From a friend -

My journey has begun!!!
I'm in Manchester, TN right now on my way to Castle Rock, GA to meet up with the rest of the runners.
 
Some of you people on this list have heard me talk about this race for the past year, but some of you don't know anything about the adventure I'm starting out on.
 
The Last Annual Vol State Road Race (which has been held every year, for the past 20 something years) begins Thursday morning with a ferry ride across the Mississippi from Doreena Landing, MO into Hickman, KY.  From there we have 10 days to run to the finish line (and our cars) at Castle Rock, GA.  Which is just a cornfield overlooking the river just south of Chattanooga.  A total of 314 miles!!!!!!
 
You can track our progress on this map, whick will be updated at least once a day.
http://tinyurl.com/VolState2010
 
I'll have my phone with me and would welcome any words of encouragement
 
Wish me luck!!!
diane

For those that don't want to sign up.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: lazarus lake <drystoneman@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 12:10 PM
Subject: vol-state update 6- 24 hours
To: ULTRA@listserv.dartmouth.edu


night number one was a shakedown.
the sun rose on a very changed vol-state.

joe ninke held on to 1st at 82 miles
he is holed upin a motel & says he "cant walk"

juli aistars is still 2nd at 69 miles & moving
after sleeping 4 hours on a park bench


fred davis was 3rd at 65. when we saw him
he i9mmediately took off his pack
& loaded a bunch of stuff in a bag and gave it to us
with the comment; "i wish i could get rid of more"

while he did that abi meadows passed him
& took over 3rd.

in 5th mike samuelson was moving at 60 miles.
his crew seemed as road weary as he was
& ready for kevin dorsey to come take the weekend shift.

in 6th, but not for long
byron backer at 57 miles was sleeping behind mcdonalds in mckenzie.
he dropped.

don winkley in 7th near the same spot was eating.


the next runner we found was lynnor matheny
she was at about 41 miles leaving dresden.

bruce tanksley & dian taylor were holed up in a motel
in dresden at 40.

stu gleman was "happy" and movintg,
leaving martin at 32.
dan baglione has dropped & is crewing stu.

marvin skagerberg is in a motel at 30
waiting to leave later & hoping for a better night-time stretch on day 2.

john price has passed gleason
& is now 47 miles from the ferry.

as they say in the long walk
it is like shaking a box of crackers thru a sieve.
the little pieces fall thru quickly.
the big chunks have to be shaken around
& broken up bit by bit.

for the survivors, the day is heating up quickly
with promises of thunderstorms this afternoon.
the fun has only just started.

laz

Good article in M&B about this race.

Watch out for the pit bull by the dog food factory!