Day 13: Friday, June 3rd

While I didn't realize this at the time, I think we actually started the run at 7-7:30ish maybe. I remember looking at the clock on the car ride over to the run. I know it was something extreme like 6:30 or 7:30 because we did a lot BEFORE the run! We packed up camp, completely aired everything out on the clotheslines, had breakfast (granola, bananas, and oranges). I got a sufficient amount of breakfast because I always need to eat a lot before I run. Well, not right before. Sometimes right before. Julie wasn't feeling well before breakfast and I felt bad because I wanted to run with her and I was thinking about walking with her just because I wanted to catch up with her badly and the thought of running alone on the road for over an hour was daunting. But once we started running she felt great, which was wonderful! We ran the whole time (except for 2 quick water breaks and a stretch break), although it seemed that as Julie was feeling better, I was dreadfully tired and so I'm sure I slowed us down a bit. But still--we did run the whole time, even if it was a very slow run! I've never actually run for 9 miles straight in my whole life, and Julie and I were talking the whole time so I'm sure that also slowed us down a little but (but it was definitely more fun).

So after an hour and a half of running on the road, my knees were hating me but my stomach loved me once we finished because there was WATERMELON. Trays and trays (okay, just one tray but they refilled it) of watermelon slices for me to lay in. Also, there were orange slices too but watermelon definitely trumps everything else so I didn't have those. We filled out some paperwork and I bought a La Vida shirt (because who doesn't like souvenirs?) while we waited for everyone to finish the run. My poison ivy was wrapped in Ace bandages for the first 15 seconds of the run before it unraveled and I was stuck carrying it for the rest of the time. That's what I get for wrapping it myself. I mean, it looked pretty good before we started running. So I stared at my poison ivy for a while for a bit after the paperwork was done, as I was analyzing the damage and calculating what percentage of my legs would be permanently destroyed. 

We had a lunch similar to that of "the feast" yesterday, I'm pretty sure. After getting our plaques, bumper stickers, and t-shirts we all lined up for group pictures (first our group, then we headed over all the other groups). The man in charge (Rich) help up a water bottle and asked if it belonged to anyone, and of course it went silent. And of course it was my water bottle so with an "Oh! That's mine!" I raised my hand... I considered pretending like I didn't recognize it, I mean, it was only like $4 but I figured people in my group would nudge me and say, "Hey, isn't that yours?" So after that we took the picture, and Rich asked if anyone would be getting off at an earlier stop on the way home, such as Concord, NH. So I raised my hand, and it was just me and another boy!!!! So Rich said we were supposed to go in a separate van which of course caused my aversion to changed plans to kick in and I was becoming cranky at the thought of being separated from my group for 5+ hours to be the worst thing ever. Thankfully, Julie bullied the driver of the van into allowing my STUFF to go in the van, and I would join my stuff after the dinner stop in Lebanon, NH. Julie, you're the best. After saying bye to my group, I emerged on the bus that they were on (Julie was on this bus too), and I got to spend a little more time with them! It was here in the bus that I turned my phone on. For some reason I was really really dreading it. After it turned on, I tried to text and I forgot that my phone was a touch screen at the top. I really didn't remember how to text. My thumbs were like molasses and they didn't know what the heck they were doing. I texted a few people to say I was back, and responded to a few texts. Olivia texted me to say that she was engaged and wanted me to be the maid of honor (since Sarah wouldn't be able to go to the wedding). That was exciting but certainly disorienting as I'd been a recluse in the woods for 12 days and hadn't thought about anything else, and then my best friend would be getting married in August and I would be there? Like I said, exciting but disorienting. And I was confused because I forgot things like weddings existed. All I thought about was surviving the next task and wondering what the next meal would be. Also, if the water filter was working properly or not as I was filtering it. That's pretty much all I thought about the last night when I was filtering water.

Anyways (I say this a lot, too), the bus ride was pretty good except I shouldn't have had so much water because the whole time I thought I was going to pee my pants and I had horrific visions of how embarrassing it would be to pee my pants on a bus with a million of my peers. I also contemplated peeing in a bottle and 1. if that would be a success, 2. how I could do that without drawing too much attention to myself?, 3. what would I do with the pee & bottle after? Good news though: the bus driver puller over in a small down to check the tires for about 2 minutes (except at the time I had no idea if I had 5 seconds or 5 hours) so I ran off the bus and into a random building to ask if I could use the bathroom. It MUST have been a sight as I'm sure I smelled, I was wearing my huge oversized wool thing and a bandana with bandages on my legs, and I was frantically asking if I could use the bathroom before my school bus left. So they did let me use it, and I'm ashamed to say that I did NOT wash my hands but this was a good decision because the bus driving was just getting in his seat and about the close the doors when I ran on and sheepishly walked to the back of the bus to slouch down in my seat. I felt as though everyone was wondering what my issue was when I heard Caroline (in front of me) say, "Oh, Megan has to go to the bathroom a lot, that's all." Conclusion: success. Even if it was an embarrassing success. 

I visited Julie a few times on the bus, chatted with my own group about friend groups and other random things, tried to sleep a few times but it didn't work. We then stopped for dinner in Lebanon and I went to Panera with Bobby, Jacqueline, and Grace which was great. But even better was that Julie finished and walked over to Panera and WE TALKED TO ANNA ON THE PHONE! Her flight to India was cancelled (which was really unfortunate and I felt bad) but we got to talk to her!!!!!!!!! She was supposed to leave 2 days earlier for India (for a month) so we weren't expecting to talk to her until the end of June/beginning of July! We got to tell her a few of the important things, wish her luck on her trip, and smother her with love and saying how much we were going to miss her. That's all. So as everyone was getting back on the bus I had to say goodbye to my group (for real this time) and bye to Julie--all of which I was sad about. I had to go in a smaller van with different group (they'd been on the same canoeing patrol so they had all their inside jokes and hand gestures and songs) but they were very nice and it was good to sing a few songs on the way home.

We soon reached Concord where my parents where waiting with a small hazelnut iced coffee with regular cream a sugar (my usual order, if anyone wants to get one for me :) and I read them my journal entries on the ride home, spending much time on the inappropriate ones or the ranting ones that I didn't put on here so they were laughing at lot at my woes--same goes for Emily and Michael when we got home. I thought I would want to shower right away, but I didn't shower for about 2.5 hours after I got home. I was seriously dreading it because I knew it would be so much work! I had this HUGE dread lock in the back of my hair where it had been in a bun for the past 2 weeks, and it was quite discouraging to get out. I thought that a ton of conditioner would get it out, so I tried that, only to realize I was putting globs of shampoo in my hair because my family changed the shampoo and conditioner bottles. So I pretty much shampooed my hair 6 times and didn't use any conditioner. Which was what I wanted. 

Oh, I also showed everyone my pictures on the Wii which was pretty cool :) I didn't realize you could put the memory card into the Wii. Of course Michael knew though.