| Neologistics→ Running → ATY 1999 |
Cyra-Lea and I just passed the yellow lap mark at 11:43 AM. The race clock shows real time, not elapsed race time. When the 6-day race started on December 26, the clock was set to 9:00. Happily, it was within one second of my Timex Ironman Triathlon 100 watch, which I synchronize with an atomic clock.
Notice the impromptu ``1'' on the clock, that badly placed yellow vertical stripe to the left. It's a piece of yellow duct tape, the ultrarunner's best friend and universal tool. The race clock doesn't have a tens digit. How many races are there that go ten hours or more? Whenever the time got to be between 10:00 and 12:00, day or night, that piece of tape served as the first digit.
I believe that's Frank Cuda standing on the line, calling the numbers. Frank was the assistant race director, and spent a lot of time during the six days driving around and running errands. Despite this, he was also officially enrolled in the race, and would take laps every now and then. He eventually accumulated 31.57 miles for the six days.