Dallas and Laz 2013 Last Annual Vol State 500K

The runners are starting their 3rd day today at the Last Annual Vol State 500K! There was a lot of running going on through the night and Joe Fejes laid down some big miles – 58! Everyone else is moving steadily along. It’s going to be another warm and humid day out there. Wish them luck!

Make sure you check back throughout the day to see how things are going out there!

Links you might find fun/useful:

To catch up on previous days: Day1   Day2  

Last Annual Volstate 500K Spreadsheet & Map – for runner tracking (updated twice a day).
Carl’s 2013 Last Annual Volstate 500K Album.

Twitter:
RunItFast: @runitfast
Joshua Holmes: @bayou
Shannon Burke: @s4121burke
Dallas Smith:  @smithbend
VS500: #VS500 or #VS500K

Facebook:
UltraJoshua – Facebook page for Joshua Holmes
Last Annual Vol State Road Race – Facebook page for VS500K

So far today:

Lisa: Carl’s email is a good way to end this blog so that’s it for day 3’s live blog! I hope you’ll come back tomorrow and follow along on day 4. It should be an interesting day!

Email from Carl Laniak at 11:20 pm:

Re: FW: resilience (2.5 days)

I will just add that the second half of the race is quite remarkable.
There is no despondency in these runners. They are positive to a fault.
Whether they are nearing the half way mark, or still looking for a 100 mile split, they are pushing forward and upbeat.
(at least that is what I see when I stop to say hello…perhaps a friendly face in the middle of a rough afternoon is skewing my perception?!)

This year’s weather is a special occurrence, and the runners are really taking advantage.

-PS RUNNERS-
i believe we’ve confirmed that there’s a slight typo in john’s book, the first gas station in hohenwald is 4-5 miles further than stated. Runner’s headed that way, stock up at the gas station where hwy 100 splits to the left and the course goes right. If I am wrong (i don’t have my book in front of me) it won’t hurt too much to be stocked up there.

well done!
carl

Email from Laz at 11:08 pm:

resilience (2.5 days)

I have been relegated to the same view of much of the field,
as the people at home.
the race has become so strung out that carl and I had to split up.
I got to see the people at the front.
carl is witness to the mayhem in the back.

with fewer people to see,
I got to spend more time talking to them.
one thing stood out,
both in the screwed runners’ comments,
and in the descriptions of the crews.

the successful vol-stater must have remarkable resilience.
everyone has gone thru dark periods;
yet somehow come back. (again and again)

this is one reason for the fruit basket turnover we see
every time the standings are updated.

abbs was, at one point last night,
reduced to scouring a construction zone for partially consumed water bottles,
and drinking what was left.
the old man relay team saw him staggering down the road,
seemingly near his end.
an hour later he was running again.

I missed fegys entirely,
as he was sleeping behind a tree when I passed….

I see in the standings that he not only returned to the road,
but has closed back in on those in front of him.

schick said of fejes;
“he will look like he is absolutely on his last legs,
then he lays down for a short while,
and comes back as strong as he was on the first day.”

I see we had a third drop today.
37 of the original 40 are still on the road
(altho several are locked in a life and death struggle with oprah)

if everyone who had been thru a period of hopelessness had dropped;
no one would be left.

I went and scouted the finish line,
preparing for the first relay to come in some time tonight
(and fejes sometime in the morning)

the big mudhole in the woods has reached record size.
(no one is getting past that sucker dry this year)
the recent monsoons have left the roads on castle rock ranch virtually impassable.
those who survive the first 313 miles have a real treat in store.

laz

Email from Carl Laniak at 11:04 pm:

vol state day 3 photos

from hohenwald back thru the field.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107684748124952715657/albums/5900301455473612497

Lisa: Crazy weather. wild dogs, Road Angels…yep, they are getting the full VS500K experience!

Tweet from Josh at 9:34 pm:

Lisa: Here is the Top 10, Top 3 Women, and Team standings as of the 60 Hour check in:

Top 10
1. Joe Fejes – 230 miles
2. Alan Abbs – 185 miles
3. Sung Ho Choi – 184 miles
4. John Fegyveresi – 178 miles
5. Joshua Holmes – 152 miles
6. Jim Ball – 151 miles
7. Ray Krolewicz – 148 miles
8. Tim Purol – 145 miles
9. Jeff Kasal – 145 miles
10. Sal Coll – 144 miles

Top 3 Women
1. Sherry Meador – 132 miles
2. Psyche Wimberly – 128 miles
3. Dusty Hardman – 110 miles

Team
1. Team Stinky Feet – 280 miles
2. Team Two Step – 200 miles
3. Team Dancing Bears – 196 miles
4. Team Country Gentlemen – 190 miles
5. Team Saturday – 57 miles (they started today)

There’s been one more drop from the VS500K – Robert Woodall dropped at 82 miles. There are now at 37 runners and 5 teams out on the Tennessee roads.

230 miles! Joe is a beast! Will Joe’s legs hold up? Will he have another big night? Tune in tomorrow morning to find out!

Email from Carl Laniak at 8:57 pm:

Re: Vol State – 60 Hour Update

the folks i marked at 91 miles are all in the Days Inn in lexington by 7:30….just so everyone understands…

I will post all my pics from this afternoon in a little bit (most of them were sent out already)

Email from Mike Dobies at 8:52 pm:

Vol State – 60 Hour Update

Tracking Sheet:
http://www.tinyurl.com/Volstate2013

Map:
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=200687420624110668378.0004e16ec1644a578219b&msa=0&ll=36.346103,-90.510864&spn=2.446582,5.410767

Instagram post from Josh at 8:05 pm:

Lisa: Great to see Road Angels at work today for the runners out on the course! FYI – A Road Angel is a stranger that offers help to the runners. If a runner is uncrewed (or Screwed), they must carry everything they will need or buy it along the course and cannot except help from anyone they know but they can accept the kindness of strangers. Of the 40 runners that started the race, 7 runners were using crews and 33 runners were Screwed. Can you imagine running 314 miles uncrewed? What an adventure!

Tweet from Dallas at 7:50 pm:

Email from Carl Laniak at 6:32 pm:

Diane B – back on road and lookin good

Email from Stu at 5:48 pm showing more good will towards the VS500K runners:

next to the bench of great joy

this is waiting for you in culleoka!

stu

Instagram post from Josh at 5:11 pm:

Email from Carl Laniak at 4:17 pm:

Holmes and ball nearing hohenwald

Email from Carl Laniak at 4:12 pm:

Rayk at 143.5

Gifted some pizza by generous folks from union city who saw the runners Thursday in union city and “really admire what we’re doing out here!”

Carl

Tweet from @keithdunn at 3:02 pm:

Facebook post from Phil (Diane Bolton’s crew) at 2:43 pm:

Email from Mike Dobies at 11:12 am:

Re: Vol State – 48 Hour Update

Just an fyi:

When two runners are at the same mileage, the pins will have the exact same coordinates and only one will be visible on the map (the other is beneath the first). If you click the name on the left margin, then you will see where the hidden icon is on the map.

Thanks for pointing this out Josh.

I’m adding the Course Record (Unaided) pace information to the Tracking Sheet and map now. This record is also being seriously challenged.

Lisa: Here are the Top 10, Top 3 Women, and Team standings thru 48 hours:

Top 10
1. Joe Fejes – 196 miles
2. Alan Abbs – 154 miles
3. John Fegyveresi – 145 miles
4. Sung Ho Choi – 143 miles
5. Joshua Holmes – 133 miles
6. Ray Krolewicz – 127 miles
7. Jim Ball – 124 miles
8. Joes Gat – 124 miles
9. Joseph Nance – 120 miles
10. Sal Coll – 117 miles

Top 3 Women
1. Sherry Meador – 107 miles
2. Dusty Hardman – 92 miles
3. Psyche Wimberly – 83 miles (didn’t check in at 48 hours though)

Teams
1. Team Stinky Feet – 229 miles
2. Team Dancing Bears – 150 miles
3. Team Country Gentlemen – 145 miles
4. Team Two Step – 144 miles

Just a reminder that the course record is 3 days 17 hours 42 minutes and 12 seconds. Joe certainly looks like he’s on target to beat that! I wish I was there to see it too. Like Laz said: “the real fun is just beginning.”! Stay tuned!

Email from Laz at 10:33 am:

fegys v choi update

choi was, indeed, on break at 48 hours.
he was at 143 miles, so fegys had moved into third (145).

choi is back on the road and has retaken third at this time.

more later.

laz

Email from Laz at 10:21 am:

it is a multiday now (vol-staters pass 48 hours)

fejes put on one of those fabulous stretches
that will be spoken of at the last suppers for years to come.

58 miles between 36 and 48 hours.
he barely missed 200 in two days.
I feel privileged to be here to see his race.

carl and I discussed this morning,
the possibility that he might put on a surge
that carries him past 300 miles within 3 days.
however this ends,
it is going to be something to see.

and it isn’t like abbs is not putting on a performance for the ages.
people have discussed for years,
whether it is possible for a screwed (crewless) runner to break 5 days…

at 48 hours, abbs was only 3 miles over 4-day pace.

with choi’s whereabouts unknown at 48 hours
(assumed to be taking a break)
fegys might have moved into third.

holmes had put some distance between himself and the k during the night
(133 to 127)
but holmes was just starting an extended break at 48 hours.

it is a safe bet that k is taking over 5th place as I write this
(if he has not already done so)

gat (124), ball (124), and nance (120) have emerged from the pack
to threaten moving into the top 6.

we are starting the third day.
this thing is now officially a multiday.
the real fun is just beginning.

with 38 runners on the road,
every time someone takes a nap,
they are going to lose multiple places.

laz

Email from Mike Dobies at 9:40 am:

Vol State – 48 Hour Update

Tracking Sheet:
http://www.tinyurl.com/Volstate2013

Map:
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=200687420624110668378.0004e1643f6e9e62c4ec3&msa=0&ll=35.652833,-89.324341&spn=2.468179,5.410767

Tweet from @keithdunn at 9:27 am:

Tweet from Josh at 7:24 am:

Lisa: Overnight happenings…

Tweet from Josh at 4:21 am:

Tweet from Josh at 2:40 am:

Facebook post from Dallas last night:

Day’s highlights: A lone pigeon cooed in the dark beams as I passed under a bridge at 5 a.m. At 6 a.m. the sun was barely up. It cast my shadow 50 yards long across the rows of a low soy bean field. That thin wafting shadow measured my puny motion in precise 32-inch intervals. There was the Korner Kafe in Gleason where I had eggs and bacon – and caught four competitors. Finally, the road angel, a high-school-age young woman who drove up and with the help of who I took to be her young brother gave me a snack and a frosty bottle of water just when I needed it.

Main strategy tomorrow: Minimize damage.

Hi all, it’s Lisa. I’ll be updating this post throughout the day with tweets, pictures, emails, maps, and links about the 2013 edition of the Last Annual Vol State 500K.

Check back throughout the day to see how things are going out there!

Links you might find fun:

Last Annual Volstate 500K Spreadsheet & Map – for runner tracking (updated twice a day).
Carl’s 2013 Last Annual Volstate 500K Album.

Twitter:
RunItFast: @runitfast
Joshua Holmes: @bayou
Shannon Burke: @s4121burke
Dallas Smith:  @smithbend
VS500: #VS500  or #VS500K

Facebook:
UltraJoshua – Joshua Holmes
Last Annual Vol State Road Race 

So far today:

Lisa: That’s it for today! I hope you will check back on Run It Fast tomorrow for Day 2’s live blog and see who took “a little bite” out of the Last Annual Vol State 500K!

Email from Laz at 11:06 pm:

inspiration, perspiration, and a sniff of the vol-state

49 runners along with assorted crew and family on the ferry was really something to see.
remembering the years when we might not have but 4 people,
we never thought the vol-state would look like this.

there was so much energy coursing thru the field as we cruised across the river,
unknown adventures hiding amongst the trees on the approaching riverbank.
hope and fear mingled, especially for the multi-day virgins among us.
it was impossible not to feel the inspiration.

after the traditional counting of the runners at the Mississippi river overlook,
there was little for carl and I to do but drive up thru the field,
and wait to take the splits at the 21 mile mark.
there were far too many runners on the road for us to stop and chat with each one.
the best thing for us to do was remove our own vehicle from the congestion on the road.

as we watched everyone pass thru the 21 mile mark,
happily informing nearly the entire field that they were on “course record pace”
we talked about where the runners really stood.

at 21 miles they had broken the wrapper on the vol-state.
they could catch just a sniff,
a hint of the smell of the real thing.
they had not taken a bite of vol-state yet,
not even a nibble.
hell, they hadn’t even peeled the wrapper back.
they had just broken the seal,
and maybe, just maybe, caught a hint of the smell.

the 12 hour results are on the map now.
fejes has taken a lead.
choi is 7 miles back, followed closely by abbs, holmes, and fegys.

none of this, of course, means anything as we head into the first night.
who will rest? who will run on?
who will get stronger? and who will falter?

the one thing certain is,
the 24 hour standings will little resemble the 12 hour’s.
the vol state is a race that takes a while to fall into place.
those who want to fight for the crown
must work hard to secure a spot among the contenders.
for those who get that work done,
in a couple of days the serious racing begins.

among the many newbies to this nasty game,
the passing of the first 24 hours includes another test.
how will they respond to messages from their body that it has had enough?
between tomorrow morning and the rock will come many next steps that seem impossible,
sheer will, and the refusal to surrender will be all that drives them on.

in the movies,
the hard work would be represented by a few minutes of visually stimulating clips,
accompanied by inspiring music.
the ultimate victory would go on forever in slow motion….

real life is very different.
the hard work is goes on forever,
with an end nowhere in sight.
the view changes slowly, and dramatic moments are few.
the closest thing to inspiring music is the slap of your shoes on the pavement,
and the sloshing of water in your bottles.

tomorrow morning we will see who has what it takes to tear open that wrapper,
and take a little bite.

laz

Email from Carl Laniak at 10:42 pm:

the volstate album is updated

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107684748124952715657/albums/5899552556950832081

this afternoon’s pics are shadowy, but you can’t blame me for sitting in the shade for the 6+ hours we waited for most of the field to pass the traditional “20 mile” split under the bridge….I mean, it’s a little warm out there.

they’re still out there, mostly moving. they’re going to start feeling like they’ve “actually gotten somewhere” soon.

carl

Lisa: So, at the 12 Hour Update, the top 10 solo runners were:
1. Joe Fejes – 60 miles
2. Sung Ho Choi – 53 miles
3. Alan Abbs – 49 miles
4. Joshua Holmes – 47 miles
5. John Fegyveresi – 47 miles
6. Roy Tamez – 45 miles
7. Jeff Kasal – 45 miles
8. Tim Purol – 45 miles
9. Joseph Nance – 44 miles
10. Ray Krolewicz – 44 miles

And here are the standing for the relay teams at the 12 Hour Update:

1. Team Stinky Feet – 70 miles
2. Team Two Step – 57 miles
3. Team Dancing Bears – 55 miles
4. Team Country Gentlement – 54 miles

This is what the map of the runners looks like at the 12 Hour Update:

Cool to see how much they have spread out over just one day! Joe Fejes is still in the lead. There’s been some speculation on the email list that he might not keep it so we will have to see how it plays out!

Email from Mike Dobies at 8:52 pm:

Vol State – 12 Hour Update

Tracking Sheet:

http://www.tinyurl.com/Volstate2013

Map:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=200687420624110668378.0004e12ec15b689068078&msa=0

Instagram post by Josh at 8:31 pm

Tweet from Dallas at 6:51 pm:

Tweet from Dallas at 6:48 pm:

Instagram post from Josh at 5:36 pm:

Lisa: Did you see that Joe Fejes is currently in 1st? He is the pre-race favorite and might even break the course record for the Last Annual Vol State 500K this year! The current record is 3:17:42:12 and Joe set the 72 hour mark by running 329.64 miles at the 2012/2013 Across The Years. Piece of cake, right? Of course, he had much cooler temps there but it will be exciting to watch what happens! Not only with him, but with all the runners.

Email from Carl Laniak at 2:36 pm:

Re: 21 mile vol state splits

Still waiting on:

Diane Taylor
Jan walker
Tj nagies
Marcia Rasmussen
Paul Heckert

Carl

Email from Carl Laniak at 2:10 pm:

21 mile vol state splits

1) joe fejes 3:09
2) sue (team stinky feet) 3:23
3) Alan white trash Abbs 4:04
4) Claude (team two step) 4:05
5) Joshua Holmes 4:06
6) sung ho choi 4:06
7) sal coll 4:21
8 ) Tim purol 4:30
9) Jeff castle 4:31
10) John fegys 4:35
11) Roy tamez 4:36
12) Marv Skagerberg (country gentlemen) 4:40
13) Charlie Taylor 4:40
14) Patrick binienda (dancing bears) 4:42
15) John Adams 4:46
16) Joel gat 5:09
17) joe F nance 5:10
18) dusty 5:19
19) Shannon 5:19
20) Texas Jeff 5:20
21) rayk 5:42
22) brad 5:42
23) Jeff mcgonnell 5:42
24) Jim ball 5:42
25) Diane Bolton 5:43
26) sherry Meador 5:44
27) Jeff Stevens 5:51
28) Wayne mccomb 5:57
29) jp 6:02
30) Dallas smith 6:17
31) psyche 6:18
32) joe co-alski 6:20
33) Robert Woodall 6:24
34) Scott tater krouse 6:24
35) giant backpack curro 6:29
36) 5-day brazell 6:29
37) dave wingard 6:33
38) Becky lockard 6:33

Carl

Tweet from @keithdunn at 11:03 am:

Email from Carl Laniak at 10:31 am:

Here is an album with a pic of each starter going past the overlook above the Mississippi River this morning (mile 2).

The sun was in the wrong place for more scenic pictures…

40 solo runners started their 500km journey run.

4 relay teams started.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107684748124952715657/albums/5899373024742557185

Instagram post from Josh at 9:43 am:

Instagram post from Josh at 7:13 am:

And so it begins…

Email from Laz at 8:56 pm on 7/10/13:

twas the night before vol-state
and in all of the rooms.
not a person was stirring,
not even the doomed.
all of the runners were off in their beds,
with visions of ferries dancing in their heads…

except for the room that carl and laz share
where wagers are being taken;
who quits first, and where?

laz