Day 5 - Friday, March 26

I want to begin by thanking all of you who are supporting my journey - means the world to me. I have been asked by some of my scientist friends, who are sometime mad, to provide more data. Instead of starting the posts with stats, i have added a tab to the site called Data which will provide daily statistics including miles, cumulative miles, pace, weight, calories expended and meals eaten. If you want any other type of data please let me know. And, if anyone has guidance on what is fun to hear about, meaningful or what is not needed, please let me know.

Day 5 began at the end of Day 4 with my good friend Amy Costa magically appearing in Alma Georgia where Alex and I were parked in an IGA Supermarket. She is doing a 100 mile race this weekend with her boyfriend Chris and Alma was kind of on the way to Sewanee TN. As she and I joke all the time from experiences with our friends Alan & Nivaldo who crewed us on the 350 mile Camino da Fe in Brazil there was always a SURPRIIIIISSSSSE for us and this was thankfully a pleasant one. We had great Mexican dinner in Alma, 1 of 2 restaurants that sadly didn’t serve margaritas so we settled for beers and a nightcap of Hayden Bourbon back in the rig before she checked out to her hotel next door. Alex had one request for Amy before she officially checked in and that was to use her shower as he hadn’t had a solid shower for a week…something about water pressure and hot water in the RV had him missing the comforts of a proper shower - when he came home, he was very happy!

After saying goodbye to my first pair of running shoes, Lucky & I met Amy for her shakeout run - day before her race - where she joined me at 6am. Alma is a small town and like many of these towns if you take the main road in and out you see nothing but fast food, hotels, shopping and service stations. Lucky, Amy and i ran the back route and were pleasantly surprised by the old town center with a RR stations, town square, old bank and quaint homes that led to a surprisingly beautiful neighborhood of old restored homes. After our goodbye and good luck, i was treated to a great day of running that began on dirt roads and led to back country roads that were less travelled and harkened to a quiet country life. Somewhere on the route i found a small graveyard on a pretty spot right off the road that was fenced off and titled “Wilcox Cemetery”. A confederate flag was the only adornment next to J Wilcox born 1843 and died 1886. I wish i could have learned more.

Today’s journey of 35 miles between Alma and Towns Bluff State Park right before Uvalda was a solitary one - no towns, quiet roads. My good friend Mario FaceTimed me today and we talked about what the keys to success for this scale of adventure. I am convince there are 2: Patience and being very comfortable with Solitude.

I am feeling really good today, better than yesterday. I started the journey with a small left groin issue (3 of 10), small right hamstring issue that has lingered for 6 months (4 of 10) and my right foot had begun hurting (3 of 10) on day 2. All the issues disappeared today. I firmly believe the mind is more powerful than we know. Makes me think that wishing so hard as a kid for something you really, really wanted or like Dorothy wanting to go home so badly in Wizard of Oz perhaps that focus/desire can make things happen and isn’t so far fetched after all.

Finally, for Monica who can’t bear to look at me hairless, if i could give you a kiss you would feel my beard growing back :-)

Correction - on my morning video John pointed out I mentioned i was headed to Soperton. That was incorrect as we headed to Uvalda today. My excuse is that last night with Amy and Alex at dinner i told her we were going to Uvalda and mispronounced it so that Alex said to me “you’re not going to be that guy are you?!?”. I must have banished the name so i skipped ahead to tomorrow’s destination!

All for now, Cheers!

P.s. we do not have a signal so if you are reading this now you don’t see pictures. Patience my friends!