we got to debrief with king bob over supper tonight. truly amazing stuff. the ability to rework plans on the fly, while maintaining that incredible pace. hell, the ability to run an *extra* 25 miles before taking a break when there is no place to stop in the sun! the mental agility to recalculate pacing to break the record again on the fly. truly amazing stuff. . i will leave the details for bob to Read more…
Congratulations to Bob Hearn on crushing both the crewed and screwed course records! King Bob 3:04:09:10
i am afraid there is not much time to post anything this morning. overnight the metronome just kept on keeping on… . he reached the three day check-in with a 7 mile lead on the OVERALL record pace. bob hearn has produced one of the most astonishing performances of all time and it appears he will destroy the crewed record at vol state… . WITHOUT A CREW!!!! . just put in every superlative you can Read more…
this has been a crazy weather year at vol state. on the bright side, it has yet to settle into one of those multiple days long spells of ever intensifying heat and humidity that make every minute of the race like running shrouded in a hot, wet wool blanket. on the other hand, the humidity has been outrageous and the dew points insane. after the huge lines of thunderstorms that battered most of the field Read more…
carl and i were talking about the vol state yesterday, and how it has provided a fascinating view of collective human potential. . it has not been that long ago that there was a huge gap between crewed and screwed runners in the vol state. the serious runs for time were done by the crewed runners. the screwed contest was simply one of survival. it has not been that long ago that there was speculation Read more…
sometimes the strategy is different than you expect. here is a strategy that works really well if you can execute it: just blow everyone’s doors off! . making passes thru the field all day we got to see the race taking shape. bob spent the morning building on the big lead he opened up during the storms last night. we saw him climbing the big, steep hill into linden in the morning he was 12 Read more…
24 hours in, and time to take stock. . some quick observations: 1) the runners seem to have come thru the storm fine, none were made of sugar and melted in the rain. none had lost so much substance that the wind blew them away. thankfully, even with so much lightning that it was like flickering daylight at times, no one got hit. it is always unnerving when your heart feels like you should be Read more…
sorry for the lateness of the update. the vol state hit the ground running, and there were things to take care of first. . what can you say about the first day? after all the anticipation, the best the runners can hope for is that nothing is decided on day one. the only conclusive outcomes on day 1 are negative. . true to form, at least three runners saw their races end on day 1. Read more…