HOTS UPDATE 144 HOURS: oh my god!
.
that was the first thing we heard from the two leaders.
we couldnt see them for the tree cover….
.
after picking up their trackers at the clarion
the hotties face their biggest challenge of the race in the home stretch.
they run to south pittsburg
and cross the blue bridge.
then they turn off to go climb over hog jaw ridge
before finally climbing sand mountain to bryant alabama.
then they run back down sand mountain…
there,
after 398 miles of adventures
they finally come to the worst….
.
the crack.
two miles of trail worthy of the barkley is all that remains
before they finally get the opportunity to stand atop the rock.
.
from the rock we can see them pass thru a clearing…
.
they look like ants.
.
we got the first of (hopefully) many opportunities to watch the ants approach this morning.
first we watched the tiny figures run across the clearing,
then we waited.
.
eventually we heard their voices.
actually one voice.
as we found out later,
ken had just said;
“this could be the barkley, but it isnt steep enough”
then they came to the first serious pitch….
.
“oh my god!”
.
we could hear them most of the way up.
talking and laughing
and having the kind of fun you can only have
when you have to do something ridiculously difficult after 398 miles of hell…
.
6 days 1 hour and six minutes after the bus unloaded in cape girardeau missouruh
ken zemach and crystal wheatley stood together at the edge of the rock.
there are no ties at the hots
so ken gave a short speech
and then crystal walked out to touch the rock
and claim the title:
the queen of the south began her year on the thrown.
.
30 seconds later,
ken kissed the rock.
.
after all too short a time on the rock
hearing their stories from the road
we came back down to the clarion.
ken had a flight to catch.
.
there we found stephen redfern just heading out on the home stretch.
addison hendricks and kyle dudley had holed up for an hour’s sleep.
so it looks like we will have three more finishers sometime this afternoon…
.
in some order.
the race to the crack is on!
.
back in the back,
michelle chauvin gave up the ghost during the night,
but, incredibly,
derek murphy and mary hosbrough live to suffer another day.
.
the grim reaper continues his relentless march.
slowly reeling in the ones in the back of the pack:
ed masuoka and michael pichan can hear his footsteps.
william cooper can feel his breath on his neck.
.
they dare not look back,
but quicken their footsteps.
they do not want to end up in mary and derek’s boat!
Categories: HOTS 2025