Day Two

Finish up from Day One:

 Me (John Teeples) – Comes to the start with lots of years of running, some ultra experience and two prior Run Across Georgia crossings. This year Run Across Georgia is more of training run getting ready for Badwater 2011 in July. Everything went well yesterday with no major or minor problems

Day Two

 Run started early at 4:30 about 12 miles outside of Montezuma. We rolled into Montezuma around 7:00 to enjoy a big breakfast prepared by the Goodman’s. Channel 41 from Macon was on-site to interview everyone and hear the HOH and RFH/RAG story. We left Montezuma and I ran into my old friend William Youder about 5 miles down the road. As some of you know William has been friend to race since the beginning and always opened his farm to us. Today was no exception; William took my 10 gallon drink cooler and filled it up with fresh milk straight from the dairy. Nothing better than fresh cold mild while running in the heat! Milk from Youder’s is one my secret weapons to get to the finish. I hate to let it out.

 At lunch we arrived at Twin Oaks campground another old friend to the race. Twin Oaks provided probably the biggest highlight of the race to date at pool at 12:00 – noon. What a relief, we left Twin Oaks full and refreshed to tackle upcoming heat.

 I’m in my third year of doing this race and I have made major scientific discovery after three years. Day Two is always the most difficult heat day due to the newly discovered phenomenon called heatmax proven at the RFH/RAG for three years straight. On day one runners are put through the rotisserie bake in sun for the first day. Then on day two since the runners have been fully pre-heated from day one, the rotisserie bake of day two is just about unbearable. The internal oven does not have time to cool down between day one and day two. One other footnote to the theory – the worst time of the day is between 9:00 and 11:00 am when the humidity is the worst. Afternoon max temperatures are not that bad because the humidity is down.

 This section of the RFH/RAG is probably the hardest most desolate part of the race. We started 12 miles west of Montezuma and in 48 miles of running there is only one town; Olgethope/Montezuma. That makes for a difficult run.

 Mother Nature did not look kindly on the individual runners; hot, humid, hotter, humid and then hottest. We did get a break around lunch and the wind picked up and kept things a little cooler. The t-stat topped out at 95. We will have relief tomorrow.

 Again the road and sun took its toll on the group today. The dog bite did finish the race for one, the bum knee kept one to walking more than normal, the heat slowed two down to a crawl and the heat finally finished the race for another one; so at end of day one we score it Mother Nature 2 and RFH/RAG 1 with 3 in limbo. I believe the RFH/RAG team will show up ready reclaim a few tomorrow. Team seems to be getting stronger and wiser as the race rolls on.

 Runner Summary:

 Dane Talbert – Started today with the same steely drive as ever.  The slight knee pain turned to a major knee pain. As long as he walked it was okay but that would make for a very long day so I called Randy Hitz from Big Dog and had him bring Dane a knee strap. Dane could then run and walk. Dane finished the day looking good. Dane earned the runner of the day award but more importantly Randy earned the volunteer of the day award!

 Will Ansick – Started the day with a sore Achilles but was able to keep it under control for the entire day. Again today Will suffered with the heat at the end of the day. Not as bad as yesterday but it slowed him down. Fluids will be all he should think about tomorrow..

 Mark “The Man” Millen – Started the day in pretty good shape. Mark continued to just get it and go, and go but did was slowed by the heat in the second part of the day.

Cathy Saylor – Did not start today because of the dog bite. Huge kudos for Cathy finishing 10 more miles on day one after the dog bite.

 Abi Meadows – Abi has been training in Japan for the last five weeks. Weather in Japan is not like Georgia. The lack of heat training and acclimation took its toll and Abi called it a race after finishing 87 miles. 

 Me (John Teeples) – Started the day in good shape but a little tired from the last two weeks of work and training. Heatmax really made it tough from 9:00 to 11:00 but rest of the day was fun and good.