yesterday’s rain completely changed the atmosphere
.
two more perished during the night
but for the 56 still on the course the weather this morning could not be better.
the skies are clear
temperatures are in the low 70’s (low 20’s c)
and there is a cool, light breeze…
.
during the night we have had 4 fall behind the reaper.
tim hardy, cherie mccafferty, joe haist, and michelle chauvin are now all between 1 and 5 miles behind cutoff…
.
they have until tomorrow morning to catch up
because tomorrow morning is the last time we have the big bus for a ride back.
for these 4 people the next 24 hours defines their race.
.
it might be hard to imagine,
but there is nothing these athletes want more
than to stay in the race to reach the rock.
.
.
up front, philip has now pulled out to a huge lead in the 350 mile.
he successfully negotiated marta
and is north of cartersville georgia heading back out into the countryside.
.
crystal reached the marta station late,
with a phone on the blink from the rain…
.
a good samaritan (train angel?)
helped her to get on the right train,
with her transfers all lined up,
but a delay along the way caused her to miss a connection
and ultimately left her stranded in downtown atlanta at midnight
with no phone!
.
if you run the hots you might have to be resourceful.
.
crystal made it through the night
and was back on a bus (or train) this morning.
but she lost too much distance to have a chance to catch up…
.
unless philip runs into problems.
he still has almost 100 miles to navigate,
so this is not over yet!
.
back with the lead pack of 400 milers
addison hendricks pulled way ahead during the night.
morning found him almost to marta….
.
so we will soon find out if addison can master mass transit.
.
michael had dropped back by 12 miles, with christine another 5 behind him.
so it looks like the 400 leaders will all take the marta test before the evening checkin…
.
it ought to be interesting to see where they are after that experience!
.
we still half expect someone to end up taking the grand tour of atlanta before this is over.
Categories: HOTS 2026