Dead2Red

I have been pretty stoked about running the Dead2Red Marathon for a while now. The race is REALLY cool. "The run starts from Wadi Moujeb Bridge on the shores of the Dead Sea at an altitude of -415m below sea level. From there teams make their way through the Wadi Araba to an altitude of +120m above sea level before descending towards the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba 242 Km away at sea level" (http://dead2red.com/about_dtr.php). It is run in teams of ten which means that everyone runs about ten 5k sections and you must finish in 24 hours to make the party in the beautiful coastal city of Aqaba on the Red Sea.

Unfortunately, my team Cool Runnings is battling this one without me. I have been dealing with an upper respiratory infection for a while now and yesterday saw me return to the doctor. I didn't call to announce that I was backing out until I was physical on the way to the hospital, and only at the prompting of the CIEE official who accompanied me. It still was not easy for me to give up on the desire to participate in a race, which covers half the distance of Jordan in one night and a day. The idea of running that 11th or 12th brutal mile climbing out of the lowest point on earth as the sun came up over the desert really made those Forest Gump-like chills, that I gets in in my strange lanky legs at the thought of things like the PCT or a fateful night at Interbay, start going. But, alas, had my temperature spiked during the race I might have really ruined the race organizers use of the term Dead... and had I not collapsed miles from a hospital at the very least I would have soiled my pants more than once. T.M.I.? Almost certainly, but given that I once ran 12 miles of a marathon 26 and half mile run to Snoqualmie Ridge in a snowstorm in my short shorts before yielding to my father's offer of hot chocolate, I feel a great need to justify myself.

So, I should be on the side of a desolate highway tonight, but all I can do in support my teammate in spirit and say,

"FEEL THE RYTHME, FEEL THE RYHME, ALL TOGETHER NOW! IT'S BOBSLED TIME!