Cocodona 250
Cocodona 250 is an epic race and I will try to write an epic race report. In the meantime, I finished in 114:19:53, which was a little less than ten hours before the final cutoff, not too different from last year.
I'm pretty sure that if the race were scored by how many different venomous animals one saw, especially if the strength of the venom were taken into account, I would have won, as I document in my "creepy crawly race report".
Some sadness you may want to skip
An artist's vocabulary includes myriad words for specific combinations of color, hue, shade, etc. A wordsmith's vocabulary includes myriad words for … well … everything. I'm neither and am simply abusing "beauty."
The course is beautiful. The sky is beautiful. The scenery is beautiful, even the venomous creatures are beauty. There can be beauty in sadness.
Last year, a friend of mine, who had lived both in New Mexico and Arizona was following my progress and exchanging texts. In theory she was dying of cancer. In fact, in theory she was already dead, because she was diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer and given a couple weeks to live and by now it was a couple months.
May 6, 2022 at 11:40
she: Still at Munds Park? Should I be worried? Tracker not updating?
me: I’m 20 miles in or more. I’ll report my tracker now. Thanks!
…
May 7, 2022 at 00:13
she: Very late
she: Been practicing my Italian and Dutch. I find if I’m just barely nodding off, stuff goes into my brain better!
…
May 7, 2022 at 02:05, not long after finishing
she: Wow!!!!!!!!
AFAICT, anyone who has completed an event like the Cocodona 250 finishes in a happy mix of ecstatic satisfaction and delusion. I can do anything. Anything is possible. She's studying her Italian and Dutch. She's not said a thing about her condition. She's unique. Maybe she beat it.
If she had beaten it, this text wouldn't be hidden behind a gate. She died three weeks later.
FWIW, if she had lived, my creepy crawler report would be behind a gate, because she was bitten by a snake as a child and everyone who knew her avoided the subject in her presence or used the word "string" as a substitute for "snake" at her request.
Is it a remarkable coincidence that I saw all those critters that would have worried her on this event as the anniversary of her death approaches, or was it something else?