I guess I "epiced"

Words are often redefined. Bad meaning good comes to mind as does New England's classic "Wicked." At one point, epic had seeped into our vernacular to describe something specular or very impressive even AWESOME! The term is quite common with sports casters describing an "epic shot" or a climber describing an "epic route" up a rock face in Yosemite Valley. Failure has the potential to be epic as well with "Epic Fail" being tossed around to describe an unfortunate pole volt attempt or air drop gone bad on a mountain bike.
Epic by definition pertains to a long poetic composition centered upon a hero and his achievements, so the new use of "epic" is rather easy to pallet. Unlike bad as good was or maybe still is in some circles. I don't know.
 Recently "epic" and "epic fail" morphed  further into "epiced" a reference to something even BIGGER!! Example: If you find your self out of water and food, without shelter and suddenly muster your last glimmer of strength to finish in the dark on the edge, flirting with death itself you apparently have "epiced."
Stories of climbers, runners and adventures who have "epiced" have become fodder for countless pod casts, blog posts and magazine articles. It all seems kind of careless really until it happens to you although I can not responsibly say what I experienced was a good thing either. It just makes for good story.
Last weekend, I found myself with some friends on a trail run. Typically, I don't run with others they are almost always faster and more experienced than I am and I don't want to hold anyone up or feel I have to run faster than I would like to.
Unfortunately my ego got the better of me from the start. It was a beautiful afternoon. Everyone was running and chatting, I felt good. Heck, it was only 10 miles, I have been diligent in my training. They said they would walk the up hills, I was sure I would keep up. Everyone was supportive and encouraging so I went with it.
But.... someone up front kept running when we hit the first climb. They didn't walk, nobody walked, and I didn't either. I kept up, I felt great. We ticked off that climb a short downhill and another climb, we were moving right along. The group started to spread out and an eerie feeling set in that the back of the pack was falling behind. I had never run this trail, neither had the couple people still with me. The three of us had certainly slowed down. Fortunately, the lead pack would stop at trail intersections to make sure we were hanging on and did not miss a turn. I hated they had to do that but appreciated it, for sure.
It was ridiculously hot! I sucked my hand held dry and eventually all the enthusiasm drained out of me. My head whirled, sweat soaked every stitch of clothing, my feet cramped and calves ached. I felt like I was being beat with sticks. I ran, walked and trudged forward in a daze. Fewer and fewer members of the lead pack waited at junctions to account for those bringing up the rear. I felt like I was running on a hamster wheel, time stood still. The three of us had no idea where we were, how far we had gone or how far we had to go to get back to our cars.
We were long out of water and had eaten everything we had. The support and encouragement of the others kept us moving forward. We stopped, stuck our heads into a creek to cool off, refreshed we continued with a bit more spring in our shuffle. As if on queue Charles, one of the guys who had been in the lead pack ran back to check on us and told us we had a mile, maybe a mile and a half to go. Relief poured over of us and we pushed up and over the next few climbs. When Charles said "this is it, the last down hill!" it was music to my ears. I could smell the barn! We ran that hill a bit out of control energized by the cheers and encouragement from those who had already finished. Dales Pale Ale's where thrust into our hands as we rejoined the group. The three of us gathered ourselves, sucked Dale's and water and fell into conversation about are adventure. A lot was said about how tough we were. "Epiced?" Nah!  I don't think so. I hated feeling that way. I was just glad to make it back.