The Truth Serum
Recent events, which we may not appreciate. I can say will become
our ever more “Truth Serum” about who we think we know. As well, as who we think we are. I know this
to be true. Let me tell you a little story.
Between the years 2002 and 2006, I would prepare and run this
race across the Mohave Desert in mid-July.
The reason why, is because it was science. Stay with me. The temps ranged between one
hundred eighteen to one hundred thirty-four degrees (about that) usually
between ten in the morning till about sundown or so. At midnight, it could still be over one
hundred degrees. You had to run on the shoulders of the roadway/highway (It was
mostly sixty MPH. Fact check me if you’d like.) The macadam was usually for most of the days at
that time of year one hundred fifty to two hundred degrees. If you wore those
gel running shoes, or those ‘Air’ shoes they may pop, taking away their gel or
air benefits. So, I wore a torsion format, which I’d preferred anyway.
Now comes the tricky part.
You had to hire a crew of three people, and at least one crew car. They could not shadow you. They had to drive leap frogging you, the
runner and either guess when you needed something. Because the communication was on and off. You,
the runner ran against the traffic as you should for safety. The crew drove the correct legal way, with
the traffic, going the speed limit. They
had to pull over clearing the shoulder and not into the sand, because it was a
National Park area and as well, you’d get stuck in the sand. And well, basically you could be screwed. Oh.
By the way, there was no shade till about the finish line at Mt. Whitney
Portal.
Okay so the crew would do this leap frogging. So, it’s hot
for them as well. There were three HUGE hills/mountain areas they had to drive
up. You started below sea level; then got to five feet above sea level at about
forty-two mile point one mile marker.
Oh, I meant to tell you. The race was one hundred and thirty-five
miles. And it had to be done in sixty
hours or less, to be acknowledged. And
in forty-eight hours to receive the ‘belt buckle’. By the way, there usually is
a hot wind blowing here and there, with minor dirt devils to sting you. And your
crew’s vehicle’s air conditioning may not work.
Then from forty-two point one it was uphill from there to
near five thousand feet elevation. Oh,
and rthank God mother nature was so kind to have the hill spread out the elevation
over eighteen miles. And the prize was
you got to go downhill, some winding passes. As you traversed the curves you
could see the bottom for miles, like twelve as you dropped down to about
fifteen hundred feet above sea level. Nice little downhill run to mash your
quads, which you may not have felt the effect till you got to Panamint Springs.
Oh, Panamint Springs? It is said Charles
Manson knew the area well.
So, at the seventy-two or so mile mark you’re going back up
to Father Crowley. Where there’s a beautiful prehistoric view. Yet it’s still up hill, till about mile ninety
at Darwin turn off. Then you drop down gradually till mile one hundred and
twenty-two, in Lone Pine, CA. Lone Pine is above sea level, three thousand
seven hundred twenty-seven feet. Then the finish it’s a bit cooler, climbing
the thirteen miles up from lone Pine to the Mt. Whitney Portal at just under
eight thousand four hundred feet elevation.
When the runner’s race is all done. The crew, if they’ve
survived without abandoning the team/runner, being kicked off the team during the
event, or ending up medically unfit, gets to revel in their accomplishment. When
the runner occurs having food poisoning or water poisoning, all the training,
the preparation of runner and team and hopes fall flat, as well. We’ve ran into just about every problem imaginable
in those five years my husband and I have been out there and the five races I entered,
three I completed within the forty-eight hour time for the notorious ‘belt
buckle’.
Oh, and by the way, people have cheated. I will not begin to
list the things that people can and have used to cheat with; they know who they
are. And to me, deep down they know it. Good enough for me. You see, I compare this episode to many things
in life I’ve had to contend with long before racing across the desert in those
summers. And as my husband and I have reflected and looked back and laughed at
all the insanity caused by a little pressure cooker known as ‘Badwater’. We end
up calling it, “The Truth Serum”. And that my friend is what we are facing on
another scale currently.---Jody-Lynn Reicher
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