5 hours before the race I got with my first char and made it in 1 long hour, second try, Gshock made it in 26 min with only a 5 kill countdown.

I was expecting to be one of the best runner after other couple tries and expecting everyone to be croc-food except from me.

Then, when the race started I felt like I was running out of the Peace Cave from AV… =p but as soon as I got to the tunnel, I got the first disconnect. Shit! It can’t be! I’ll lose too much time! got inside the game again as fast as I could, and as soon as I get back. Disconnected from server. again! no, it can’t be! and that happened throughout the entire race, being my last disconnect when I ran inside Menethil to get in the portals to shatt.

I think my comp doesn’t accept so many TJ Lovers together…
Thanks BRK, for the opportunity to meet my dearest TJ.

Yours sincerely,
Zomgpinkhair

I think I was running next to you for some time (Engergizer, pink pony tail, yes?). I was Samslowfoot, and yes I was bringing up the rear as well.

I switched to my map too late to realize I apparently missed a major shortcut near the start. Silly me for following BRK’s map and staying on the road! Having only leveled a Night Elf before this, I think the only time I’ve run though Dun Morogh was to get the flight point in IF.

Still, a blast of a time. And I only died twice! Easily one of my high points playing WoW. All thanks to BRK and Aetherial Circle!

Ezjidday and Marquez, of Hydraxis

I took lots and lots of screenshots … my fave is the one where my gnome is clearly visible right between BRK and Hobbes.

Alas, I didn’t take the port in the end. Figured I’d save a bit of a rune of portals, seeing as I have serious doubts that I’ll ever touch Buffly again. Unless we race next year. Or again.

While I was nowhere near first, second or 40th place I did indeed finish, the whole event was entertaining. The pack I was traveling with managed to stay alive for the most part. A few casualties from the orcs at the North Gate Pass, a few from the ooze, and still a few from the crocolisks.

Before the race began I showed a framerate of 4.4 fps, which was enough to lag my cousin and her dial-up to death. She missed it. As did her boyfriend who had to leave for work. Next time we’re making preparations and will be spreading the word.

Thank you, your guildmates, the rest of your help, and all the runners who helped make all this an event to remember. Next time I’ll stick around for that port to Shatt. How about making this a semi-annual event?

As for the reason Forthus died, and the reason you entered combat, we discovered on our two test runs just before the race that there was actually a crocolisk that had bugged and spawned underground. If you swam directly overhead, it would somehow be able to hit you, and one-shot you. We didn’t have time before the race to either page a GM, or attempt to work out exactly where the bugger was hiding.

And we figured that if we didn’t know where he was, neither should anyone else!

As for music, I’m sticking with Yakety Sax a.k.a. “The Benny Hill Theme”…

Gnomad here (aka Cap’n John . I’m no stranger to the IF Airport and having run both routes prior to the race I wasn’t sure either offered much of an advantage over the other, but I decided to take the High Road anyway. I almost fell to my death a couple of times but managed to stop just in time (anyone who puts up a video simply has to use the Lemmings theme song. There really is no better choice

I survived the drop to the Farm and noticed Forthus heading a lot further west than I’d done on previous trips. A quick look at the map showed the Menethil Bay’s narrowest point was right where Forthus was heading…and the Bay is full of Crocs so cutting down the swimming time was a wise move. I was watching Forthus and saw him get hit as he took the plunch, and like him I “Entered Combat” almost as soon as I got my feet wet. Amazingly though, I never saw the Mob that wanted Gnome for lunch, and no, it’s not because I got one-shotted; I flat out never got hit at all.. I made it to dry land and entered Menethil Harbor w/o dying once (the entire race) and when I crossed the bridge and “discovered” the Wetlands I was still a lowly level 1 Gnome.

Fantastic race, and a lot of fun. My wife was laughing at all the naked gnomes, but she quickly grew tired of their cackling and I was forced to turn my speakers down

We found the first shortcut near Gnomeregan fairly easily, but decided that since it required a death and we would have to corpse run back from Menethil, through Wetlands, through Dun Morogh, back to Gnomeregan and back over the hills to rez… that it wasn’t very helpful.

A while later, myself and the other Aussie worked out how to get up to the IF airport from just beyond the north passage. We ran that route about a dozen times, working out which falls could be survived, which couldn’t and where to aim for on those long straight stretches to minimise our run time. We practised hopping like deranged bunnies on crack until we could glitch up the landscape in a few seconds. We ran several runs to time exactly how long the run was before finally deciding that, yes, we were going to take the high road.

An hour and a half before the race starts, and we do two more test runs. On the second, I find a different way down to the farm above Wetlands that shaves one or two seconds off the run time. Causes some falling damage, but nothing I can’t easily survive. But, no time to try again! Time to get back to Coldridge! We logout, delete our characters and re-create them.

So, race time. We line up, wait for the hordes to quieten down, and /wave at BRK a bit. BRK gives the signal, and we’re off. Luckily for Forthus and myself, we weren’t the only ones planning on cutting Kharanos out of the run. This was lucky since the area behind Kharanos has many, many large bitey animals that were just slavering at the thought of a Gnomesnack Buffet. Word to the wise: let other people be “first” at the start, when “first” is synonymous with “bear fodder.”

After that went by uneventfully for myself and my friend, we started the corner-cutting. When we got back to the road, there were about a dozen stumpy-legged gnomes ahead of me. By the time we reached the northern passage, I was neck-and-neck with the leader. Barrelling down the tunnel, I decided on a bit of showmanship and bid the other gnome (whose name I sadly forget) and BRK adieu. As we exited into the sunlight, I veered off to the left, and starting hopping like mad to get up into the mountains.

A few seconds later, I was jumping around the trees, and watching my minimap. At the time, I could only see two other people trying to follow the same route. One was Forthus. The other was (I believe) a chap by the name of Gnomad. I wished him luck.

One nice thing about the high road is the almost total lack of mobs, and how big and featureless it is. Only a scant few trees, no rocks. I’d gone through and marked all my waypoints on my map beforehand, and so knew where to run to shave off those precious seconds. It was working, too: Gnomad and Forthus had disappeared off my minimap along the straight, and I was continuously increasing my lead. A quick glance at the battle map showed that the main body of the race was leagues behind, still heading north past all those gleefully waiting spiders and crocolisks. I couldn’t believe it. Not only was I in the lead, but I was getting farther ahead! I might actually win this!

Passing by the Ironforge Airport with a quick message into the raid chat channel, I began my descent to the farm. Now, this is easily the most dangerous spot in the entire run. If you die here, one of two things will happen: you will either pop in Kharanos and have to re-run the whole thing again, or pop in Menethil and have to run back past the entire race to rez.

I’d done it a dozen times without incident. I could do it with my eyes closed. But I got greedy. Who knows how close other people might be? Who knows if a few extra seconds could be the difference between coming first, and soul-crushing second?

I decided to take the “new” way down.

It’s easy enough: a short jump, and then a few drops. No problem. But I forgot the “jump” part. I slid off the edge. It’s OK: I’ll just fall on to that first ledge. But I didn’t; I kept sliding. Past the first ledge, past the second and third. I hadn’t even hit the ground when I knew that I’d already lost. I impacted the ground, my little gnomy groaned and died, and I found myself back in Kharanos.

“Forthus, I’m out.”

“I’m right behind the second guy.”

“Win this, d@mnit.”

Someone actually commented in chat that I was “dead in first.” Forthus did his best, managing to overtake and leave Gnomad behind, but was out-run at the last second by the eventual first and second placers when he got ambushed by a crocolisk.

As for me, by the time I’d gotten back to my body and finished the run (without dying to either the murlocs or the crocolisks in a hideous bit of irony: I almost always died to them once a run,) I was pretty much dead last.

None the less, it was great fun. I made a new friend, got to see BRK and Hobbes in person, and heard BRK asking everyone to please stop proposing to TJ.

Oh well, best start working on a route to Booty Bay for next year…