FYI, What you read below in another font is what I've been sending throughout the day to a reporter with a paper in Las Vegas who is tracking us.
I have run two legs thus far. The first, early this morning, was a disaster (according to my standards) as the first full meal I put down after four days of odds and ends almost made an appearance on the race course. My legs were also a bit shot from the 3.5 mile ruck run beforehand. My pace was about 8:30 over six miles. I rebounded a little while ago on my second leg, which was only three miles, with a pace just over seven minutes. The sun is setting and the dry, dusty feel of the afternoon is beginning to develop the first bites of the evening chill.
We are now about nine hours into the race. The teams are
all neck and neck. Another couple of runners had to drop out--one was tied up
with a mission and another fell ill after his first leg. We had a couple
potential runners in reserve, but due to the depletion on the teams, each of
those runners have been fully integrated and employed.
The accordion effect continues, and in its present state
of compression, we are all knotted up in the mid-50's in terms of mileage. It
looks like it will be a nail biter until the end.
