So at this point, Paul Schmidt, who had been running with a bad achilles tendon, said that he'd keep going if we paired up for the rest of the race. Paul has run 56 100-milers! He knows his stuff cold. I was a bit apprehensive about being able to keep up with him, and abandoning some of my strategy for his advice, but I couldn't turn down the opportunity to gain this kind of experience. Plus, he's just a super-cool guy. He has a great personality to do something like this with. Man, if he ever became an alpinist...