HOTS UPDATE 156 HOURS: running on fumes
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with the leaders in,
and on the approach to a week on the road,
the race is entering a new phase…
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exhaustion.
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the runners are shambling shadows;
footsore, sleep deprived, malnourished.
they have to reach deeper and deeper to find the motivation to go on.
for the ones still with triple digit distances to go,
the finish seems more distant than when they first stepped off the bus.
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the staff has entered a new phase with the onset of finishers.
grabbing sleep when available,
and juggling time at the finish line
with the planning and execution of extractions.
sleep has fallen to third place in the list of priorities.
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the back of the pack is still a long drive away
and that is where the situation is most dire.
runners who have risen to the challenge time and again
to fight off the relentless march of doom
are reaching down deep
and finding nothing there….
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but as the casualties are evacuated,
replacements are falling to the back.
mary, michael, and derek have little chance to make it past tomorrow morning.
william cooper is fighting for his life…
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but the inexorable reaper marches on
slowly closing the door on the long time cutoff fighters
and relentlessly closing the gap on others.
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further up in the pack the drops are sudden and unexpected.
not that they have happened in an instant.
every runner on the road has endured too much.
the only thing keeping them moving is that single thread of determination.
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none of it seems as romantic now
as it did months ago while planning this effort.
nor as quixotic as it was a week ago riding the bus.
.
no.
the reality is dirty, ugly, painful, and difficult.
they do not see the sheer joy of the ones who reach the rock.
that single reward that keeps the staff functioning.
the rock seems so distant,
it is difficult to believe it even exists.
all that really exists is baking sun and freezing rain.
gnawing hunger and desperate thirst.
parched lips, sunburnt skin.
aching feet and knotted muscles that dont want to respond.
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and for everyone,
staff and participants alike,
an overwhelming desire to just sleep until the need for sleep is fulfilled.
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but the irony is,
this depth of despair
is the genesis of the soaring heights of joy
that are waiting at the rock.
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to overcome so many obstacles
to come to the point that the task seemed impossible.
to reach down deep
and find something you did not even know was there.
to endure more than you thought you could endure.
and to achieve more than you thought you could achieve.
to go on, beyond where you believed your limits lay.
you cannot reach the pinnacle
without first tasting rock bottom.
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this moment
as horrible as it is
this moment is what they came for…
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this is hard to remember
when every fiber of your being cries out for you to stop.
to end the suffering
to simply give up and go home.
back to the world of air conditioning
comfortable beds
and whatever you want to eat and drink.
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this abject misery is what they came for…
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because if they find a way to persevere,
to beat the odds and stand atop the rock,
all this will be forgotten,
and in its place will be a pride that swells their chest to bursting
and a sense that,
for them,
nothing is impossible.
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so yes, day 6 is ugly.
but it is necessary,
if they are to find what they have come to find.
Categories: HOTS 2025