By now you probably know that Rebekah had to call it quits after Thursday's long 46 mile day. You can read what she's processed about the experience so far on her blog.
After a long night spent battling whether or not to press on today, Rob threw in the towel. As you can imagine, it was an extremely difficult decision. I understand that Rob's achilles tendons were really bothering him and he was having other over-use injuries that would have only been exacerbated by proceeding. While he would have loved to join us at Rebekah's house this evening, he decided it would have been too difficult knowing he wasn't able to join us after completing today's stage.
So that brings us to now, relaxing in the cool comfort of Rebekah's house after a delicious dinner of BBQ chicken, roasted potatoes and carrots, salad, baked beans, fresh baked bread, iced tea, apple crisp with ice cream, and two other desserts I can't recall. You can imagine how much the runners appreciated this feast (I'll write more later about what a great job brother James has done crewing and cooking).
Today's run was extremely hot, high of 103. I'll write more tomorrow about my observations of the runners.
Of course, it would be great if Eric or Anne or Troy could write about their day, but they are too busy with the little spare time they having packing their supplies for the next day, eating, and trying to get some sleep.
At the present moment (9:29 pm on Sat.), Eric, Anne, and Troy are strategizing about plans for tomorrow. Looking ahead to the end of the Tour de Virginia, Eric says, "basically, it's going to be the last person standing." He and Troy are having a lively debate about the rules of the Tour de France in terms of finish times (rounding to nearest minute, etc.). Troy reminds us about the notion of rounding to the nearest quarter hour for the Tour de Virginia. Wouldn't that help the timekeepers keep track of total times?
Weather forecast for tomorrow is a high of 99. "Well, that will be cooler than today," says optimistic Annie. And she continues,"so we'll just survive tomorrow, and we've got it made in the shade."
Eric is pressng me to get to bed so I'll stop for now. I'll post pictures tomorrow night. Adam will post a new video soon.
I enjoyed some great Trail Magic at the Trittipoe's last year. Great spot for a short R&R.
ReplyDeleteI think the remaining three will all finish, but who will win?? Lots of miles to go and anything can happen. Good luck and keep moving North!
It is a pity that injuries is the main cause for them to quit. but at least they tried their best to reach to the end.
ReplyDelete