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!
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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 miles ahead of the flori
they led bev, rebecca, and andy by pretty good margins.
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when we last saw him this afternoon ne was halfway up 16 mile hill heading towards hohenwald.
he was still cranking the miles out.
the time between sweeps would indicate he probably got about a 3 hour sleep in there as well.
and still held his lead at 12 miles.
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you cant call any race over with 180 miles to go,
but bob is calling the shots now.
thus far he has performed flawlessly.
and he looks really good.
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the question coming to mind at this point is the screwed record.
bob is in a position to break that unbreakable record.
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the flori were in linden and still moving well.
this morning bev had opened a big lead on rebecca.
we didnt see bev during the afternoon sweep.
so she was probably taking a sleep break or in a store.
rebecca was across the river about halfway to linden
and then it was a huge gap to alan abbs
not even to chesterfield.
he had caught the people he passed going backwards this morning
but it will take a miracle to get back in contention….
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this is the vol state
anything can happen.
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but enough about the leaders for now.
we will get a more complete update on them at the 12 hour check in.
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there is a whole different race taking place nearly 100 miles behind bob.
there are a lot of runners between gleason and mckenzie.
all of them hearing the echoes of oprah’s clicking stilleto heels on the pavement.
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they cant see her.
she is just around the last bend,
just over that last rise….
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she hasn’t caught them,
but she is relentlessly in pursuit.
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for them the race is just about survival.
80 degree dewpoints
violent thunderstorms
brain baking sun…
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all of those are issues.
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but the real threat is those clicking heels
of a foe that never wavers.
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for these runners the race is not nearly half over.
it has barely begun.
when the next check in comes,
they will be a day and a half in…
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with eight and a half days to go.
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and if oprah is within earshot now,
she will never be far away.
it will be eight and a half days
where they can never let up.
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they all have to be on the south side of huntingdon by tomorrow morning.
the 1930 check in only tells them what must be done tonight.
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the pressure is on.
