12 hours to go.

12 hours to go. 5 runners left. . 0ver the long night ahead 5 weary warriors soldier on. everyone is now ahead of the reaper. . the last 4 are barely ahead, but they have done what had to be done over the past 12 hours, as they have been doing it for nine and a half days. . the end is so close. only 12 more hours of forging on. regardless of what their Read more…

24 hours to go

here we are. 24 hours to go. . all the remaining runners are in the home stretch. we still have a little time before the next one arrives at the finish, but after that they should be coming in the rest of the day. . after all of us got a pretty good sleep break last night, the mood around the rock is good. it isnt like we are back to normal, but you dont Read more…

into the final 36 hours

possible incoherence here. it has been so long since i actually laid down and slept that i am not sure what day it was. . things are into the final 36 hours and the last races are crystalizing. . dan chapman is the next runner on the road right now. (there was enough of a gap between him and the previous finishers that we actually got to come down off the rock and eat a Read more…

time and distance

so before i was interrupted i was going to talk about time and distance. . the journey runner develops a different relationship with time and distance. in normal running you think of a distance in terms of how fast you can run it. on a journey it becomes a matter of how many miles you can cover in a period of time like an hour….. . all day long. . sure, you can think of Read more…

day 9 begins.

day 9 begins. i am uncertain how much juice my laptop has left, so i will be brief. . looking at the folks on the bubble; the quarandillos have fallen a mile behind the reaper. odie and diane finished the night in a draw with the reaper, still 7 miles off the pace……. jim cook just finished (no photo available) time: 8:00:15:22 “I always thought a race’s difficulty was based on distance, terrain and weather. Read more…

90 miles is a long way…

there are a lot fewer runners on the road tonight. 29 have dropped. 18 have finished. 28 of the original 75 remain in motion. always moving towards the rock. a long line of limping, weary souls who have faced now nearly 8 days  since they were dumped beside the road in gaffney south carolina. . the last few are nearing the tennessee line. the piedmont is behind them the appalachians are behind them now kimsey Read more…

just a quick note from the rock.

just a quick note from the rock. . melissa gave up the struggle last night. there are now 29 among the lost. tony, on the other hand, has rocketed up in the field and out of danger from the reaper. . there are 4 just behind the reaper now; diana and odie, jamie and josh. . they continue to live their lives in 12 hour increments. survive one and you get to do another…. . Read more…

monsters are very real.

for 6 and a half days the hots runners have lived beside the road they have climbed mountains and crossed rivers they have gone without food and water for many long and difficult miles they have been through ferocious thunderstorms blazing heat and freezing cold. they have endured unbearable pain and utter exhaustion. their feet are bags of misery their legs bundles of aching muscles and swollen tendons. but on they go. . on and Read more…