Last Annual Vol State 500k Race Report
Buckle in, this is a doozy! Most of this was written for myself to be able to get the experience into words, but I figured I'd share it for friends and family who'd also like to know what my adventure was like! The post starts with what I shared on facebook and then dives into the details! I wrote waaaay too much and don't expect anyone to read it, so editing was a little lax.
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Generosity, kindness, camaraderie.
Not likely the first three words you think of when asked to describe an extremely difficult 314-mile road race in July that consists of navigating through Tennessee while managing your needs for sleep, food, and water all while addressing foot issues and the various other problems that can crop up (hello chafing!).
This event really is a journey of discovering that there is so much good in the world. I will get into the nitty gritty of the journey itself (maybe as a dedicated race report rather than on facebook), but for now it’s all blurry impressions for me. The Last Annual Vol State was a LOT emotionally, physically, mentally. Time existed and it didn’t. Days turned into nights and nights turned into days, but we were still walking, running, eating, drinking, shitting, pissing, existing, surviving, laughing, crying, and experiencing what the road gave us.
One of the most precious things that the road gave? Road angels. These are people along the course that pull over to hand you a bottle of water or a popsicle (I cried after receiving a bomb pop on a long stretch of highway around mile 150ish). There are also amazing road angel setups from people who live along the route. There is nothing more incredible than suffering with sleepiness, hunger, or thirst and coming upon a random spot on the side of the road with chairs, a cooler, and snacks. Some road angels really go out of their way with canopies, chairs, fans, cots, medical supplies, etc. These are people who likely won’t even see you go by and have no clue that you used their stop except noticing their supplies dwindling and the chairs are in different spots. It’s a fully selfless act to provide support to the runners. Some road angels rent port-a-potties and the Nutt family has even installed an outdoor shower outside of their home specifically for the runners; I cannot believe how much these kind souls do for strangers. I am eternally grateful to all of the amazing people out there.
My fellow Vol Staters were amazing as well. I got to share the 8 hour bus ride to the start with Steven Dence and Diane Durden and miles on the road with Oak J Miller Joey Lichter, Jun Lin, Greg Wolodkin, Tin Ha, and others. We worked through dark times, kept each other going, and had giggle fits about the dumbest things. Due to the distance of the run, most people don’t stay together the whole time unless they plan to do so in advance. Who you run with at certain times is up to the universe. People connect for a few miles and then drift apart. I loved the fluid nature of finding people to spend time with and then going back to having only yourself as company. Being part of this event is special and I feel connected to every person who did it, from the winners who finished in under 4 days to the folks that are still out there and won’t finish until Sunday. We all traveled the same roads and all of our journeys were remarkably similar, but also vastly different.
I struggle to put into words how special LAVS was. I don’t think I can ever adequately describe it. I will tell anyone and everyone not to do it. It sucks. It’s hard. But goddamn, it was incredible. I cannot believe I did this thing.
What I Wore:
- XOSKIN Bottoms
- XOSKIN Short sleeve shirt (night time)
- DeSoto Cooling shirt (day time)
- Columbia Sun Hat
- XOSKIN xotoes (2 pair)
- Lululemon Airsupport bra
- Underarmor underoos (2)
- Altra Paradigm shoes
What I Brought:
- Salomon 12L Adv Skin Pack (with 2L bladder & 500ml soft flask)
- Coros Vertix 2 watch & charger (had to charge once)
- Petzl headlamp (with the battery pack that takes AAA batteries)
- Electronics (powerxcel power bank, two plug charger, cords to charge power bank and phone, corded headphones that I forgot I had)
- Foot kit (kt tape, leukotape, moleskin, scissors, lighter, bandaids in various sizes, engo patches, safety pins for blister popping, alcohol wipes)
- Toothbrush and paste
- Anti-microbial pad for wiping pee
- Tinklebell female urination device
- Desitin
- Bug spray
- Sunscreen
- Emergency poncho
- Emergency blanket
- Emergency ziplock w/ cash, extra chargers, spare debit card, electrolytes
- Clip on shades
- Pepperspray
- Misc: medications, mom & dad’s wedding rings on the chain, a small baggie of my parents’ ashes, bandana, positivity a day calendar pages
What I Didn’t Use:
- Anti-microbial pad for wiping pee (I forgot I had this)
- Tinklebell female urination device (didn’t bother using it as I lost all sense of decency quickly, I could have saved room in my pack without this)
- Bug spray
- Sunscreen (didn’t use after the first day)
What I would have brought if I did it over again:
- Whole roll of leukotape as I ran out of the small amount I brought.
- A very lightweight change of clothes, like a tanktop and shorts. Then I could have laundered my clothes
- Baby wipes. I acquired some from Oak several days into the event, but I should have had them from the start and not had to wipe with leaves or look for scraps of fabric and paper on the side of the highway (don’t judge)
- Tums or some type of heartburn relief. I was plagued by heartburn after the first few days and it got pretty unbearable at times. Once Oak gave me a chewable tablet for it, but I should have brought my own.
Background
For those unaware, the Last Annual Vol State is a 314-mile road race (or journey run) that starts in Dorena Landing, MO and ends in Castle Rock Georgia, where the bulk of the race (over 300 miles) follows highways and rural roads in Tennessee. There are two divisions that one can enter: crewed and screwed. Crewed people get themselves to the start, have a team supporting them through their journey, and the luxury of a chair at their fingertips. The screwed runners though? They take an 8hr bus ride from the finish of the race to the start of the race the day before. We carry all of our supplies we need for the entire journey on our backs and acquire all of our food and water needs from stores and glorious road angels.
Training
I have followed the race for many years, but never thought I would be capable of doing it. It seemed out of reach and I was content following like everyone else. After succumbing to peer pressure from some friends, I signed up for the event. I didn’t get in and was kind of relieved, but a friend told me to train like I was getting in because the wait list would move. Sure enough, I got called up at the end of December and knew it would be my big event of the year. I told my coach (Annie Weiss) and I knew she’d have my back with giving me the best training to make this thing happen!
In order to train for the time on the roads, I signed up for several road events. The first was in March: 100ks of Convenience in the Quad Cities. In that race, you are given a map and set of directions the night before as well as a gift card. You have to navigate 20-mile loops and hit 5 convenience stores on the way, using the gift card to buy something at each of them and turn in the receipts at the end of each loop. Despite it being super cold (in the 20s and 30s for this poor Florida girl!!!), I had an amazing time and bought a potato during each loop because #TeamPotato
The next event was at the end of April: The Great Southern Endurance Run. That race consists of navigating around Atlanta, starting on top of Kennesaw Mountain in Marietta and finishing with a climb and descent on Stone Mountain. I figured this would be good training for roads, navigation, and climbing hills and a mountain.
Finally, my last big race leading in to Vol State was the Keys 100. That race would give me time on roads, more interaction with traffic on the road shoulders, heat, and humidity. I had a lot of foot problems because I did not pre-tape my feet or take care of my feet early enough. I ended up walking in the last 55ish miles. That was a very valuable lesson. But hey – good walking practice!
I wanted to do the Miami 50/50 in June which is a road race down in Miami that is essentially a tour of all of the neighborhoods and you don’t know the route until each of the checkpoints, but the timing didn’t quite work out for me.
I also did several long runs in the heat of the day that utilized road shoulders and were basically LAVS lite. There was one run where I stopped at a Dollar General to grab a bomb pop when it was 113℉ and the run ended with a torrential downpour that caused flooding along the way (one of the worst storms my city saw in June).
Pre-Race
The festivities start at the second-to-last supper at a Chinese Buffet in Kimball, TN – this takes place on a Tuesday, the race starts on Thursday. This gives runners a chance to meet up with old friends and make new ones. We also purchase our jackets (that are embroidered with our finish times) and get our race t-shirts.
The next day everyone drives up to Castle Rock to park their cars and board the busses. As mentioned previously, the busses drive the route in reverse and veterans point out various stops along the way. One important bit of advice I got was to bring throw away clothes. You don’t want to spend an entire day and night in the clothes you plan to wear for the next how many ever days. I packed my rattiest underpants, bra, a shirt I was going to throw away, and some of my husband’s shorts he hadn’t gotten around to getting rid of.
Near the halfway point, we stopped for a nice catered lunch and I got a photo with Laz. I wish I had gotten a photo with Carl as well, but didn’t get the chance.
Once you arrive in Union City, TN the busses stop at hotels and you are assigned a roommate. You can also request a roommate in advance, but I didn’t and lucked out by rooming with a friend of a friend from Texas, so that was cool! An hour later we were bussed to The Last Supper, again at a Chinese buffet as they were the only restaurant in town that could accommodate 125ish people. Laz and Carl went over the rules and some guidelines for the race. This year would be a bit different as you approached the finish. In years past, runners were instructed to call or text Carl when they reached the Blue Bridge (approx. 13 miles from the finish), but this year they were trying out using trackers that would alert them to when finishers approached The Rock so they wouldn’t have to spend so much time waiting.
Note: I am breaking my days up into 24-hour periods. Each day is about 7am-7am since time has trouble existing normally out there.
Angel Station Note: I didn’t take photos of many of the angel stations as they can change each year, some angels go over and above to where the RDs may ask them to scale back in the future, and I don’t want to ruin the magic a runner experiences when they come across one.
Day 1
The morning started bright and early with a shower (my last as a civilized human) and taping my feet. About halfway through taping my feet, I ran out of leukotape and switched to the KT tape I had. I also smeared a bunch of desitin on my feet as I know several people who swear by it. We boarded the busses yet again and drove to the ferry in Hickman, KY. After a nice ferry ride to Dorena Landing, MO we waited for Laz to light the ceremonial starting cigarette and then we were off!! To the ferry that was 50’ away. Another nice ferry ride back to Kentucky before we started running and walking.
To say I started the race a bit too aggressively is an understatement. I was feeling really good, the weather was cool, and my usual MO is to run while the running is good (a requirement in Florida summers because the weather is guaranteed to get death hot by 9am). This year there would be a slightly different route in the beginning that took us up some stairs to the Fulton County Courthouse. I felt woefully out of shape. It was the very beginning of the race and I then contemplated how I was going to do this if I couldn’t go up these dang steps. Though I later read that everyone huffed and puffed up these things, so I didn’t feel so bad.
I mentioned this to another runner, Heather, and 30 miles later I saw her again and she said, “Every time I see roadkill I think of you.” A very sweet sentiment I will treasure. Also, to be fair I will always associate her with a banana. She carried a banana in her hand for at least 40+ miles; she named him Antonio Banana.
At the Casey’s convenience store [mi 15], a few locals asked what we were doing. I told them about the event and they asked what the cause was. I told them we were raising awareness for Stupidity, which was true. We were making a lot of people aware that we were stupid.
The beginning miles were dotted with coolers of drinks for the Vol State Runners. This would change as the event went on, by the halfway point and beyond there would be coolers for the Vol State Walkers. At mile 20 Carl and Laz were writing down the times that we came in. I came in for 20 miles at just over 5 hours. Fuck. Bad Shae. I resolved that I would only walk for the rest of the day unless it was a downhill. Mile 20 is also Stinky Bridge, which was not stinky this year because the meat processing plant was not running that day. In the beginning I felt like I got robbed of a really weird experience, but hours of nasty smelling chicken trucks outside of Shelbyville over 100+ miles later made up for it.
I got to the town of Martin [mi 31] at the hottest point of the day and decided I would get a real, sit down lunch (I planned to have at least one real meal a day). I saw a place called The Grind that was barely off course that had killer looking milkshakes. I got a smores milkshake that had an ice cream sandwich on top of it and they roasted the marshmallows tableside. I also got some tots and probably stayed in the restaurant an hour and a half before I got restless and decided to keep going.
My first cry of the race happened as I was coming into Dresden [mi 39]; it was such a cute little town and I felt so grateful to be there. I also had really good bathroom luck that first day, every time I had to go there was a port-a-potty or I was at a place with a restroom (restaurant, convenience store, etc). This is likely why I didn’t use my tinklebelle; I had gone feral by the time my bathroom luck ran out.
It started to get dark so I pulled out my headlamp and it didn’t turn on. As far as I can tell, the headlamp got turned on in my pack at some point and the batteries ran out. I was miles and miles from a store and by the time I got to a store, they were closed. It was after this point that I always took the battery pack out of the headlamp to keep it from happening again because I don’t do well with the dark.
One of my goals for the first 24 hours was to make it to the Gleason Fire Station [mi 48]. This is one of the famed stops along the route that has A/C, cots, air mattresses, tons of food, and showers. I’d originally planned to get there in the wee hours or as early as 12:30am, but I rolled in there at 9:30pm, way ahead of my projections. Bad Shae. I get the sleepies really bad, so I knew I wasn’t going to be like many of my fellow Vol Staters and turn nocturnal. I’m early to bed, early to rise and those night hours are for the birds. I need light even if it is death hot.
A cot opened up just as soon as I got there, a kind woman gave me pizza (!!!), and around 11pm I finally fell asleep. I woke at 2:30am, looked around, and who did I see? Oak! I walked over and saw that he, Tin, and Greg were getting ready to leave and I asked if I could join. We walked under some gorgeous stars and I was feeling jazzed up, so after a few miles with them I went off at my own pace.
Day 2
After the morning check-in (where I’d accumulated 64 miles over the last 24 hours), I decided to stop at a diner on the route. I saw on the spreadsheet that Oak and Greg were just a few miles behind me and it wasn’t too long until they showed up and ordered some food as did Bill & Schuyler, an awesome father and daughter from NY. We ate the mediocre diner fare and continued on our way. A few miles later there was an angel station with three chairs and a cooler under some trees. All of a sudden Oak, who had been telling Greg he had an iron stomach, paused mid-sentence to stand up and projectile vomit. I don’t know what it is about me, but puking makes me laugh really, really hard. So there I am busting a gut, Oak is puking up a clementine and eggs, and Greg is looking on in surprise. I managed to snap a pic right as he finished puking and he was kind enough to pose with his puke before he cleaned up the area.
“If you masticate your food more than three times, you’re just playing with it.” – Greg
I went through Lexington [mi 90] in the wee hours of the night and had my first uncomfortable experience. As I was going along the road, a red truck slowed in the street and a couple guys in their early twenties asked if I wanted a ride. I said no and kept going, but got out my pepperspray to feel more secure. About five minutes later the same red truck passed by again. Another five minutes and it passed by a third time. I didn’t breathe easy until I was out of Lexington.
As I leaving town I realized I was feeling yucky and weak and I couldn’t make sense of feeling ravenous even though I was eating a lot. My mind flashed back to a story Oak told me about his time on the Caminho da Fé in Brazil and how he yelled at Hunter because he needed protein, not more carbs. I realized I hadn’t been balanced in my macronutrients and my body was suffering for it. I even remembered that I read in other race reports and articles that protein is essential over that long of an event to avoid muscle breakdown. I resolved to get some protein ASAP.
Day 3
As luck would have it, I was coming up on Fishers Grocery [mi 99]. The lights were off, but I knew they were opening soon, so I went to wait outside. The guys inside let me come in early and I picked up a sausage biscuit, chocolate milk, and a coffee. It was heavenly. Again, I set back out and found an angel station not too far down the road that had a cooler full of CHEESE. Omg cheese. I had some havarti, gouda, and cheddar. Heaven! They also had little cups of pasta salad that I heard people praising.
Going into Parsons [mi 107] at 9am I knew I wanted another real, hearty meal and settled on stopping at…Hardee’s. I’d never been to one despite driving by one to work every single day, so I went in, ordered a chicken biscuit sandwich, a coffee, and some hashbrowns. Perfection. Despite being full from the meal at Hardee’s, I saw a Sav-a-lot on the other side of the road and had to go. I told myself that for this event I would make it a point to eat at least one fresh thing per day, even if it was the grossest looking banana at the convenience store. I got a pack of blueberries and was very happy for them. While in there, I talked to a woman, I think in her 20s, who said she is local and follows the race every year. So cool!
It was already going to be pretty hot that day and I saw a woman pulled over giving a guy, Joey, some water. She asked me if I wanted some water, I immediately asked if she was crewing him, she wasn’t, she was purely a road angel (in the first day several crews tried to offer me things and I had to let them know I wasn’t crewed and their help would change my status). I took a bottle of water and she gave out some packets of Trail Toes and I started going down the hill. At the base of the hill I saw two people tearing into a bag of ice in front of a convenience store and the man beckoned me over. They had purchased a bag of ice and wouldn’t be able to use the whole thing, so I added a bunch of ice to my bladder. I later described the interaction to Oak and Greg as such:
You know in a zombie movie when the zombies fall upon their prey and beginning ripping at their abdomen and pulling out their innards with greedy claws? It was that scene, but with a bag of ice. When the other shuffling zombies offered the ice, of course I’d get my own claws into those glorious, cold innards.
That was where I met Kim and Jun. Jun (and Joey), would be part of the “pod” of people that I saw regularly as people leap frogged and navigated their way through Tennessee. As I crossed the Tennessee River [mi 112], Jun took my photo and I took his.
We walked together until we reached an angel station many, many miles down the road. We actually stopped to sit on a rock in the shade because it was so hot and hard to keep moving with the sun beating down on you. Not too long after we got there, Joey showed up and rolled around on the ground with the sweet dog that was there. Later I found out that the dog didn’t even live there. It was just hanging out because people kept showing up and giving it attention.
I got a text around 3pm from Oak that he and Greg were checked into a motel in Linden [mi 125], there was an angel station at the town’s welcome center, and they were going to go have Mexican food. I told him I was a few miles from Linden, so he said they would wait for me to get there. We had a ginormous amount of food and a downpour started while we were there. It dissipated by the time we were finished and we walked back to Linden. I decided to get a room at the hotel as well, but the inn was full. Oh well, I knew the welcome center had some mats in it, so I figured I would get a little nap there.
Unfortunately, I was absolutely wired and couldn’t sleep. It probably didn’t help that the people at the welcome center had a lively conversation going that I felt compelled to listen to and join in. I spent three hours there twiddling my thumbs trying to rest, but on the plus side I did get to hear one of the greatest things ever regarding sleeping next to the road or in random places:
“If I’m laying down and my shoes are off, I’m fine. Let me sleep. If I’m laying down and my shoes are on, call 911.” – Ray Krolewicz
I left the welcome center at 8:30pm and hit the road again. By midnight the sleepies were hitting HARD. All I wanted was to curl up and take a big old nap, but I was on a hilly, winding road with no shoulder, and I wasn’t about to sleep in a ditch full of who knows what. All of a sudden there was a long stone bench next to a gorgeous lake. It was at least 10’ long and it looked like a good chance for a short nap. It did the trick and I probably had a 15-minute boost that could get me going for another stretch.
Out of nowhere I found a sleep oasis [mi 137]. There were several long chairs with cushions under a car port and it was perfect for sleeping. I was alone when I got there, but when I got up at 5am Oak and Greg had just rolled in and Ray, Jun, and maybe someone else were also sleeping there. I headed out into the early morning hours with them.
Day 4
We got to Hohenwald [mi 144] near check-in time and I told Oak and Greg that I was going to go to Hardee’s for breakfast, refill my water, and change into my day shirt. Greg decided to go on but Oak elected to come with me as he was having some calf and muscle issues so he wanted to stretch and ice it for a little while. I got the chicken biscuit, hashbrown rounds, and some coke; Oak got a strawberry milkshake and a coffee cup full of pickle juice (trying to solve the calf issue). I cannot commend the Hardee’s staff enough for being so nice and treating our goblin selves as real people.
We didn’t know it at that point, but that was a good day for continuing to renew our faith in humanity. And for some heat death. I was walking and running some downhills and feeling generally miserable; I see Oak behind me about a quarter of a mile and stop to sit on one of the good guard trails. I figured I would rather hang out with him because he’s probably in fantastic spirits and I could use the company. Well, that wasn’t the case. He was really down in the dumps, too and thought I was out there on cloud nine. Thus started our hilarious (in retrospect) sufferfest.
It is a bit of a blur since it was very hot, but here’s how I think it went. First, we passed up the opportunity to rest in the shade underneath the Natchez Trace Parkway and the Fall Hallow Campground [mi 152] didn’t look like they would really like to see our faces, so we continued on. We then passed over several creeks including Little Grinders Creek, Big Swan Creek, Big Swan Creek, and Big Swan Creek. For some reason we were both mad at and amused by the fact that we kept crossing the same damn creek. We also started to scope out the slopes down to the creeks from the road so we could get out of the sun that was beating us down. Around 11am a road angel pulled over and handed us popsicles. We both started crying.
There was a sign for the Amber Falls Winery. We had visions of A/C, charcuterie boards, cold water, and wine dancing in our heads. All we needed to do was get to the winery. Well, that didn’t work out. We got to the arrow pointing to it and it was up in the hills on Ridgetop Rd (looking at the map now, it is about 2.5 miles off of the route), so we dropped that idea. Next was a sign for Natchez Hills Winery and our hope alighted again. Luckily though, a road angel station came into view and it was the one of the most beautiful pop up canopies I have ever seen in my life. And who was there? Greg. Just chillin’ with his feet up.
We decided to stay there for a while and get some rest. It was 1:30pm(?) and the heat was picking up, so I didn’t feel bad about not getting miles then. Greg headed out and I wouldn’t see him again until the end. We stayed for several hours and other runners showed up. First was Jun. His feet were in a bad, bad way. He attempted some foot surgery, but it looked like it would only get worse, so Oak patched him up. At that point I believe Joey and Kim came through and Oak fixed her feet as well.
As we are leaving the angel station many, many hours after arriving we finally realize that we are officially half way! Jan pulls up in the Meat Wagon (oh yeah, there’s a meat wagon, it shuttles the folk who DNF to the finish and Jan also checks in on people) to laugh at our celebration and remark that the actual halfway point is painted on the concrete a few miles back and says, “F U LAZ!” We did not notice it. Jan tells us there's a teeny tiny town called Hampshire just a few miles away and that there are several houses that have things for runners. We stopped at one house with popsicles! And then another to chill for a bit and fill up water and charge phones. Prior to the event I joked that much like Western States being called Statesmas, Vol State was also a holiday: LAVS-oween, where you go from place to place dressed up (as a hobo in our case), looking for treats. Hampshire made that a reality.
We continue on down the road, eventually catching up to Joey around 7pm. Oak then helps tape his feet as well and we are off down the road yet again.
A couple quick asides so I don't forget. Joey had set his pack on the ground while he was working on his feet and as he got it all together, I noticed there was a hubcap on the ground. My brain immediately linked it with him and I almost told him not to leave his hubcap behind, lol.
Second aside - I never knew I would have a preference on what guardrails I liked, but I definitely do now. Over 314 miles I never sat on the "bad" guardrail. Nope. I was too good for that and would only sit on the good one. I made a meme about it as well:
Outside of Columbia [mi 172] I’m starting to struggle hardcore. It is a combo of the sleepies and hunger/bonking. Now that Oak has figured out the muscle issue he was having, he is ready to make a big push as he has now come up with a time goal and I’m ready to let him go off into the race and not hold him back anymore, and we make a weepy call to the TJM bonk line (literally the only bonk I made the whole time). We get into the outskirts of Columbia at 10:30pm and stop at a gas station. Oak grabs stuff and heads out and I spend an hour trying to get the will to drag my ass to the nearest hotel. The hotel is over 6 miles away on the other side of Columbia, so I know I still have so much time to go until I get there and can sleep. I talk to my husband on the phone for a bit and I’m a whiny mess. I spend over an hour just sitting at the store before I finally get on the road; in that time I saw both Joey and Jun go by. Oak texted that part of the city that the route goes through is kind of sketch, so I get my pepperspray at the ready. Luckily, I don’t encounter anything negative, just some rundown looking areas.
After what felt like a million and a half hours (it was actually just over 2), I arrive at the hotel [mi 179]. I’m a shuffling, exhausted zombie at this point. I’m barely coherent but manage to mumble, “I need a room,” and hand him my card and ID. He gives me the room card and lets me know that breakfast starts at 6am. “Pfft,” I think to myself, “I’ll be long gone by then.”
Day 5
I didn’t wake up until 7am. I took my time getting ready since I had to do some re-taping on my feet, had a nice breakfast in the hotel lobby, spoke to another runner who was dropping due to a family emergency, and then stopped at the convenience store to start my happiest day ever.
I have no idea what it was, but I was feeling absolutely zero pain, walking on cloud nine, dancing my dumb self around, and was just a few short miles to the Bench of Despair. That didn’t stop mother nature from calling me, so I grabbed a discarded food wrapper from the side of the highway and ducked into the trees to do my business. I got caught up in some branches and full on bellyflopped onto the ground, but I didn’t let that mess me up (thank goodness the fall happened pre-potty, not post-potty).
All of a sudden I see some red out of the corner of my eye [mi 184]. The Bench of Despair!! I happily trot up to the bench and see Kimberly lying on it and Joey on the ground with his feet up. I sat down at the end and a huge downpour started. I made it just in time! If I had been even 30 seconds later, I would have gotten absolutely drenched from the rain. We wait it out a little bit and then I’m ready to go. Only three more miles until the famed Nutt House!
The Nutt House [mi 187] is a favorite stop for Vol State runners. As I ran up, I saw Oak and Jun hanging out under one of the canopies. Oak apparently had a rough night and had been there for a few hours; he saw where I had checked in and decided to wait until I got there before leaving. I had an amazing burger and maybe stayed for another hour just hanging out and enjoying the calm and happy atmosphere there. I contemplated taking a shower there (they have an outside shower and toilet that they installed specifically for LAVS), but thought that taking two showers two days in a row was a bit excessive.
We stopped at the Mooresville Market [mi 194] for some lunch, and who shows up but the Meat Wagon people! The way the meat wagon works is that Jan shuttles them along the way and Carl will pick up if there are a bunch of them. The problem is that if one person drops, you really can’t expect one woman to pick them up and take them hundreds of miles to the finish and back again. It just wouldn’t work. So they have a system and if you’re a screwed runner and drop at the wrong time, it may take you multiple days to get back to your car.
In the meat wagon was my dear friend Steven and I ran and gave him a big old hug when he came in the store. It was awesome to see him and I was sad that his journey had ended so early {mile 107}. Less than two months prior he rolled his ankle and had a grade 2 sprain. He went into the event still healing a very messed up ankle, so it was amazing what he was able to do.
We shared stories from the road with him and his friend Trisha. A lot of the stories were poop stories and I was laughing my head off. I was also leaving desitin butt prints everywhere, which was funny and embarrassing. I experienced chafing from my underpants since maybe day 2 or 3 and at times I was applying destitin every 30-60 minutes to try to keep the chafe pain/discomfort at bay. It was working, so I kept on with it.
It was this day that I also got really, really sick of eating and drinking. I was 100% over how high maintenance the human body is and I just wanted to keep doing what I was doing and not worry about feeding and watering this stupid meat robot. Either way, I continued along until I caught up with Joey outside of Lewisburg. I am intensely grateful I caught up to him there. I wouldn’t say the town was super sketchy, but I would have gotten my pepperspray out if I had gone through during the night. His phone was on the brink of dying, so I let him use my power bank until he could purchase another. I also needed some more KT tape since I knew I’d need to tape at least once more and I was out of what I brought. We hit up a Walgreens and put our feet up to plan what was next. We both felt good enough to push on and would find somewhere to sleep when we needed it, but wanted to have a real meal first. Mexican again! As we were leaving the restaurant, we saw Jun go into the hotel across the street, where Oak was sleeping as well.
As we were leaving Lewisburg, we stopped at a convenience store that proudly proclaimed it had THE MOST HAIR FOR SALE. Possibly one of the funniest and most unexpected parts of LAVS.
Around midnight I had a slight case of the sleepies and Joey needed to do some foot surgery, so we walked over to a church [mi 208]. It was very gruesome work, he wanted to inject tincture of benzoin directly into his blisters but had no way to do so. Instead he would try to hold open the blister and I poured the benzoin on it. I’d heard that sometimes churches leave a door open, but we weren’t that lucky and instead had to do our best getting comfortable on the very hard concrete. It did not go well. We spent a little time trying to go to sleep, but called it good when my hip could not take it anymore. We kept going and stopped at several driveways along the road looking for one that was good for sleeping or just putting the feet up. I was feeling good, so I told Joey I would go ahead and text him if I saw any angel stations. I found one not too long after [mi 210ish]. They had chairs and a cot and even a real pillow! Whaaaaat! I texted Joey and he showed up shortly after since he couldn’t rest either. I also texted Oak to let him know where it was and sat for a bit charging my phone and power bank since they were nearly dead.
Joey slept on the cot while Oak and I headed out. We approached the Pit Stop Market [mi 214] at 4am thinking it was still closed, but saw people sitting outside. As we came up the ladies there told us to go ahead inside and they would be right in. We went to the bathroom, got some drinks, and ordered some breakfast sandwiches. The woman there told us that the water we got was free since they always provide free water to “the walkers.” This led to both of us tearing up and being grateful of all of the amazing people giving support on this journey. We enjoyed our sammiches and felt so very grateful going into another day on the road.
Come to Vol State and experience pain in the most beautiful places! Here is Oak fixing his feet in front of a multi-million dollar horse farm.
Day 6
That morning the people were kind; the road was not. This stretch of road was part of the route from a farm to a meat processing plant and every few minutes a chicken truck would blow by and hit us with a gust of foul/fowl (heh) smelling air. It was pretty awful. In addition to the smelly trucks, we noticed some rain clouds starting to form and head our way. We got out ponchos out and it sprinkled a bit. We decided to take cover in case there was a larger storm and put our feet up in the entrance way of a Dollar General [mi 219] around 6:30am. Since it didn’t seem like the storm was going to do much more than sprinkle, we got on our way again.
The sleepies started to hit again, so we planned to get to the nearest hotel and get some rest. The nearest hotel, the Magnolia Hotel in Shelbyville [mi 223], was an absolute shit hole. First of all, we discovered days later that you can pay hourly. This would have been good to know as neither of us were planning on spending an entire day and night there. Instead, like chumps, we paid the whole rate. When I got into my hotel I was fairly grossed out, which is saying something based on how I smelled. There were at least 30 flies buzzing around, the light fixture on the ceiling had only one bulb and it was uncovered in a busted fixture, the bathroom had some verrrrry sketchy pipework to the sink and shower, and there was a big old cigarette burn in one of the sheets all the way down to the mattress (which signifies it was never changed after the burn, gross). I picked the other bed and decided to just deal with it. I did a pretty good bed bug check so at least I could feel secure in that regard. I took a shower but made sure to wear my flip flops in there because there was some grossness near the drain. But hey, a bed and a shower was a big creature comfort and I passed the hell out almost as soon as I shut my eyes.
I woke up around 2pm and asked Oak when he was planning to leave. He said he was going to wait until 4pm and I told him I didn’t want to have that low mileage in the 12-hour period, so I was going to get ready and go. I taped my feet and by the time I set out Oak had left and had met up with Joey and Jun at a Circle K a couple miles down the road.
Joey was still dealing with intense pain from his feet and urged us to go our own pace and not his, so we kept going. As you’re constantly on the edge of insanity, the things that you say and laugh at get super weird. We caught up to Jun and he asked, “Where’s Joey?” Oak replied, “I ate him.” About 10 or so minutes later (or it could have been 5 or 30 or 60, time doesn’t work normally out there), Jun is propelled forward by several toots and says, “It’s from Joey!”
We got into Wartrace [mi 232] and stopped at the first available place, a convenience store with hot food. We spent some time there eating blah fried food, resting our feet, and acting silly. Someone burped and said it was Joey. I laughed so that sparkle water came out of my nose in a very painful fashion. Sorry Joey. As we went through Wartrace we noticed several places to eat that had much, much better food. Dang it. Also, I tried to get a kitty in the town square to love me, but I was unsuccessful.
Leaving Wartrace, we came upon the section that had the Strolling Jim course (another race by Laz). It started to get dark and I started to get the sleepies again. I also noticed a few spots on my feet that I could tell I was developing or had developed blisters on. I knew that at some point I would have to take care of them, but I was still in a cranky mood because I was sick of eating, but needed to eat. I was also behind on my electrolytes and started peeing way too much. To combat this, I got a Liquid IV powder stick out of my vest to get it into my system. Rather than mixing up a whole drink with it, I decided to dump some power in my mouth, take a sip, and repeat until I had the whole thing. That fixed the pee problem.
At 9:30pm I thought I was seeing things as it looked like there was maybe an angel station up ahead. Oak said it definitely wasn’t driveway lights, it was different. As we got closer, we saw that it was an angel station and a gorgeous one. I believe this was the Bailey House [mi 240]. I took off my left shoe and saw that I had a blister on the left side of my big toe and on my pinky toe. I asked a giant favor of Oak if he would tape them up for me and he showed me a really good technique for the taping, which I definitely plan to use at my next long race.
When we got in to the angel station he gave a time of 20 minutes to get in and out. I was a big old NOPE on that. After my feet were fixed I said I was going to take a nap on the cot that was there. They had a real blanket and I was feeling so behind on sleep. Despite being tried, I woke up several times due to the pain in my feet. Each time I woke up, I noticed more and more people sleeping in chairs and on the ground under the tent. I remember Tin coming in at one point and saying, “I’ve been hallucinating for hours,” before my brain shut off again. I slept from maybe 10:30pm to about 3am before I decided to get a move-on. By 5:30 am I had 69 miles to go (nice).
Day 7
I knew that Manchester [mi 249] was in Coffee County and I had resolved on the bus ride that I would get coffee there. I searched on google a few miles out and saw a cute coffee shop that had breakfast that was only a block off the route would be opening close to the time that I would get there. I had to wait a little bit until they opened, but when they did I got an amazing bagel with beyond sausage and cream cheese on top as well as a mocha and a coffee. I sat outside and enjoyed the morning.
One interesting thing of note, from this point forward I started getting treated differently by people. I waved at every car, truck, and semi on the highway that made a motion to get over to be less close to the road shoulder. I said hello to anyone and everyone, really. But that morning as I enjoyed my coffees and bagel? Two women walked into the coffee shop and out purposefully ignoring me. It would happen about 4 more times over the next day and a half. I had turned invisible. Also, I will note that so many people are happy to wave and get away from the shoulder while they’re driving, but I noticed over the journey that the nicer the car, the less likely they are to look at you, move over, or wave at all. It wasn’t everyone in a super nice car, but it was enough to notice the difference.
By 10am I was on my way out of Manchester and sure a storm was about to blow in, so I threw on my poncho and kept moving. I was hit by a giant wave of the sleepies. No ifs, ands, or buts, I had to nap. Just off the road I spied a really nice-looking shade tree and knew it’d be perfect to get under. I would have my poncho cover my body and shoes, so if it did rain, I’d be fine. I’d nap while waiting out the storm. Win win. Despite the loud sounds of the highway, I fell asleep almost instantly.
I was roused awake by a female police officer in an unmarked car and a male officer in a marked car pulled up just after. I was in the middle of sleepily explaining what the event was to her. Also, in my sleepiness I remarked on her braces because I am also and adult brace face and I look back on that interaction and feel so ridiculous for saying that. She said she was worried (I can’t remember if she said she got a call about it) because she saw someone in what looked like a plastic bag on the side of the road. It was unsaid but implied that they thought I was in medical distress or dead.
Given the chance, I would have gone right back to sleep under that tree, but had a feeling they wanted to move me along, so I hit the road again. Another few hours later I hit up a Dollar General to put together some kind of lunch. I ended up with a feast of cheese, a protein drink, cookie dough, a sparkle water, and some chef Boyardee. I ate nearly all of it and hoped that would be enough calories to where I wouldn’t have to think about eating for a while.
The next stretch was fairly brutal. It was the heat of the day, there wasn’t a shade tree in sight, and my feet were mad at me. Oak sent a message that was was an amazing angel station ahead so I knew I just had to make it a couple more hours until I could get a break from the road. I went to a community center just off the road to see if they had a hose bib, but they didn’t and I ran out of water at mile 264 even though I was trying to drink as little water as possible. It was another two miles before I came up on the angel station and when I saw the road angel there, I cried and hugged him. His setup was amazing. I got some good food, cold drinks, and a few hours of sleep.
As I was getting ready to leave, the road angel told me that part of the way up the climb to Monteagle was a metal teepee looking thing and behind it was a pvc pipe spouting water from a natural spring. He said the water was cold, clear, and good to drink. I had fully refilled my water, but I told him I would be on the lookout for it all the same. Luckily, I got to it before it became fully dark. I walked over and stood next to it running my hands in the cool water. I took a couple handfuls of water directly into my mouth and it was glorious. This would have been very welcome many hours earlier and I hoped that some other runners got to take advantage of it.
By the time I got to Montagle [mi 274], it was fully dark and I was hungry. I knew that to the right there were some fast food places about half a mile off course, so I decided to follow the directions and turn left to see what I could find. I realized that there was nothing ahead. The only thing coming up that I could get some food was a Dollar Tree and it was closing in less than 10 minutes. I quickly ducked in to get some water, a coke, and food that made up the shittiest “meal” I’d put together so far. I’d hoped to go into a restaurant to change from my day shirt to my evening shirt and wash up in a sink (I’d been envisioning it and hot food for a while). It wasn’t happening, so I decided to try and find a nice place to sit and eat my food.
Instead I found an entrance to a bank which was a perfect place to eat and have a major meltdown. I was mad. Mad at myself, the situation, my husband when he called because I was having a bad time and he was at home with the cats. I was tired again with no place to sleep, I was hungry and eating shit food, my shirt was chafing the hell out of me, I wanted my undercarriage to be dry for once, I wanted my feet to not hurt. I just had a lot going on that I was upset about and it all came flooding out then. I shoved some food down my gullet and continued walking and talked to him for another 30 minutes before I realized I had missed my turn and had to turn around and backtrack until I got back on course.
Back on the road and moving forward, I got to be myself again. Singing stupid songs because I kept getting the most random shit stuck in my head. By the time I hit Tracey City [mi 280] around 11pm I was zonked again and needed sleep. I saw a bench on the porch of a restaurant, but after 15 minutes of trying and failing to get comfortable, I realized it wasn’t happening and had to continue on. Then I found it. The Cadillac of Benches. Clearly sent down from the heavens: a church pew. It was 12’ long, padded and I knew I’d found refuge. I settled in and fell asleep almost immediately. I crashed out for anywhere from 3 to 4 hours and woke up refreshed.
Approximately a half mile from the glorious bench of the gods, two police vehicles pulled in front of and behind me. One of the officers got out and asked me what I was up to. I explained what I was doing. His next question? “Where do you sleep?” As I’m fairly certain they were on their way to bust me for sleeping on the bench I replied something along the lines of, “Oh, all sorts of places. I’ve stayed a couple nights in hotels and people set up chairs and cots in their yard.” He accepted that answer and I power hiked my way out of town.
Day 8
Shortly before dawn I came up on an angel station out of nowhere. It had begun to drizzle a little, so I decided to hunker down for a bit. I knew it would be my final day of Vol State and I really, really wanted to finish in the daylight. That meant sitting under that canopy wouldn’t help me. I set out and started playing the poncho on/poncho off game. It’d do a drizzle for a bit, time would go by and I was sick of being in my poncho with no rain coming down and shortly after it would start up again. By the time I got to the Mountain Mart [mi 291] it was a full on drenched to the bone downpour. I was happy to get out of the rain and have a sausage biscuit with a hot cup of coffee. I assessed my situation. Shoes? Squishy wet. Socks? I needed to wring them out. Spirits? High. I would be finishing today rain or shine.
Two other people and Tin showed up shortly after. While I was in the bathroom drying off my feet and applying desitin to them, the couple left and Tin said he was staying to sleep for an hour. I happily went off back onto the road, poncho on for only a short time before I got to take it off. I’m fairly certain it was at this point that there was a lot of downhill. I ran quite a bit because why not let gravity do its thing? I marveled in the fact that it was my last day and I was running. The body is incredible. I think I could have run a lot more, but the mind was the real limiter.
Before I knew it, I’d reached the outskirts of Jasper and Mr. Smalling’s [mi 295] angel station. I sat down and talked with him for about 20 minutes. I had reached the point where I realized this adventure was going to be ending soon and I wanted to soak in every second, especially the kindness of everyone who lived along the course. I also mentally struggled with the idea that it was only 20 miles, but at my pace plus the climb up Sand Mountain at the end, I was still looking at another 6-7 hours of effort.
Coming into Kimball I picked up my tracker at the Valley Inn [mi 300], stocked up on food and water at the raceway, and headed out for the last 14 miles of my journey. Getting to the Blue Bridge [mi 303] a few miles later was emotional. I was there. I was so far away. Nothing to do but keep on moving forward. This is when the heat got turned up a notch. A mile and a half after the bridge, I saw a Dollar General and decided to go grab an ice cream or a popsicle. Ann was there also in the ice cream cooler doing the same thing. I sat in the shade and enjoyed my bomb pop. Again, soaking in this ridiculous thing I was doing. A woman who worked there was moving some of the lawn chairs out of the sun and into the shade and asked me if I wanted to take one off the stack so I could sit down. This may not sound like a huge deal, but it really was and it meant a lot.
With nothing to do but get up and go, I started again and kept thinking that my turn to go down into Alabama would be arriving any moment now. I checked my directions again because I had heard rumblings from the RDs online that people were doing all sorts of weird stuff between the Valley Inn and The Rock. I didn’t want to be another one of the people that went off course while they laughed at my little tracker node. Despite going at what I thought was a good pace, the distance to the turn wouldn’t budge. I felt like I was in New Hope forever.
The turn finally decided to make an appearance and not too long after I had crossed into Alabama. I think the last 10 miles was all climbing, but someone can correct me. Up and up and up. The heat was really cooking now and I was immensely relieved to see a pack of water sitting on the side of the road. I grabbed a bottle and thirstily drank it. I was conserving my water because I knew it was still a ways up, so the surprise water was great. A few miles later there was another case of water that I took one from and sat in the shade of a tree and enjoyed it. Closer and closer!
I made the turn to Castle Rock Road and did not remember how absolutely horrible that road was. It was the most beatup stretch of pavement that I’ve ever seen. Then, after another hill I saw it! The place where I left my car just over a week ago! I saw the first teaser sign telling it me it was a mile to the finish (I’d read enough race reports to know that I had to just ignore every sign until I actually saw the rock). A short climb and several more signs had me grinning because I knew the finish really would be coming up soon.
All of a sudden I came through a clearing and there it was! The Rock! I trotted over to it and gave it a full on smooch, ending up with some dirt and debris in my mouth. The sweet taste of the finish was very similar to dirt.
7 days, 9 hours, 11 minutes, and 17 seconds
I walked over to where Laz, Carl, and some others that were sitting around. Laz gave me my sticker, patch, and wooden “metal” while heckling me about the desitin, mainly that its use is a big old joke the vets play on the rookies, lol. Sorry, but I will forever be like the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Instead of the windex he swears by to cure all ailments, my new all-purpose tool is desitin.
I hung out for a bit longer until the next finisher came in and a short time later Jan showed up and drove us down the mountain to the Valley Inn. Jan was nice enough to stop by my car so I could grab some clothes. I checked into a room, got a shower, and then put on DRY CLOTHES. Clothes! That were dry! And not wet! Dry underpants!! Is there anything more beautiful than that??
With the Walmart only a half a mile away, I left the hotel to walk over and who did I see? Joey! He had just picked up his tracker and was about to make the final push after a short stop at McDonalds, I wish him well and continued on to the store. The sky opened up at that point, so I took my time shopping; grabbed some popcorn, a tiny bottle of prosecco, mini potatoes, and various other snacks and drinks. I decided to wait out the rain, because what else was I going to do?
When it let up from the torrential downpour into a normal drizzle, I figured I may as well go because who knows how long it would be raining for. Unfortunately, I was wearing my crocs and was trying to navigate around the extremely flooded sections. I got to a really big flood spot and my choice was to go back the way I came and add more time walking in the rain or walk through the 8’ section that had 4” of water. All of a sudden, a gentleman pulled up and asked if I wanted a ride. I graciously accepted and got in. I know what you’re thinking, “SHAE, YOU IDIOT! WHY ARE YOU GETTING IN A STRANGER’S CAR?!?!?!?!?!”
I’d already been through a lot and funnily enough in the late hours in sketchy places I mused about how nice it would be to be kidnapped. I’d be off my feet in the A/C and the person would have to feed me to keep me alive for ransom purposes. Dark Vol State humor, I know. Anyway, I thanked him profusely and it was yet another example of the awesome kindness I’d experienced all throughout the race. My night ended sharing race stories and chatting with Peter, Oak, Tin, Kim, Jan, BJ, and Greg.
MY ADVICE:
- Note: these were written from the perspective of someone on the journey that just wanted to finish. I had no time goal or expectation of finishing on a certain day.
- If your feet are aching and you’re stopped anywhere for more than 10 minutes, take your shoes off. It is amazingly refreshing and your feet hurt less after you’ve had them off even for a small length of time. It takes a minute to take shoes off and put them back on, plus you’re sitting anyway.
- Always sign the guestbook! Many road angel stations will have a notebook for runners to sign and write a note. It’s 30 seconds out of this incredible journey and that is something valuable that you can do for them.
- Talk to the road angels, store clerks, the locals, and your fellow runners. I think I spent the majority of my time talking to people. I never wanted to be a hurry where I couldn’t take the time out of my day to chat with someone for even as little as 10 minutes. People are displaying an immense kindness out there and this is one small way to give back.
- Take pictures. In the good moments. In the bad moments. I wish I had some more pictures and video of when I felt like shit.
Videos! I was planning on making a whole giant video with narration, photos, and my random vlogs, but I realize I do not have the patience for it, so here are all of the vlogs together -