The Witch of Blackberry Bottom

I rarely complete a marathon without encountering some very unusual, inspiring, or just weird people!  One year in Huntsville I came up behind a man with a Bible verse on the back of his shirt - perhaps it was, " I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me," I cannot remember for certain.  What I do remember was that he had only one leg - the other was a prosthetic leg.  So no matter how difficult the miles became that lay ahead, I remembered, "There is a man back there with one leg!"

This year I thought I was dreaming when, at about mile 24, a woman and a little girls (I think from scanning the results later that she was a 14-year-old) passed me.  (Yes, I am frequently passed by 14-year-old girls in races these days!)  The woman was running alongside the girl - was it her daughter, or just a young friend? - with an open book in her hand, reading it aloud to her in a clear voice.  This was an interesting alternative to an i-pod.  "And then Michael said, 'I will build myself a house in the Spring, and I will go to live in it,' . . ." or something like that.  Was this "The Wind in the Willows?"  I summoned up enough strength to catch up and I said, "Excuse me, but that is just amazing!   What are you reading?"

"Oh," she laughed, "It's a great book!  The Witch of Blackberry Bottom." Alas, I could not keep up with this interesting pair.  They were long gone, on their way to Brown's Island (or Blackberry Bottom) and the finish line.

I wonder what book I would have chosen, could I have ordered up a personal reader to pace me for 26.2 miles?  Hamlet is about four hours long, and by the last scene the stage is littered with bodies.

Perhaps that would have been appropriate!

"You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time--as this fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest--O, I could tell you-- . . ."

"The rest is silence . . ."