Day 9

Start time: 4:45 am Central Time
Finish time: 7:04 pm Eastern Time
Finish location: Sand Mountain, Georgia
Mileage: 40
Cumulative mileage: 314 miles (+10 bonus miles)

Mission accomplished! 8 days, 11 hours, 47 minutes and 4 seconds

Treasures: Completed a "bucket list" item, putting money on the ground for Shannon to pick up, seeing cardinals, yellow birds (heather??) and Blue Birds, asking for water out of a hose and being given a liter of icy water, being greeted at every turn by John Price, FINISHING!!! Last but not least, all of the amazing FaceBook messages, texts, emails and phone calls with words of encouragement and congratulations!!!!

Day 9 was my toughest day. Day 8's hip pain got much worse and I had some calf pain too. Whaaaaaa. I awoke to thunder, lightening and pouring rain which delayed my 2 am start but kept me awake. A 16 mile stretch of road was the worst of the entire event (terrible drivers, no shoulder, no water and lots of loose dogs) and my attitude was bad at the time too.

It was a great finish (pictures to follow later in the week), Shannon's parents and husband were there, Sherry, Laz, John Price, Abi and a couple of kids as well. I even did my traditional cartwheel! Unlike many shorter races, there was nothing but a chair awaiting me, no food, no water and no Mylar wrap or medal. Luckily, I had stuff to eat and drink in my car. I didn't have to go far to sleep. Sherry and I set up tents and slept through a really big thunder storm.

Today, I'm exhausted. Somehow, I need to run my mile. A shower would be great but I'm not sure I'm going to get one!

Thanks again for all of the cheering an support. Thanks to AIU for letting me help fundraise. It gave me the opportunity to talk to a few semi-interested people about Adrenal Insufficiency. Pictures and email responses to follow in the next week.

Day 8

Start time: 5:15 am (I overslept! Ringer volume too low)
Finish time: 12:45 pm
Finish location: Monteagle, TN
Mileage: 22
Cumulative mileage: 274

Treasures: good sleep, great food and fun conversation with Peggy in Pelham (she gave me candy, cookie and water) in addition to making me breakfast, saw two mule deer bucks, feeling good today, figuring out some Addison's stuff, marijuana pipe found, going up a mountain (1000 vertical feet), eating a Popsicle before 7 am!! A Sonic hamburger with bacon on it. Heather offering to drive to Ocala to bring me Oreos and cookie dough.

I had a muscular pain in my right hip today. Nothing terrible just annoying. I took some ibuprofen and it feels better.

I hope to finish the race tomorrow. Slow but steady, that's me! I'm looking forward to going downhill and then back up to the finish.

Thanks to all of you for the emails, FaceBook messages, texts, phone calls and comments here. You guys are awesome!!!

Day 7

Start time: 8:40 am
Finish time: 5:45 pm
Nap/rest time: 3 hours
Finish location: Manchester, TN
Mileage: 20
Cumulative mileage: 252 (highest personal weekly mileage)

Treasures: 5 pregnancy tests and a condom, my biggest treasure today was stopping at the Whispering Oaks Campground where I was allowed to sleep on the couch, they fed me, chatted with me and were generally awesome. I'm overwhelmed by the generosity of people along this course. Everyday I've been given something by a perfect stranger. It's a little overwhelming and makes me feel Ilike I should do that more often. I know a lot of people think this world is full of bad and mean people. My experience in Tennessee has been only positive. Even the crankiest of old men wants us to succeed. The friendships I'm making (even through just texting) with other competitors (past and present) has been a wonderful treasure as well.

Today was tough. I was very tired mentally and physically. I mostly walked. Tomorrow will be short with a hill (1,000 vertical in 3 miles). The final push will be the following day where I will complete the final 40.

Yay! This has been great and rewarding. I will probably not do something like this again I think most of ya know I prefer trails to roads.

Sorry this was so long.

Day 6

Start time: 3:45 am
Finish time: 11:15 pm
Finish location: Wartrace, TN
Total mileage: 54
Cumulative mileage: 232

Treasures: fire flies, spectacular electrical storm that lasted 3 hours, Rich L telling the UltraList about the AUI fundraiser (2,000+ person mailing list), my body working, ALL THE BIRTHDAY WISHES!!! Thanks to Naresh who brought a McDonalds pie (that I couldn't eat for multiple reasons) and put a candle in it, to Carl for singing Happy Bday to me and to Rich for writing me a limerick. Thanks everyone for everything!! XXXOOO to all!!

Tough day, need to sleep. Slept some and Psyche showed up at 140 am. Her feet are hamburger. We were up for a while getting her settled. It's 6 am on Day 7 and I need to pull myself together and hit the road. I will only do 20 miles today. It will be a slow finish but it will be a finish.

Day 5

"I wanted to let you know that due to all the donation we are going to have enough funds to create CD's to hand out to the EMS Personnel at the conference. They'll include information about treating AI." -Jennifer Knapp of AUI, the organization for which I'm fundraising.

Yay!!! And thanks to you all!!!

Time started: 3:00 am, trip to Walmart on the road for reals at 3:45
Time finished: 4:15 pm
Finish location: Columbia, TN
Mileage today: 35
Cumulative mileage: 179

Treasures: the beautiful moon, a shiny quarter at 3:00 am, a heron silently flying over Little Swan Creek, perfectly located, clean and full of toilet paper Port-a-Potties, finding an Icee (like a slurpee), being in bed by 6:30 pm and eating in bed. Naresh Kumar's race pictures of the race on FB.

Today was tough. I'm fatigued. Luckily, I was able to complete enough miles to keep moving forward. We got a taste of the Vol State heat. My feet still hurt but are better. I will turn my socks inside out, they seem to be more comfortable that way, go figure.

The pre-dawn hours were perfect. Clear skies and start. There was some fog stuck to the hills. I saw two deer in a field, it was just like the beginning of the Bambi movie (before anyone gets killed), I saved a turtle from the road too.

That Icee was really good.

Day 3 - Day 4

Thanks to each and everyone of you who have donated to AIU! You are saving lives! We've hit $5,000 toward the $7,000 goal. If you haven't donated and want to, click on the FundRazr link on the right.

Day 3

Finish time: 8:30 pm
Finish location: Commodore Hotel, Linden, TN (Highly recommended hotel if you're going through Linden)
Total mileage: 42 or something
Cumulative mileage: 125
Treasures: so much money in and around Lexington!, the lady that gave me peanuts and cold water, hanging out with John Price for many hours (he was incredibly patient about the whining about my feet), hanging out with John at the LDS church (FOR YOU KIM!), the Appalachian Trail through hiker who set up a great "aid station" on the side of the road and using a dryer on my soaking wet clothes at the end of the day. All the horses and ponies that ran along the fence lines and whinnied.

My goodness, the skies opened up and it rained. Most of us have trashed feet now and are walking funny.

Day 4
Start time: 4:00 am despite 3 am wake up (rough morning)
Finish time: 11:30 am
Finish location: Hohenwald, TN
Total mileage: 19
Cumulative mileage: 144
Treasures: Having TP when I needed it most, seeing the teeny tiniest baby deer with its mama, my son finally texting me after 2 days of no texts, cool temps in the morning, Showering, washing my stuff thoroughly, taking an ice bath and having dinner with Jan Silverman (who had never done an ultra distance before she did this race.

Today was short, it was all I could handle. I'm topped off and ready to go tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a really long day, 56 miles. I may start a little earlier. I may not!