You probably think that Dan is kidding about this being his two-hundred-eighty-second running of the Hinckley Nine. Think whatever you like. But he does have them all documented. Dan can be pretty scary sometimes.
Katherine Kinsey had set this one up, and Dan thought that it would be just her, Chadwick Sunday, Ella, Julie Boggs, Theresa Wright, and Dan himself. This group runs together a lot, and everyone is fairly reliable, especially Ella. But this time, said small group unexpectedly becomes part of a much larger one as Connie Gardner and a bunch of her friends show up. The more, the merrier.
And is quite merry. Until the hills start. Of course, if you're familiar with the clockwise running of the Hinckley Nine, you are well aware that said hills begin with the first few steps. Katherine, Chadwick, and Ella zoom on up Bellus Road, whilst the rest of us have slightly more difficulty. Connie and several of the other smart ones walk most of it. Not Dan. Dan tries to keep running, yet he's not able to keep up with the walkers. Dan hates it when this happens.
Dan struggles mightily to catch up with everyone as the big hills give way to slightly smaller rolling ones. Between huffs and puffs, he is barely able to carry on snippets of conversations. Then comes Effie. This time, Dan does have to walk, a little. But of course, he falls further behind again, anyway. Evidently, it doesn't matter whether he runs, walks, or crawls, he's going to fall behind.
Several runners unexpectedly turn into the trails for the rest of their run, and now Dan is really alone. He sets out to try to catch Julie. By the time she is hitting the final downhill miles on Kellogg Road, he does manage this feat. He informs her, between huffs and puffs, that now that she's caught, she has to stay caught. Dan begins telling stories that Julie has heard before. Just like everyone else has.
They turn onto Route 606, run down some more hills, and then turn onto Bellus. Julie finishes strong; Dan transitions to a slow saunter as soon as he hits the entrance to the parking lot. Chadwick, Katherine, and Ella are waiting patiently. Some (the ones who have issues) jog around to try to get their GPS watches to say ten miles. It's a good thing Dan doesn't have issues such as this (ignore the fact that he ran some before the start of the nine).
It's been one of Dan's better Hinckley runs. Too bad it nearly killed him.
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