~45 miles @ ~15.5 min/mi

Bull Run Run! Still the best 50 miler — even if the GPS says it's ~45 miles, and this year the Runkeeper trackfile glitches and misses several segments. Still a challenge but not a torment. Still beautiful, diverse terrain. Still wonderful volunteers and fellow travelers. Still superb VHTRC attitude.

What's not to like?

The weather is warm but not overwhelming today, my eighth BRR. I trek along, chatting with friends Stephanie Fonda, Marshall Porterfield, and Ken Swab. When a train crosses the stream I pause to take photos.

I slip and fall only once, in the mud at the northern end of the course.

This year's BRR comes two weeks after the 2015-03-28 - Umstead 100 Mile Endurance Run (75 mile DNF). My blisters are largely healed, and my attitude is back to normal — "11" on the optimism meter.

Goal? Still only to have no goals. Again, I fail. But perhaps I'm getting closer!

The official results this year have me crossing the line in 12:07:05, which pulls down my median time by ~9 minutes. I'm 241st place overall out of 323 starters and 280 finishers within the 13-hour cutoff. Among males 60-64 years old I'm 7th of 12, and sadly pull the team stuck with me ("MCRRC Stand-outs") down a few places by being more than three hours slower than my buddies.

BRR finish times:

     12:25:06 - 2007
     12:50:18 - 2008
     11:39:50 - 2009
     11:22:06 - 2010
     11:55:25 - 2011
     12:28:38 - 2013
     12:24:45 - 2014
     12:07:05 - 2015

Next year? Who knows!

(cf. Bull Run Run 2007, Bull Run Run 2008, 2009-04-18 - Bull Run Run, 2010-04-10 - Bull Run Run, 2011-04-09 - Bull Run Run, 2013-04-13 - Bull Run Run 2013, 2014-04-12 - Bull Run Run 50 Miler, ...) - ^z - 2015-05-06