The race

My dad has a phrase that he uses when he's roughing it or in a less-than-ideal situation; Lewis and Clarking it. On Sunday I was totally Lewis and Clarking it, both literally and figuratively.
I ran in what was supposed to be the Lewis and Clark 1/2 marathon. Unfortunately, hurricane Ike was timed perfectly to arrive right before and last through the race. And it did.
I woke up at 5am after a patchy night's sleep to find that it had been raining all night. After getting ready I headed down to the hotel lobby, drank some coffee and asked for a garbage bag from the front desk. I headed over to where the shuttles were picking up runners for the starting line, about 3 blocks away. The rain was heavy, but it was still warm out, so I wasn't too concerned.
On the ride over, we waited in traffic for about 45 minutes. It was Sunday morning at 6am, so it was all race traffic. On the bus, I met an older man who was running his 17th marathon with the goal of running one in every state. Our bus arrived right when the race was scheduled to start, there were still 2 buses in traffic at that time. When I got out of the bus it was really bad. It was much colder and the wind was much stronger. I huddled under a volunteer tent, clutching my garbage bag poncho, until people started moving across the starting line. With big races, you have a chip, either on your shoe or your race number, that is scanned at the start and finish, so your time is accurate regardless of when you cross the starting line. That was good for the people that started 30 minutes after the gun went off due to the late buses.
The running was crazy. There was a 30 mph headwind for the first 8 miles, pelting rain, and huge puddles. There was nothing dry. Eventually, I took off my garbage bag, it had become useless and was acting as a parachute in the wind.
Crossing the Missouri River was the worst. There was nothing blocking the wind and it was on the Interstate, so there was heavy traffic just yards away. The last 2 miles were easy, we were in town so there was less wind and there was... less wind. It wasn't until 8.5 miles that they told us that we were stopping at 10, the rest of the course was flooded.
At the end, the finish area was a disaster. There was 6 inches of water to wade through and they had run out of plastic foil blankets to give to the runners, so it was COLD. I couldn't find my family, and they couldn't find me. Eventually, I decided to head back to the hotel. Luckily, it was only a 1/2 mile from the finish. I borrowed a nice lady's cell phone and told my husband that I was headed back. When I walked into the overly air-conditioned room I was greeted by three smiling faces and a chorus of "Congratulations," "I am so proud of you," and "Hi Momma!" I don't think that Lewis and Clark got that kind of reception!