Mother Road 1 2006 Part 2

As you remember when we last saw our heroes they were cold, shivering actually somewhere in the dark outside Depew Oklahoma looking desperately for a crew car with their winter coats. And so our tale continues with our runners plunging on into the night seeking out their crew and making progress down the road to the finish...

When we finally caught up with Otis again, he was sitting at the third or fourth turn on a dirt road sleeping.  We woke him up by banging hard on the glass multiple times.  Now I have said more than once to my friends, you never wake a sleeping Otis.
 But, we were desperate, tired, cold and hungry that combination will make a man do things he wouldn't otherwise consider, so we kept banging on the glass.  When he finally came to, Otis didn't disappoint.  With all the strange faces staring at him through the windscreen in the dark, he hopped from his seat banging himself on the steering wheel and hitting his head on the roof of the car in the process.  He rolled down the window and had no idea where the hell he was or who the hell we were for a good 5 min.  At this point in the run it was late, really late and we were so disoriented we forgot to get our coats, but we did manage to sit and eat a bite before heading down the road.  Suddenly as we were running off Otis jumped out of the car and started yelling something illegible like a college kid on crack at a bowl game.  We yelled back for him to meet us at the next aid station.  Otis was the entertainment we all needed after that stretch.  We joked a little and kept on to Bristow.

Image of a training run on the mother road course
Courtesy of the Tatur website (Article Here)

A Bristow, we all sat around, Stan was beginning to look a little pale and a little hypothermic.  He put a blanket on and started to drink. I tried to get him to eat a PB and J sandwich, but he took one bite and looked like he would hurl.  We sat there a good 10 min and I was worried we needed to get moving.  One thing though, where the hell was Otis??  I ran around the parking lot looking for his car, found it.  Woke him up again and asked him to meet us along the route.  It was getting deep into the night now and I was worried about the cold, damn forgot our coats again, if the temp kept going down like this, we would need heavier coats soon.  But with the promise he would meet us enroute and feeling a bit rested having taken a break we all headed back out on the road confident.  On to Kelleyville.

I  remember pulling into the Kelleyville #1 aid station, Mile 84.5  thinking we were headed into some nomadic caravan, they had the indian music blaring and a lit up tent with people dancing around a bonfire.  Kelleyville was easily the best aid station, they had a very attentive staff and lots and lots of hot soup.  Awesome!  I sat down on someones beer cooler and ate a turkey sandwich, I was tired, cold and sore, I had run only 30 miles at this point and could only imagine how these guys were feeling at 85. Stan was looking a little better, but not much and I was really starting to worry about him a bit.  By the way did I mention we never saw Otis on the course between Bristow and Kelleyville.  Bill found him in his car at the aid station sleeping once again, we got some extra layers, Stan put on tights and an extra jacket, Myers grabbed a bunch of extra stuff to carry and the four of us headed out again.  At this point, I figure I am cold and tired, but in much better shape than these guys, so I plan to just pace them the rest of the way home.

There are many theories about what happened to Otis after that, Raped by some lonely trucker he stopped to help along side the road, killed and eaten by a bear, deranged from the lack of sleep and just kept driving, who knows.  At one point Bill said "Well, he said he was going to drive about an hour out and meet us, hope he didn't mean drive time I'm not running to Joplin Missouri tonight."
This stretch seemed like it was for ever, but we finally pulled into the aid station at Kelleyville #2, it was manned, but no hot food.  That was bad.  Stan was finally starting to look ok again and we were all feeling a sense of momentum waiting and praying for the sun to come up and warm us a little.  We did not stop except to fill up the water bottles, grab some pretzels and chips and head out.  It is amazing how you can dwindle down to the basics in certain situations.  We could only think about two things at this point, keep moving and stay warm.  Surely, we would see Otis again soon anyhow and maybe get a hot breakfast.

To Be Continued...