and so we begin day 9. the staff is happy (in relative terms) having gotten a 2 hour nap after the last day 8 finisher. heading into the last 48 hours doesnt hurt either. us and the runners, we can smell the barn. . matt burke gets the award so far for the most tragic mis-estimation of his final push. starting in manchester at 2300 wednesday night he ran all the rest of wednesday night Read more…
44 runners in 81 miles. and they are pretty much staggered one every two miles. i dont remember the vol state ever ending like this. . 44 runners to come in 60 hours. and we have a challenge ahead. . the challenge of having already been up more than 24 hours with only cat naps and 60 hours to go. but sleep deprivation is the least of our worries. . this is the time that Read more…
the parade has started. sitting here with the happiest sore people on earth. they may not be moving so well, but they are ready to tell the stories. among the things at vol state that are not what you expect is the laughter. . so many funny stories. so much hilarity. of all the senses that are sharpened the sense of humor seems to become the sharpest. . i would share more, but there are Read more…
You know it is the vol state when a runner calls with the race 99% complete, and wants to drop. seriously, if you made it to mile 311 it is better to do the last 3 miles than to drop (even tho it might not seem that way at the time)
up on the mountain again. waiting on jeffrey smith and steve landis. they are engaged in a slow motion race to the rock. . jeffrey is about 6 miles ahead and he has been increasing that lead. having broken into a dead sprint… . the last 5 miles took him only a little over two and a half hours. . steve is having navigation issues. alone in the dark, his brain fried from fatigue and Read more…
one of the greatest misconceptions about journey running. and covering these enormous distances, is that it cheapens the individual mile; “after running 300 miles, one mile must seem like nothing” . nothing could be further from the truth. after 300 miles the runner is painfully aware of every single mile. the entire concept of a mile is forever changed. . waiting at the rock for these battered survivors to come in the painful effort of Read more…
i cant believe we got to sleep last night. 0430 to 0730 what a blessing to get a normal night sleep at the normal time!!! . it was raining when i got up, but there is a bright sunny sky as the first runners are just now hitting the blue bridge. those are on the home stretch, so it wont matter. but, for the most of them this sunny sky could be a portent of Read more…
it seems to be coming up on 0200 and all is quiet up here on the rock. we have some finishers being toted down to the super 8 to wash their battered bodies and get some serious sleep (the first in nearly a week) . matt burke should be hitting castle rock road by now. with any luck he will be here in about an hour. . there was a 9 mile gap behind him Read more…