Day 4,579—Today and the Rim to River 100 Part VII—

 

Start time: 10:50 a.m.

       I stayed up late last night playing the new James Bond game that came out over the summer. I wanted to buy it, but I waited to get it from the Library, and I am glad I did. It is fun so far, but games cost way too much money to buy something on a whim. I know that PlayStation has decided to discontinue using physical media in the future. I wonder if that means you won’t be able to rent games anymore. I am glad I bought as many games physically as possible rather than digitally. My thought was that I could always resell a physical game, so it has more value. 

I am still going to make the video for this race! It's just been a lot recently, but today I am off and tomorrow too, so it will be nice to catch up on a few things, and I want to relax and spend time with my family too. I have decided what race I am going to do next! It is called the Hard Times 100, and it is point-to-point in Paris, Texas! It means I won’t be able to do the Shippey this year, but it will be the first year I have missed it, and I am thinking I will volunteer even though I am not running it.

Rim to River 100 Part VII

        With only 7 miles left and mostly flat ground, I was literally leaping over fallen trees, rocks, and crevasses. I kept checking my time, but instead of time clicking by painfully slowly. I was so focused on passing more people that I wasn’t as focused on the finish line. It was still dark, but it was getting slightly brighter, and I heard the finish line before I saw it. I was still way up by my campsite, and I passed one other person with less than a mile to go. This was one of the most competitive runs I have done in a while. It was similar to the Mohican 100, which I know if I wasn’t dealing with that injury, I could have placed a lot better. I was running on the road, and I knew I was getting down to close to a half mile left; then I saw the finish line and sprinted as fast as I could. I saw the time, and I was 23 hours and 31 minutes! I was ecstatic! I made it under 24 hours with time to spare! I must have come at an off time because there weren’t many people around when I finished, but I got my belt buckle and was happy to be back.

        I slowly walked to my car and saw Dave, who I'd been talking with earlier. We were both happy to finish under 24 hours, and I was excited that I would also have enough time to get home without rushing. When I looked at the finishing times, so many people were close together. I finished 27th, but the next 9 runners ahead of me all finished within 30 minutes of my time, and only 5 runners behind me finished within 30 minutes of my time, so I was in a big pack. I think, had everything gone right, I could have finished possibly an hour to an hour and a half faster, which would have placed me 11th overall, so it is a competitive race. There were 157 finishers, and 83 people didn’t finish. The winner finished in 16 hours and 45 minutes! Carre, who was telling me about Eastern State at the start of the race, finished in 19 hours and 22 minutes! This race clearly attracts some of the most competitive runners in the area. If I lived in a place like New York or Pennsylvania, I would want to do this race every year! And only a 10-hour drive from St. Louis, I couldn’t recommend it enough.

        The first thing I did when I made it back was take a shower and then a nap. I turned on the most recent Fantastic 4 movie on my VR headset and fell asleep after 10 minutes. I still haven’t finished that movie. I knew it wouldn’t be long until I had to pack up and head back to St. Louis, but for that moment I had everything I needed, and I was happy.