I woke up around midnight and couldn’t get back to sleep. The rain was pounding on the skylights and I couldn’t get my mind off of the fact that there are people who have been running in the 100-mile race ever since we watched them take off at 8 o’clock in the morning.
Around 7 PM, the wind and rain started blasting outside. That’s when I really started to feel concern and bump up the praying. My gut was saying that no one should be running continuously in those woods in such conditions.
I can’t imagine being out there in the darkness, trudging my way through extreme mud, alone and isolated in the woods around Mt. Constitution. How are the runners’ mental states? How are their soggy, prune-y feet after rubbing inside their shoes for the past 17 hours?
Unable to sleep after another few hours of tossing and turning, I decided to drive up to Moran State Park to see if anyone was coming into the break station. If so, it would signify their accomplishment of 64 miles so far.
I stayed from about 2:00-3:00 AM. Here’s the costumed crew that was on duty, awaiting runners and ready to serve them whatever they needed – hot soup, Coca-Cola, fruit, a sandwich, anything.
Here were some folks taking a snooze for the next round.
And then came runners. I saw about six of them spread out over the hour, and I imagined they would look haggard from the chaos and relieved to see signs of human life. Amazingly, they looked incredibly normal. They didn’t seem physically or psychologically fazed by what they were doing. And they didn’t need the human contact – they were in a zone, albeit an oddly, surprisingly lighthearted one.
After getting something in their bodies and rearranging clothing, they individually went back out again, running off into the dark, the only indication of life being their headlight through the trees.
Now, at 4:15 AM, the number of participants on the live tracking site shows that the beginning 102 has decreased to 64 runners. I wouldn’t say 38 have quit; I’d say 38 began the journey of attempting a beyond-valiant effort.
It’s oddly calm and quiet out. Weather.com shows gradual atmospheric improvement from here on out, and it will even be sunny by 3 PM. The runners have earned a calm after the storm, and I hope everyone who’s still out there is okay.
First three photos by Evan Kulper
