What do you do when it is not your day? What do you do when circumstances and conditions and training (too much or too little or just enough) combine in a way that stops you in your tracks? How do you cope?

T3 experienced his first DNF Saturday. It SUCKED. Combine that with the death of his grandfather that morning, and if he had gone home he might have been looking for a way to off himself.

Instead, he stayed. He crewed. He took care of his brother and friend, Mav. Mav would have done the same thing, but on this day it made all the difference for T3. Instead of being at home revisiting all the things that might have been different and questioning his decision to drop, T3 had a job to do. For the next 19 hours, someone was counting on him to focus on their needs, not his own problems. That changed things. That salvaged the day.

When it is not your day, help make it someone else’s day.

Well, at least Samsonite was near the front for a while. Actually, he was in third place until he dropped at Lucille’s. Samsonite was crewed by his family and they forwarded some pics:

We are not even going to explain this pic…

And they’re off…

Near Clinton Lake…

Such a cutie…

Combination road crew and cheering section…

Your going to do what?…
(BTW a runner on the ground is never a good thing)

Pacing, as American as Mom and apple pie (ok, that is his Mom)…

Mav finished the final long stretch to Ft. Reno and rounded the corner to pass through the gate.

He had been talking about changing back into only Piraña gear fro the last several miles, so Cara and T3 helped him out of his warm stuff and into his Piraña stuff, then, joined by Goose who had come to see the finish, and T3, Mav continued up the 1.5 mile road to the Ft. Reno Complex.

The road takes a left turn and then a right turn to go around the visitors center before you can see the Chapel and the Mother Road 100 finish line. Before the three caballeros made the turns (so they were still hiden from the finish by the visitors center) Mav decided to take off everything but his shorts and his buffalo girl garter. And that is the way he crossed the finish line!

So three Pirañas started, one finished.

T3 got Mav to put his clothes on before he got chilled and he posed for pictures.

Well done Mav!

Mav has made the last turn before the Ft. Reno gate.

Next stop, THE FINISH LINE!

Road Booty strikes again! Mav found, and this is not a joke, a Buffalo head garter. Rather than attempt to describe it, you have to see it for yourself:

He is wearing it to the finish line too!

Mav is through Calumet and moving well. He is drinking plenty and even eating when we tell him to. Less than 10 to go!

Wait, it IS tomorrow! Mav continues to make steady forward progress. Weeble has left to catch a plane and Cara Rogers has joined the team to finish the job and get Mav to the line.

That is Cara in the blue in front of Angie who came to see Mav for a little while. Weeble and Mav are running to the location.

The sun is up, Mav is within striking distance, his mood is good and now he is running with a pretty girl so he is basically happy. Next stop, Calumet, and then just 10 miles to go.

In every race there is the inevitable last few people who are not going to make the cut-off or the finish line in the time alloted. In the case of the Mother Road it is 30 hours. The Piraña Brothers established a cut-off time at the half way point of 14 hours. Based on the median runner using 40% of their time in the first half and 60% in the second, that was generous. So, based on 16 hours to finish the second 50 miles, that leads to other potential areas:

bridgeport by 4:30 am
tatur turn by 6:15 am
geary by 8:10 am
calumet by 11:45

Mav is well ahead of these cutoffs and on pace for about 24 hours, but of  (a dozen or so) are struggling to get to each aid station before the cut.

The course between the aformentioned bridge and Geary is a dirt road that was part of the original alignment of Route 66. When they came along a few years later and paved the road, they moved the alignment a little east to what is now Highway 281.

Right before the turn onto this dark and lonely 6 mile stretch (crew vehicles cannot follow) is the TATUR Turn. So named because the TATURs are manning it. TATUR Town is quite a site at 72+ miles for tired, hungry and cold runners.

Weeble found a chair for Mav to sit in so T3 could change his shoes, rub his feet and fix a hot spot on his left foot.

Weeble got him some dry clothes and Mav changed jackets to match the falling temps. after a couple cups of soup, bottle refills, and a trusty 800mg, Mav and Weeble motored out into the dark along that dirt road. Next stop—Geary

Team Piraña continues to march toward the finish line. Mav crossed the bridge between Bridgeport and the TATUR Turn. The bridge over the South Canadian River is 0.8 miles long, and narrow with no shoulder at all. The race provided a vehicle to escort uncrewed runners across. T3 followed Mav and Weeble on their trek.

Mav made it to Bridgeport at about 12:40 (that’s 67.5 miles in 15.5 hours or so). Bridgeport is not a large town. In fact, it is a really small town. The local school Jr. class manned the aid station there and the town opened the Methodist Church building for the runners to use the facilities. Which Mav did:

Unfortunately for the kind folks of Bridgeport, their little church may never be the same again. Mav left a funk behind that has a life of it’s own and will not easily vacate it’s new abode. Bridgeport Methodist is now haunted by the ghost of Mav’s BM.

A few minutes of massage ansd some food and fuel and Mav and Weeble headed off down the road. Up next: The TATUR Turn! Expect lots of pics and some funny stuff to come out of that location.