just over 6 hours to go. everyone is in except diane, richard, and terrie. . feeling good about diane. all three of then were together at the blue bridge but she pulled away, and now we believe her to be on castle rock road. slowly and painfully approaching the gate to castle rock ranch. feeling good about diane making it. . richard had moved out behind her and was at the start of the climb Read more
sorry for the spotty updates here down the stretch. we have been pretty busy up on the rock and the electronics operate on limited charge. only during the infrequent gaps long enough to come down off the rock can i make decent posts. . the 10th day has begun. for the band of merrymakers toiling in oprah’s shadow it is time to fish or cut bait. they have a great day to start the final, Read more
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