As you know I am deployed and serving in Iraq, but this happened on my R & R leave a few weeks ago. As embarrassing as it is, I have to share. On a trip to the Buffalo River valley to visit a friend’s family place I took an early morning run through the valley from Boxley to Ponca, Arkansas and back. It’s about 6 or 7 miles round trip and relatively flat despite being smack in the middle of the Ozarks. To put you in the right frame of mind, imagine the most scenic place in Arkansas, (before you judge, remember I have been running the same route around COB Adder for months so to me this place is it), a hot, sultry summer morning (again, not Iraq hot but hot), and still green as spring through the hard wood covered valley.
All this and I am running through it. For whatever reason, my body didn’t work right when I woke up that morning. There was no taking care of business before departing, which sort of breaks my golden rule to begin with, but I want out despite. And of course about a mile into this run, my processes began. I’m running thought some of the prettiest county I have literally seen in what seems a lifetime and all I can do is worry about my impending event. I focused on a single thought, “oh God what am I going to do?” My plan was to carry on to my turn-a-round point at Ponca and find a campsite bathroom – with, God yes, TP. But, some things aren’t meant to be and for me that morning a convential restroom stop wasn’t one of them.
Once the moment hit it was all I could do to run off the road on a little trail leading down the side of wooded hill, find a somewhat secluded place, and make like a bear. Obviously I wasn’t expecting to ruff-it on the trail when I left that morning. No TP, it was a mess, and at least 3 miles from where I was staying. At this point I wasn’t sure if I could get clean enough to run back and certainly not hitch a ride except maybe in the bed of a pick-up. While in the squatting position, luckily a moment of clarity presented itself. In the distance, just a little awkward toddle down the trail, the crystal clear waters of the river run just beyond a fence and a private property sign which simply read, “No Camping”.
Making a long story short, one recent hot summer morning this soldier managed a lone skinny dip/bath in the Buffalo River somewhere in the Boxley valley, maybe not too far from Ponca. Before I left out, it wasn’t my intention to skinny dip in the Buffalo River; however, after that treat, it won’t be the last.
Filed under: Running Tagged: | Running in Iraq, Running Through My OIF Deployment
Oh. My. God. Wow. You and my brother now have something in common, although his happened on a trail race this summer, and he said that there were two women who got to see more of him than they bargained for.
Hope you are well and safe.
[...] Yep, I know, way, way TMI. This is the song that played in my head when I saw the bathroom/gas station. (Jenn, it reminded me of your fall down the stairs outside Starbucks, and Marc, it reminded me of the issues you faced in the Ozarks.) [...]