The start was once again at Red Bank Arena, which, while lacking in the cool factor of the previous old Carolina Speedway, is definitely more practical with parking. Usually our starts are kind of funny with only a handful of people and everyone else out on the course already. Everything looked perfect from a weather standpoint with highs in the mid 60’s and lows in the low 40’s, and most importantly NO RAIN. On paper, we were probably the fastest VOTR yet, though paper and 23+ hours of racing are decidedly two different things. Oh, and lets not forget my pace doppelganger and longtime archrival/nemesis/friend the Code. Grandmasters beast Geary McAlister was there to tear up the roads and chaperone the middle aged children of Van 2. Three hour flat marathon beasts Rob Gannett and Kevin Selinsky were on board, along with hundred miler mileage machine Tracy McKinnon. Spring Valley four miler expert and multiyear See Spot Run 5k champ Dan Carter was back. Twenty eight P200s between us, the bumbling noobs of 2010 were now the grizzled veterans. We still retained the original core four of myself, Brian, David McNiece and Joel Pierstorff. Clemson was back again this year as well, with two teams this time, the Thundercats and Thunderkittens, both managed by P200 machine and VOTR killer Michael “Thunderthighs” Holland. Jordan Lybrand also had an F3 team (F3 Ramblers) of which were a complete mystery to me, though they had the fastest projected pace at 6:37. One was Larry Jourdain’s “Merry Band of Maniacs”, captained by Linn Hall, with SR beasts Mark Bedenbaugh, Brad Marlow, Erin Miller, MC Cox, Drew Williams, and a few other wild cards that were unknown to me. There was a huge Columbia representation in general, and our start featured two all star teams from the area, both with predicted pace times faster than ours (6:46). We were definitely not going to have it easy this year. Sure enough, our 12:30 start, which was still the latest, was populated by eight teams instead of the traditional two. While us and the Clemson Thundercats had battled it out for relay supremacy the last few years, I figured it was only matter of time before some other fast teams would start taking notice. It seems this year was a tipping point for the P200. Unfortunately, Dean had to pull out with a work issue only a week or so before the race, but local 17ish 5k beast Trey McCain was able to fill in on short notice. Nance was a relay virgin but Dean had a few Blue Ridges under his belt. All purpose road-racer/trail machine Michael Nance and Harbison Trail Runners co-leader Dean Schuster were more than happy to oblige. Brian Kistner, a rookie from last year, was also out, so we had two slots to fill. With her plan foiled, Jen decided to let Van on the Run, which had originally been very co-ed, finally turn to an all–dude sausage fest. This year, Jen Clyburn had decided to organize a women’s Palmetto 70 team, but co-conspirator Julie decided to be all selfish and get pregnant. You’d think he’s be content with turning a hodge podge group of age groupers into back-to-back relay champs, but the evil mastermind of the Capitan is always scheming to make his creation even faster. As always, our fearless leader Brian “El Capitan” Clyburn was already emailing us about this thing back in September. So I was definitely in for Palmetto 200 number nine.
Apparently the post race beer erases all the pain.
Nine years, 8 Palmetto 200s and 3 Blue Ridge Relays later, I’m still at it. But, seeing as my only recourse was to finish this 7.5 mile leg, I resumed a power walk and then started back to a slow jog. Dehydrated, legs wrecked on 20+ miles, seeing spots and weird colors, I was reduced to a slow walk after running seven minute pace for most of the inaugural Palmetto 200. Sometime around 4 am, on May 1, 2010, in the pitch black of United Drive in rural Huger,SC, I made a pledge.
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