the sun is setting on the 5th day and jim fleming is all alone at the front. 32 miles (and a climb up sand mountain) stand between him and the title “queen of the south”) it doesnt sound like much, just a sub 12 hour 50k (and change) but he is unaided. as he has been unaided for the last 4-1/2 days there are flash flood warnings for his home stretch… . and there are Read more…
4 days are in the bank. 52 runners fight on… . not 53 any more. pam smith’s valiant struggle on the brink came to a tragic end. after so many hours of pushing as hard as she could go she had reached the line that had to be crossed before morning and took a nap. awaking with a brain clouded with pain, fatigue, and sleep she ran 6 miles back the way she had come. Read more…
the 4th night on the road begins. only 15 runners have passed halfway… . by tomorrow morning check-in the runners are supposed to be at mile 133. past long creek. really, they need to be past the georgia state line. across the chatooga river. preferably well past, because the chatooga is where the serious mountains begin. . 8 runners are in trouble. they dont just need a good night. they must have a good night. Read more…
three days are in the bank. things went better last night than they might have. the storm veered to the east and picked up speed. it did not drop tornadoes and all that other nasty stuff,,, . just a whole lot of rain. a whole lot of rain. and it is still intermittently raining on most of the field sometimes heavy rain. . still, the toll was not as bad as it could have been. Read more…
we drove thru the field from the front today. jan drove from the back. we met in the middle and filled a couple of vans with the defeated. . of the 75 who left the giant peach thursday morning 59 runners remained on saturday. , we looked into those faces this morning as we went thru the field and they all had the same expression… . resolute. determined. hurt, but not beaten. . all day Read more…
safe and secure in your beds preparing to do whatever run you do today over familiar terrain with assuredness of where you were where you are going and that at the end you will have a way home… . sixty something lonely souls were wandering through the darkness. relying only on the sporadic internet connection to look at a map on their phone and hope they were finding the right roads. memories of the daytime Read more…
the sun has set again after a very active day. . for the runners out on the road it is day two that really begins to define their path forward. . up front, it is the path to victory that is being defined. bev and jim really have control over the race with a third of the distance in the bank. they are at 136, looking at their 12 hour splits of 58/47/31 it is Read more…
in an anticipatory kind of way. . who will make a big move who will go to earth who will crumble and be hauled off in the meat wagon… . how will the race take shape? . bev and james stamped their names on the lead last night. surging thru the darkness with the mountains of blue ridge escarpment looming dark shadows over their heads. . their feet treading in the footsteps of the cherokee Read more…