after a night of riotous revelry on the road
the innocent faces are no more.
everyone who saw the sun rise from the road this morning is now a veteran.
there is still a lot of seasoning to be applied,
but the reality of life on the open road is no longer a mystery….
.
it is hard.
much harder than what they imagined.
it is dirty
much dirtier than the way they pictured it
and it is real…
.
too real!
.
looking at the morning check ins
the unseen stories jump out between the lines.
the runner who covered 1 mile in 12 hours….
.
and was not near any form of shelter.
what a lovely night he must have spent.
.
michael carson kept the lead all night.
and he seems to have gotten the checkin figured out.
michael has demonstrated plenty of talent at those short races
(100 milers and such)
and over the next few days we will see how it transfers to the multiday format.
right now it looks like he is in control.
.
he is the only one to have made the turn in lexington.
christine tokarz has emerged from the chasing pack to take a solid hold on second,
and she should make the turn shortly after checkin.
her multiday experience is standing her in good stead.
.
addison hendricks is past the beaver school on the way between parkers crossroads and lexington.
he is definitely still in the conversation,
and looks to be running his own race,
while maintaining contact with the race for the lead.
the youngster is turning into a seasoned veteran.
but it remains to be seen how much a hard 400 miler less than a month ago might have taken out of his legs!
.
matt barker is only a mile behind addison,
and from parkers crossroads back to clarksburg
the likes of chris clemens (his smile is back!)
richard ward,
and the harveys (nikki and david)
are not out of contention yet.
.
it is going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
a race like this is like a whole season in other sports,
complete with so many ups and downs,
moves and countermoves.
we can only guess what is going on in each athlete’s mind
and they can only guess at the intentions of one another.
.
back on the road from martin to dresden to gleason to mackenzie to huntingdon
we know what is going on in their minds.
a virtual migrant caravan is winding its way across west tennessee.
and what they are thinking is;
“i dont even remember what it is like to feel good”
they travel in clusters for mutual support
and sleep together like refugees at farmers markets
or like individual vagrants on benches and concrete steps.
.
they can find a roadside tent or cooler by sense of smell
and have learned to survive from one bottle of warm water
to the next.
.
but as ragged as they might look
this field has acquitted itself well.
24 hours in and 123 of the original 129 are still on the road.
.
all of them are dealing with some issue of another
a lot of them are in trouble.
but they are still moving.
they probably aren’t thinking of the rock so much any more.
more about the next chance to eat
any cold fluid
or the next patch of shade.
but they are still on the road.
.
we will see how many survive until sundown…
.
it wont be all of them.