I do my best thinking on airplanes, but I hate to fly.
It’s true. Airplanes are free of distractions, as if time suspends, stress disappears, and I have only three options: read a book, fill in a few blank pages in my journal, or soak up tunes on the ipod. Perhaps all of the above?
Anyways, I’m back from Nashville. It was a fun trip, left on Friday at 5:30, returned on Sunday at 8 pm. The flight home was full of body aches but by Tuesday evening I was as good as new. It is always a joy to see Sarah Burks, who’s work in the Delta inspires me regularly. The sacrifice of rural corps members is beyond me- to relocate to a town of 4,000 thousand people, with no “normal” restaurants, no Target or Marshalls or coffee shops, three things I know get a lot of my teacher friends through the weeks. (Shout out to Jenkins, queen of TJ Maxx) Sarah is a delight and I’m so glad to have met her and others in my all-Delta small group during TFA training.
We stayed in her sweet friend from Duke’s house, and I met a handful of other people that were beyond me, intellectually and physically. Several of her friends ran the full marathon and went to places like…well, Duke. Cool. My brother asked me on the way to the airport how the Dukesters put up with me, and I’m actually not sure.
Anyways, it was also fun to see Nancye Brown, or Irv Blitzer, who I met last year at our half in Memphis. She has been there both weekends as support team, our “Sled God” in Cool Runnings terms.
Sarah and I flew through the half. The stopwatch may have shown otherwise, but we talked about numerous things, I gasped for air and Sarah talked more, we quotes Cool Runnings, and at mile 9, it was time to whip out the pick up lines. Twice we had to yell at each other to stop because the laughing was hurting our stomachs and leaving us too short of breath to continue running.
Excuse me, did you know Nashville has hills? Steep ones. I did not know this, and though I liked Music City, I don’t think these sea-level knee caps will be back for any athletic ventures anytime soon. Strike that, read: ever.
So a few funny things, and I’ll close this rambling up.
1) Burks thinks she is a size 10. She is classy and cute, wearing J Crew fashions when I met her and a lover of Lilly Pullitzer. But the girls should not be allowed to dress herself. Why? Because it turns out she is a size 2 petite. I mean, sorry for posting this online, but seriously, Burks, believe. You ain’t no size 10. Or 8. Or 6. Deal. With. It.
2) Two brothers in their early thirties ran the entire 26.2 in blue three piece suits. No lie. They were soaked in sweat by mile 6 when we passed them, trucking along slow enough for us to pass them with ease, and then later of course, they passed us around mile 12. Anywho, I asked them the story behind the suits, and they said, oh, we’re just trying to make people smile. I don’t know if it was their blonde buzz cuts, or their height, or their hilarious nature, but they reminded me instantly of Jay Chenoweth, and that left a smile on my face for the next 6 miles for sure.
3) Alligator Lady. I told my kids about her and some of them laughed hysterically. Others looked confused. Why is that funny, Ms. Rob? So, at Mile 10, you make a sharp right turn and head up a gradual incline. She had a 10 foot plastic alligator tied to a dog’s lease, with a giant poster that said “If you stop runnin’ we WILL chase you!” and she was a-hollerin’, let me tell ya.
4) Breast feeding and marathons don’t really go together, if you ask me. But come to think of it, no one ever has. Some chick was walking, race registration # and all, with a 9 month old baby strapped to her chest. We passed her at mile 4, so at some point she had to have been jogging to be in front of us that far out. Don’t worry, she had her tank top and sports bra pushed to her waist and was clinging her baby to her… well… you get the idea. The dude behind us goes: “Disgusting. I’m going to be numb for the next few miles though, so that’s good.”
This is long enough. I leave you with a quote from Cool Runnings. Never gets old. Thank you, thank you for reading. Happy trails!
5) I fell asleep in the back of the car on the route between dinner and the bars downtown. i woke up demanding to know: "who's there!? where am i?!" awkward. per usual.
6) when i touched down in nashville for the first time, a rather large, semi-stinky man behind me was whistling loud and clear "dixieland delight." for a good ten minutes. i cannot make this stuff up.
Sanka: "What I am saying to you, is that you are the kind of club-toting, raw-meat-eating, Me-Tarzan-You-Jane-ing, big, bald bubblehead that can only count to ten if he's barefoot or wearing sandals."
coolest church ever, power lines in the way. i was already hanging out of the car to get the shot, though.
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