A minivan with 4 pax, supplies and running gear set forth Friday afternoon for the Tuna 75 (not shown on the logos of anything, but the legs of the Tuna 70 race totaled 75 miles #math).
The idea was to arrive early, grab a bite to eat and get some quality sleep before the 2am wake up call to drive the remaining 30 minutes from Kinston to the launch site in Comfort (which had surprisingly few lodging options given the town name). the beginning coincided with leg 22 of the Tuna 200 (maybe also longer than 200 miles?), so we actually ran 14 of the 36 legs from the 200 race. Not that we are keeping score or anything. Freedom.
That's not what happened, and multiple good/bad decisions were made that caused the 4 pax to stumble, slur and meander their way to the start line approximately at 3:22am Saturday. It's possible that Merlot was spilled and this was blamed on shoddy cooking and certainly not volumes of beverages consumed along the way and at various stops.
The rotation went Rocket->DieHard->Ultraman-> Jorel X 3 legs each:
1st 4 legs – Cloudy, breezy and moist was the story. Due to hard running, no one showed up when they were expected because everyone finished their leg FASTER.
2nd 4 legs – DH and Ultra took 9+ mile legs and Jorel almost got run over by a truck in daytime traffic.
3rd 4 legs – Running occurred but that took a backseat to the need for news of the Big Ten showdown of the week. We continued to find that the minivan had a button for everything.
In Summary: Every pax did better than he expected and the arrival into the finish area at 3:20ish pm on Saturday was celebrated far and wide (top 10 finish, we won't say how many teams). Several females were passed, which we were told counted as appropriate. Also, a two hour turnaround between legs 2 and 3 leaves a training opporunity compared to the easy lives of the 200 runners. But congrats to all the teams who gave their best efforts.
Saturday evening continued the sharing of stories, questionable wardrobe choices and an almost run-in with the cowboy set, who apparently were actual cowboys and not wearing costumes like the rest of the local population. All were accounted for and the team's arrival on Sunday was early so we could all enjoy quality time with our family and look for missing parts of Halloween costumes.
Humbly submitted a couple of days late for 29 Oct 2022,
Jorel