Vermont was crazy hot. I stopped chasing the clock.
The goal became very plain: finish the hundred miles.
The race started at 4 a.m. Saturday. I came back through the finish line at 7:13 Sunday morning. The official result was 27:13:05, good for 72nd overall and 55th among men.
That is a long time to keep moving.
The course ran over Vermont dirt roads and horse trails. It kept going through the entire day, the entire night, and into the next morning. The heat made the time goal useless early enough that I could stop pretending otherwise. I needed to manage the day in front of me, get through each crew stop, eat, drink, and leave again.
The handwritten crew sheet did its job. Cold drinks. Ice. A new neck bandanna. Exit times written down. Pace recalculated. Food before any major decision.
There were stretches where the only useful question was whether I could keep going. The answer stayed yes.
The finish-line photographs are timestamped 7:13. In the first one, I am coming out of the trees in a black shirt, yellow hat, and red shoes. A few seconds later I am closer to the banner. I look cooked, but I am running.
Afterward I sat in a chair wrapped in a blanket with snacks piled on my lap. That photograph is less heroic and more accurate.
By Monday morning I was already replying to a question about the next Prospect Park Track Club marathon workout. I said I was “just coming back online after the Vermont race” and would have the plan done by the end of the day.
The group was doing hills Tuesday.
Later that week I gave a friend the short version: “Vermont was a ton of fun, crazy hot so I focused on finish vs time.” A hundred miles was a big challenge. I had finished it, had a great time, and was already excited to recover and start training again.
The chair, blanket, and snacks were nice. The Tuesday workout still needed to get written.