The Huntsville Hogs Hunt 27.4 mile trail run was a last minute decision. Mitch called me from Dallas on Wednesday and told me I was running it, and on Friday I was leaving work at noon on my drive to Huntsville. Joyce had things to do here in town, so I was doing my first trail run minus Joyce. I certainly like her company but sometimes I really like to spin off by myself and enjoy some privacy for a few hours. I had intended on running the Cross Timbers 50, but the hand of fate reached out and touched me a week prior, excluding me from participating in one of my favorite events. I collected a few stitches on my head in a freak accident at a Houston 10K. Joyce kept me home while the wound healed and the stitches were removed. So this would be my first run coming back from my mini vacation. I felt good and everything seemed to be working right. I always enjoy running with Mitch because we give each other so much hell. He’s used to my non-stop barrage of nonsense and I don’t think anyone else will put up with his crap, and we even run about the same pace, so we do pretty good together. Neil also showed up along with his girlfriend Antje.

We started out at an easy clip along with 86 others, starting in a small clearing that dumped directly onto a small trail. The three of us started together and immediately started talking trash and harassing each other. This trail wound about and spent lots of time on jeep trails spotted with bogs of mud and deep sand. Occasionally we skirted the bogs, well, Neil and I did. Mitch charged right through them trying to splash us with mud. Our bad jokes only caused the others around us to speed up or drop back. We completed the first of 2 loops in 1:55 topping it with a kiss for Mitch and I from Antje. Unfortunately, Neil missed out. We began the 2nd loop the same way as the 1st, hangin together and talking just as much. We pretty much stayed within a few strides of each other most of this time, but Mitch pulled a bit further in front early on in here and then you could tell that he was trying to put some distance between us. I wondered if he had suddenly got the urge to go or had he actually planned this. Either way, he was probably feelin good and he had definitely dropped us. Not to worry though as he was followed closely by our harassing comments and threats of death of never-ending insults should we catch him. As you can see, we could care less if we caught him and hoped he would do well. But just don’t let us catch him! So, good ol Mitch push ahead so far that we couldn’t even see him, but he could still hear us, and I know we stayed in his thoughts. Neil and I carried on without Mitch and even collected a joke from another runner who actually liked running with us. Then Neil had to stop to visit his bear friends in the woods a bit later and he requested that I catch Mitch as he disappeared into the trees. I still felt pretty good so I gave it a push just to see if I could. I held the faster pace until I eventually did see Mitch way up in the distance. I started yelling at him and letting him know that I was coming and he waved back. I slowly did catch him about 5 miles out and he was dragging his buns just a little. I asked if he had seen Neil as he had gone in front of me. Mitch didn’t buy this one bit and laughed at me. He had been looking for us and there was no way either of us could have gone by without him knowing it. The boy was no longer in a mood to visit and talk so I went on ahead... talking to him the whole time of course. He told me to shut up and then he was gone. I pushed it on in wondering when Neil was going catch me... as he always does. I finished well in 3:47 for a 20th place finish, doing a 2nd loop faster than the first one. Mitch came in about 7 minutes back in 3:55, cocky as ever. Neil was behind Mitch by another few minutes with a 3:59.

I had too much energy left to have really run it well, but felt great nonetheless. I loved running with Mitch and Neil. What a team we make, even if we did offend everyone else around us with our non-stop yammering and bad jokes. We had fun. I took lots of grief over the new scar on my head and accompanying bald spot where they shaved my head to clean & stitch me up. My buds tried to talk me into letting them shave the rest of my head. I’ll tell you that my hair cut was a mess and the thought of shaving the whole thing didn’t sound too bad, but I was not going to let these clowns near my head with a sharp object. No way. I left town the same way I came in the day before, bad haircut and all. I sure did get a lot of strange looks from the other runners. Maybe they thought I was an escaped convict from the nearby prison.

joe prusaitis