all i asked for this hour was that the excitement be ON THE TRAIL
and not in the camp.
i got my wish.
runners came in after 3 whistles
.
we were down to the iceland champion,Thorleifur Thorleifsson still out on the trail.
thor had been on a death spiral even before we hit the trail.
and it was apparent that his time had come.
.
even though he was not yet in sight
we warned the assembling field that thor could be coming in.
we would first sight him potentially 30 seconds from the finish.
exactly at the moment i was calling out 30 seconds
the cry went up;
“runner, runner, clear a path”
and the jam packed corral parted like the red sea.
as the countdown went down;
“10, 9, 8…”
the crowd and the runners were yelling and exhorting thor;
“go, go, you can do it!”
as the countdown hit 2 thor shot thru the opening
crossed the finish line,
and stepped back in the corral just in time for the bell…
.
and everyone took off for “happy time”
.
thor thought better of it after about 15 meters and turned back,
27 yards was all he could reasonably expect.
he could take it now,
or spend an eternity timing out on the trail.
.
68 runners are now on the trail.
some of them are fighting for their life.
niki micallef is fighting for something else.
when he comes in he will get to ring the distance bell!