It’s day 48 and over 1200 miles have been ran so far. It’s worth looking at that on a map to remind myself of the progress that has been made so far.
It was an uneventful overnight stop in terms of knocks at the door at the trailhead in Leeton. It was boiling hot though and I didn’t manage a great deal of quality sleep. So much so that the 0530 alarm ended up as an 0730 alarm. That in turn meant that I didn’t set off from Bowen, Missouri along the Rock Island trail until 08:31.
The trail was full of the usual sharp stones but that didn’t stop me from moving forward as quickly as I could. It didn’t seem as bad as the Katy trail. The pace was also helped somewhat when the painkillers kicked in.
The trail was full of flies and other insects. Once again, I had to use my buff as a makeshift fly net.
I met the RV back at Leeton trailhead where we’d parked last night. I knew there was no time to hang about due to the late start. As soon as I had my hydration pack refilled I was on my way again.
It took another 3 miles to reach the part of the trail where I needed to join the road.
The road had a nice flat hard shoulder. It’s a pity that I could only enjoy that for 1 mile.
I turned right onto NW 1400 road and, as I suspected, it was the start of 11 miles of running on stones again. There was a build up of dark clouds in the distance. I kept my eye on those for the rest of the afternoon.
I met the RV at 11.5 miles for an omelette and strangely some peas on top. “That’s odd” I thought, “I didn’t know that we had any peas”. I later found out that they were some of the “medicinal frozen peas” that I used in the Appalachians to combat shin inflammation. They had been defrosted and refrozen at least 10 times. I’ll not be requesting peas with my food anytime soon.
Mindful of the days late start, I got back out onto the stone filled road pretty quickly. When the second lot of painkillers began to kick in I slowly started to build some pace. I also just wanted to be off the stones so that was an incentive too. Finally, the incoming storm clouds played a part.
I was stopped in my tracks for a brief time while I waited for a tortoise to safely cross the road. I didn’t want to scare it into its shell and then for some vehicle to come along and squash it. It made it to the other side and away I went again.
Randomly (honest) Olivia Newton John played on the iPod. This led to some tracks from the movie Grease. Before I knew it, I was running as fast as I had done since day 1.
As the dark clouds drew nearer, miles 18, 19, 20 and 21 flew over with the help of that Rocky Training Montage I listened to the other day. It felt like I was in the movie itself. The painkillers were working to full effect and, for the first time on this tour, I found some decent pace on stones. “But at what cost” I thought.
I made it to Blairstown, Missouri at mile 21. To an outsider like me, it seemed like a very spooky place. The few people that I saw, seemed friendly and waved enthusiastically. The rest of the place, with all due respect, was like something out of a post apocalyptic movie or video game.
The RV kept close by through the small town and once we were out the other side we were thrown by a road closed sign.
Alan went ahead in the RV to investigate. I didn’t hear back from him due to very poor cellphone reception.
The road surface was absolutely terrible. It was tarmac but probably worse than the stones.
I saw the RV at a junction 2 miles later and called it a day at 23.35 miles. My feet were in excruciating agony now that the painkillers had worn off. I knew there’d be a price to pay for those quick miles on stones.
The particular junction I stopped at presented a few options which I’ll be looking at tonight. There’s a shorter route on stones tomorrow or a longer one on tarmac. Given the state that my feet are in now, I may opt for the longer route.
Tonight’s overnight stop is outside a Dollar General store in a town called Urich. Just like Walmart, these great little stores have served us well so far.
TUNE OF THE DAY: We Go Together - from the movie Grease. Now I’m surprised as probably you are at that one. It started today’s pace revolution though and is a worthy TOTD. There’s also an honourable mention for Use it up and wear it out by Odyssey.
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