The TriSpan
In 1986 Wilminton changed their circuit city 5k into the Trispan 10K/5K. Rob Powell and Choo ventrued to the port city for the race. I went by to pick up Rob from his job at Athletic World in the mall. When I arrived at 3pm (the race was at 7pm), Rob was pissed because he had a fight with his boss (big Danny) and Danny fired him. Being the runners we were we decided to go run, then figure out what to do about Rob's employment later!
We hopped into Rob's VW microbus (aka the "magic bus) and headed to Wilmington on a swealtering July afternoon with no AC, munching on grapes and rocking to Rob's infamous prerace tape (a mixture of Rolling Stones, little feet and Bruce Springsteen type songs). Hauling ass down I40, we noticed the magic bus was riding funny, and that cars were hesitent to ride next to us. 30 miles from wilmington I leaned out the window to observe the back right tire about to come off of the rim. We pulled over and watched a bulge appear on the tire. We found a tire jack and removed the tire, but discovered the spare was grossly underinflated. As Rob tried to pump up the spare with a bicycle hand pump (I think he managed 15 psi with it), I tried to let the air out of the first tire, as the bulge was growing (you could hear the cords popping as it grew.) Rob, feeling fiendish, reached around me with a screw driver and stabed the bulge, causing it to go Kaboom! I nearly crapped in my pants as it caught me off gaurd.
Tire fixed, we limped down the road tto wilmington, not even knowing where the race was. We had to go pick up a girl friend of mine, Robin Breedlove, who was a runner living in Wilmngton. Robin was going to take us to the race. Robin had moved, and we had a challenge finding her new house. Being precell phone days, we had to stop at a pay phone, call her, then go get her.
We finally made it to the race, about 25 minutes before the start. They charged us 20 bucks (alot in those days), but had run out of t-shirts (A sin for a roadrace!). They also had no water, man it was a blistering 102 degrees at start time. We were in a foul mood, ready to kick butt.
The gun went off and Rob tore out with local running star George Walker. As we headed out there was a water stop just past 1 mile. We went down, made a turn around and headed back up the street to the first of three major bridges on the race course. I was running in 4th with a chap named Steve Moffitt (one of the coolest runners I ever knew. Steve was a dear hunter in the winter, and a runner in the summer!) I cut back across to the left side of the street, dodging oncoming runners, to grab a second cup of water. Being the nice guy I was I grabbed 2 cups, one for me and one for Moffitt.
I started up the circular ramp carrying the water, trying to catch moffitt so I could hand it to him. By the time I reached the bridge, some 300 meter later, I was still trying to catch moffitt. I realized I was an idiot for worrying about him, so I threw the water over my head and tried to catch back up.
We reached 3 miles, and there were several old ladies from the baptist church holding cups of water for the runners. I grabbed a cup from the first lady gulped it down, and quickly went for a second cup. As I reached for my second cup, the little old lady pulled it away from me saying "you already had one!". I promptly called her a *** (which I later felt some remorse for) and headed on down the road still trying to catch Moffitt.
As We headed up the second bridge I saw Rob at the top, walking. Apparently he went out too hard, and the stress and heat was taking its toll. Moffitt and I took off, thinking we would catch Rob as he disappered over the top of the tall bridge. When we crested the top he was gone, off and running again at a rabid pace trying tocatch the 2nd runner.
As we headed to the third and final huge bridge, we again saw Rob walking. Again we picked up the pace, only to see Rob again bolt away on the run again.
Finally we got to the finish, about 2 minutes off of our normal 10k time. I crossed the line, walked over to my friend Robin, and promptly puked at her feet. Her only comment was "ate grapes before race, didn't you!". Following the awards, we headed back to the magic bus. Rob set his stuff down to get his keys. As we climbed into the bus, I told Rob he forgot his trophy, it was sitting in a shopping cart in the parking lot where he had set his stuff. Rob told me he did not forget it, he left there on purpose!
To finish off the evening, we made our way to Buritto bobs where we used large amounts of cold mexican beer to wash down large amounts of hot mexican food. Despite the air conditioning blasting at 68 degrees, we were still sweating profusely. We stumbled down the street back to Robin's house and crached on the living room floor. Robin took the opportunity to call her fiance and try to make him jelous because she had 2 guys spending the night with her. As she needled her fiance on the phine, Rob and I layed on the floor, stomachs rumbling loudly in turmoil from the damege we had inflicted upon ourselves. The night was spent getting up to hit the john, man I was was miserable!