Yellow Bus Adventures: Throw Baby Out With the Bath Water (arfta Labor Day Weekend 2015)

eating at Crack

Carb loading night before start

It wasn't until Thursday night that I decided to head to Manchester, TN, for 'A Race for the Ages' (arfta). Plaxico had been sick on Monday and I had a sinus infection that I couldn't shake. After talking it over with Pat, we were good to go...although I did start to have some misgivings on Saturday when nothing seemed to go right and we left an hour later than I was hoping. I was a little nervous traveling alone with the baby again. The last time was in May when we headed to Strolling Jim and he was 7 months old. I had some concerns and none were really pertaining to the race too much. When you travel with a baby, if you have to stop to pee, you have to get him out of the car seat and then try to go to the bathroom without him fussing too much, or setting him down on the dirty bathroom floors. In May, I just pulled him and the car seat out, and it wasn't too big of a deal.

We left on Saturday afternoon around 4 with the plan to stop halfway or so for dinner. At 6 we pulled into Crack and filled our bellies and everything seemed well. We only had 90 minutes left to drive and I thought we would go by the race site to set up our stuff and then

we could return ready to run Sunday morning. With 40 minutes to go, Plaxico decided he had enough riding. I sang our song for a bit and that helped some. Finally after tears on both sides, we pulled into the parking lot and I rescued him from the car seat. I finally caught up to John Price and he pointed out the shady spot he reserved for us (thank you JP!!) and Sandra helped me quickly throw our

lap 4 break

visit to Camp Warden

Pic by John Price

stuff out. It was too dark to really see well enough to set up and I knew I needed to get to the hotel to get someone in a little better mood. My only really bad decision of the weekend; should have just went straight to the hotel.

My start time was Sunday at 2a.m. (that was not happening). In an ideal world, it would have been great to start in the cool morning hours and Plaxico would have been fine riding in his pack sleeping. The problem with that scenario is that mom has to be alert to take care of him during the daylight hours. So the early morning start was out. We slept in some and managed to make it to the race site by about 9 (I forget if that was central or eastern time now though.) Aimee graciously came and helped me set up our canopy and I got the rest of our stuff put out and then we were off to the start. I knew I needed to get as many miles in as I could while it was still cool. I also knew that I would need to stop every 3-4 miles and make sure Plaxico was good as far as diapers, food, and temperment. :)

mile 11 break

We did a 12 hour race last month and I managed to get in 15 miles before the heat sent us home. That was the most I had ever carried him. I had told laz that unless I got 50K in then I wouldn't even entertain the idea of ordering a jacket. (how I wish I could eat those words) Anyhow, I had my goal and I thought that was pretty doable by splitting it up between the two days. However, I wasn't sure how tiring it would be to get ready for the trip and the trip down itself. I had told my hubby that we would go visit some friends in the area or go back to the hotel pool during the heat of the day if we needed too. So I had some loose contingency plans.

We had made it around 3 times and I decided that we would stop during our 4th mile. Plaxico ate and I checked his diaper. We enjoyed our little shady spot under the tree. There was a nice breeze there and we were close to the bus if I needed anything out of it. After about a half hour or so, we headed back out for some more loops. We reached mile 7 and it was beginning to heat up so I let Mike know that we would be stopping for a while. I decided to go visit some friends who were about 30 minutes away and get out of the heat. I kind of thought that we might get the chance to come back that evening and grab a few more miles, but someone got a little over stimulated meeting new friends and petting horses. It was close to dinnertime back home so I called in our order on the way to the hotel and swung by the Crack for dinner. It was a good call. After we had dinner and a bath, Plaxico was asleep by 7.

(Sidenote: I have to say getting a shower or bath was one of the things that I was concerned about. I did not want to be a sweaty pig all weekend unable to get cleaned up but I had tried taking a shower before while he was in the tub with me...no dice. So we took a bath together. Quite frankly, it reminded me of my childhood. We had a cistern and occasionally would run out of water and I would have to go up the road to mamaw's to take a bath. I can still here her yelling "That's enough" when I tried to fill up the tub and I would have only an inch of water. At least I had a little more than that with us, but not much more. I also remember my mom talking about when they grew up, they had to share their bath water. There were 6 girls and 1 boy in her family. I wondered if any of them had to take a bath with pee in it. Thankfully, that was at the end and I was already finished "washing" us both off.)

Day one Sunday: 7 miles total

Plaxico slept for 12 hours so we were good to go again. I tried to get us there a little bit earlier to get some miles in before the heat returned. We arrived and I checked us back in to start. I was really focused on trying to get 3-4 more miles in before our first break. In hindsite, I wish I would've tried to visit more with people that was there instead of being so focused on my measly goals but on the other hand, I felt by just being there I needed to push myself some. (Plus there was the carrot of the jacket hanging in my site.) The great thing with having Plaxico with me was that he was an easy conversation started. As shy as I am, it was great when people spoke to me about him becasue then I could work on my conversational skills. I would ask their names and where they were from. most had grandchildren around the same ages or somewhat older. It was funny I was coming around the end of the lap and was chatting with one of the ladies about being there and when i asked her name, she said Ann. It wasn't until after we passed the timing tent that I saw that it was "the Ann Trason" that I was chatting with. Most introduced themselves by just their first names, so it left me wondering who i may really be chatting with but I didn't care. I was having fun. I know I had a couple of people that came across concerned about Plaxico and getting sunburn. I am happy to report that I was very diligent in his sunblock and he did not get any sunburn. As far as I could discern, he was pretty happy. The only time he was displeased was when I had to change his diaper on Monday (which he is displeased with that little task 78% of the time) and when I wouldn't let him eat things falling out of the trees (I wasn't sure if hickory nuts were poisonous but a little tree bark in itself probably would've been alright). ;) We stayed out there for most of the day Monday, but stayed in our shady spot and then went in at lunchtime to eat. (I bought the meal plan for my age and Monday's lunch was the only meal we partook in.) I got to visit with Bill, Sue, and others while we ate. It was close to 2 when we headed back out on the course. I figured 10-2 is the hottest part of the day, so we were on the down slope. When we stopped for our break during the 19th mile, I checked the standings. We could move up a couple of spots if we could get 5 more miles in. Two people had stopped at 23 miles. At this time there was 2.5 hours left. Plenty of time to get the miles in but the sun was relentlessly beating down on the course. No worries though. There were some huge fluffy clouds behind us. Surely they would come across the course. After an hour of waiting for the clouds to come over the course and packing up most of our stuff, we decided our day was done. I was sad to be leaving before the end of the race and the awards but Plaxico was showing hunger signs but wouldn't eat anything I had with me. We went and turned in our chip and said bye to Amiee and Case when I went in to use the restroom. It was only 90 minutes to go but a momma has to do what is right by her baby. I called us in an order for Crack and picked it up on the way to the room. We ate, another bath (pee free this time), and Plaxico was asleep by 7:15. I was bummed also because I didn't really get to say goodbye to many people before we left. I had a great time and I think Plaxico did also. I tried to stay more relaxed about our trip and I think that really helped as far as keeping an 11 month old little boy happy away from home. I was way short of my goal (no mas on the jacket) but fairly happy with the 19 miles we finished up with. I was also happy to be able to enjoy my weekend away from home getting a little bit of exercise, a handful of miles, and seeing a bunch of new smiles. It was great fun being in Fred Deadman Park.

Total miles for "40" hours: 19 miles

Weight of pack & Plaxico: 28 pounds