enjoyable: your music posts or your running updates. thank you for not making me choose.