Yes there is another story to be told! Patrick paced Grant from where I left him at "Shay Mountain" to " Dry Valley " AS. I arrived at Wind Whistle before lunch on Sunday morning after being up all night. I was exhausted , I was also in a truck in the middle of the desert on a windy cold day. I figured that I would see them around 4pm so I tried to sleep only maybe getting an hour at the most 2 or maybe even less...its a bit of a blur. The last thing I wanted to do but the first thing I would absolutely do were one and the same and that was to pace Grant to "Wind Whistle" Now this was an easy section, all road! It was easy for me but not so much for Grant. Grant and Patrick arrived around 3:30 pm about 7 hours after they left Shay, Grant sat down at the AS and ate, drank and ate ...very encouraging. Heading out at 4:30 Grant was leaning to the left and in allot of pain. Every few hundred meters he would pause for a moment , stretch and the continue on. We were heading North towards Moab into a 50 kmh cool , dry desert wind. The first couple of hours in the Sun were OK, not too cold. When the Sun went down so did the temps dropping to near freezing quickly and still into a 50 kmh wind! Grants lean continued to get worse and as time went on he was leaning more as well as stopping every 200 meters. With the slow pace and constant breaks I was cold ...Grant had a down coat on and was still in shorts. I got him to stop and get his pants on which made him a little cold but we had hours to go so it was a good move! This stretch was what you would expect from a desert, wide open with big skys and at times we could see for at least 50 km making it very difficult to judge distance. We were passed by a dozen or more other folks all stopped to check on Grant and offer assistance. We borrowed Advil and Robaxiset but it didn't make any difference. I had one runner comment to me later on that he had never seen anyone in such rough shape that was still moving! Grants stops became more frequent even wanting to lay down and sleep roadside. Things were not looking good but he was determined to go on and was hopeful that somehow he could get some help at the AS so he could continue. On a side note it was a very clear night with a crescent moon low in the sky early on. We were passing a Bute and the moon hung just above it with some nearby starts. It was so clear the universe looked 3 dimensional it was a truly amazing moment. In the last few Ks to Wind Whistle it was really tough for Grant both physically and mentally...he wanted to go on but he was coming to the realization that probably wasn't going to happen. We arrived at the AS at 11:00 pm Grant sought immediate help and in a few minutes he was in a tent sleeping. The plan was to give him a couple of hours and then wake him up to determine if he can continue. He didn't have much choice to go on because the medical personal were going to pull him off the course. I was frozen and couldn't get warm at the fire while Grant was sleeping. We ran right past Patrick on the way in to the AS. Met up with Patrick around midnight and dove into a warm truck getting out of my running clothes. Sometime after 1am we woke Grant up and he pulled the plug ...I was happy that he called it vs getting a medical. It took awhile but we managed to get him in the truck and back to Moab grabbing a hotel around 3am where Grant hit the sack in full running gear falling asleep almost as soon as he hit the sheets.
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