Thru Travel Not Advised

Here's my new Canadian friend before she headed down this very long, hot and dusty road. She ran almost nine miles on this road, whereas I ran a little over the last five it. 

I estimate that she ran during the time of the "Great Badger Showdown." A woman from the Hulagans said a badger chased her down the road. She said that she came down with heat stroke not long after. Must have been the stress of the wildlife encounter. She should have taken a picture of herself.

The story of the chase down is rumored to be so enthralling that a person using a port-a-potty while the woman shared her story right outside the potty, chose to sit and listen to said story rather than exit. People clearly don't get out in the woods enough. 

On this run is where my handy-dandy waist belt came in handy, as I used my water spritzer on this run. At first the sprayer was quite handy, but as I became hotter, all the spritzing I did just made me have to, well, it gave me the "Gotta go right now" urgency. I stopped spritzing and took care of nature's call before the officials' cars came by.
I did receive an encouraging, "Only one mile to go!" from an official gal who was inside her air conditioned Audi. Easy for her to say. The official guy in the other car reminded me of those sweepers when I did the Nike run-good looking guys pointing the old lady the way to the end. He asked, "You alright?" Of course I huffed, "Yes." I didn't ask, "Would you be alright if you were out here?"

I ran leg six, finishing the run at the 85 degree mark. My experience was that the farther I ran up the road, the less the trees attempted to provide shade. I saw no mirages, but I was happy to have done the training I did on those very hot days in Eugene. I felt this training helped me know I could handle the heat. I hadn't trained on such a running surface, but I kept my slow but steady pace. I did wear my Garmin watch, and it said that I ran hundreds of miles. I forgot to turn it off at the end of my run. So, I couldn't tell my pace and I couldn't tell if the elevation slowed me down.

I would like to say I enjoyed the beauty of this particular leg, but I just recognized that it was hot and I needed to put one foot in front of the other.  I did appreciate my peeps with the water and woo-hoos, and for fixing my iPod when I floundered with it at the start of my run.  

Here is the team at the Silver Lake rest area. I tried to sleep but became enthralled with a couple that were singing in the park. I love bluegrass, old time country, and folk music. Although my teammates may have found them annoying while they were trying to sleep, I loved the interruption.

Matt and Rachel Wilson of Silver Lake Oregon