if you want to renew your faith in humanity
do a journey run
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the most special thing that happens at vol state
is the way the people who live along the course embrace the vol staters.
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i think the 80 newbies in this year’s field were taken by surprise on the drive to the start.
people waving as they went past
signs wishing them well.
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but that wasnt even a foretaste of what they found on the road.
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waves and horn toots
and tents with chairs and coolers of cold drinks and food.
manned by new best friends.
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even sitting at the stinky bridge checkpoint taking times
we were the object of thumbs up and horn toots.
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talking to one of the drops,
she expressed amazement.
“everyone wanted to help us!”
“everyone wanted to talk to us”
“they treated us like heroes”
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over the years we have come to know many of the road angels by name.
the runners know many more of them.
some angels and runners have become fast friends
and keep in touch even after the race has ended.
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for the second day in a row
the afternoon was a scorcher
temperatures in the mid 90’s
heat indexes between 100 and 110.
at this point the vol staters are accustomed to the weather.
that “cool” day 1 set the field up for success.
had day 1 been like days 2 and 3
the highway would have looked like gettysburg.
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as it is, we have only lost 16.
113 of the original 129 are still on the road.
by the time the real heat set in,
the vol staters had acclimated to living in an oven.
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it may be difficult to hold the line though.
today’s 1930 checkin found 5 of the vol staters in clarksburg.
4 miles behind oprah.
they must make the turn in lexington in the next 12 hours,
or they will be getting a ride in the meat wagon.
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kara tiechroew made up her deficit today,
but she is only one of 10 runners within a mile of oprah.
going into the third night with 15 runners’ races on the line,
it is not likely they will all survive the night.
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up front no one was worried about oprah.
but they had plenty else to worry about.
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addison put in a strong night to push his lead to 16 miles.
however, it has been a day and a half since he took a sleep break
and he was worried about ghosts.
with that kind of a lead the race is his to win….
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now it all depends on his sleep deprived brain making good decisions for the remainder of the race.
he can afford some well timed rest breaks.
he needs some well timed rest breaks.
but the footsteps of his pursuers are as loud in his ears
as the clicking heels of oprah are to the back of the pack.
if he attempts to go straight through to the finish
hendricks risks a catastrophic collapse.
but the echoing footsteps of ghosts wont allow him any peace of mind.
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but when you look at the two runners still in the chase,
maybe he isnt totally worried about ghosts.
christine began her day with what should have been a fatal error,
leaving vital supplies in a motel room before starting down the long and desolate descent to gordonsburg.
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we dont know how she resolved the issue,
but she got past hampshire and cross bridges,
making it all the way to columbia before checkin.
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only the bench of despair and culleoka were between her and addison.
tokarz has a big edge in rest,
so her 155 miles to the finish compared to addison’s 140 might not be insurmountable…
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and quiet matt barker is cruising along a mere 3 miles behind christine.
there hasnt been much in the way of drama from matt.
but he has positioned himself nicely in 3rd place….
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nothing is more ominous than a quiet ghost.
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and so the third night begins.
113 quests are playing out on the hills of tennessee.
113 runners with the rock now in the back of their minds
as they fight 113 battles just to survive another night.
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morning checkin is going to be interesting.