Bootlegger 100
April 5, 2025
Flovilla, Georgia
31:10, 79th hundred
23rd state with a hundred miler or more
Hallucinations for the win.
The Bootlegger 100 is a twenty mile loop you do five times for a hundred. Flovilla, Georgia is the home of Indian Spring Park where the trails are wonderful. The twenty mile loop we were on was beautiful and circumnavigated a lake. The first three miles had some steep ups and downs and then the rest of the trails had only gradual ups and downs, totally runable. Part of the twenty mile loop contained a 6 mile loop that was in a pine forest and the trail was covered with pine needles which made it very soft. Of course there were some roots and rocks and I only had the pleasure of kicking a few (ouch) a few times, so no falling.
Fortunately for me I had planned to take the early start which the race offered to anyone at 4:30 am. Yes it was early (1:30 am PDT) but if I had not taken the early start I would have finished in torrential rain. It was a hot race on day one, getting up to 85 degrees and humid. On the second day in the afternoon, after I finished it started raining and it hasn’t stopped as I write this 24 hours later. I ran in completely soaked clothes from the humidity and an ice cot around my neck and took the time each loop to reapply my Gold Bond to prevent chaffe. The heat definitely slowed me down as I got a headache and so I drank a lot more water and just took care of myself.
The only issue with taking the early start for an east coast or eastern time zone race is that you are really up for two nights. Hence this is why I saw a lot of weird stuff, aka hallucinations, on the morning I was finishing. I usually see weird stuff in the daylight, where most runners see them at night. The animals I see at night are really animals, at least I’m telling myself that. I saw two armadillos at night and they were big. I messed with them and shined my headlamp at them and talked to them before scaring them off the trail so I could pass by. I’m not sure if I like aftershox to play my books at night as aftershox let you hear what is happening around you which is good for safety, but hearing all the rustling in the leaves just off the trail was a bit unnerving. Back to hallucinations. There were a lot of fallen trees or stumps just off to the side of the trail as I looked around I would see stuff, mostly people or what looked like a person or a car or a bus. As I would get closer to these I could see it was just a stump or a fallen log. Weird. My imagination is active when I have had little sleep.
Great aid stations and volunteer support. This was only the third year of this race and they do a great job taking care of runners. Brenda and I stayed in a cute little air bnb about ten minutes from the race. After the race I got a shower and a nap and Brenda procured food and we watched a movie about the first gal who swam the English Channel. So dinner and movie, after a hundred, very grateful for good friends. Grateful I can still do these kinds of thangs.