Posted on the Ultralist:
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:38:46 +0000
From: lazarus lake
Subject: so easy from an office chair; vol-state 14
it is so easy looking at the mike-map to think the whole thing is done at halfway. ask a runner (any of them) if they are almost sorry that it is about over…. and you will draw an incredulous stare. even at 200 miles, the finish is an unimaginable distance away. and it is so easy to ride about in my car (i swear i am tired… but i DONT HURT!) or to sit in our office chairs and watch the little flags march across the map. out there it is real the whole time. very very real. and nothing is certain.
the race is not almost over. until you reach the cornfields at castle rock.
standings after 5 days:
1) don is at 278 around tracy city. he has his 20 mile lead. but the heat is on. he hopes to finish sometime tonight.
2) mike is at 258, somewhere around hillsboro. can he mount a final charge in a heat advisory… with two major hills to climb (along with the most feared feature on the course the hellish descent into jasper)?
3)abi is past shelbyville at 227
4) sherrie is coming into shelbyville at 223
5) naresh is hot on sherrie’s heels at 222
6) joe is hovering behind the herd at 215… like a wolf waiting to pick off the old and weak.
7) sal is at 202… waiting for his wife to pick him up. he has reached the end of the endless road.
9) john is in glendale at 184… at the “bench of despair” he like so many vol-staters before him has come there to contemplate dropping.
10 & 11) the lovely & indefatiguable lynnor & erika at 180 are just leaving columbia.
12) fred murolo is at 179 in columbia and moving
13) paul is stationary at 179=2C in columbia and resting
14) fred davis is at 177 the columbia square. and he is done. ride arrangements are incomplete…
there is a reality check for you. if fred is down, no one is safe.
15) stu is at 157 past the natchez trace & “celebrating” the halfway point.
16) we have a report of diane at 152. she was staying at a place around 158 …
(the ridgetop inn I would never climb the hill to that place at the end of a day)and she always makes it to her indoor plumbing & bed with a mattress. so i believe her to be at 158.
two more gone and the heat has only just begun.
the battle of the vol-state:
they got on the ferry & they rode it to kentucky
they were headed for a battle in the state of tennessee.
there was heat and pain a waiting but they didnt waver
they were bound to make their way to the castle rock you see.
the sun went down and the runners kept a comin
there wasnt near as many as there was the morn before.
they ran thru the bottoms and they ran over ridges
they ran thru dry stretches where a camel wouldnt go.
the sun came up and the runners kept a comin’
there wasnt quite as many as there was the night before.
they ran so far that stray dogs couldnt follow
down the endless blacktop to the slopes of never more.
the sun went down and the runners kept a comin
there wasnt near as many as there was the morn before
they left their homes & they left their loved ones
to fight a hopeless battle in the state of tennessee.
but those who reached the rock down in georgia
found the prettiest sight that they would ever see…
the finish.
laz
