Day 4,543—Today and Part V of the RRR: the Last 20 Miles—

 

       I spent the morning trying to set up a sauna tent in my basement, and then I did chores. There always seemed to be one more reason to wait to go running. My goal today was to run around 12 miles, and in doing so I found this loop. If I hadn’t changed course until the end, it would have been closer to 10.5 miles, which is a nice distance that puts me close to a year-long water fountain and a couple of different stores where I can buy drinks. I would have thought there would have been more elevation.

Part V of the RRR: The Last 20 Miles

        A guy sat not too far from me with his head in his hands. A couple of people were starting to pack up. I may have left right after one person, and I left 2 people there. It seemed clear that at least one of them was going to drop. I knew I was close to cutoff, but I was finally running part of the race that I could run fast. I had plenty of air, and I was warm for the first time. It started to rain again occasionally, but for the most part the weather was a lot more manageable with my rain jacket and gloves. What would I want to change into once I made it to Olympian Hall? I didn’t need much hydration at these stops and ended up eating only veggie broth, plus a handful of chips and grapes.

        At one aid station I walked with a guy who had family in St. Louis. He was talking about some organization that he said was there. I told him I must be in last place, but he said there were 7 or 8peoplele behind me. He told me the next section was mostly an old road, which most likely would have been the road I would have had to drive on if I were to pick up my drop bag early.

        As I ran, I caught up to and passed a few more people, but I kept thinking I could catch more racers at some point, and I couldn’t wait. I checked my watch each mile to see if I could increase my pace. The mile 50 would be a good indication of where I was at as far as the cutoff time. I figured as long as I was at 14 hours when I hit 50, I would be good. If I remember right, I was slightly over 14 when I hit 50 miles, and when I hit the Olympian Hall aid station, I was right around 14 hours and 28 minutes, which was more than halfway but not that much more.

        I was running as fast as I could all the way there, and when I got there, I was overwhelmed by how many people were there. It took me a long time to find the inside and start getting ready to go back out. I asked the guy helping me where I was supposed to check in, and he said there was a tent right outside that I must have missed. When I got out there, roughly 10-15 minutes had passed. She told me I didn’t make the cutoff, and I asked by how much, and she didn’t want to tell me. When I realized it was over an hour, but in reality it would have been a little under an hour if I had gone here first when I finished, I accepted what was going on.

        I found a hallway to sit down in and looked at the race packet to see it there. The cutoff time was 2:30 a.m. I recorded a short video of myself sitting in the hall, then started thinking about how I was going to get home. I wasn’t that far from my campground, so I figured I might be able to get a ride, but I didn’t want to have to ask someone. I tried to get a ride on my phone, but it kept telling me I needed to move to a pickup location. I wasn’t sure whether my ride was there, so I walked outside to find the spot.