The Tabitha Tuders Trot

Last night Jessica & I ran with East Nasty. The route was Run # 8 - Rick's Market - Coldest Beer In Town - (4.13 miles). I know I've run this route before, but either they changed it or I just don't remember the end. Regardless, last night's run was terrifying.

We ran it kind of slow because we're both injured, but there were still people around us up until the very end. Things turned sour as we ran out of Shelby Bottoms & onto Lillian Street, specifically the stretch of Lillian between 14th & 11th. For those of you unfamiliar with this stretch of terror, this is where Tabitha Tuders went missing in 2003.

There were a group of runners with us all through Shelby Bottoms, but somehow we lost sight of them as we came out of the park. As we turned onto Lillian, we realized someone was behind us. We assumed it was a fellow runner, until she started yelling at us. It was at that point that we turned around, saw that she was not with East Nasty & saw the HUGE Tabitha Tuders banner hanging from one of the front porches. It was also at that point that Lillian Street transformed into the ninth circle of hell.

People started heckling us from their front porches; a busted up minivan zoomed past us easily going 50 mph & then launched a beer bottle out the window; & the obligatory pit bull in EVERY FRONT YARD went crazy barking & trying their damnedest to escape their surprisingly confining, haphazardly installed chain link fences.

I daresay, that's the fastest we've ever run, & on injured joints to boot. Once we got back to Five Points & took a minute to appreciate still being alive, Jessica quipped that from here on out, she will refer to Run # 8 as the 'Tabitha Tuders Trot'. Indeed.