Claude,

The wife had a birthday this week so I suggested that we go to Charleston for a long weekend. She really liked that idea and I  enjoyed the halo effect for a few days until I had to "fess-up" and tell her about Alex's race. What a coincidence! She gradually warmed up to the race idea as long as it did not interfere with her sightseeing and shopping.

I normally do not run races that I cannot pronounce or spell, but I made an exception this weekend. I figured that Alex was trying to evoke some level of sophistication by clinging to a lost Charlestonian French Huguenot lineage. I tried to pronounce the name for a cajun friend, and he said; "What the F*ck is that?"  At that moment, I knew that the cajun was on to something. Obviously Alex was not aware of the cajun French translation. Now that that little mystery has been settled, we headed for Charleston and the WTF? 50K.

Alex has a quality race. It was a little scary getting to his inner-city venue in Hampton Park, but the 1 mile+ ameba-like loop next to The Citadel was a good course to maintain a fast pace and times. There were 5 RFH faithful (Andrea Stewart, Eliza Weston, Robert Crosby, Robert Roberts, and myself) of the 10 people who started.

At the start, Ray-the-K took off like a rabbit and proceeded to put on a running clinic. He lapped me @ 6 and 11 miles, but he started to slow down. He is still ~25# over his race weight, and I ran him down @ 18 miles and got a lap back. Andrea, Robert, Mark from Omaha and I were all on the same lap having a good duel. I ran 2nd until ~ 27 when Robert got passed me. Andrea's LB (lovely bottom) passed me for the last time @ 29. It was a great finish. Ray-the-K posted his 82+ ultra win in 04:45 Hrs, Robert beat Andrea by 6 seconds in 04:55, and I posted my 1st Sub-5Hr 50K running 4th in 04:59. What an amazing day.

The coolest move in the race has to go to you! Talking Eliza into joining the RFH was a BRILLIANT move. Not only is she "easy to look at", but she is one live wire. I think I've finally found someone who I would like to share my last Quaalude with.

Regards,

BK