Arkansas Traveller redux

Just over a month ago I finished my 4th 100 mile run (ever) at the Arkansas Traveller run in the Ouachita National Forest outside Little Rock (you can read my race report here).

The race is incredibly runner friendly with 2 free meals (dinner the night before and breakfast the next morning), great aid stations, a nice shirt, etc.

Then today in the mail I got a nice "update" newsletter telling how the race had played out and a print out of a detailed spread sheet showing all my splits, and some nice pictures of me running



I continue to be a bit disappointed about my run, feeling I could have done better, particularly in the last 1/3 of the race, however....

It was pretty hot. Only 18/120 starters broke 24 hours (which is sort of an unoffical standard of excellence in a 100 mile race, and I did that, plus finished 9th overall, well inside the top 10%. Of course, I was in 5th place at mile 95. Looking at the splits, I think I passed 5 people in the last 42 miles from the turn around (the course is an 16 mile loop followed by and out and back) and 3 people passed me. They all happened to pass me in the last 5 miles, but that's just how it went.

Kudos to overall winner Tracy Thomas on an incredible race. She was 1 minute ahead of me at 48 miles and beat me by 3 hours. Ouch

And yes, I have sent in my Western States application
I particularly like this last picture where I'm looking down at my watch like a true runner. As if I didn't know my finish time within a minute or 2!