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
for some of the runners things got real by the time we saw them at 20 miles. . for a lot of the runners things got real by the time the sun was setting. . for the majority of the runners things will be real by morning. . for all of the runners even the strongest things will be real by tomorrow afternoon. . real? . what is this real. . real is when there Read more
and they are off! . it was a festive group of 76 (yes, we lost one more between the bus ride and the start) that gathered at the base of the giant peach. . photos were snapped small talk indulged. lots of nervous laughter bushes were watered and only a few using a last opportunity to take a load off their feet. . but no one really knows what to do with this last 15 Read more
at last the month of fear is over. the time of wondering has come to an end and the days of wandering are about to begin. . the 77 brave souls who boarded the buses to nowhere are now left with their 77 restless minds tossing and turning in their beds and thinking of the incomprehensible miles that passed by outside the bus windows today. there were hills. lots of hills. good shoulders bad shoulders Read more