OD 100 Reflections

It's 3:15 a.m. already and I never looked at my watch once during the night. That's some pre-race sleep right there. Sweet!

Holy shmoley, we start five mins. from now at 4 a.m. and it's already 74F with big humidity. Hey, it is what it is. Deal with it.

Helloooo Burnshire Bridge at about 4 miles in 45 mins. Easy does it there, dawg.

Lookit, daylight and topping out at Woodstock Tower. That 2-mile climb wasn't so bad.

Man, this gentle downhill to Boyer aid station at 11 miles goes on forever.

20 MILES! Drop bag! Ensure. Yum. ICE! Wait, go back and wet that bandana. Smart runner. Smart runner. Easy does it now.

Thermometer on the old country store bldg at St. David's Church aid station says 86F. It's on the porch. With its back to the sun. LOVE that bucket of cold water with the sponges. Ahhhh.

I know that guy there who is in charge of the 28-mile station. OMG, Kevin Black! No way! He was third here once and was ridiculously fast in several other races too. No WONDER he has popsicles and ice-cold water for dousing us.

Four Points 1. 32 miles. Lots of open road so far and this heat/humidity combo sucks, but morale is good and the stomach seems fine. Cool! Hey Quatro. Nice lid, dude. Hey Pat Botts. Great to see you again too, and thanks for your help with putting ice in my Nathan hydration pack. No room for my other 20 oz. green tea? Here. Give it to somebody else. No, wait. What would Ben Clark do? OK, lemme drink half and then you put ice in the rest. I'll just carry it in my hand and drink the rest of it myself.

Duncan Hollow. My nemesis. Let's see who kicks who's ass today, baby ... AID STATION is here at 39ish thanks to two guys on motorcycles ... Chrisman Hollow Trail and 1.5 miles to the road ... CREEK CROSSING ... ahhhhhhhh.

Medical aid station at 43 miles. I'm only down 2.5 pounds. Awesome! Gut is great. Brain's getting a little scrambled, but to be expected in this heat, I guess. FROZEN MANGO CHUNKS!!! And a Pedialite popsicle. Talk about being a happy, happy boy.

Road stretch to Four Points 2 is a blast furnace. Hang in. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.

Four Points 2. 47 miles. Sit down and try to cool off. Succeed cap, please (to go along with the 3 others I've taken so far). Ensure on ice. Yum! Green tea in the pack's bladder. I know, Q, I know, I've been here too long, but I'm still not really cooled off yet. Shade is good, but it doesn't do a thing about the humidity. OK, lemme get that iPod Shuffle with the arm band and I'm outta here. See you guys at 75 miles.

50 MILES IN 12:10. I hear the voice of my pal Bobby G. saying HELL YEAH! OK, that means 16:50 left to do the last 50 miles. No, wait. 15:50. OK. Whatever. Too early to start with that, even if I could get the math right. You just keep moving and let the rest of it take care of itself.

OK, this arm band is annoying. Put the iPod away for now. At Edinburg, put the clip one on.

Dude, it's just a Zip-Loc baggie. OK, how 'bout this: shove a handful of Frito's in your mouth and then just fold the top of the bag over. Good. Yeah. That works. Man, did they put any salt on these chips???

Each time the right foot strikes the ground is one ... 59, 60, 61 ... 89, 90, 91 ... 100, walk ... 48, 49, 50. Run ... easy does it, boy. Easy.

MUST eat these chips. Even two chips each walk break is better than nothing. OK, do a gel. Good. Great decision. I wonder how old that Succeed electrolyte drink mix is that they have had out here today? Wonder how they make it so completely tasteless?

Oh good. I think this is the windy downhill to the aid station. Will be good to grab a quick seat and see if I can cool off a bit.

Is that Potts? Looks like he's shooting video with his sweet handheld digi. WHOA! WOOZY! What the ???? Oh wow. OK. That's it. I'm done. Woozy? Yeah. Bed spins? A little bit like that, yeah.

OK, yeah, it's about 15 mins. back to the start from here. Ready when you are.

Hey, could I be completely pathetic and ask you to help me take my tent down? Not sure I should be bending over, really.

Dude, it's been an hour and a half and I don't feel any cooler than when I dropped. What's up with THAT? And yeah, I'm trying to drink that Gatorade but, man, it seems like it's all I can do to take little sips.

Oh MAN this big electric fan here in the fairgrounds bldg is perfect. I probably ought to be freezing to death sitting this close to it on full blast, but this is nice.

OK, yeah. It's only an hour to drive home. Yeah, I'm going back roads. And I'll watch myself.

Well, OK, so it takes me TWO hours and two stops but still, I'm home. Thank God!

(Recap: 49 starters. 20 finishers. Aid stations and support were top shelf. All in all, not a bad effort for my first exposure to these conditions in 2008. I'm sure I was on the cusp of some real ugliness. Glad I made the right call and bagged it when I did. Hey, sometimes turkey, sometimes bone.)

Steamy

Old Dominion 100-Mile Endurance Run is this weekend.

The expected RealFeel temp on Saturday is 106F. hahahah. ahahahah. 

I have drop bags with green tea, Frito's Corn Chips, Ensure Plus and then the latter ones some Red Bull too. OD aid stations are supposed to be pretty good these days, I'm told. Nice boost if that turns out to be so.

Potts will be around to crew me for a good bit of the second half, and Sophie plans to be my "safety runner" from Miles 75 to 87, the gnarly single-track chunk. Looking forward to sharing some aid station stops with Willy P. and a nice hunk of dark with Speedy Sophie. 

I should be terrified by this heat and humidity. I am not. Weird.

Showering off after this morning's light 25-minute run, I knocked my gym bag over and guess what fell out? My first iPod Shuffle. So I brought it in and uploaded some more recent tunes on it and now have TWO of them. This means, if the specs are correct, that, minus the 3.5 hours I'm running with Soph when I wouldn't be listening to tunes anyway, I should easily be able to pound tunes the entire way.  

o4oo Saturday start. Would be completely awesome to hit the finish line before daylight on Sunday. Course stays open until 0800 Sunday, so there's still quite a bit of breathing room there. Gonna be one of those years when you just gotta take whatever the day gives.

I am jacked to see how much joy I can find out there.