I've been thinking about Ridge to Bridge . . .

For the last two days, what happened to me at the Ridge to Bridge Marathon has haunted me.

Okay, this isn't a Halloween post . . . this is serious.

While I admit I made some strategic mistakes at the R2B (see my prior post!) I wasn't that bad!

  I had some issues around mile 7 that took a significant amount of time, so I tried to 'make up' time on the long down-hill section of the race.  But I felt like I did fairly well, passing the 13.1 mile point in about 2:27 and continued on to mile 15 at virtually the same pace.  Between 15 and 18 I slowed but pretty much held a 3 minute run and a 1 minute walk.  And from 18 on I just mixed running and walking as I could.

I admit I was struggling after 18, but I did still keep some good running in the mix.

When I was at about mile 17 I did some calculations and felt like I still was still going to be able to at least do a 5:25 marathon.  At mile 20 that estimation slipped to about a 5:30.  But when I finally finished the marathon, I crossed the line with a 5:47!!  And I don't believe I slowed up much at all after mile 20.

So what happened to the extra 17 minutes?  Where did that time go?

I've replayed this over and over in my mind and there was just no logical answer . . . until I remembered where it was we were running!

We ran down Jonas Ridge to Wilson Creek . . . the same Wilson Creek that drains Brown Mountain!

Maybe you have heard of the Brown Mountain lights.  Here is another link.

These strange lights have been seen for centuries.  Essentially on some nights, folks can look over to Brown Mountain and see lights moving along the mountain.  (Here is a link to a video).  There has been lots and lots of efforts to explain these lights but to date there has been no solid explanation.  The Brown Mountain lights a mystery!

Now, as far as I know no one has linked the phenomenon of the Brown Mountain lights with any unusual or unexplained time warps.  Nor have there been any reports of the time / space continuum being distorted around Brown Mountain.  But these have never been either studied or investigated.  Who knows?  All we know for sure is that strange things happen on Brown Mountain!

• Could I have been caught up in some freak, strange time warp that occurred Saturday afternoon?  
• Was there some sort of cosmic disturbance that focused a strange energy for 17 minutes on Brown Mountain?

Who knows.  All I know is I lost 17 minutes I can't account for.