Day 18

Today started with a filling meal that consisted of eggs, bacon and biscuits, courtesy of Lisa. As they ate breakfast they read the newspaper that reported over 200 homes had been destroyed in yesterday’s tornados. They had not realized that the storms had been so damaging. They luckily were never caught in any of the bad weather.

Mr. Pennell once again picked the guys up to drop them off. They got to the mile marker around 9:00 and hit the road headed west again on RT 14. The road today was narrow and there was not a large shoulder to run on. The sky was sunny but windy, so the temperature was slightly cool; no going shirtless today. The guys knew they had to cover about 56 miles today and tomorrow so the plan was to go as far as they could and then set up camp for the night.

Andy’s jogger gave him some trouble this morning, as it kept pulling to the left extremely hard. After an hour fighting to fix the wheel it finally got better and Andy could focus on running.

Selma AL was about 12 miles in front of them and they decided that they would take a rest break for lunch there. They reached Selma at 12:30 and had lunch at Subway. Half of their subs were eaten there and they saved the other half for a snack for later. At 2:30 they stopped again and had the rest of their subs and a short break. After the snack they hit the road again. They turned onto RT 6 which was as Matt said was filled with ‘classic Alabama scenery.’

It was a small dirt road with swamps that littered the sides. They are hoping to see an alligator on the trip and they had hoped today would be the day, but not one showed its face. The last turn for the day was onto RT. 45 where the guys decided to stop running and push ahead walking as far as they could until they found a good spot to set up for the night.

31 miles were covered for the day and around 5 they found a nice family who let them set up camp for the night. Tonight would be the first night they would spend in the three-man tent recently donated by John Teeples from Columbus. Thanks John!

Today was the strongest day yet of running, especially for Ken. Ken was able to do longer segments of running today and the tightness and soreness in his leg had lightened. He just kicked out the miles and it is looking like everyday is getting better for him. Andy experienced some soreness in his shin today that had him a bit frustrated.

On the open road the conversations meander from subject to subject and today Andy and Matt found themselves talking about what distance would be optimal for them to have a ‘show down.’ Andy has always been good at the longer, slower paced distances, while Matt has always been blazing fast on the track and shorter distances. In Utica NY the annual Boilermaker is held in early July, and they decided that Boilermaker 09’ would be when they faced off. It is a 15K so a good middle ground; good luck fellas. They would also like to invite all of the runners they have met and will continue to meet along the way, especially the fellas from Columbus, GA. We'll be waiting for you John, Reynold and the rest of the Columbus track club!

Tomorrow they head to Greensboro AL with an "easy" 25 miles ahead of them. They hope to make good time and are looking forward to meeting everyone from the Hero Housing Resource Center.

Thanks for checking in!

-Dan