Turkey River Run

Marie woke up to the honking of cars and busy city life. The sun had not come up yet, but the weather was not expected to get any warmer.

It was the biggest day Marie had been anticipating all year. Marie had trained continuously to run a true cross-country race. As she hopped out of bed, she wondered how hard would the race truly be. Marie thought, “I know the poster said to be prepared for water and mud and all, but it really can’t be that bad.” Marie put on good running clothes and shoes, packed her bag with some sweats and headed off for the two-hour drive to the 12^th Annual Turkey River Run in northeast Iowa.

Marie pulled up to the lodge and jumped out of her car. As she walked in for registration, she realized this was not going to be an easy event. She thought, “There are some pretty hard core runners here. I mean they have fancy enough watches that they can track how far they run!” Marie paid her registration, got her participant shirt, and of course had to deal with the “strange” lady who couldn’t decide which hand to write her number on.

As Marie walked outside to stretch, a huge tour bus pulled up. She wondered, “Why in the world would a bus like that come here?” Shortly after, a strangely dressed man stepped out of the crowd. He said, “Lets load up,” and everyone got on the bus. Marie wondered what she had got herself into, but she decided to go along with it because the man looked like he knew what he was doing. Marie pushed her way on to the overly crowded bus.

The bus headed on its way. Marie got off the bus with the crowd. As she looked around she thought, “Well this doesn’t look too bad. There are some nice paths that are shaded from the trees.” The crazily dressed man introduced himself as Lyngo and shouted, “We will line up over here. As some of the veteran runners may know, if you are afraid to get wet, dirty, and have a great time, you should probably leave right now.” The man called the people at the finish line so they would be able to start the clock for the race. Marie wondered, “What? I thought we were going to be running here? What kind of rednecks are these people?”

The race was ready to begin. Lyngo called out, “On your marks, get set, go!” and they were off. Marie was at the front of the pack and was running hard to keep up with the men with the fancy watches. As she came back around the first loop, she was directed to go through a tunnel under the road. Marie was not prepared for muddy water to splash in her face as she went through it, but she thought, “At least I am done going through the water and mud.”

Marie was having a hard time keeping up with the competing men at the beginning so when she got to hill after hill on the course, there was no way she could stay with them. The hills were finally over when she had to climb down a small rock ledge. Marie didn’t think it was too challenging until she came to the bottom and there was a muddy mess. First she had to climb through a creek, then up a steep, muddy bank. It was no easy task and she slipped many times going up. She came to a cornfield with stubs of the corn stalks still in the ground, making it hard to run on.

It wasn’t long until Marie came upon another small hill. There were boulders and she had to make her way down on the other side to a river! Marie realized the tunnel with the water in it wasn’t the only water she was going to have to go through. She slogged through her first river crossing. Marie came out of the water with all of her clothes drenched. It became harder to run and it was very uncomfortable. Marie made her way to the next river crossing. The water had a gushing current there and she had to hold onto a rope to get across. She then had to run over the soft ground. It was difficult because she would sink with every step.

Marie was exhausted by the time she climb up a field driveway and cross the road. She made it safely and with a few words of encouragement from the workers, she was able to keep going. She ran down the canoe access and crossed the river once again. As she got out of the water, Marie thought, “Wow! I really was not expecting to get so wet and be this tired. I don’t think there was anything I could have done to be truly prepared for this.”

Marie’s clothes were soaked with water.  It was hard to even lift her feet, but she decided to not quit then. She had to run through corn fields, bean fields, through the woods, and even climb over 3 feet tall, fallen trees. Marie muttered to herself, “I think that was the hardest part of the race so far. She made it to the fourth river crossing. This time she had to walk up the river to rock climb. Marie was scarred to climb a 30-foot cliff with nothing but a rope and the help of Lyngo and another man, as Lyngo said, “If a 70 year women can do it, so can you.”  Marie was drained of energy by the time she made it to the top of the cliff. She took the advice from Lyngo about the 70 year old completing the race, and kept trekking along.

Marie wasn’t sure how far she had to go, but she knew she had to be at least half way done with the 5-mile race. She slid down many steep hills along with jumping over a few ditches. Marie also ran down a long, steep hill and climbed over and around many obstacles such as fallen trees and loose rocks before she had to cross the river once again. Marie ran across many loose rocks and crossed the river yet another time. She wanted to be done crossing the river, but she had to make her way through it again. Some men told Marie it was her final time crossing, but it was very deep and had a strong current. With some help, she made her way across and went up the hill to a gravel driveway. She could see the finish line about a half-mile away.  Marie kept a steady pace until she got to the corner before the finish. She then took off and sprinted down the straightaway and crossed the finish line.

Marie was soaking wet and had not brought any extra clothes, but it all paid off because she had an amazing time. It was the most challenging race she had ever done. She was the first female done in her age group so she got a prize of a frozen turkey. She agreed that she would definitely come back the next year, but she would bring extra clothes to change into. Marie had a blast and invited everyone she knew to go to the next annual Turkey River Run.