I've Got No Business Being Out Here - Jason Thienel
“I’ve got No Business being out here.” That phrase went through my head more times than I’d like to admit during the course of this project. I’ve had the pleasure of being involved, in some capacity, of every single running of the No Business 100. Over those 5 years, I have paced almost the entire course and crewed several friends to help them cross the finish line. Generally, I am attracted to big mountain races which is not a feature of No Business, but the fact that it is one giant 100-mile loop in the deep woods of Tennessee and Kentucky piqued my interest from year one.
At some point I saw a photo of the finisher buckle the RD gives you if you complete the course in both directions. This is a special 200-mile buckle intended to be given out after two years of completing it because the course alternates between clockwise and counterclockwise directions every year. I thought, “That would be cool to get that buckle after just one long push.” After keeping the idea in my pocket for a while, I finally decided to pitch the idea to Brian, the race director. He chuckled when I brought it up not quite knowing if I was serious or not. I was indeed serious and he gave me his blessing. From the initial hatching of this crazy idea I had decided that I didn’t want any special treatment. I wanted to do the first lap on my own, only meeting my crew a few times, then line up with everyone else to complete the race as it was intended.
I attempted to do this in 2020, but as with most things that year, it ended in a smoldering mess. A DNF is tough on its own, but getting a DNF after you have run 65 miles more than the race itself is hard to accept. There were many reasons that contributed to this DNF, enough to write a whole other article, but the main reason was not making the time cutoff during the race. For an entire year I had to think about what I did wrong and what I was going to fix for next time. No matter what happened, I had decided I was going to walk away with that special buckle in 2021.
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