Silver and Gold

My weekend had days that started before anyone should earthly be awake, a castle, a gun shot, grown men crying and some ear-to-ear grinning.

Sounds like a TV drama, but instead it is all par for the course for 100 mile race day.Nothing like dragging the family to the start of the race at Squire's Castle at the ripe old time of 3:30am. So ripe that it stinks.

The race kicked off with a shot at 5am and we traveled down to the Polo Field in Chagrin to offer the first round of aide. Then the girl's and I grabbed some pancakes to go from McDonalds and headed to aide stop number two. We helped Mark change into new shoes and then headed home for naps and lunch and then headed back out for some more cheering.

We met back up with Mark at mile 54. Between mile 50-54 Mark fell. Hard. Gashed his knee. He was crying. But despite being in a lot of pain, he had moved into third place and was determined to hold it or surpass it.

Avery crewing at mile 54 (held by Wayne) and
Ellis watching from the sidelines.

Most of the race is run through on trails that run through the Cleveland Metro Parks, The Cuyahoga National Park, and the Summit Metro Parks. With a few stretches of road. You think there is any poison ivy in here?

Mark at around 80 miles.

The girls and I headed home to rest a bit and have dinner. We got word around 6pm that Mark had moved into second place and that there might be a winner by 7:30pm. So we headed down to the finish line at Falls River Park in Cuyahoga Falls.

And waited.

And played in the fountains [another post]

And waited some more.

Approaching the finish after 100 miles.

Happy to have finished in a time of 15:48!

Mark came in second place overall, for a Silver Medal in the USA Track and Field 100 mile Trail Championship. And because of a little birthday he had a few weeks back, he walked away with a Gold metal, too! He is the current Master's Champion for 100 miles.