Full of hot air

Hey guys! Welcome to my birthday, part 2. Sorry this is taking so long to post, but we've just been too busy and I desperately need to catch up on my sleep!

So, we had rescheduled the balloon ride for Sunday evening, weather permitting. My 'plan' called for me to run a 14-mile run sometime over the weekend. Normally we run late afternoon or late evening on Sundays, so we had to move that up to mid-day Sunday instead. Yeah, that already sounds ridiculous just typing it. Earlier in the week we had had nice cool, fall temps. Not so last weekend. The sun was out and the heat and humidity decided to join in. At the start of our run the 'felt like' was 86, and by the end of the run the 'felt like' was up to 93. Genius. We were looking for a change of venue so we decided to run the Stones River Battlefield Greenway. This is a battlefield in Murfreesboro, about 12 miles southeast of us where a Civil War battle had been fought. We've passed it many times but had never stopped. It connects to the Murfreesboro Greenway so we knew between the two connecting we would be able to make 14 miles in some sort of combination. We grabbed a greenway map from the trailhead and headed off. Our FuelBelts only hold 4 bottles, and we have 3 extra bottles we can trade out. Even when we started out I was a little concerned about hydration. We started out on the trailhead, and headed towards the Battlefield. Parts of the trail were pretty shady, and other parts were in the straight sunlight. We ran through a field with really tall grass and saw a wild turkey out wandering in the field! Then the first trail (the Cotton Trail) dead ended onto a gravel road, there was no signage telling us which way the battlefield was, so we headed left until the road dead ended again! There was a mowed grass trail, so we headed down it until it dead ended into a fence so at that point we figured we had taken a wrong turn at the gravel road. We headed back the way we came, Brent took down a MAJOR spiderweb, and we saw a path some cyclists took through another grassy trail so we headed that way. Success! We were at the battlefield, Tour Stop 2. We headed around the road, enjoying the various civil war markers, cannons & other memorabilia. We looped around the path, enjoying the shade and hating the sunny hills. We looped the visitor center and then did a quick lap through the civil war cemetery. There are about 6,000 tombstones there, all in a beautiful straight line. The markers are so small and only have the person's name and state they were from. I saw a lot of Ohio and Michigan markers. We looped back and at this point we were around 5 miles. On our next circle of the park we decided to try some of the off-trails. We headed off at Tour Stop 2 onto a trail. It was SO nice to get out of the heat and run on the softer dirt trails. These trails seem to be very rarely traveled - at many places spider webs crossed the path forcing you to take an alternate route or duke it out with some massive spiders. The trail took us about a mile through the woods, and allowed us to jump over a few trees and really enjoy nature. While we were back there I was thinking about the Civil War, and wondering if I would be for the South or the North. I guess I would be a Confederate, only because of where I was born and raised, but I hope I would have been for the North and helped transport slaves to the North. Just as I was thinking about that 'Sweet Home Alabama' (by Skynard) came on my ipod Nano. Too funny! The next song in the shuffle - 'I'm a Slave for you' (Britney Spears). That made me chuckle ! We came out of the woods, ran up a hot, steep hill, and then took another trail off to the right for about a half a mile. Our times were slow - all the off road, trail running was really slowing us down. Between the heat and the sheer time of our run we were really starting to wear out. At this point we were around 7 miles, and I could tell Brent was hurting. This is also when he ran out of water. I gave him one of my bottles, which is equal to 25% of my water supply. I had been conserving my water fearing this would happen. He was really starting to bonk, and I was hoping I wouldn't run out of water as well. During our third lap I went ahead of him, he had decided to stop when he got back to the car, and I needed to move on and finish my 14 but more importantly pick up water refills at the car. I headed back, empty on water, and made the car at right around 10 miles. I exchanged my empty bottles for the 3 extras and headed down to the lower Greenway for my remaining 4. I promise that was the toughest 4 miles I have ever run. I was so dehydrated at this point that I had no business running. I was dehydrated going into the run from all the coffee I'd had over the weekend, and cake I'd gorged myself on, and not drinking much during the first 10 miles didn't help. I ran two miles out, down a really pretty trail that runs next to some sort of creek. There were tons of people walking and biking, and a couple of other people running. I was so glad to hit the twelve mile mark and turn around! I had already drunk two of the three bottles by then - I was so thirsty! The rest of the way I kept telling myself it was almost over - 20 more minutes, 10 more minutes, 5 more minutes, etc. I finished all my water off with about a half a mile to go. I've never been so happy in my life to finish a run! Brent was waiting with a full bottle on a picnic table at the trailhead. I basically collapsed on the ground when I made it. Even though my miles were about 10:30 each it seemed like they lasted forever. I couldn't get enough to drink the rest of the day and even into Monday. Once or twice I've had major dehydration episodes like that and it's amazing how it affects you even 24 hours later. For me, I feel extremely lethargic and then I become extremely nauseous. I could hardly stay awake at work Monday morning and by lunch I was in terrible shape. I felt like I was going to vomit, but I knew I had to eat. Brent made me a PB&J sandwich and within an hour I felt great. So - lesson to self - 1)Always drink lots of water 2)Always carry plenty of water on long runs 3) Don't run in the heat of the day, idiot 4)Never repeat this again!!!

Anyway, almost as soon as we got home the balloon man called and said it would be a perfect day to fly! Yeah!! We ate some pizza, took a shower (man, I was SALTY!!), and cleaned up. We headed out to meet him at 4. He released the balloon and proclaimed the flight a go! We went to a grocery store where we met up with 2 other balloonists who were also going to take groups up. After some deliberation they picked a launch site and flight plan and we headed over to a soccer field for take-off. I had NO idea what all went into getting the balloon ready. The laid everything out, using large fans to fill the balloon. He had us hold the balloon mouth open as he shot propane into the balloon. It was VERY frightening. Then, as the balloon started to rise we were supposed to climb in. That is so much easier said than done. All the flames were freaking me out and I didn't wnt to climb in so much. But I did, and as we were standing in the balloon it was trying to take off. Balloon Man (BM) yelled at us to put 'weight on the balloon'. Uh ok, I only have so much to work with here!! His wife and son were trying their best to hold us down, but when it wants to fly it flys! He got everything arranged and off we went. At this point my heart was beating so fast and I was thinking 'why the hell did I want to do this'???? So, it starts to smooth out and up we go. I'm hanging onto the upright next to me, and slowly settling down. Hey, it's kinda pretty up here! We could see the heavily populated Cool Springs area off into he distance, and even further out some of the various hills in our area. We slowly went higher and higher, and I slowly started to loosen my grip. It was amazing to hear the tons and tons of dogs barking at the balloon. Kids would run around on the ground waving and cheering. It was hilarious!! We flew for around 45 minutes, it seemed like 5 minutes. The wind direction had changed slightly, so we weren't headed towards our planned landing area. BM started scouting for a place to land, and selected a large farm. The other two BM picked one farm up to land. While doing so, BM told us some home owners don't like you landing on their land, and one lady has even shot at them. Hmmm. He told us to bend our knees and brace for the landing. I was really dreading this part. If taking off was so difficult, what in the world would landing this thing be like??? I braced, thinking about this weekend's upcoming 5K and praying for nothing to break. We hit ground, and I thought 'ok, this wasn't so bad', then it shot back up and banged back down, taking my knee along with it. Repeat this about two more times. Ugh, it hurt. My left knee took a serious beating. Finally it stopped, and we made it out of the balloon. BM asked me to run up to the house and ask the homeowner what the address was so he could call the chaser, who is following the balloon the whole time so they can pick you up. I walked across the field and climbed the fence to walk up to the gorgeous house when I hear a loud 'STOP!' and turn around to see two dogs barking and running towards me. Crap. I didn't think I'd need the Dazer for a balloon ride. I climb back on top of the fence and wait for her to approach. The dogs made it first and once they got to me they turned very friendly so I hopped down to pet them. She walked up and asked what had happened, so I told her I really didn't know, this was my birthday gift and we had gone off course. She apologized for yelling, and said the sight of three balloons landing towards her property had alarmed her and she thought we might be terrorist landing. Huh? What kind of terrorist would land in large colorful balloons??? Usually they have more stealth, deadly equipment than big, happy balloons. She ended up being very polite and waited out there with us until the chase vehicle arrived. Not on the friendly side were 3 redneck farmers at the next farm up who drove down to yell at the BM for frightening his cattle (which we never flew over). How can you be so mad about a balloon? BM is pretty high stress, so he yelled at his wife a few times while they packed up the balloon. Once it was all packed up and we were on our way back he calmed down a bit and chilled.

All in all it was a fantastic experience, one of those things you must do once in your life. It's not a hobby we're interested in pursuing, but it was a lot of fun and very beautiful. My knee is VERY black and blue, but I ran 5.3 miles tonight and it didn't seem to bother it too much. I had a GREAT birthday and I can't wait to see what Brent does next year!!!

Rachel

Exercise-
Tues - 1 mile am walk with Pippin, 5.3 mile evening run, 20 minutes yoga