Runners

to the Clovis people, whose pointed projectiles can stillbe found; and back further still, over ground once trodby mastodons and sabre-toothed cats, running throughnot just space but time. Last year, Laz crossed UnicoiCounty, the last on his list.“I never meant to be Laz,” he says. Born Gary Cantrell,he first came upon the name Lazarus Lake in a phonebook while running across Tennessee. Initially, he usedit as his email handle, but it soon morphed into his ultra-running persona, and now it’s unshakable.Laz’s family comes from Oklahoma, but when hisfather got a job working on the space programme inthe 1960s, they moved to Tullahoma, Tennessee. It washere, in 1966, that Laz’s father saw a news report abouta family in Texas who jogged.“It became the first running craze,” says Laz, “andmy dad started going to the track every day with hisbuddies from work.” Laz, who was 12, accompanied hisfather on these excursions. “It was the first thing I wasable to beat him at, and my dad was very competitive.”Laz drifted into his school cross-country team. One day,the team ran from Tullahoma to the neighbouring town ofEstill Springs and back again. “It was just so cool runningfrom one town to another. It kind of stuck with me.”In the 1970s, there were only a couple of hundredultra-runners in the US, at most, and only a handful``````Laz found him. “Someone wanted him for a fightingdog,”saysLaz,“buthejustdidn’thavethenatureforit.” Laz nursed him back to health, and now the two areinseparable – and in a way, similar. Despite his fearsomedemeanour and reputation, Laz is not a fighting dog bynature, either. He pores over science and history books,and writes short stories about his dog’s adventures.Laz’s house is nestled in dense woods at the top of ahill perforated with caves. Inside, there’s a room wherehalf a dozen beds covered with quilts made from Laz’soldraceT-shirtsarereadyforanyitinerantrunnerswho happen to be passing through. The house is filledwith boxes of animal skulls picked up on his runs,arrowheads collected with his father, and stacks ofNational Geographicmagazines.Forty-fiveyearsago,Lazbeganhighlightingeveryroad he had run on a local map. When he exhaustedthe roads on one map, he’d get another, and tape it tothefirst.HesetouttorunacrossallofTennessee’s95counties, an odyssey that allowed him to immerse himselfin the state’s geolog y, biolog y, and history. He explainshow over the years he has followed in the footsteps ofthearmiesoftheNorthandSouth;andbeforethemthe settlers and the Cherokee; and before them theWoodland people, whose villages you could still see asfaint dark outlines in tilled fields; and back 10 000 years``````↑JohanSteene tearsout a pagefrom oneof 13 booksthat must belocated oneach lap. Hispages willbe counteduponreturning,and all 13must be thesame pagenumbergiven to himat the startof the lap.``````→The27-degreeday quicklydropped to3 degreesby night,and the fogrenderedheadlampsuseless.60 RUNNER’S WORLD JULY 2018