Elon Musk Has Nothing On Lazarus Lake, Who May Actually Be A Reptile

 As the first ever Covid Czar of the Barkley Marathons, I had the opportunity of many hours of conversations with the man in charge.  In return for the opportunity I screened everyone entering the camp and issued a Covid Passport of either green or red according to their Covid status. I must say that all the organizers were very good about protecting everyone from spreading the disease that has already separately claimed 2 lives in the Barkley community.

• Green Passports were issued to those that had their 2nd inoculation more than 2 weeks prior to arrival.  Also those with proof of infection and positive Covid antibody tests were issued the green tags.  Those with Johnson and Johnson inoculation more than 2 weeks prior also joined the Kermit-the-frog squad. it is hard to believe someone from the Czech Republic had his paperwork but had to travel to several counties to get into Tennessee successfully. I'm not sure if he successfully finished one of the five loops?
• Red Passports were issued to everyone else.  I was able to tell Laz that he had set the lowest temperature recorded at the event.  His 96.2 was delightful to him, as he said it made him the most reptilian person there!
• Masks were worn by everyone in camp and special HEPA filters were running full time in the bathroom area.  It was also the most sparsely attended Barkley in many years, by design.  Laz started it 2 weeks earlier than usual, and he started it midweek for the first time ever.  He was very happy with the decrease in gawkers, despite realizing the double edged sword of exposure to the masses entails. There was a crew from HBO filming a special program for a future show. It should be great!
  

 I truly believe that Laz's efforts in creating this event on the edge of impossibility is far more important than anyone realizes. Elon Musk is praised as visionary, or denounced as "crazy" for his efforts to reach Mars.  Laz gets the same exposure as "crazy" and yet I know him to be more visionary than Elon could ever be. The importance of mankind testing their mental and physical limits beyond all possibility cannot be under-estimated.  Laz has given mankind's special people an opportunity to find out what their (and everyone else's) absolute limit is. Maybe no one else will ever know, but those of us "in-the-know" always will.  Although I have not been chosen to be one of those testing these absolute limits, I have been chosen to understand them.  And I will bet there are more of me out there.

My hat is off to Gary Cantrell whose transformation into Lazarus Lake betters mankind and may just save a beautiful part of the world from the worst of all of us.