ROB & SIMON TAKE ON VOL STATE 2018
The Last Annual Vol State Race is an annual (and this is not the last) race across Tennessee, all on road in the height of the steamy Tennessee summer. The distance is just over 500km. We have been looking at this event for a long time, and last year decided to pull the trigger, so after 12 months of specific Vol State training, we cross the Mississippi River by ferry on Thursday 12 July to start our little adventure.
The race has a ten day cutoff, and we are aiming at around eight days. Those taking part in the race can choose to do the race “crewed” or “screwed.
Simon and I are “screwed”
Here are some links if you wish to follow us
LIVE TRACKER
This will be from a tracker app on my iPhone which should update about every ten minutes or so. That is unless I have turned the phone off to save battery life, we are out of range or for some other reason. There is just some testing data there now, it won’t be live until race time on July 12.
VOL STATE WEBSITE
We are required to phone in our position to race organisers at 7:30 in the morning as well as 7:30 at night. The field’s positions are then recorded on a spreadsheet which you should be able to access on this site.
RACE FACEBOOK PAGE
Last year updates were provided on the Vol State Facebook page, hopefully race organisers will do similar this year.
twas the night before vol state
their cars are a long way away.
a whole day of hard driving away.
the bus ride from georgia to missouri is just intimidating.
it is hard to fathom covering all those miles on foot…
a whole day on a bus.
it gives the veterans pause.
and they have done it before.
i can only imagine what is going thru the minds of the virgins.
getting off the bus in union city was an eye opener.
there is a special kind of humidity
that haunts the banks of the mississippi.
it is as if the water and the air exist in a spectrum
and there is no line that clearly delineates where one ends
and the other begins.
the humidity is a suffocating, crushing force.
it is a living thing that sucks the oxygen from your lungs
and boils the sweat on your skin.
it is a hot python,
constricting your entire body.
the searing sun, directly overhead
completes the sensation of being steamed in an oven.
the jovial mood of the bus evaporated in an instant
as the reality of their situation was the only thing that was crystal clear….
they had left the world they knew 300 miles away
parked in a beanfield on top of sand mountain.
tomorrow they would be enveloped by a malicious, destroying force
hell bent on breaking their will
and eliciting that phone call that would bring rescue from its clutches.
and they knew that tomorrow was going to be hotter still.
the forecast,
as forecasts are wont to do
had changed.
and not for the better.
105
killing heat.
in a killing climate.
beneath a killing sun.
i wonder how they sleep tonight.
are they restlessly tossing?
are they staring into darkness,
listening to the clock ticking away their last hours,
like the condemned awaiting execution at dawn?
do nightmare monsters clutch at them,
dragons with flaming breath to scorch their flesh?
do they try to flee,
arms and legs moving as if in molasses,
the pavement like a griddle
melting shoes and blistering feet?
will the nightmares of their tonight
be any worse than the nightmares of their tomorrow?
no matter.
for, step on that ferry they will.
and into a day,
that the people in that other world are warned to stay indoors to avoid
they will spread themselves out into that long thin line.
and off they will go on their impossible quest.
ordinary people
seeking to perform an extraordinary feat.
if it was easy everyone would do it.
they have seen the thing
that is waiting for them on the open roads.
but none have yet faltered.
they have come to find their measure
on the cruelest of scales.
and find it they will.
to those about to fry;
we salute you.
laz
from Laz’s 2017 race reports.