Happy 64th Birthday, Will.
Soon, I will have my 74th.
Congrats are in order!!! Bob

Happy Birthday Will you are an inspiration.

Same to you, Bob. To paraphrase Shakespeare (Lear?) "Tho we may look old and grey, Yet we are strong and lusty."

Well, strong anyway. :-)

Will

to hell with strong and keep the lusty
happy b day

Happy Birthday Will

lol Dusty Happy Birthday Will!!!!!

Happy Birthday Will!

WILL,

ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY!

COOL.... ITS TIME FOR A PARTY.....

WILL HOPE THIS IS A FUN DAY FOR YOU... :-D

Happy B Day Will.

Brett T

Happy B-day Will! Didn't you have a big race coming up this month? How did you do?

Happy Birthday Will! I thought I had posted already, but I guess not. My mom turned 64 a couple months ago- today we were singing the Beatles. . "When I'm 64" today in her rehab room w/her nurse (who is also a guy!! it was a light moment- much needed). You're an inspiration to the HD community. . Hope you had a good one!

Thanks to everyone. Lori - my annual summer race was yesterday. It's a 40 mile trail run in the SC and NC mountains. It's never been measured accurately, but my guess is that it's about that distance. It's called the Laurel Valley Whitewater Run. It's kind of a cult event for only about 60 people. You have to have finished the race to enter. However, the Race Director lets 5 to 10 new people in each year if they agree to serve as safety sweeps.

The sweeps run at the back of the pack to insure everyone gets to the finish line safely. There are two starting times - 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM. The past few years I've been the Sweep Captain for the first group. This year there were 6 sweeps with me and three who started at 6:00. Those are the faster folks.

The reason for all this caution is that the race is in the wilderness with no access to the course except the start and finish. Everyone carries all their own supplies and purifies drinking water from streams and rivers. As sweep Captain I also enforce people turning back to the start at about 12 miles. That's safer if someone is having a bad day. This year we had one person do that voluntarily.

We also had one person turn an ankle badly at about the same spot. One of my sweeps was carrying medical supplies and was able to tape it well enough for him to continue.

The 6:00 AM sweep team caught us about two hours out and we continued together. Unfortunatey one of those sweeps was a fairly slow person and we had to move at his pace. The course is extremely difficult with numerous steep climbs and descents. The final climb is 1,000 near vertical feet to the finish at Whitewater Falls, NC. The Falls are a tourist attraction and folks climb down a ways to get a better view. I recall one year I was trying to catch a really heavy guy smoking a cigar and couldn't.

The combined sweep teams finished right at 8:00 PM. This is a very satisfying race for everyone due to it's nature. I finished my 14th consecutive one and was proud to welcome the sweeps into the Laurel Valley Finishers fraternity/sorority.

Will

Wow, a 15-hour race for you then. That is amazing. Thanks for sharing the great report. How cool that you were sweep captain, too. And that YOU at 64yrs old, can not only DO this, but you SLOWED down to stick with the other sweeps!