Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Bloodiest 47 Acres in America


That was the name given to Missouri State Penitentiary by Time Magazine in 1963. The prison first opened in March 1836, the same month and year The Alamo fell. The first prisoners were actually taken in before that date. They were tasked with building the prison around themselves. Bricks were manufactured and the stone quarried on site.

Saturday I went on a tour of this impressive and awful place. It was decommissioned in 2004. Part was torn down to make room for a new Federal Court House. According to our tour guide, Bill, hopefully they won't destroy anymore. I agree with him. This piece of history needs to be shared with as many people as possible.

The building you see at the top was originally the women's dormitory. It was built around 1904. Bill said it was a terrible place and the women had it much worse than the men. The youngest person to ever call that place home was only 4 months old. Later, after the women moved to a separate facility, it was renamed H-Hall and became the control center of the prison.

Those steal bars separated the free world from the world of incarceration. (Bill is in the red)

After walking through the doors we were greeted by, The Bubble. This was built to be the most secure area in the prison. It controlled the gates separating the two worlds. Here Bill tried to get us in the mindset of what it was like to be here. He should know he spent 30 years of his life behind the walls, as a guard.
In this most secure place in the prison you always had 4 people. 2 guards and 2 inmates. This little fact helped Bill illustrate what he sees as the most common misconception we have, you aren't locked up in prison. From about 5:30AM to 10:30PM the vast majority of the inmates were free to roam inside the walls.
After being emptied of prisoners on September 15, 2004 the gates were shut. In its day the paint was always fresh and the floors always swept. Time has been taking its toll.
They just walked out and left everything else behind.
The prison was a very violent place. Bill said there were and still are knives all over the place. During his time he would take 5 gallon buckets of knives to the Missouri River and toss them in. Inmates would have them hidden around were they worked, ate, hung out, showered, etc. After Bill first started he didn't really want to pat down the inmates. He was watching over the sewing factory and a pair of scissors came up missing. He thought he was going to be fired right there. His supervisor came down and started cutting open the cushions on the seats at the sewing machines. After cutting through a few he found a knife and after a few more another. He stopped and said to the inmates he knew they could make 2 knives out of the scissors so he took 2 of theirs.

On the roof right above Bill the mass escape attempt of 1954 was turned into the riot of 1954. Over 300 inmates overpowered killed and took the keys from several guards. On that roof a "friendly" exchange took place. An inmate below said to the guard with a shotgun, oh come on, you can't stop us. The response, "I will stop the first 8. Who wants to be first?" The escape attempt was abandoned.

I mentioned earlier that most inmates could walk around most of the day. Some were too dangerous to the others and had to be locked up the whole time. Their only hour of "freedom" was spent in these cages.
We made our way here. This was the oldest housing unit in the complex, built in 1868. Here Bill told more stories. Sonny Liston learned to box, a man murdered in cell 76 with his eyes gouged out, and a man that spent 18 years in the dungeon below the building.
This was an original cell door from 1868. It was around 4 feet high.
Back to the dungeon. For many years when Bill worked here he didn't think anything of the showers. They were down in a room under the floor. The stairs were in one end and open to the main hall. What he said he laughs at now is never realizing, they didn't have running water in 1868. Why would you build a pit in the middle of a cell block, solitary. Behind the shower walls was the real story.
This is the bottom of one of the original doors. Solid steel except for this small opening for food to be passed through. On the outside of this a wooden door. And at the top of the stairs another wooden covering over the stairwell. Guys would spend days locked up in complete darkness. One man actually spent 18 years in this hole coming out a couple times a month so he wouldn't be permanently blinded.
The last stop was the Gas Chamber. 40 people were put to death in this small building built by prisoners.
The handle to drop the cyanide tablets into the acid. Bill was very upfront about being very pro death penalty. He says he's talked to many prisoners that said to him they didn't do something because of the death penalty. However, he was very clear; the gas chamber is the most cruel wicked way anyone can die. It is too cruel to the person and too dangerous to the surroundings. Areas around the prison were evacuated when an execution took place.
One last item. Bill just came by work and reminded me of something. He spent 28 years working there. At first he hated it. He wanted to quit everyday. Over the years he became used to it, it became normal. Now, he looks back on it and realizes how far from normal it was. He could never go back to work in that environment.

The end of the line for me. I'll leave you with more pictures.


Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Rock & Roll Marathon STL



Sunday October 23, 2011 I knocked 33 minutes of my marathon personal record.

The run started in earnest 18 weeks earlier. That's when I started on the training plan from Hal Higdon. The whole process was actually new yet familiar. I had followed one of his plans for a half marathon earlier in the year. It worked very well for me so I tried it for the full 26.2 miles. Let me tell you, 18 weeks is a long time to be following a plan.

Race weekend arrived. I made this journey with my best friends, StAshley or Stephen and Ashley. They're married and I have to say, awesome. This was Ashley's first marathon and she wanted Stephen to run it with her. He did and she ended killing my first marathon time, and Stephen's. While it is very obvious her accomplishment is fantastic I don't want Stephen's to become lost in the shuffle. Most people don't have any idea what it is like to run a long distance race at someone else's pace. It is an extremely selfless act.

The morning started off dark and chilly. I was in corral 1. The race started and I ran. I can't say I was really focused on my speed. I started with everyone around me but also made sure I was being slowly passed by those people. See, I have this little problem of going out too hot. It is occasionally used to get a laugh now and again.

There were around 25,000 people at this race. The first aid station was just over a mile in. With so many people I was having a bit of an issue getting a drink while being polite so I bolted to an open spot. Went to grab a cup but instead knocked the whole cup onto the volunteer. As you can tell we still had a lot of people at the 5k mark (24:43) from the picture below. You might also notice the very attractive lady over my right shoulder. Turns out she ran the half and beat my best half marathon time by 1 second. What a B! (Kidding, good work. Wanna go have dinner?)




Next big deal was around mile 8. Mom was going to be there. Well, supposed to be there. She was late. I thought about how Ashley would at least have some cheering for you and laughed about how she would try to ask them where I was. She sometimes doesn't understand what it's like on the course but I'm always happy when she is able to come to a race. This is also where we split from the half-marathoners. The course thinned out but we still had a lot of spectators and a fair number of runners.

Half way point was next (1:47:59) and arrived there feeling very good and being very impressed with my time. I thought, wow, I'm rollin.



That feeling changed around mile 20-22. This is when the struggle bus arrived and I got on board. I just started making deals with myself. Thinking about how I only had X number of miles. It's funny how easy 4 miles is at the front end, and how impossible it can be at the back end.

I crossed the finish line after 3:47:45 of running. This blew the old record out of the water by 33 minutes. Did I want to be faster, of course but am I happy with my time, ABSO-FRIGGIN-LUTELY!


Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Bourbon Chase 2011



This was the best event I've ever been a part of.

The Bourbon Chase is a 200 mile overnight relay race from Jim Beam to downtown Lexington. Along the way we pass Heaven Hill, Maker's Mark, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, and Woodford Reserve.

I was roped into doing this over a year ago by a bunch of people I only knew via twitter. During this last year leading up to the event I've visited them several times and was even a guest at a wedding between two of the runners, Dooch and Jess.



After meeting up with most of Team Shirlock at a Waffle House (it's a house not a home) we went to Patty's. Patty is the sister of a former team mate from 2 years ago. She's obviously a really cool lady because she offered her BEAUTIFUL 1864 farmhouse for us to stay pre and post race. She and her husband, Steve, even made us breakfast.



We picked up the rest of the team at the Louisville airport and headed to Jim Beam. I've never been to a distillery. It really is an impressive place. I think the neatest aspect is the barrel warehouses. These building are HUGE. Stories tall, hundreds of feet long, and tens of feet wide. They are just packed with barrels of bourbon. There really isn't much room to walk. All the barrels are in racks on their sides towering up and into the darkness.




Dooch started us off at 2:45 in the afternoon on Friday. From here we just kept running. Person after person and leg after leg. We were supposed to have 12 runners but we only had 10. Some of us ended up running 4 legs with others running the standard 3.



Two of my 4 were at night. Around 1:30 and 3:30. I pretty much hauled the mail on the 1:30 leg. Averaged a 7:27/mile pace. If darkness can be gorgeous this was. All of the runners are required to wear a reflective vest, a headlamp, and a red taillight. The run was a road that was miles of straight pavement with slight elevation gain. When i would look behind me there was an endless stream of tiny white bouncing lights and ahead of me blinking red lights. I don't know what was so interesting about this scene, maybe I was delirious from lack of sleep but several times I'd look at this and smile and laugh. The next leg at night was much more challenging. It was me, the darkness, and my breath in my headlamp. Well those things along with the 3 runners that past me. It was tough; all alone, long, sleepy, hoping i wasn't lost, hungry.

My last leg I almost don't want to mention. Only 4.2 miles but so difficult due to cramps I would have quit if I didn't have a teammate waiting on me to hand them the slap-bracelet. Yeah, we had a slap-bracelet and I know you're jealous.

The best 28 hours 29 minutes ever. Pictures do much better justice than my words.