72 hr update(7.5 days to go) No (wo)man’s land. When all is said and done,when the blisters have healed,when the nightmares about getting up to move have abated.When they’ve come back from being so deep within themselves on the open road… The HOTS runners will think backto the turning point of the journey. Many of them will think back to the start of day 4.Their bodies and minds are desperate.The finish (heck, even Montgomery!) are Read more
(8 days to go) Beat the Heat. “We’re gonna try to BEAT THE HEAT.”“Ummm, I don’t think that means….what you think it means.” Two runners were commiserating early this morning.One was pretty sure he was gonna make the call for a ride (DROP)The other was looking for a way to keep going despite the difficulty. (CONTINUE) DROP:“I don’t see how I’m gonna make this work.It’s too hot in the day to move, but we need Read more
(8.5 days to go) Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. After a day of high consequence,the HOTS field is reeling. The sparse services and higher than usual temperaturesconspired to send a gut punch through the fieldover the first 48 hours of the race.(and they have to hang on for another 24 before any relief comes). The sun rose and the crack team of facilitators looked at our spreadsheet.oof.The meatwagons are overbooked for today. Read more
High Consequence. One of the fundamental tenets of the HOTS is that you alone are responsible for yourself. That doesn’t mean you can’t accept help, from either road angels, or your fellow competitors… But it does mean that when push comes to shove, you are on your own to make the decisions and either bask in the success, or suffer the consequences! After 36 hours, this year’s class hasn’t really had an opportunity to bask Read more
What a difference a day makes. Just a day ago, 54 adventurous souls got off the bus at the beach. They were fresh, felt good… with fuel gauges jammed on FULL. After 24 hours on the road, not a single one of them is fresh any more. As the sun came up this morning, almost all of them would have been on the road. Happy to see the light, but also not wanting to say Read more
12 hr update (10 days to go) What a start! The first 12 hours are done. If this were a short ultramarathon, they would probably be nearly done driving home from the race… Well pleased with a long day on their feet. But this is the HOTS. They have lived a lifetime today, and they have only just begun! The beach start was an instant classic. Filling their vials of seawater that they must deliver Read more
the road is completely gone,replaced by an enormous crater…. Option 1if you go to the right and cut thru the edge of the cemetery,there is a track where the construction crews have driven down to the bottom.at the right end of the drainage pipe you can cross the creek on sandbags.on the other side you can climb up the straw bales to the lip of the cut…. Option 2if you prefer you can take the Read more
Link to FB post the brightly colored rain gear contrasted with the low cloud cover and overall grey tone of the morning as our adventurers crossed the clinch river and started up the switchbacks toward the first of 3 mountain passes in the first 15 miles. their track takes them thru lush green forests and alongside stark stone faces where the space for a narrow road was blasted out of the mountainsides. this road with Read more