| The runner in white dropped further behind me, and the runner from Ft Collins caught up. We chatted a bit, and we passed by cow standing near the edge of the road . The cow seemed ambivalent to us, which was a good thing we both thought. She asked me if there were anymore uphills. I told her that there was just a baby incline up to Kentucky Camp at the very end of the meadow...definitely not a climb of any significance. I watched as the Ft Collins runner darted ahead. She had gotten a whiff of the barn! Eventually I reached the turnoff . Only about 1.5miles to go. Quite the gleeful feeling. As I made the left turn onto the rocky single track, a gust of wind suddenly blew the poncho up into my face temporarily blinding me with blue plastic. Unable to see and in midstride, I tripped on a rock and fell . It happened so quickly. The irony of this fall is that I hit the exact same elbow, hip and knee as I had in last year's bad fall... fortunately not with the same amount of force and forward speed. Still I was stunned as I picked myself up from the ground. A quick inspection revealed some blood on my knee, elbow and left palm. My hip hurt when I resumed running. All I could do was laugh. Looking at the bright side, at least I did not have this fall at C4P and receive the Blood Cloaking Device. I concluded that if I had to take a fall like this, it was best to happen near the end of OP50. Almost to the end of the descent where the meadow started, suddenly I needed to make a pit stop. I had not had to stop all day, so it baffled me why this had to happen 1 mile from the finish. So I stopped briefly . The runner in white caught back up with me. Reaching the start of the meadow, a bystander said 0.9mi to the finish. I knew from last year that this meadow goes on and on and on.. Last year it was torture... It is the longest 0.9miles . Patience is a virtue I told myself. I did a run-walk and meandered through the pretty meadow, eventually reaching the final cattle gate... then up the baby hill to the building. Last year we had to go around the backside of this building to reach the finishline, but this year we bypassed having to skirt around the backside, and instead just went around the front of it . I crossed the finish line in 10:37:something. Much better than I ever expected; I got my sub-11 and avenged last year's 11:01:20 run. OP50 this year had been a learning exercise in fatigue-management. My right foot appears to be healed now, as it gave me no problems in the rocky uneven surfaces at either C4P or OP50. There at the Kentucky Camp finish I found Matt C, and Wayne Coates & Patricia, and the runner in the red shirt (he was from Colorado). Matt had finished at around 10:30... the runner in the red shirt eventually caught up with Wayne, and they finished together at 10:15. All were in good spirits with lots of smiles! I grabbed my finishline bag and changed into dry clean clothes. My plastic electrolyte container, which I carried in my right side pocket, had gotten smashed to pieces when I fell (This partly explains the wierd bruise I now have on my right hip). I had a double-decker sandwich (one tukery burger patty and one veggie burger patty) to eat. I decided to wait around for the other Texas runners to come in. The temperature quickly started dropping, ecspecially after the sun set. I tried staying outside several times to watch others finish, but began shivering... seems I've become a cold temperature weenie living in SE Texas. So I stayed inside and talked to Wayne and Patricia, and Matt Crownover, and periodically checked the results . I recognized Claire sitting in the warm room... I asked her how she did, and she said she had missed the left turn off the plateau on to the the single track and ran some bonus miles. She finished in 11:01:something. I felt bad for her. Matt Watts finished in 11 something taking 40 minutes off his run last year! Mark Wienecke also finished in 11 something. Then Sammy-the-Vster came in a while later and Anne Watts was the next runner just after him. Anne also improved her time from last year. I helped Sammy after he finished. All dropbags but those from the 40mi adistation had been brought back. Sammy and I then waited for the others. I spoke with Krissy Sybrowski who was helping with some clean-up, and after running all the miles at C4P Krissy turned in a sub-9hr finish at OP50! The drop bags from the 40mi aid station finally arrived. Letha and Mark were the next Texans to finish. Letha was full of special words for Tom! Tom had told her that the last ten miles were easy. Where Tom ever got that idea lodged in his brain, none of us can figure out... Letha was still recovering from minor surgery last month, and she was happy to each the finish. But the big dramatic finish was reserved for "3 second Tom Crull" who was the last person to finish within the 15hr cutoff with a whole 3 seconds to spare: 14:59:57 ! Go Tom! We departed Kentucky Camp just before 10pm. It was a long but fun day. Thanks to RDs Duane and Julie Arter, and all of the volunteers . Ultrarunning has brought much joy into my life the past few years, and also brought some very good friends. Unfortunately one of those friends, Pat Coates (who took me to the hospital last year), passed away about 2 months after 2004 Old Pueblo. She was a wonderful person. T H E E N D |
 |
| PAGE 11 (final page) |
|