Front Page News!

When Sue, Laurie and I struggled up the Atlantic Beach bridge at around the 5 mile mark of the 1/2 marathon Saturday, we were slammed back by monsoon like winds and rain in addition to some hail. The weather was absolutely surreal to say the least. I reached out and grabbed the hands of my 2 very special running buddies as we fought our way to the top of the bridge. It seemed like we were not making any forward progress even though we were moving our legs. To top it off my IPod died from getting so wet and the great tunes I downloaded to keep my going STOPPED just before we made it to the top of the bridge. I was listening to the mad guitar riff from “Free Bird” when the music went silent and all I could here were the surreal sounds of wind, intense rain and a few cars driving by us. I looked up and there was the photographer Dylan Ray from the News-Times. He got down low and snapped off this shot which ended up on the front page of the Carteret News-Times. We all somehow knew that the photo he took would be published AND it was. I don’t know how we (I) finished the race considering the wretched conditions, but somehow we all made it to the finish line. It was God’s grace and sheer inner determination that got us all to the end of that race. We had to pull from WAY DOWN DEEP” to run 13+ miles in those conditions. Heck…I have never run over 8 miles in my life.

Front Page Carteret News-Times Sunday Edition