Pinhoti race report part 1

Well, here it is, the long awaited race recap from my first 100 miler attempt.

I am still having major issues trying to get the photos to upload correctly on this site so may have to include some of them later.

Jody (my wife) and I were able to leave out of Frankfort a little after noon on Friday and had about a 7.5 hour drive ahead of us. Everything went well until we got just outside of Birmingham where we hit stand still traffic and travelled about 5 miles in an hour.
We made it to Sylacauga just in time to catch the last of the pre-race meeting and eat some cold bland pasta and bread. Jody said the only salvation was the bananna pudding.

Anyway, we were able to check in, get our goodie bag which had some decent swag in it and hang out for the door prizes. We did alright and picked up a new fuel belt and large jug of hammer gel with dispenser! Along with the entry fee I did get a long sleeve tech t-shirt, short sleeve cotton t and some fancy socks so that's not too bad.

Off to the hotel room where I assembled my gear, took a bath to relax and was in bed by 9 in preparation of getting up at three to catch the shuttle! At midnight Jody woke me up thinking my alarm was going off and I missed it. Needless to say after that I was awake every 15 minutes looking at my watch and waiting to get up which I did a little after 3 and began eating. Unfortunately I had a 2 hour school bus ride ahead of me so declined the coffee and usual pre-race hydration since there would be no place to go when nature called.

Arriving in plenty of time I said goodbye to Jody for awhile and loaded up on the lovely Sylacauga school bus. I was probably able to get an hour of sleep in fitfully on the way up. Our route was delayed a bit by a wreck on the way up so we arrived at the start at about 5:45 with a beeline being made for the three pit toilets. I queued up last so just about missed the start of the race by the time I was done.

So at the start here I was, hurried, stiff, in the back running with more stuff than I usually do. Kind of an ominous way to kick it off.

Stay tuned for part 2.