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24 hours to go.after 9 days on the roadit has come down to this…..24 people have 24 hours to reach the rock.with battered feet and bleary eyes they face one last dawn..this final band of vol staters;spread out from sand mountain to tracy city;they trudge onward..they have been winnowed down by the constant struggle to stay ahead of oprah.only the toughest remain..the ones starting the hardest 14 miles this morning are in excellent position to Read more…

i apologize for the lateness of this update.with rain falling at the finish areai chose to leave my electronics safely in the car..we now have 57 finishers in,and 24 runners still on course..with 36 (now 31) hours to goand off and on cold rain no one has left the clarion since it got dark.runners on the approach have little choice but to keep pushing towards the clarionit is too cold for sleeping outside!.this is a Read more…

the longest day;.48 hours remain for the 37 surviving vol staters to reach the rock.(less by the time this is posted)8 are out on the longest 14 miles.the last two are dancing with oprah back in manchester..while their recorded times may differ on the resultsall the vol staters finish in the same time actual time.the vol state takes one long day..from the time the runners step off the ferrythe race is running.everything revolves around,and is Read more…

vole stare toad race: 180 hours update:.60 hours to go.for us on the rock it is roughly the same length of time as the barkley remaining.this race is not easy for anyone.runners are erxhaustedroad angels are exhaustedthe race staff is exhausted….and i dont think exhausted is a strong enough word for what the runners are.37 have now finished.over the next 5 or 6 hours the number of finishers will exceed the 40 who dropped..and so Read more…

vole stare toad race: 168 hour update.it has been going on for a week now.28 have made it to the rock53 are still on the road..i will be truly surprised if any of them quit.every one of them is damaged.some of them have taken a real beating.there is still a chance someone could succumb to oprah.but the ones who remain do not quit…we know they do not quit.because if you have any quit in youthe Read more…

19 have finished40 have quit62 vol staters remain on the road after 6.5 days..after nearly a week the weather seems to have broke today.after a blistering hot morningthe afternoon was filled with popup thunderstorms..the cloud cover and breezes actually felt quite good.unless you happened to be caught in one of the torrential downpours..just in case you had concerns for the welfare of the vol state staff,we actually got a break this afternoonand you can bet Read more…

the vol stater was sitting on a curb in front of a gas station in a small rural town.on day 2 she had gotten extreme chafingso she stopped at a store that had only mens boxer briefs underwear.she needed something so she bought themcut the liner out of her shorts and went on with mens underwear hanging out the leg..later she fellskinning up her leg and receiving a black eye..on day 3 she developed blisters Read more…

vole stare toad race: 132 hour update.it is funny how the mood swings at vol state central..during the month of fear so many runners withdrawthat it starts to feel like no one wants to run.it really sort of drags you down..and then we arrive at the rock to load up on the busand there are so many smiling facesand so much excited talk.this seems like a great thing is about to happen.the excitement is contagious.and Read more…