The course is rather undulating but at the same time interesting with a variety of viewpoints on the almost question mark shaped out & back course. There's a baseball stadium, trains, a tank & a Christmas light show already to go & all this against a beautiful backdrop of trees in all their Autumnal (Fall) glory. I got to meet so many old friends in the very place 3 years previously they had become new friends, Bluefield in 2014 was the very place I had gotten to meet new Mainly owners Jesse & Daniel, Ila, Trisha, Chuck, Clyde & so many more of the familiar faces that have become my American running family over the past 3 years. The day also bought a new friends as I met my room mate Greg & we instantly got on sharing many laughs & tales.
Two days in Bluefield & I was ready for a change of scenery, I'd driven across Tennessee in 2015 calling in at Gracelands, Sun Studios & Lynchburg (all for rather obvious reasons I would suggest !!), but I had never run in the State before so was looking forward to a new course in a new state & it was a lovely course through a park with a stream & a lake to look across. I struggled earlyion but recovered in the mid part, by 23 miles I could sense my buddy Nick was catching me up. He caught me & we had an 80 yard sprint for the finish line, his long legs were no match for my short stumpy ones & he did me by 3 yards. In hindsight a rather silly thing to do as I crawled around the remainder of the 50km distance in a rather poor time for me but I was pleased to bag another state, my 41st & confident my performances couldn't get worse - How wrong I was !!!
Day 4 took us to North Carolina, a state that has witnessed both my greatest triumph & greatest tragedy, tragedy is perhaps a little dramatic ? In 2013 I set out to run my first US 100 miler, The Graveyard 100 along the Outer Banks of the Atlantic Ocean. A pulled groin ended that attempt & for 2 years the mental anguish of that DNF hurt far more than the pulled groin that had forced me to stop & hitch a ride with a young lady who's first name was my surname "Bayley" - what a bizarre coincidence, a year later I completed marathon distance with Mainly in Morganton finishing in second splitting those "pesky" brothers from Minnesota although that's not the triumph I am referring to, the triumph I am referring to was heading back to the Outer Banks in 2015 with a score to settle, I was on good form following a 3.26 at Little Rock the week before & a 3.14.59.7 the week before that to perfectly qualify for my home capital cities marathon with a whole 0.3 of a second to spare in Tokyo. Not only did I finish the 100 miler that I'd started 2 years previously I also managed to break 24 hours after confusing myself when my Garmin died & daylight saving began during the run - I'd calculated the hour difference the wrong way, these things happen when you are tired. This NC race would take place in a new & better venue in Fletcher.
Day 5 saw us run Seneca, last time on rthe course I was almost swimming, it was rather wet, this time the opposite as we experienced record temperatures, the 50km plus 5km distance each day was really beginning to take it's toll & I was dragging myself slowly round the courses by now but refusing to give up on my 50kms & 5kms, part of my motivation of the 5kms was the cost of plane tickets to come back for such a short distance.
Day 6 was a rather confusing course in Georgia & rather hilly but I had good company out there with a variety of people including Tre, who for some reason was wearing one of those collars that the put around dogs necks to stop them biting themselves after surgery, but she had it on the wrong way round !!. I took a Garmin but a calendar might have been a more appropriate piece of equipment as I had never spent so long in my life completing a 50km course. We had spent the night before in Macon & it seems they don't get many foreigners in Macon as I spent 10 mins as a celebrity or perhaps in more of a freak show as the Englishman - it was rather a Love Actually style moment but sadlty without Tara Reid :(
Day 7 took us to Alabama & Dave Jones who had treated me to many fine local ales the previous night kept me company for much of the day as I completed another new state & even struck a business deal while taking in the scenery which included an Alligator - working & running who says men can't multi task !!
The final two days would take us into Florida where it was rather warm to say to the least, having already run a 5km in Florida these would be rest days with "just" 50km per day to complete.
I finished 300.7 miles in 9 days to set a new Mainly marathons mileage record for a series & have now made it to 42 marathon states, 20 ultra states & 25 at 5km :) Next month if all goes to plan will see me hit Titanium level with Marathon Maniacs on Nov 7th (my birthday) in Utah - I will have completed the 30 states / countries in 365 days by running in Turkey, Poland, Austria, the Netherlands, the UK & 25 different US states from Florida to Hawaii & Vermont to Utah, I will finish that week with my 44th State California & my 300th lifetime marathon / ultra what better way to celebrate than heading out to Vegas for 3 x 50km in 3 days & running only my second ever lifetime half marathon along the Vegas strip :)
Getting closer to my running retirement & taking up golf - Too old for this sh*t !!
A great vacation with lots of running, probably even more drinking & so much fun with friends old & new.
Gotta run (to the kettle for a cup of tea) !!
Foxy
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