they live day to day at the back.
we lost donald cagle and jim barnes during the night.
jim made it 87 miles at 87 years old.
donald was, tragically, a mile from the turn when the clock ran out.
.
for the ones who survived the night,
made the hard cutoff at the turn
but still trail oprah,
the challenge is greater today.
tomorrow morning’s cutoff is at the commodore in linden
123 miles.
.
the turn at 90 only required 30 miles a day.
the commodore is 33 miles past the turn.
.
chasing the cutoffs is like a new race every day.
and the stakes are life or death.
the maddening clickety clack of oprah’s heels
haunts your sleep
and the spectre of the meat wagon hunts you while you are awake.
.
the race with oprah is one that few win.
the pressure never ends.
one mistake and you are done.
10 days of life on the razor’s edge is a lot to ask.
.
up at the front the runners have the luxury of facing flesh and blood opponents.
addison extended his lead during the night.
he went through mooresville and at lewisburg he came out of the roller coaster hills of the western rim
to cross the gently rolling terrain of the nashville basin geographic feature.
he passed through farmington and wheel,
and then crossed the duck river into shelbyville.
the sunrise found him coming out of shelbyville headed for war trace.
after war trace he will go up the knob creek valley to climb up onto the eastern highland rim plateau.
a full marathon behind, christine had just reached lewisburg.
we saw matt barker come into the richland inn in columbia last night
(that’s also where we slept last night)
he got a good sleep,
but was still all the way to culleoka by this morning.
.
at shelbyville, addison has reached the place where the “home stretch drives” begin.
we suspect he has been getting by on short sleep breaks at angel stations
eschewing the motel stops ultilized by the competition.
he used the time savings to buy a big lead…
.
it will pay the dividends of a win,
if he is rested enough to close this thing out.
.
we will be moving the lead vehicle to kimble today,
and should get eyes on addison to see how he is doing.
.
if he is halfway coherent,
hendricks will probably be uncatchable.
tokarz’ hohenwald gaffe might have doomed a magnificent effort from the chase position.
but she doesn’t really have time to dwell on that,
with barker breathing down her neck.
.
of course, she really has it good.
matt has been steady as a rock
but he is not oprah!