The NC FA 50 is one of my favorite races, which is noted for it's pre-race and post-race hospitality. Allan Firth (the Run Across America RD) and his wife Mary Firth open to doors of their picturesque log home in the shadows of the Mt Pilot to host the race. Their hospitality is only interrupted by an "old school" FA 50K/50M run on the hilly country roads from King to Danbury and back to King circling Saurtown and Hanging Rock Mountains. This was my 10th trip to the NC FA 50 and my 9th finish (I helped crew the year I couldn't run.).
The RFH made up 100% of the field in this year's NC FA 50. Alex Morton, Brenton Floyd, Eliza Weston, Jeff McGonnell, John Teague, Robert Crosby and I were the only runners willing to turn up in the face of a fast moving winter storm system that brought freezing drizzle and covered the roads with black ice.
As the assembled RFH faithful were sitting down to Mary's pre-race breakfast, someone announced that the steady foggy drizzle that had been falling for the last hour had glazed over as the pre-sunrise temperatures had dropped from 28 to 23 degrees. Allan, who is the consummate insurance industry professional, said; "Do you think we should have a contingency plan? The engineer in me said that; "The FA format lends itself to a minimum layer of organization, but we should have a plan in case the weather worsens". From that point a simple plan evolved that mirrors the Infantry Paradigm ... Adapt and Overcome:
Plan B - Stop @ the 50K point in Danbury if conditions worsen. The downside to Plan B was would expose the pick-up vehicles to traveling the length of the icy course to return.
Plan C - Park the pick-up vehicles and let the runners run to Brown Mountain Church (15M point) and return. The downside to Plan C would not allow a runner to drop in the event of a problem.
With the new course defined (ad hoc). The "Some Runners are Both" soldiered on. The weather worsened and we all developed shells of ice as the freezing drizzle coated us. The crashes and jarring butt plants were frequent and the attrition began. Alex and Eliza took their "Smiling Faces" back to those "Beautiful Places" in SC after Lap 2 thinking that "Ice is good for drinks and hockey, but BLACK ice is good for nothing." Left alone, I spent the rest of the day trying to run down Jeff and John.
Persistence paid off, and I finally caught up with Jeff at the S/F as we started out last lap. He pulled away from me on the long uphill from Allan's house. Jeff was sensing his 1st ultra win was in serious jeopardy at that point and took off. I was hoping he would keep looking over his shoulder, slip, crash, and I could slip by. On the final 1 mile out-and-back, I met Jeff coming down the hill as I was approaching to S/F. He really picked up the pace and did the out-and-back in at a record pace. Pepper spray will do that when you don't hit them just right.
In the end Jeff gained his 1st ultra win on over 110+ finished followed by myself, Robert and Brenton. John Teague, who lapped me during the middle of the race in a display of speed that could only be attributed to performance enhancing monkey gland shots, literally froze up in the wintery mix and DNF'ed to the warm fireplace @ Allan's. I suspect John was not "Dressed for Success". I commented before the race that his running outfit looked more like a "clown costume". I asked Eliza to give John a little fashion counseling. John seemed to listening intently to Eliza, but something got lost in the translation when John decided to implement Eliza's plan. The AMAZING images captured by the in-store surveillance cameras (See the Dressing Room.wmv file attached) tell the rest of the story.
Regards,
BK