Believe it or not I was looking forward to driving to Abilene, Kansas and the Eisenhower Marathon. The problem would be finding someone to come and drive with me or should I say drive me Miss Daisy style because after running a race I have trouble driving anything. I asked around but couldn’t find anyone willing to be my chauffer. Even my wife would be unable to accompany me on this trip. My Daughter Danielle suggested her husband’s friend, Jason Fifield.

My life saver and driver Jason! He did this all for fun.
What’s wrong with him?

Well I was thrilled because it was getting close and I had no options and I couldn’t go alone, not all the way to Kansas and back that’s a 14 hour drive one way. He came over to my house and we left Thursday after I got off of work and headed for Abilene. Everything was great and rather uneventful. We talked as guys do about important guy stuff like, ‘If Bigfoot and Arnold Schwarzenegger got in a fight who would win?’. Like I said uneventful until that is we arrived in Vail, Colorado! Within minutes we went from a mild 60 degree beautiful evening to a killer white out storm. The snow and ice was so heavy on the freeway we couldn’t even see the lines painted on the road. Thank goodness Jason, who is a professional driver, was at the wheel. He guided us through this nightmarish blizzard safely. Once we reached Denver we were back to our mild 60 degree evening again

Even though the city is named Abilene the race was the ‘Eisenhower Marathon’ named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum are located in Abilene. The population is less than 7,00o and other than the Library there’s not much there. It is a very quaint small town and has a lot of charm. I ran a short 6 1/2 mile course 4 times to equal a full marathon. By the end of the race I think I started suffering from Deja’ Vu.

The ‘Sauce and Toss’ pizzeria

I do have to mention the ‘Sauce and Toss’ Pizza restaurant we ate at. It was perhaps the best pizza I have ever eaten ever, Bacon-Ranch-Cheese pizza, yum yum.

When I was at the 25 mile mark a lady handed me a cup of water and said, ‘Not much further to go, you’re on your last leg!’ I looked at her and replied, ‘Lady I am on my last leg!’ that got a pretty big laugh from all the runners and volunteers. Good marathon with a very nice pancake and sausage brunch afterwards for all the runners.

Since we were still gun shy about going through Vale, Colorado again we chanced going up and through Wyoming. Big mistake since we hit an even worse storm that direction, a storm so bad it tore off our right wiper blade. Oh well all’s well that ends well .We got home OK sometime Sunday morning and another really fun marathon for the books.