the abyss... my Steve might laugh at me calling the beach that. But what was a misty grey sky over a bright white beach quickly turned dark. It was beautiful. After passing by one lone fisherman we had the beach to ourselves. Six of us. The wide smooth beach was nearly untouched and we each ran finding our own stretch of easier to run on hard sand, we ran abreast in a line. The surf was big and loud, the wind wet, strong and at our backs. The mist made it hard to see very far, and the beach so completely empty. And we ran, the six of us alone with Josh, and Josh alone in his own hell.
We ran, and when Josh walked we walked, and then we ran, and so on. Sometimes we found the hard sand at the water's edge and we ran with cold wet feet and then we might find it up by the sand dunes. So up and down the beach we traveled shoulder to shoulder as we trudged forward, changing our tactics as Josh needed. It grew dark and we were lit from behind by the two sheriff ATVs, the mist obscuring any light from stars, moon or anywhere else, we were deep in the abyss and the surf roared.
We chatted and visited as we moved forward into what now looked like nothingness, and Josh would venture out of his private darkness and join us when he could. He shoved me nearly over once, saving my bare feet from a beached jelly fish. He joked that he was an idiot, that he probably could have run 10 and raised the money, or even had just stopped back there at the bridge! who was the brilliant person that came up with this great plan anyway? ....and we continued forward.
Then suddenly the terrain changed, our smooth beach was as if elephants had plowed the sand, it was difficult to even walk in this soft pot holed sand. We had come to the first area were folks visit the beach and their feet have destroyed our possibility of any easy going. We needed to get back to the waters edge to find the easier travel, but the first dim piece of light from our destination was making its way through the mist and Josh was making a bee line to it, shoulders hunched he plowed forward. We rallied around him urging him on. It was hard for me, cant even imagine how he managed to still struggle on but he did. 50.6 miles! Thinking on it now I realize God allowed me to witness a small miracle.