I woke up at 12:47am to the sound of Hannah's voice saying "Ann - owl" and heard the Barring Owl. I laid awake for a long time after and never heard it again.
Hannah and I were dressed and ready to head out by 4:30am. We made our way to the park, told the students at the gate that we were the ONU support team and photographers. They let us in. We made our way to the field (me going the wrong way at first, against Hannah's advice). Then we tried to read the tiny little school signs in the dark. We finally find the Wheaton sign and there were no other vehicles there. We waited until about 4:45am and were starting to get really worried so we prayed they would get here in time. I finally decided to text Paul and Luke. Not hearing back we headed toward the starting line when I realized Paul had texted and they were at the starting line already. The grass was really long and wet so I put on my Columbia sandals thinking I could put on my dry tennis shoes after ward. It was pitch black but Hannah didn't like my lantern shining in her eyes so she led the way with her cell phone. Once we got up to the line we couldn't see them anywhere so we cut across the ditch to the other side where we found the whole gain: Paul and Luke, Sarah and Roman, Adam and Trace, and Natalie and her Wheaton partner. They all waved and we took a couple of pictures. They informed us that their vehicles were parked in some random place - by the port-a-potties.
At 5:12am they were off. Hannah and I started to head back to the car. She took the bridge and I tried to cross the ditch again. Needless to say, it didn't go well! My feet were frozen when I got back and Hannah's army boots were already soaked. When we got back to the truck, I changed into my tennis shoes and texted Scott to bring my boots when he came with Boudreaus. We warmed up and repacked our bags for the finish line. After about an hour we headed toward the finish line. We ended up having to wait about another twenty minutes for the first to arrive back. The gator came up the hill with the driver yelling, "Get a medic!" For a split second it looked like Paul but Hannah discovered pretty quickly that it wasn't. The injured party's (later found out heat stroke) partner was The second team to cross the line carrying both rucks.
More pairs were coming in and I was starting to get nervous. Hannah and I kept praying for our teams. We kept an eye out with the binoculars because it was starting to get light out. Finally, we spotted Natalie and her partner. We cheered them up the hill and across the line. They were in about third place for the coed teams. Paul and Luke were the next team to come in.
Paul tried to call me but I couldn't hear him so I walked over to the holding area while Hannah kept the camera to get the last two groups. I saw Major Crocker and ran into Natalie. She was pretty upset because they had been disqualified. When they weighed in the girl used a manual scale and told them they were 15 pounds over so they dropped 10. When they came back the same girl used a digital scale and told them they were a pound Under. Once I found Paul and Luke they said they needed Gatorade so I went back to the truck and got them power bars and Gatorade. By this time Timmer and Conover had made it in so I got them some Gaterade, too. Sarah and Roman were the last to get in but all of them qualified. Paul and Luke had taken 54th in the ruck out of almost 300 participants. Only 109 male teams qualified.
Everyone headed back to the vans (I moved mine over by them) and started changing boots and socks for the next set. Lightening was starting to show on the horizon. Paul and Luke headed to their first line. Hannah was going to get the photos for their competition By now her boots have a half of inch of water in them. Timmer and I were waiting for Natalie to get Conover's giant blisters taken care of so they could hit their first lane. The rain started and the lightening started to get closer. Paul and Luke came back announcing that there was a lightening delay. All the ROTC participants got into the van. Jack, Diane, Scott, Hannah and I set up their nice little tent and were relaxing under it in our comfy chairs. We got up at one point, I think to avoid Hannah emptying the truck's tarp puddle on our heads when lightening struck right behind the ROTC van. Diane jumped. It was the closest I have ever been to a lightening strike. There was even some smoke. God definitely protected us from that. Once we found out the delay would be until at least 9:30am, Jack and Diane headed out to find a gas station. The wind picked up and it was getting cold so Hannah and I decided to hang her tarp along the windy side of the tent. About the time we unfolded the tarp, the wind picked up exponentially. Hannah was trying to zip tie it and I was standing with my back to it basically holding it up against the wind. If I moved I would get pelted with water. We changed tactics and Hannah cut the zip ties and had water pouring down her shirt and her jeans were soaked. The truck tarp blew off then the umbrella thing blew over. We scrambled to get everything picked up so it wouldn't blow away. Everything in the back of the truck was gone - soaking wet including my hiking boots and us. Scott got in the truck and Hannah and I stayed out to take care of a couple of things. That's when it started to hail. It only lasted a couple seconds but just added to the humor of the whole thing.
The three of us were finally in the truck stripping off wet coats when the van started to pull away. Luke rolled down the window and said they were getting out of the parking swamp. We got back out and packed everything up and watched the van get stuck. All of the cadets got out and pushed while Major Crocker floored it the rest of the way out. We go out, taking the drier path, and headed back to the camper. We emptied all of the wet stuff and repacked. We went into the camper taking turns stripping at the front door so we wouldn't get the whole camper wet. We got dried off, put on clean clothes, and turned on the heater. It felt so good! Jack and Diane got back and were trying to call Hannah when she answered the phone. Jack was in the car with the bluetooth on and Diane was in the camper. They started talking to each other trying to figure out why Diane couldn't hear Hannah. It was really funny and entertaining. Hannah and I stayed and warmed up about 30 minutes and then we headed back. Hannah had to put her sopping wet boots back on, it was painful.The rain had started to dissipate. We found a parking spot along the road and took off to find our team.
We found them at the top of the hill and they all decided to stick together. We headed to the first lane and waited in line for quite a while. They gave us stuff to hold and then Hannah and I made our way along the course so that we could get good pictures. We watched all three groups participate and took pictures. It was sprinkling a little off and on but no more thunder or big rain. Then we went back up the hill where they put their name in but it was a really long wait so they headed back down the hill for the third line (all the rest had been canceled due to hazardous conditions). There everyone decided they were thirsty and hungry so we went back to the truck and got them some drinks and snacks. Again, Hannah and I split up with the cameras. I went up one hill and she went up the other. It was starting to rain again so when our teams went through Jack held his umbrella over me so my camera would not get ruined. Hannah stood awkwardly by the paintball course listening to the people start the crappy gunshot sounds up again and again. Two of the teams went through but not Timmer because Trace was still back at the truck getting his feet rewrapped. I started down and yelled to them that they were up in line but they said Natalie's partner had taken it for him.
We all met at the truck again where everyone had drinks and snacks. Then we headed back to the second line. We stood around and talked for a while and then Paul told us it was about a forty minute wait. During that time, one of the cadre from Wheaton found out that someone else had stepped in for Trace and took them to tell the people running the event. They were kind of disqualified. They still could finish and would get their coin but would lose their place standing. Then Paul went and checked again to see how long of a wait. They said it would be five hours before they were called. That would be 7pm at night. Hannah and I thought about heading back to the camper for a while but we were pretty sure they would make some changes. Almost everybody went back to their vehicles. Hannah talked to a Wheaton cadet for a while and I moved the truck closer to their vans. Then I cleaned up the best I could - returning wet socks, boots, ropes, etc. Then Hannah and I got into the truck and transferred pictures. We uploaded a few to facebook. We watched an episode of CSI. Meantime the sun had finally come out so we bit the bullet and took off our wet shoes sticking our feet and legs out the window - the sun felt sooooo good.
Around 4-4:30pm Timmer came over and told us that last they had checked they were planning on canceling the third line. He said that the Wheaton girls team had gone there first and just finished so they still had to go to the other two lines! ONU removed their name from the list since the girls running the line told them it was going to be canceled. Around 4:45, Endrizzi said that the final run was starting at 5:00. We got our cameras and headed toward the start. We were both in flipflops. We barely saw them take off and there were a lot of cadets running to catch up with the race. They had to run 4 miles and it was wet and muddy still. Most of them probably ruined their running shoes. I stepped in a huge glob of clay sunk down and covered my foot in it. After that I couldn't walk right because my foot kept sliding off the flipflop. We got pictures of our teams coming in but never did see their times or placings.
I cleaned up and packed while Hannah went down to where they were eating dinner and took some fun group shots. Then we headed back to the campground. Hot showers and warm clothes were our first priority. Scott had hung out all of the wet stuff which was really nice.
Scott fixed us cheese hotdogs and we had chips, baby carrots and baby cucumbers and chocolate for dessert. Jack and Diane returned from Lawrence and the church service. They came over and told us all about it while we scarfed down dinner. After that we put on our pajamas and started John Wayne movie: the Sands of Iwo Jima. Hannah and I were both asleep before the movie was over.
Shortly, after Scott had come to bed and we were all asleep. I heard Hannah yell for me. She said something about turning down the heater - which I thought was crazy because I was shivering to death. I jumped out of bed and ran over to see what she was saying. I said what and she mumbled something and I said Hannah are you okay what is the matter. She grabbed my face with both hands and said, "Auntie Ann it is going to be okay!" At this point I realized she wasn't really awake so I asked her one more time if she wanted the heat turned down she said no but something must have happened with her ear because it was really hot. I told her to holler if she needed me and went back to bed. I didn't really get the hilarity of the situation until the next morning because I think I was pretty out of it, too. As I was fading off to sleep again, I was awakened by coyote yelping luckily they were in the distance.
