my life — my way

Hayne's Point - 2008 MCM

Last time I said that Hayne's Point is the loneliest place on earth. Greg corrected me this time. He told me that running 18 miles in training without a partner is a lot lonelier. OK, I'll give him that one.

Hayne's Point is definitely where the energy starts to fade away. Up to this point it's obvious that all the runners are still strong and having a good time. Hayne's Point is the first part where there aren't many spectators, and that draws down the runner's energy. There's no cheers, no crowd noise. There's very little chatter between the runners. We were too busy realizing that we were only almost halfway there. It was like running in a library.

I was a little annoyed with Hayne's Point even before we got there. I shouldn't really blame Hayne's Point, but it makes a nice target, so I do. My beef is with the lack of art work at Hayne's Point. There used to be a pretty cool statue called The Awakening right at the tip of the point. Well, whoever owned it (not Hayne's Point apparently) decided to move it to a new development in Maryland. That sucks. I remember viewing (and climbing) the statue when I was a kid. It was at least a little something to look forward to in Hayne's Point. But now it's gone. Tear.

I got over my emptiness when I heard the DJ stationed at the turn around. While we were running up we heard a dance medley of Beatles tunes. Either he did a really good job, or my judgment was impaired after running 13 miles, because I really liked what he was doing. When we got to him he seamlessly went from Day Tripper by the Beatles to Love Shack by the B-52s. Greg and I were both impressed.

Through it all, my proudest moment in this section was when I went over to the side of the road and pissed. Public urination is one of the beauties of running a marathon. It makes it that much sweeter when you can piss on a piece of land that annoys you.

All original content © Chris Cohoon