Day 1I busted out of my room at 4:45 hoping the bus hadn't left yet. I of course knew that it probably wouldn't leave until about 5:05 but there's nothing like making a grand exit out of a hotel undergoing construction. As I hurried down the hall towards the front door, I grabbed a bagel and chocolate chip muffin from the continental breakfast, knowing they weren't going to be serving food at the opening ceremonies. I quickly stashed the bagel in my marathon pack and began picking at my muffin. I said good morning to the ladies I had met on the bus the previous day and checked in with the friendly bus captains from Omaha. I then met another woman and her husband who are from San Diego. The whole bus ride down she kept telling her husband, "See, there are going to be other men walking. Now you know there's going to be at least one!" Once we arrive at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, we disembarked from the bus and grabbed our gear. We then made our way to the row of Ryder trucks that would be taking our stuff to the site where would be camping that night. I wondered if I would ever see my stuff again, not because I didn't trust the crew but because…I COULD DIE! As that thought entered my mind, I reached for my water bottle filled with Gatorade and took a big gulp. With my barely touched chocolate chip muffin in one hand I headed off towards the stage for group stretching and the Opening Ceremonies. On the way I ran into Sarah who appeared to be alone looking around to see if she could find anyone she recognized. I said hi and we headed off to the stage together, glad to not have to stand there for an hour by ourselves. By the time we got to our spots near the front, we picked up our route cards for day 1 that listed out all our pit stops and filled up our water bottles with water. When I began stretching, I quickly realized that it would be pretty difficult to continue holding a chocolate chip muffin in one hand. Wanting to have quick access to it I decided to put it into the pocket of my fleece. Let's just say, that was the last time I saw the muffin intact as one solid object. Stretching and some odd sort of aerobics commenced and I wondered how this woman on stage could have so much energy at five in the morning. While I wondered this I proceeded to get run into by the woman next to me who was excitedly mimicking the side to side actions of the woman on stage. My mind began to think about how comfortable my bed was and how far 60 miles really is. But then the Opening Ceremonies began. There were rousing speeches that made us cry, hold the hands of those around us, and hug anyone within arms reach. With that done, we were on our way! Now, getting out of there was no easy feat. Luckily I was near the front so I was one of the first ones out. There's nothing like walking down the middle of a crowd, having 3,000 people cheering for you. I highly recommend it, it's quite the esteem booster. Not even a mile into our walk we passed a restaurant where we saw a couple of walkers sitting down to order breakfast. They hung their heads in shame but we didn't give them any disapproving looks, just smiles and laughs at how ingenious they were. But I didn't need to sit down to order breakfast, thanks to the chocolate chip muffin I had stashed in my pocket. With a little twinkle in my eye over my own supposed cleverness, I kept moving. Sarah and I decided to be walking partners for the day, which I thought was a good idea since I needed someone to make sure I kept going. Before this, the longest walk I had gone on was about 7 miles, so knocking out 20 in one day was a little scary. In my head I devised a plan, just make it to the next stop, 3 miles is nothing. Then it happened…I encountered our first hill. That's when Dan's words started to replay in my head like a bad ad jingle. "San Diego is all hills and mesas." Um, thanks Dan. We made it up the hill with no trouble and proceeded to the first pit stop. That's where I discovered the odd, but addicting ritual of getting stickers at each stop. I hadn't been this excited to get a sticker since I was about 5, but there I was, waiting patiently in line to get my sticker. Who cares if I really had to go to the bathroom, I needed to get my sticker! There are three R's that we needed to make sure we did at each stop and that was:
After taking care of the first R, I headed over to the tables to see what they had to offer. I must have thought this was the last food I was going to see that day because I made sure to grab one of everything, bananas, oranges, raisins, baby carrots, crackers, pretzels, and animal cookies. Quickly I forgot about the muffin that was slowly disintegrating in my pocket. Having polished off my lemon lime Gatorade I set off to take care of the third R. They had two choices for Gatorade, blue and orange. I chose the blue because it reminded me of Windex. An odd reason to choose something to drink, I'll admit, but I couldn't be too sane if I was voluntarily walking 60 miles. As we headed out of the first pit stop, Sarah asked me what the Gatorade tasted like, since she decided to opt for the orange. I thought about it for a second and the only answer I could come up with was, "Blue. It tastes like what you would think the color blue would taste like." Now, if any of you have had blue Gatorade before, or blue Kool-Aid, or any blue drink for that matter, you should know what I'm talking about. After 11 miles we were finally at lunch. Oh sweet lunch, I wondered what culinary delight they would have for us. I was quickly disappointed in my grilled chicken sandwich with the fake grill marks but still inhaled it, having added potato chips to the sandwich to give it some crunch. We all ate lunch sitting on pieces of cardboard in a parking lot. Not the most luxurious conditions, but they would do. We were all glad to get off our feet and just enjoy everyone's company. People proceeded to change socks and reapplied a second coating of BODYGLIDE. For those of you unfamiliar with BODYGLIDE, it's this all natural petroleum free stuff that you put on to prevent blisters and chaffing. And no, I'm not typing BODYGLIDE in all caps to be dramatic, that's its name, caps and everything. After lunch we set of to finish up the second half of our first day. Having had the opportunity to sit for 30 minutes really did a good job of rejuvenating everyone, and lets be honest, the chocolate chip cookies didn't hurt. As we walked out of our lunch site we were greeted with the site of a nice long hill to walk up. We all put our heads down and concentrated on making sure to put one foot in front of the other until we reached the top. After what seemed an interminable amount of time, we finally reached the top. There was no time to bask in the glory of this achievement, we still had a lot of miles ahead of us. I don't remember where on the route I was when I realized my muffin was a goner but I do remember how it unfolded. While I was walking I stuck my hand in my pocket looking for a tissue and all I felt were crumbs. Should I stop and dump the crumbs out of my pocket? Nah, that would just waste time, it won't hurt anyone to leave it. Actually, that reminds me, I think that muffin is still in my pocket since I haven't touched that fleece since Day 1... At around 2:50 Sarah and I spied the camp. Could it be possible we could get into camp by 3? The possibility of that adds a spring to our step and we picked up the pace in hopes of getting to camp by our goal of 3. We would have done it too if it weren't for traffic signals and the added weight of the stickers on our credentials. As we walk into camp at 3:05 we were greeted by cheering crew and walkers who had beat us there. I was notified that I was the 42nd guy who made it into camp so far and walker 1200 something. 42nd guy, not bad since there were about 135 men participating. I soon found out that one of the 41 guys that had beaten me to camp was my tentmate Tim. I wasn't going to complain since he had already set up the tent by the time I got there. While I talked to him, I noticed something in his accent that was undeniable so I asked him, "Hey Tim, are you from Boston?" He was, but he hadn't lived there in 20 plus years. We quickly shared our New England connections and then I headed off to the showers. I met up again with Tim at dinner, where we both enjoyed a roast chicken dinner. That was some darn good chicken. We chatted a bit before Tim headed off to get a massage and I stuck around to listen to some karaoke. While I sat there I was joined by a group of women who had just finished not too long ago. They all worked together and were from San Diego. I hung around for a little longer before deciding it was probably a good idea to head off to bed. When I got back to my tent Tim and I noticed there was an empty spot one tent down. Apparently the people staying there had either not shown up or were staying in a hotel. We promptly set up another tent in that spot so we could each have our own tents. I was so glad we did that once I got inside because there was no way I could in the tent lying down straight. The only way I could fit was by lying down diagonally. Happy with my new spacious accommodations, I drifted off to sleep at 7:30. |