Today's breakfast of porridge was brought to me in association with Alan Wynn. It was the usual tasty start to the day with a drop of syrup added.
The heat and humidity returned with a vengance on day 69. This was Dave (Now known as Nissan Dave following the incident on day 64) and Mark’s last day. I had agreed to let them take charge of the day so pace and distance were out of my control. It was like one huge personal training session. I turned off the mileage reading on my GPS watch so I was never aware of just how far I was on the route.
We set off from Bevier, Missouri shortly after 8 am and I was joined by Dave for the first set of miles. Water stops were at roughly every 3 miles. Just like the previous few days, I would run through the water stop with Dave, Mark and Steve refilling my water bottle then running to catch up with me. This approach really helps keep the pace going. I stopped for a bar at the 3rd water stop and Steve joined me for the remaining miles to lunchtime.
Shelli had cooked some fantastic pasta for lunch which was sponsored by June Fletcher. It is safe to say that, for the first time on this run, I’ve been really enjoying my food. I had the briefest of Tactical Snoozes after lunch. In fact, I called it a Tactical Blink!
Mark joined me for the first session after lunch. The temperature was well into the 90s by now and I ran with an icy towel around my neck for the rest of the day. It was a nice change not knowing the mileage but that did not stop me from trying to use the water stops and changeover of runners to calculate the mileage. Dave took over running with me from Mark then Steve took over at what I guessed to be the 27 or 28 mile point. I was very tired by this point and battled through each mile as best I could.
For one last time, Dave and Mark took over and I switched on the mileage reading on my GPS watch. It said 33 miles which I was very pleased to read. I tried as best as I could to get a sprint finish in but it wasn’t to be. Simply getting past 35 miles was to be an achievement today. We met the “Rennel Car” after 35.2 miles. It had been another superb day’s running and the 5th haul of at least 35 miles in as many days.
Shelli had managed to find us a smashing RV park next to a lake. Thanks go to Sonja and Paige at the Shelbina Lake Camp Ground for letting us stay there for free. Much appreciated!
Dinner tonight was brought to me in association with Sue, Amber & Finlay Lawless.
