The First Casualty Of The Barkley

The conch blew at 2:04 am. The all-powerful Laz  practiced all day yesterday, but his first attempts were weak. After two or three repeats, it finally reverberated nicely throughout the campground.

The camp came to life quickly, with the actual runners speaking very minimally. Time to prepare is minimal.

Barb and I donned our rain outfits (at least 1 inch of rain so far, maybe 2). We headed to the bathroom and headed back to see Ron and do anything he needed.

AND WHAM, I WAS DOWN. The flashlight beam showed the road, but missed the ditch!

I fell with a thud on my left side and right hand into the deep gully filled with all the runoff from the upper camp. Nothing hurt at first, but it sure did after a minute. My first statement was "I think I broke a rib." Ron's running partner and campsite mate came by and he and Barb grabbed a hand each to get me up out of the water. That's when I realized I had broken my wrist...

I managed to get upright and Barb managed to splint my wrist and at least cover my numerous cuts and scrapes on my hand.

I went to tell Laz about my predicament, and he chuckled exactly as I suspected he would (which is the proper response anyway).

The hour flew by and the runners gathered at the yellow gate just a few minutes before the 3:04am start of the "100" mile event.

I saw Ron with just 30 seconds to go and sincerely wished him well.

Laz lit his unfiltered Camel several seconds late, time they will never get back. Laz told me it was the runners' fault.

37 runners swarmed off into the rainy darkness, but just like that, the rain stopped. Maybe not in the rest of the park. Two runners were no-shows. One was an armed service member who was denied permission because of Covid, despite being fully vaccinated. The other was a last second- replacement whose son's team made it to a state final. Laz said both decisions were good ones. Saying yes was good, because she might have never made it in without the Covid circumstances. The second because her son will never be in a state final again. 

And still, one final runner didn't wake up in time and was taking their time. Laz was exasperated with that. 

I decided to wait until first light to seek xrays. We will make it back for Ron's first interloopal period. 

More to come, internet pending...