I have been participating in the Country's Bar-b-que Midnight Express for a long time. Can't remember when I first plunked down my entry fee and stayed up half the night to walk the 5-K course through the neighborhoods just north of the restaurant on Macon Road. Possibly started when the daughters were old enough, at middle-school age, to go along, (when it would have been great fun, and a real novelty to be allowed, encouraged to stay up until the wee hours. Or maybe even sooner, as I think I have been a participant for about twenty years with maybe a break or to. But can't imagine who I could have possibly recruited that long ago, to wander around in the dark with me at 1:00 a.m. just for the joy of being exhausted when we finished.
I readily confess that I am not a runner. Never have, and do not desire to do something that makes the people who do look so miserable when you notice the expressions on their faces. But I have long been a 'walker', and my usual time for doing the three-plus miles of the course for this event is about an hour.
Due to the excessive walking I have been doing in recent month, the time this year was a little less, though I have not really picked it up again, done any 'practicing' since getting safely down the mountain in TN several weeks ago.
The Country's event, when I first started going, probably had less than 500 participants. This year, the highest number I saw pinned on a participants shirt was over 2400. And notice lots of people passing me along the route who obviously do not pay the fee for signing up to be 'official'. Plus there was an estimated crowd of another 2,500+ of hangers-on, milling around in the parking lots, streets, hanging out in the neighbors. In years past, the employees and volunteers have put out luminaria to mark the route: milk jugs with sand and candles lit to guide the runners along to right streets to make the route the proper distance. This year, we went with Technology: water bottles with glow sticks along the curbing to keep us on the right path. Apparently putting the sticks in full bottles full enhances the effect, magnifies the light emitted, as well as helping to keep the bottles upright with the weight of the water inside.
The area residents tend to turn it into a 'tail-gating' event, setting up folding chairs, bring out tables and coolers, possibly over-imbibing in adult beverages. And squirting runners with garden hoses.
For a person who is generally in bed by ten p.m., even just being awake at midnight is an oddity. And being out in the streets, getting vigorous exercise at 1 p.m. seems 'borderline'. I was thinking as I left the house about 10:45, to go by and pick up my fellow-walker that this might be the last time I will do this. Even though it ultimately serves a very good purpose, when all the funds raised to go help support programs for the visually handicapped. I know they have done a lot of good over the years with the funds people have paid to participate, and it all stays right here in Columbus, GA.
I got home about 2 o'clock, so wound up, it took an hour to get settled enough to turn out the light and go to sleep, and woke up at the usual time, around 6'ish, so as you can see: an excellent reason to take a nap in church.
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