HOTS UPDATE 108 HOURS: when does the easy part begin?
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what started out as the best weather of the entire event
(overcast skies and mild temperatures)
would take an ugly turn later in the afternoon…
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the rains returned.
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the entire length of the course is now getting hit
with what seems to be an endless stream of storms
coming up out of the gulf from alabama, miss’ippi,and louisiana
and traveling north-northeast across tennessee.
this is not a slow drizzling rain,
but rather pockets of intense downpours,
accompanied by 50 mph winds and lightning.
dropping a lot of water in a short period of time.
with the ground now saturated,
localized flooding is just one more thing for the hotties to watch out for.
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even during the earlier, more favorable part of the day
this was a mentally difficult time for the hotties.
entering day 5 only the very front of the field was halfway.
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the thought that they had suffered through so much
and still had more than that left to go
was crushing….
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we carried a vanload back to the rock today
and after four and a half days
we were down to 80 runners still on course.
i wont try to guess how many of those are still with us in the morning.
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the ones in the van got to look at most of the remaining course…
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not one expressed regret about stopping.
it seemed hard to believe
but the hardest part of the race was still ahead of them.
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zemach and wheatley seem to have taken control of the race.
they went through lewisburg and on to belfast
then climbed over the big ridge south of belfast
before following cane creek into petersburg.
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we saw them on their way from petersburg to the tough climb up chestnut ridge
and they were elated about the beauty of the countryside.
about a mile later they started the grinding climb up chestnut ridge,
so i dont know if they were quite as happy once they realized it was only going to get steeper and steeper.
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after topping the ridge
there was no respite,
as they immediately started down a steep descent following mulberry creek.
check in found them about halfway down,
shortly before they would be turning to cut across a series of nasty roller coaster hills…
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steep and long,
but very pretty countryside.
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kyle dudley caught up with addison hendricks last night,
and now they, too, have formed a team.
they are 28 miles behind the leaders,
but this is the hots.
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the leaders are still 81 miles from the finish
and anything can happen.
a particularly nasty storm went over them earlier tonight
if they were in lynchburg with the opportunity to take shelter
it might not make much difference.
if it caught them out in the open….
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who knows how that turned out?
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and so it is,
as 80 leg-weary warriors soldier on into the stormy night.
all of them have long since passed the breaking point for sane people.
but they have paid such a dear price to be where they are.
to surrender now would mean all of it was for nothing.
the call of the rock has to be hard to hear
over the crashing thunder
the howling winds,
and the waterfall sound of the pouring rain.
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their only hope is to protect that glowing ember of desire
from the rain
and count on it to spark into a full fledged fire again when conditions improve.
but they must move on.
the clock never stops.
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what no one knows
(except the ones who rode the course this afternoon)
the worst is yet to come!
Categories: HOTS 2025