As per my last post, James Murray was scheduled to run 100 miles starting Saturday morning and ending sometime on Sunday. I am pleased to report that he completed the run!  There was also a second runner, Gerry, who also completed the 100 mile trek about 1h later (it took them 31 and 32h respectively to complete).

I had the honor to spend +-15 km with them Sunday at 6am until around 10am.

Here is a picture taken just west of “east end” along Lover’s wall.  It was around 6:30-7am.  Nice and cool with the cloud cover.  James is the guy with the cap.  The others, just like myself, were along as “support team”.  There was a support van (and sometime someone with their SUV when the van had to go to the other runner for supplies) “shielding” us from other cars.   A very well organized event.   There was also a BBM (Blackberry) group where we were getting up to the minute updates as to where he was ; in essence, I knew exactly where he was when I headed out on Sunday morning.

Later on, near Bodden Town, a few more runners joined the effort.  The camaraderie between James and with all the other runners is the real story for me.   I had such a good time; meeting other runners, supporting James for the worthy cause (raising $ for diabetes) and of course keeping the BBM chat doing was a blast.   The last 20 miles or so there was walking, running and some breaks.  I am sure 99% of people would have quit.  This guy’s determination was remarkable even though you could tell he was dead tired after being on the road for over 24h not to mention he did not smell very good. haha!  When people in cars would honk with encouragement, he always gave the thumbs up and would even chit-chat with us which is impressive considering many people I know wont even chat with you during a casual 5km run.

Here is the grand finale at Camana Bay ; exactly where it all started the day before.  From the 2-3 runners with him in the morning, more than 20 people were with him at the end. Simply awesome.  It kind of reminds me of the scene in the movie Forrest Gump where where he is running across the country and everyone is following him 🙂

If you want to read more about the whole event, here is a link to a newspaper article that ran in today’s local newspaper.

http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2011/11/29/Crazy-pair-ran-for-two-days/