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Vol State 2011 Spectators

Unaided Runner Vol State 2011

End of Day 2 Ice Bath Vol State

From: lazarus lake <drystoneman@hotmail.com>
Date: July 15, 2011 8:05:53 AM CDT
To: <ultra@listserv.dartmouth.edu>, <volstate@irun100s.com>
Subject: hope you guys slept well. vol state 6

everybody is toast.

we had a crew call in, and we could hear the runner talking in the background.

then the runner called in, and we could hear the crew in the background.

gave directions to another runner.

“go down this road here (pointing at road)”

“that road? (points at a different road)”

“no, this road (points at road again)”

runner speaks more slowly (as if we dont understand)

“that road? (points at different road again)

“no, this road (points at road yet again)”

then carl complicated things.

“at the end of the road,turn right.”

“turn?”

“you have to turn, the road ends.”

“left”

“no, right”

“this road? (points at wrong road again)”

we watched him walk away,

wondering exactly where he would be the next time we saw him.

as promised, things have changed.

ninke still leads at 82 (parker crossroad) but he is sleeping

don winkley,at 76 (clarksburg) is moving & may take the lead

mike matteson is past huntingdon at 68,moving like a slow speed train wreck

sal coll and sherry meador are also at 68,but just got a room to sleep

abi meadows is at huntingdon square (67) having breakfast.

(the specialty of the house is pig brains)

naresh kumar is past mckenzie at 59

josh holmes & fred davis are having breakfast in mckkenzie (56)

fred murolo is just returning from a rest break in mckenzie, at 54 miles)

joe judd is approaching mckenzie at 50 m,

followed by marv skagerberg (48), john price (47),

stu gleman (45), & shannon burke (44)

lynnor & erika matheny are finally leaving their room in dresden at 41

diane taylor is revived and approaching dresden at 36

paul lefelhocz is  on the road at last (and in last),

past union city at 21 & in pursuit of the field)

look for mayhem on day 2.

no one feels so bad that they cannot recover

and no one is so strong they cannot “die”

now to go out & survey the carnage first hand.

Laz

GPS Location Vol State 2011

From Lazarus at 7:30 pm 7/15/2011

half a day behind them,
now we start to find out who the players are:

ninke is leading,somewhere between gleason & mckenzie
mike matteson is in pursuit,coming into gleason at 47
don winkley is right in the middle of things at 45
sal coll was last seen not far behind don
abi meadows is past dresden at 43.5

there are a bunch of people in dresden,many are stopped for the night.
josh holmes, naresh (we think), shannon burke, fred murola,
joe judd (we think) are all at about 41.
who stops for the night & who goes on,
will define the morning standings.

sherry is coming into dresden at 39

erika,lenore,and fred davis are approaching dresden at 35

john price & stu are right behind them at 33

diane revived and made martin,at 30,
with marvin coming off a rest break at 28.

some of the strategies, be they original or revised,
are starting to show.
we will know a lot more in the morning.

laz

2011 Vol State Runner Joshua Holmes Day 1

2011 Vol State Runner Joshua Holmes on the Road

Vol State Runners at Start 2011

Race Starts July 14, 2011 at 7:30am CDT

It’s finally time to start the 2011 version of The Last Annual Vol State 500K at Dorena Landing, Missouri.  My crew and I will be attempting to live blog at least a little bit every day throughout the race.

The race will finish 314 miles later at Castle Rock, Georgia.

List of Runners Running the #VS500K

Here are some photos from ‘The Last Supper’ at Ryan’s Buffet last night. After eating that Ryan’s food there’s a reason they call it ‘The Last Supper.’

Here are a couple of photos from the dinner:

Other ways to keep track of the race can be found HERE!!

You can still donate to charity:water in connection with running this race at this LINK!

It’s time, once again, for one of the craziest ultra marathons in the United States to take place.  This race takes place in the middle of July, every summer, and covers most of the great state of Tennessee as it toasts most who decide to conquer it.

The description of ‘The Last Annual Vol State 500K Foot Race’ from it’s Facebook page describes the race like this:

This is the original vol-state road race, going back for over 30 years. ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!! The last supper will be held at Ryans in Union City, TN on Wednesday july 13. The ferry ride from Dorena Landing (MO) to Hickman (KY) will take place on Thursday, July 14… The first ferry leaves MO at @ 7:30 am. Most of us will ride to the start from KY on the 7:00 am ferry. The race distance is 500km (actually a hair longer) and the race will finish at Castle Rock (GA). The last 1/2 mile is on trails! Time limit is 10 days (50km per day) The course record of 3 days 17 hours is held by DeWayne Satterfield of Alabama. Relays are allowed… if we ever get enough relay teams, we will start them on sat morning, and let them run down the solo runners!! Two solo divisions, aided and unaided. Unaided runners can leave their vehicles at the finish, and we will have transportation to the start. (314 Miles)

Read More on the History of The Last Annual Vol State 500K

This is the weather advisory that The National Weather Service issued the following warning for Union City, TN (where the race runs through in the early stages) today:

HEAT INDEX READINGS… 105 TO 111 DEGREES SUNDAY AND MONDAY.

* TIMING… PEAK HEAT INDEX READINGS ARE EXPECTED BETWEEN 11 AM AND 6 PM EACH DAY. LITTLE RELIEF IS EXPECTED AT NIGHT WITH OVERNIGHT LOWS IN THE MID 70S TO LOWER 80S.

* IMPACTS… PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO THIS HEAT CAN BE DANGEROUS IF THE PROPER PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A HEAT ADVISORY MEANS THAT A PERIOD OF HOT TEMPERATURES IS EXPECTED. TAKE EXTRA PRECAUTIONS IF YOU WORK OR SPEND TIME OUTSIDE. WHEN POSSIBLE… RESCHEDULE STRENUOUS ACTIVITIES TO EARLY MORNING OR EVENING. KNOW THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF HEAT EXHAUSTION AND HEAT STROKE. WEAR LIGHT WEIGHT AND LOOSE FITTING CLOTHING WHEN POSSIBLE AND DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. CHECK UP ON RELATIVES AND NEIGHBORS.

TO REDUCE RISK DURING OUTDOOR WORK… THE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION RECOMMENDS SCHEDULING FREQUENT REST BREAKS IN SHADED OR AIR CONDITIONED ENVIRONMENTS. ANYONE OVERCOME BY HEAT SHOULD BE MOVED TO A COOL AND SHADED LOCATION. HEAT STROKE IS AN EMERGENCY… CALL 911.

The only thing more intimidating than the weather is the trash the VS500 veterans talk on the email threads regarding this race.

Here are the maps for the 2011 race via John Price’s ultra running website:

2011 Vol State 500K Road Maps & Turn Sheets

• Vol State 500K Start to Finish Maps
• Vol State 500K Cities Maps
• Vol State 500K Mileage Sheet w/ Hotels/Convenience Stores
• 2008 Vol State 500K Turns Sheet

A VS 500K record of 22 runners have signed up so far for the race this year.

List of runners who have committed to the 2011 Vol State 500K: (as of July 8, 2011)

Self Supported Runners
Sal Coll
Fred Davis
Stu Gleman
Lynnor Matheney
Erika Matheney
Sherry Meador
Abi Meadows
Michael Montgomery
Kumar Naresh
Joe Ninke
Mike O’Melia
John Price
Marvin Skagerberg
Diane Taylor

Crewed Runners
Ray Baum
Shannon Burke
Joshua Holmes
Joe Judd
Mike Matteson
Fred Murolo
Don Winkley
Trixie Smith

Ways to Track the 2011 Vol State 500K Race:

• John Price’s Google Map (View Here)
• Live Blog Updates Here on Run It Fast (Home Page)
• Joshua Holmes’ Facebook Page (View ‘Like’ Here)
• Joshua Holmes on Twitter (Follow Here)
• Vol State 500K Facebook Fan Page (View ‘Like’ Here)

You can donate to Joshua and Naresh’s charity:water effort to raise $5,000 to build a water well to provide clean drinking water to a community of 250 people (Click HERE to Donate).

Thanks to all of our friends and family that have donated so far in an effort to reach our goal. It means a lot that you’ve taken the effort to support us in this race and our vision of hopefully being able to build this clean drinking well.

What’s 314 Miles? I’m in for The Last Annual Vol State 500K Race

I started 2011 with two BIG running goals (to me at least).  One was to run and complete a 100 mile ultra marathon. Back in February, I was able to finish my first 100 miler down in Texas at the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile Trail Race.

The other big race this year I wanted to run (and hopefully finish) is the Last Annual Vol State 500K Road Race (yes, that’s 314 miles) that takes place every July in Tennessee.  Well it starts in Missouri and finishes in Georgia, but 300 of those miles wind through the Volunteer state. Which can get rather toasty in mid July.

The race was started by Lazarus Lake (Gary Cantrell) in 1981.  Runners have a maximum of 10 days to finish the race and end up at ‘The Rock.’

I needed several dominoes to fall into place before I could commit to Vol State.  All the dominoes have fallen.  The planning has begun.  This is my public confession of my insanity and confirmation of my intent to be at the starting line in Dorena, Missouri on July 14th for the 2011 Last Annual Vol State 500K.

My cousins Erick and Blake from Kansas are coming down to crew me for the week.

I have no clue if I can complete this race. I’ve done 100 miles before, once! This will be 214 more miles on top of that.

I believe I can, but it’s the unknown and makes me a bit crazy in the head thinking about it.  I stay up late at night looking at maps and attempting to come up with a strategy on how to attack it. I will have to be very disciplined and run within myself until I reach the finish.

Any friends or runners who want to join me at any part, and run that day or several miles that day with me, are welcome to join me.  Email me or tweet me @bayou and we will set it up.

I am going to try to live blog the race (while competing) here on Run It Fast and also on my Facebook Running Fan Page (Like it HERE).  You can also follow me on Twitter @bayou if you so desire.

Who Benefits From Such a Selfish Act of Running 314 miles?

I have few policies in life. One of those policies is that if you are going to do something that could result in your death, then you should raise money in the process to help benefit those less fortunate.

So here is what I’m going to do in connection with running a 500K.  I run a lot of races.  Runers at all of these races, even half-marathons and 5K’s, almost always rant and complain because there wasn’t enough water or a water table close enough for them.  Runners will have the biggest hissy fit if they go more than 15-20 minutes without a volunteer standing there offering them water.

So I’ve decided to raise money through Charity: Water to help build a water well in one of 17 developing third world countries. The well will provide actual clean drinking water to men, women, and children who desperately need clean water for survival.

With your help, we will raise $5,000 over the next couple of months. With that money, we will provide a permanent water source to 250 men, women, and children in need.  That’s 50 families which usually makes up an entire community.

The reach of clean water doesn’t stop at hydration. It allows more time for other essential things that can be done instead of walking for hours to find water. Women and children can spend more time learning to read & write and developing skills needed for survival in the 21st century.

View my Charity: Water page to help build a well to give water to 250 people for life.

DONATE HERE: 314 Miles – Water for 250 men, women, and children!

If you don’t have much today then donate a little. Then come back and donate a little more. Just like 314 miles, we will help build a well a little piece at a time.
Thanks in advance for your truly amazing support!

– joshua

I will be running the 2011 Last Annual Vol State  500K in memory of Charlie Reagan (Read More Here).

A great running friend who was murdered on June 16, 2011.

Unofficial (Official) Last Annual Vol State 500K Website