I arrived in Houston on Thursday, due to the pending arrival of a freak snowstorm in Houston (which never actually came); on one of the last flights of the evening since Houston Intercontinental Airport was closing until sometime on Friday. I managed to move my Friday flight to Thursday evening. I spent the night at my parent's house and Bruce picked me up around lunch time to head to Huntsville.
While there was no actual snowstorm, there was an incredible amount of ice on the overpasses (and for some reason the Houston transit folks refuse to use salt to melt it) and it made travel a nightmare. We arrived in Huntsville early afternoon, and met Becky, Denise and Allen at our rented shelter. Allen explained to us that there was a problem with the shelter, as the park told him this shelter (#4) and there was a "Trail Nerd" sign out front. He went back to the park headquarters and verified that #4 was ours and told them about the sign. They said that there were no more shelters to give us and that was ours. Allen moved the sign to #5 and told Henry and Joe about the issue. Needless to say, this was not the end of that saga. We headed out to our hotel. Only to find that they did not have any power. The hotel employees explained that someone had been involved in an accident with a light pole and the power company was working on the issue. We decided to go to packet pickup and dinner location. Becky and I volunteered for a few hours at the packet pick up. We got to meet some other volunteers and racers for the next day. We enjoyed our nice pasta dinner and headed back to the hotel. The power had been restored and we all retired to our rooms to make our race day preparations. About 10 mins later Allen is in the hall- informing us that the electricity in his room went out again. They got the power up again and we all tried to relax and get some sleep.
The next morning, as we arrived at the shelter- there were some angry Trail Nerds headed our way. They were upset that we has moved their sign- Allen and Bruce explained the issue and that the park headquarters had directed us to take this shelter. They said that they paid for (2) shelters and only had one. We offered the use of our shelter for anything that they needed. We agreed to share and everyone was fine with the solution. We certainly hope that they were refunded the money for the shelter that they did not get to use. There were no hard feelings, and we even shared the same area around the start/finish area.
Allen took off first, and Denise and Bruce got to wait around for a while. They used this time to use the restroom and make their last minute preparations. Becky and I saw them off and we started our duties at the start/finish area with organizing drop bags. I do not think that the other volunteers were quite ready for our "level" of organization, but we soon had everyone on board. We had a great time with the other volunteers. I had so much fun that I did not want to leave. I finally left to get some rest before assuming my pacing duties. I was not able to sleep, but I laid around for a while. I got back in time to see Bruce finish. He looked great at the end- all of that extra mileage paid off. Marilyn and I got him back to the hotel and delivered some McDonalds for him and headed back to the park. We were all sitting around talking, and we did not expect Denise for another 30 minutes. We are all bundled up, sitting in our chairs, when Denise casually walks up and announces that she finished. We all jumped up and congratulated her. We were so embarrassed that we were not there when she came across the line. She finished her first 50 miler and made it look easy. She looked great- she did not look like she had run 50 miles. She told us that she wanted to wait for Allen. A little while later, Allen came across and announced that he was "done." We tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted that he knew it was time to throw in the towel. Sometimes you have to be smart and listen to your body- if it is not your day, it is just not your day. We all headed to Ihop for the traditional after-Rocky meal and then got some sleep.
Since I was not able to run Saturday, I went to the park early to run 20 miles before my flight on Sunday. I volunteered to take down course markings for a portion of the course and then continued my run. I also was an unofficial sweeper for the course. After leaving the last aid stop, I started seeing a lot of 100 milers struggling to finish. I stopped and talked to each asking if they needed anything, but most said that they were fine. I ran across Misty (From Minnesota) about 3 miles from the finish, she was finishing her first 100 miler and she was struggling. I offered to help her to make it in before the cut off. We walked and I talked and tried to cheer her up when I could. We then picked up Joshua (From Tennessee) who had been with Misty all night. I pushed, cajoled and tried to motivate these two to keep up their walking pace and make it to the end. They both made it to the finish in 29:47. I am so happy for them both and all of the RR finishers this year. I had a wonderful time and look forward to other volunteering duties....
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