Maurice LaFond (MM13948) –
Yesterday we went to do a trail race since the medal and sweat shirt had an owl on it. Our Burning River 100 team has been called the Wise Badass Owls for a few years so you understand why we had to have the medal. Maurice LaFond did the marathon starting at 4 pm and I did the 10k at 5:30 pm. This was out of my comfort zone as I don’t run in the dark let alone a trail I didn’t know. His was two loops and mine an out and back. As I was at mile 5.5 I saw him and got a kiss, he said he had 12 more to go.
It was cold, wet, icy, muddy, etc. so I knew he would be a while but I knew he would finish.
He stopped at one point to go behind a tree as all the bathrooms on the trails were closed. Got his bearings mixed up and went the wrong way. One of the volunteers told him he should go back to the start a mile and half away and take a DNF, that is not how he runs. With plenty of rain and ice and too many slip and falls the second loop he made it to the finish before the 9 hour cutoff. He also got this neat award for finishing last, also oldest finisher. I never was so glad to see a light coming through the woods at 12:30 at night.
Photo and Post Credit Maurice and Debbie LaFond