morning checkin after 4 days.
we still have 103 on the road!
.
i dont know the schedule yet,
it is still being hammered out.
but the casualties from yesterday will be brought forward soon.
this was the first night we lost no one new.
but the sun will be seeking out the weak ones
not everyone still on the road is going to make it to the rock.
.
during the night all of yesterday’s rain took to the air in the form of a thick, cool fog.
i remember mornings like this on this journey.
if you are traveling in a valley it can take hours before the fog burns off.
the relief from the solar radiant heat is pure bliss….
.
as pure as bliss can be with the foot pain,
exhaustion, stomach issues, etc.
.
we in the lead vehicle are down in the sequatchie valley
preparing for the first finisher
and the fog is overhead like a huge low hanging cloud
(i guess that is what it actually is)
.
if we were up on the rock
we would be in clear air,
looking out over what appears to be a vast sea of white;
mountains sticking out of it like islands.
.
addison had a good night,
climbing the cumberland escarpment
and crossing the plateau in what would have been almost cold temperatures…
down in the high 60’s.
morning found him at the end of one of those mountain islands approaching the mountain mart and the screaming descent into jasper.
he will get the morning sun briefly
and then drop down into and emerge below the fog,
if he is lucky it will take several hours for the sun to finally burn through.
.
my memories of mornings like this are joyous.
after sizzling in the heat for every step,
this morning they feel like FREE MILES!!
.
christine tokars is just past hillsboro
with matt barker 5 miles behind her in manchester
crossing the eastern rim.
when the fog burns off they will be like ants under a magnifying lens.
that stretch is one of the hottest on the course,
until they get to climb the escarpment at monteagle mountain,
up to the “coolest” part of the course.
.
in the days before air conditioning
wealthy nashville families spent their summers at monteagle
to escape the heat that tortures the vol staters every step.
it can still be hot as balls,
but the cumberland plateau offers what respite there is.
.
and so, all the way back to the band of oprah in linden,
every surviving vol stater is experiencing a morning dependent on their location.
if they are on high ground,
the sizzle has started early.
down in valleys
it will be postponed….
.
but it will come.
all that fog will return to the sky
the sun will beat down
the thunderhead clouds will reorganize
and by this afternoon,
the storms will dump it all on their heads again!
.
the last three all made it to the commodore in linden
and bought another day.
if they got there with some time to spare they had a chance to sleep….
.
to sleep away some of the cool weather.
.
if they just made it they have the option to sleep
but any sleep now puts their journey at risk.
because they have to cross the buffalo river,
and climb over the steep buffalo ridges
climb 16 mile hill
cross the western rim through hohenwald
and go down the swan creek descent almost to gordonsburg where the course crosses the natchez trace.
all before tomorrow morning.
.
when you are playing on the edge of the hard cutoffs
spending your days and nights
listening to the clickety clack of oprah’s heels
there is never any relief
.
and so day 5 begins.
40 of the 103 have not yet reached the halfway point.
all of them have to be there before the day ends tomorrow morning.