Well not much is going on in my running world. Since my Flatrock debacle I've kept myself busy with work. Although it Isn't entirely by choice. The shift I'm on at work is really under staffed and as a result. I'm pretty much screwed into working everyone of my days off. So as of today I've worked 12 midnight shifts in a row with 12 more yet to come.
In spite of my job trying to take away any outside life I might otherwise be enjoying right now. I did manage to drive down to the Heartland 100 miler this morning after work and work the Battle Creek aide station at miles 8 and 91. My plan was to sleep for a little before I had to go into work again tonight at eleven P.M. but I was so caught up with everything going on. I couldn't make myself relax enough to take a nap.
As far as the race was going. The 50 miler was a runaway. Some guy from New York came down and just smoked the course record. Although I feel the record was a little soft to begin with he managed to run a very respectable sub 7:00 hour time. Or at least I think he did. He came back through our aide station in around 5:46 on the clock and looked strong running up the hill leaving out with 8.2 to go to the finish. I'm sure he was able to get it done. I'll find out for sure tomorrow.
I say it was a runaway because shortly after he came through I left out for a little run of my own over to the Lapland aide station 8.8 miles away. I ran for a very long time until I spotted the second place 50miler around 4.5 miles away from our aide station. Just before the Lapland aide station I ran into my good friend and mentor Bob Martson who was running the 50miler. I told him I was going to run a little further then turn back and catch up with him. After running back to catch up with him at a pretty good clip. It really hit me how green and stupid I was the first year I tried to run the 100 here only two weeks after my first ultra. The hills here are really tough and even with the wind at my back I was only able to maintain even splits for the return trip. I started to think about the title of Wynn Davis' blog at this point. "You Gotta be Stupid if Your Gonna to be Tough." How stupid was I back in 2001?
After making it back into Battle Creek I wrestled the wind trying to put up a couple of tents for the runners and crew if they needed them later. Halfway through getting my ass whooped by the second tent in the wind. Paul Schoenlaub came through to see if we were doing all right on water. He gave us the early report that Paul Dewitt was leading Mark Henderson in the 100 miler by 7 minutes at the Matfield Green aide station but that there was some guy between Paul and Mark who was only three minutes behind Paul. I'm not sure who this guy was. His name didn't sound familiar to me.
A couple hours later I had to pack up and head back into work. Which is where I'm at right now. Writing away trying to stay awake. I'm sorry I don't have any early pictures from the race. It seems like every time we go to one of these things the camera comes with but never makes it out of the car. I'll have to ask Olga what here secret is as she seems to always get a lot of great pictures. Talk to you all real soon. Hopefully I'll have a more complete report in a few days. Plus the Rock Creek 50km is only two short weeks away and I'm sure I'll have some thoughts on that before then.
