The Last Annual Vol State Road Race 2016 is a 500 km road race across Tennessee. Runners are self-supported or crewed. There are no aid stations.
Posted on the Ultralist:
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2016 00:48:42 +0000
From: lazarus
Subject: day 2 daytime update
the runners will be calling in shortly,
and it wont be all that long until you have a new map to look at,
as the long, thin line snakes its way across the state.
i got to drive all the way thru the long thin line.
god, it is inspiring.
every balloon has a story to tell.
a story we will never fully know or understand.
sure, we all know about the world class guys at the front
duking it out in the sun,
like a couple of gladiators.
but, what a show that goes on behind them.
most of those people out there
are just regular folks.
the kind of people you see everyday.
someone you see pushing a cart around the supermarket.
someone you work with, or see at church.
it might be the professor for one of your college courses,
or the student sitting in the seat beside yours.
people no different than you or me.
except they dream.
they dream big, giant dreams.
nothing would jump out at you
that says this one….
this one dreams.
this one dreams big, giant dreams,
dreams of freedom, dreams of challenge.
dreams of the open road.
but, they do.
why do they do it?
they could run anything, and their friends would be impressed.
but they choose this.
endless, lonely miles.
unbearable heat.
deprivation.
nothing to drink, nothing to eat, nowhere to lay their heads and sleep,
unless they reach it on their own.
no place, even to relieve themselves like civilized beings.
total self reliance….
it is not their friends for whom they are running this.
they are running this one for themselves.
nothing is guaranteed.
success, today, seems far away and impossible.
today is only pain and fatigue.
success must be earned
in a million ugly, difficult footsteps.
footsteps no sane person would force themselves to take.
footsteps they want more than anything to avoid.
that is what they came for.
to find out if they have it inside themselves
to conquer the toughest opponent of them all…
their own human weakness.
i have looked at their faces.
seen the smiles and laughter at the last supper
replaced by the grim determination to overcome.
to overcome the heat, the hills, and the humidity.
to overcome the pain, the fatigue, the blisters, the sunburn
to fight thru anything and everything that stands between them and their goal.
these people have the rock in their destiny,
and on the way,
they will learn things about themselves
that most people never want to know.
i envy them
i admire them…
they are my heroes.
i thank them for letting me share even this small taste of their quest.
laz
Update to the update
Its reported that Greg Armstrong has just reached the rock in 3:07:09:49 for his third victory in a row and this is a new course record.
Tracking for the 2016 event is available at:
http://tinyurl.com/volstate2016
Map:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FRjJjMmdtuiUyp0-PQ8b8OSpT0E&usp=sharing
Twitter feed is #vs500k https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23vs500k&src=typd
Facebook: facebook.com/volstaterun
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