HOTS UPDATE 132 HOURS: what goes up must come down… else how can it go up again?.if you ask me there are not enough stories like this right now.is it stupid and pointless to run 400 miles?surely….but oh, the things you get to see.the experiences you get to have!.do you run into a few a-holes?.of course….but more than thatyou get to see what most people are really like.if you want to renew your faith in Read more…
HOTS UPDATE 120 HOURS: 5 days in the water park is not as much fun as it sounds.there could not have been any more joyous group of people on earth to see the sun rise this morningthan what is left of the hotties.after the mayhem last night we expected to see a mass exodus of the surviving hotties….we only lost two more.i will give the survivors credit for this much;they are tough and determined!.78 battered Read more…
HOTS UPDATE 108 HOURS: when does the easy part begin?.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….the rains returned..the entire length of the course is now getting hitwith what seems to be an endless stream of stormscoming up out of the gulf from alabama, miss’ippi,and louisianaand traveling north-northeast across tennessee.this is not a slow drizzling rain,but rather pockets of intense Read more…
on the tracker you see the cutoff represented by the total distance divided by 10.5.but the runners have a list of cutoffs that vary slightly,ranging from 1-3 miles short of the cutoffs done by straight math…..these cutoffs are represented by places on the mapthat make logical endpoints for sections of the course….it wouldnt make any sense to pull a runner because they stopped at a place to sleep or eatthat was one mile short of Read more…
HOTS UPDATE: 96 HOURS: this is monday… right?.four days they have been on the road.four days of winnowing has reduced the number from 109 to 90..bleary eyed, sore footed,limping and shufflingthey move on….it is all they knowit is their world..weaving, winding.small towns come and goperiodically the long trek thru a larger cityverdant forestsrolling pasturelandrushing streams,and roiling rivers….everything passes beneath their feet.and something new is around every bend..it has been 4 days since they startedthey remember Read more…
HOTS UPDATE 84 HOURS: three and a half days out here, and you can give your therapist advice.the team of zemach and wheatley have taken control(for the time being)265 miles out, they have passed santa fe and are on the homestretch to colombia!addison hendricks’ charge last night petered out during the long hot dayand now he heads into the night 18 miles behind.past bon aqua and heading into a fairly flat,if desolatecrossing of the northwest Read more…
HOTS UPDATE 72 HOURS: the tools we have today! . the sun rose on a bedraggled field of hotties. but for the first time since the race began it was not raining on anyone! . the tattered remnants of the system that has been tormenting them is drifting off to the northeast. another major rain event has formed out in oklahoma, but it seems to be dropping down into texas instead of barreling across arkansas Read more…
HOTS UPDATE 60 HOURS: the long, wet line goes on.during the third day the eye of the weather pattern that has defined hots 2025 continued to move east,finally the heavy rains coming from the south moved off of the hotties.this did not mean the end of the rain.the clouds cycling back down on the backside still had water in them.but the rain was more sporadic,and the intensity was diminished..unfortunately for the road warriors,this was still Read more…