Fat Chuck's Demise is no place to start a race and The Wall, no place to end. And with multiple loops in the bargain, this little story only repeats itself until done. Twas just a small pack of early morning moon runners that began with their opening bids. A trio of fast guys all of whom claimed to be running easy race today, led the way along the barb-wired border to fat Chuck's right. A few folded early, but John Reynolds kept pushing the ante. With two separate starts times (4am and 6am) for the same race, we knew what John did not: that a few 6am starters were actually running equal to his splits. Stephen and Matt as well as Kelli were all pretty tight. John ran very well and finished strong but had to wait another 2 hours to know how he did. With 9 minutes to spare, Stephen trumped John's time. And then we had to wait another hour to determine 3rd thru 5th with a similar circumstance. The result was Stephen Baumgartner in 8:30:16. John Reynolds in 8:39:40, and Matthew Crownover in 9:23:25 Anna Hern won in 9:24:39, then Kimberly Pilcher in 12:00:44, and Mary Ntefidou in 12:20:49     The 50km & 25km races had much less mystery but every bit as much drama. John Robertson won in 4:31:45, then Robert King in 4:33:49, and Stefan Grater in 4:37:39. Kelli Newlon was 3rd overall, winning in 4:37:14, then Megan Haley in 4:58:49, and Amanda McIntosh in 5:14:53 The 25km was a sprint with all 3 top finishers under 2 hours. Robert Michell won in 1:48:30, then Rolando Roman in 1:51:21, then Pete Mehok in 1:53:21. Tracey Vaughan came back to again win the 2nd title she took last year with a 2:16:09, followed by Kerry Montgomery in 2:31:24, and Stacey Hilts in 2:45:23 It was a beautiful morning. From 4am til 7am, it dropped from 50 to 42, but as soon as the sun rose, it started climbing rapidly. By noon it had almost doubled down to 80. So, the longer you took, the hotter it got. Anyone standing pat after noon got a bad deal. A small core of motivated people did all the right things to work their magic but still, the heat and the rocks assisted more than a few people off the course before they had finished what they came to do. Still, it was a very nice day in the rocky hills.