So backing up a little – June, 2008 – I was a couple years
into my adult onset running (disorder?) phase of life – I’d run a few marathon
and had some successes in road marathons and really enjoyed the runner
lifestyle whether the health benefits, community of cool people, adventures of
the running or the need for adrenaline boots to feed my adrenaline junky nature
– it was all there and I loved it. At
the time I was still on the quest for speed – to get the fastest marathon time
I could - but at some point I knew age would make speed harder to get and I’d
need a new quest. A common thing said
among runners is when you can’t go faster – go farther and those words
resonated for me. So in this June, 2008
– there was a family reunion back at my Dad’s place in Auburn – his back deck
looked up towards the mountains where the smoke of a forest fire far away could
be seen. There were articles in the
local paper about a race that was supposed to go through where that smoke was
getting cancelled and somehow I got a program for the race – I think my Dad
gave it to me – and I read it and dreamed a little – one of my morning runs ran
I chose to go down to no hands bridge and back where I read a sign pointing up
the trail “97 miles – Squaw Valley”. A
couple years go by – I’m able to get itsy bitsy bits faster with lots and lots
of effort but the plateau of improvement was there and the quest for knocking
off such minor slivers of time wasn’t driving me so much anymore. Somewhere along the way I looked up what it
took to get into Western States and educated myself – built a little
mathematics model to predict how long it would take me to get into this race
and could project because of the race’s increasing popularity and limited participant
size it was going to get harder and harder each year I waited so if I ever
wanted to do this race – I better get this quest started – starting entry in
2011 I figured I had a better than 50/50 shot of getting in and running this
race within 5 years as long as I could keep putting my name in the
lottery. So that’s what I did. The lottery rules changed each of the 4 years
I entered from 2011 through 2014 which appeared to try to restrict/reduce
entrees into the lottery but it seemed to have the opposite effect. First they cut the number of races that could
be used as qualifiers for entering the lottery, and then they forced longer
distance races cutting out shorter 50 miler qualifier races – but the more the
restrictions it seemed the greater the general desire to get into Western
States and the entries into the lottery kept growing and growing. 4th year December 2014 after
running my first 100 miler to achieve the qualifying requirement I had earned 8
tickets in the lottery for entering it 4 years in a row under the latest new
rule of doubling the ticket count for an entrée each consecutive year – my odds
were still at an unlikely ~1/3 level – I got lucky and I’m in for 2015 Western
States – woohoo!
The timing could not have been more perfect. I ran a victory marathon the next day after
the lottery win in Sacramento nearly at PR speed so my fitness was good. I’d recently accepted a job transfer from
Houston to the Bay Area and was moving in January which played well for
training purposes to have trails and hills and mountains and even the Western
States course just a few hour drive.
There was a lot of work to do and things to learn but 6 months between
the lottery and the race seemed enough time to rise up to the challenge. I needed to transform myself from basically a
flat lander roady marathoner into a long distance trail runner proficient at steep
climbs and descents with altitude and heat.
You might think from Houston I’d at least have the “heat” variable
nailed but I’ve had mostly epic fails in hot races and in my mind heat was a
major weakness for me. My successes as a
marathoner typically came with minimal adversity – perfect weather conditions
on easy flat or downhill courses – I had good control over other variables like
pace or fueling/hydrating and got to think of myself as good at running
marathons – with increased adversity such as heat or hilly courses or headwinds
or having to work though something unexpected my tendency has been to underperform
– I’ve heard some runners say when adversity is greater they perform better –
that ain’t me - I’m generally a fair weather runner.
Western States is no marathon – although I’ve done some
ultramarathons and a couple ironman I never could seem to get races any longer
than a marathon “right”. Issue like
hydrating, fueling, tripping and breaking my ankle once, chaffing, lack of hill
adaptation caused one DNF, or in the one and only completed hundred miler a
case of major discomfort the last 1/3rd of the race and weeks of
recovery GI distress(yeah TMI - sorry) – again I never seemed to get
these ultra races right. Also I never
really tried all that hard as the ultramarathons I’d done were just the means
to an end – get my name in the lottery for Western States – none I had done
were major performance goals in and of themselves – just needed to finish them
and get my name in the hat.
Western States is a goal race – a bucket list goal race – a
one time shot not likely to every happen again. Once in I had 6 months to get educated on how
to do it and get trained to run this very different kind of running than I’d
had experience to do. December we sell
the house in Houston – I run a swan-song marathon in my hometown for the last 1.5
decades on new years’ day – I score my first “check” off the bucket list for
2015 winning a marathon - and we load up all our stuff in a moving van to go
into storage and load the pets and our temporary living stuff into a motorhome
and head west to California. The trails
are my new running grounds most miles even for stops along the way – the
hillier the better. In California the
first two months until mid-March we are in a hotel not far from Mt Diablo as we
househunt. First weekend in the hotel I
find a trail to climb the thing and set out one Saturday morning early to
charge up and down it – going down was a particular challenge – I had no idea
how to do it – descending 3000’ on trails was something I’d never done before
and I ended up making up a stutter step method to one foot or another that
sorta worked but I had sore knees for the rest of the week. I kept at it and got tips how to run downhill
and in all climbed to the summit of that mountain 14 times before race day and
by the end the knees didn’t hurt at all after.
I had some magnificent training all around the bay area plus a few 50k
tune-up races I drove to in Marin County, Reno and one up and around my Mt
Diablo. I took one weekend to fly out
and meet a friend (Dave LaTourette) to run across the Grand Canyon and back in
½ a day – what a total blast that was and my 2nd 2015 bucket list
item to check-off. That would be my
longest training run pre-Western States at about 48’ish miles – (done on the
month of my 48th birthdayJ). I ran the last 70 miles of the Western States
trail in the 3 day labor day weekend training camp with a lot of time
hanging-out with Oleg Khryashchev who’s just starting his quest into Western
States having just run his first qualifying race for next year’s lotter. For some reason I was trying an exercise in
futilely to keep up with Kaci Lickteig on the Foresthill to finish portions of
the run the 2nd and 3rd day - I didn’t really know here
except recognized her name from UltraRunnerPodcasts that I liked to listen to
and knew she was a top 10ish contender – as she ended up even a podium finisher
at 2nd place lady on raceday I feel a little better failing to keep
up with her. I got to run most of the
rest of the course from Squaw Valley to Robinson Flat with Team Diablo a few
weeks before the race. Trail running is
fun – at least living in the bay. I had
no appreciation of it living in the Houston area as trail pickings were pretty
slim – but there seems no end to the sights to be seen in the bay. My co worker Dennis I mentioned before got me
plugged in with Team Diablo – lots of great runners with a plethora of Western
States experienced that were more than happy to share their stories and
experiences and advice to the newbie flat lander and I soaked it all in
grasping for every nugget of wisdom I could gather from their words. I joined up with a group that met on a track
every Tuesday 6am to do speed workouts to get to know more of the local runners
around. Someone pointed me to an App
called Strava that also proved a great way to connect with a few runners around
and occasionally fed my competitive drive to knock down some course records in
strava segments which was a fun distraction on some lonely morning runs. Running community in the bay area rocks!
In all for the first ½ of the year training for and racing
Western States I’ve climbed over 230k’ of elevation – much more in 6 months
than all the prior 47.66 years of my life, also I logged ~1550 miles I’d guess
80% on trails in 262 hrs of running – that’s both the most mileage for 6 months
for me ever and certainly the slowest average speed ever at 10+ mpm as trails
and hills are just not as fast as flat roads. Fitness
wise I felt ready for the race. But I
knew fitness is really a secondary variable for running a good 100 mile Western
States. Many of the other variables that
in some ways were more important I was very inexperienced with and knew a lot
of things could and most likely would go wrong.
Fueling, hydrating, heat management, altitude, pacing – especially large
descents and climbs for the canyons, and just putting up with the mental grind
for so long were new territory for me.
Largely these were things I just couldn’t practice near to the extent
that would be demanded on race-day so I had to rely for many of these things on
strategies I picked up from others in dealing with these rather than personal
experience. I knew things would go
wrong. Even experienced 100 milers say
there is rarely a race where things don’t go wrong so for an un-experienced
newbie with so much untested guesswork in my raceplan – I just had to expect
things to go south and hope I could figure a way around the challenges. Unlike a marathon where I feel so much more
in control and know what to expect even know rather predictably how I’m going to
feel throughout the race – for this race with so much less control – it was
nerve racking – but also very exciting.
I was both terrified and delighted staring up the mountain on race
morning at what was to come.
Ok I’m sure any reading this is ready for some “race” in
this race report but before I get to that I will first set up with the “plan”
for the race. Here are a few of the
highlights of the plan:
CREW: Support crew along
the course – There were 7 – my wife and son (daughter was planned but as I
mentioned her flight got cancelled and she didn’t make it), 3 siblings (two
sisters and brother), my niece, and my Dad.
We had a crew meeting at my Dad’s house Sunday night after most everyone
arrived travelling from afar and I laid out the plan on the powerpoint slides I’d
devised for them to support and the things I wanted them to have available for
me at each aid station. It was really
important to me that they all have a good time and not have the day all about
me. In the end after running through the
plan and making a couple adjustments the final plan was a single vehicle for up
to all 7 (my wife reluctantly put her 10 year babied Expedition up to the task)
hitting Robinson Flat, Michigan Bluff, Foresthill, Rucky Chucky, 49 Crossing,
No Hands Bridge and the finish.
PACERS: John Loftus
is on year 2 of his Western States entry journey having his first lottery
drawing last year and has been a friend back to 2007 close to the start of both
of our adult onset running journey – he’s provided many exciting moments as
I’ve watched his journey with the most vivid for me from a computer screen as
I’m home injured he nailed his first age group win at the Boston (fricken)
Marathon. He asked right after the
drawing win to be a pacer and I was honored and excited to have him there. I gave him the Cal Street leg which goes from
Foresthill – the first place pacers are allowed – to the river crossing at
Rucky Chucky with a little adder as I asked him to jog up to Bath Street to
meet me at the trailhead before the aid station – so from mile 60 to 78 or 18
miles.
Andy – my big brother – he’s an athlete – swimmer, skier and
a wanna-be ironman. Hopefully his third
attempt at Tahoe Ironman this year will be the charm after a DNS (too busy) and
a DNS (race cancelled due to smoke) turned fatass (as he attempted the race
anyway without race support) that went DNF with a midbike leg bike theft. But he’s not really a runner – but running
with my brother was too cool an opportunity so I took some risk he could figure
it out. I teased him a couple times that
he better be able to keep up with me and made it know if I dropped him before
the last aid station he’d be stuck as the rules don’t let pacers leave aid
stations without their runners. Secretly
(don’t tell him) I’m still holding a little grudge for him wiping my ass in a
little impromptu 1-1 race in the San Juan Islands back in my college days and
dropping him on 80 miles of tired legs could finally be my payback J. Andy pacing is from Rucky Chucky river
crossing to 49 crossing - miles 78 to 93.5 or 15.5 miles. I think he mentioned he’d run a 9 miler
recently at 12 mpm and felt ready – this didn’t give me really high confidence.
Ryan – my son – also an athlete – but his focus is weight
lifting with a little cardio sprinkled in here and there. He did fine the last 20 miles of my
qualifying 100 miler but I was walking/jogging all of that (with aforementioned
discomfort). I got him on some trails
around the house and we even ran the 6.5 mile stretch he’d be pacing me on
Father’s day the week before the race – but still he struggled on the run – it
was a hot mid-day run vs the race would be in the night so he wasn’t worried by
that struggling but I was a little - if I was running fast at the end of the
race I really wasn’t sure he could hang and told him if I had to drop him he
should be OK with that and he said he was.
FUELLING: Target was
200-250 calories per hour. Plan was 700
calories of Perpetuem mixed in a 20 oz bottle to get me started for a few hours
then some Ensure at certain aid stations with more perpetuem either mixed from
power in drop bags or by my crew to fill in the gaps. Eventually I was told by the experienced I
would be totally sick of that stuff so whenever that happen I was going to
figure out what looked good at the aid stations and chow down whatever calories
I could not take with perpetuem. Also I
had Caffe Latte Cliff Shots always handy as back-up which is always my go-to
for marathons.
FLUID: I was planning
to drink on a schedule 20-24 oz/hr and up it to 26-28 oz/hr as it got hot but
then listening to all the hyponatremia warnings especially at the runner
meeting the day before I decided to listen to the advice of the race and switch
to a “drink to your thirst” strategy although still kinda watching the
volume/hr. I started with a 20 oz bottle
for water in one hand with the fuel in the 20 oz bottle in the other hand. I knew this wasn’t going to be enough water
to get to the first aid station which was the longest stretch between aid
stations at 10 miles away with a big slow climb at the beginning but I couldn’t
come up with an easy way to carry more volume so decided I would take a risk
and drink from the streams when needed for that first section.
HEAT MANAGEMENT: Race
temperature projections went from hotter to average temperatures towards the
last day or so – even average for Western States is still pretty hot. With the high forecasts and my historical
poor performance in the heat I did all I could think of to acclimate. I ran the heat of the day as much as I could
and learned to endure sitting in a Sauna – I’ve never really done that before –
and even bought a space heater to heat up the room in my house with a treadmill
and would run in sweats in the heated up room several time to get my body
acclimated to the heat in the last few weeks.
The race was still hot but highs of 90s are better than highs of 100s
and start temps in high 50s at sunrise is better than 60s. My strategy for the heat was basically to
avoid getting hot. Up to Robinson Flat I
planned to use every water crossing to splash myself with water and dip my hat
and fill my hat with ice at the aid stations.
At Robinson Flat I had a bunch of cooling cloths to put on – shirt, arm
coolers, bandana, hat with ears, a vest with bladder for my cold drinking water
and extra space in the pocket I could fill with ice to melt onto me as I ran –
an extra pre-frozen water bottle I’d use to keep everything wet and cool as it
melted in my hand. I’d heard all aids
stations are stalked with lots of ice so the plan was to refill as it melted
and keep cool through the hot part of the day which I figured would last
through Foresthill then I’d dump all that stuff and switch back to the two
bottle system again.
ELECTROLYTES: The
perpetuem have me about half the 400 mg/hr Sodium recommend dosage I’d read
somewhere so I planned either S-Caps or NUUN to supplement the balance. I know there’s a lot of individual variation
on what’s needed but I didn’t really have a good basis on what was the right
amount personalized for me so I was just going to target this recommended
dosage.
PACING: All anyone
ever says on this is start slow – take it almost ridiculously easy until
Foresthill where the good easy running trails start. My plan was to cap my heartrate at 140 bpm
(for marathons I run just under 160 bpm average) which should keep me in the
fat-burning kinda realm and not too aerobic.
I had a laminated pace sheet with Early/Late projections at each aid
station I’d devised for 20 hr or 24 hr finishing somewhat even-effort splits
for the whole race and I was expecting to be close to the 20 hr splits at first
and likely fall off in the back half where something would inevitably go wrong
and hold on to the 24 hr mark for silver no matter what.
OTHER SUPPLIES: I had
a little medical supply with bandaids and tape and spare nipple bandaids if
needed. I also carried spare toiletries
and an iPod/Bluetooth headset for tunes.
I threw in a few Advil in case I wanted some. Also I had a jar of Tums to settle the
stomach. I wore Race-Ready shorts and in
my pre-race spreadsheet had a plan for each and every one of the 7 pockets of
storage plus the pockets in my hand-hold bottles. I deliberated the shirt choice long and hard
and wanted to incorporate a Team Diablo shirt but ended up falling back with
starting with one of my two red shirts, switching to the cooling white shirt
that I’d modified cutting off the sleeves at Robinson Flat then back to my
other most favorite red shirt that can be seen in most all of any finishing
picture you can find of me for races going back a long long time.
Ok – enough preamble – let’s get on with the race
already. But I’m tired of writing right
now so I’ll have to come back and add the race later J.
THE RACE:
5 am I line up staring up the first 2,500 foot climb. There’s just a hint of light in the sky from
the coming sunrise in about ½ hour in the air.
Temperatures are a comfortable high 50s.
The countdown is done and we’re off.
Some of my crew climbed up the hill a few hundred feet for a last
cheer. After a couple turns most
everyone shifts to walking for the long climb ahead. 62 minutes later I reach the Watsons monument
at the top and the trail shifts to single track and the running part of the
race begins. For several miles there is
a lot of passing and being passed as people settle into their own speed. The sun is up and a little warmth
begins. Initially I was worried there
would be no streams to refill my bottle after I’d emptied as all snow appeared
to be gone that was there a few weeks ago when I ran this and several places I
remembered streams were gone – but after a couple miles there were streams and
I dipped my had and splashed my shirt and refilled my bottle at the cleanest looking
flowing stream. I got pretty good at
dipping my hat to catch some water and pouring it over my head with just a few
seconds of stopping. 10 miles in for the
first aid station:
10.5 miles; 101st Place, Lyon’s Ridge Aid Station
– refill water bottle and go with no stopping.
Rolling hills along a ridge line until next aid station. Beautiful views down the valley and back to
Watson’s monument.
16 miles; 101st place, Red Star Ridge – drop bag
get Ensure which I guzzle and arm coolers which I slipped on. Loaded my hat with ice as it was getting warm
and I’m off. 3 minutes at aid station.
Here there are more rolling hills along a ridge line. I trip on something at one point and fall
full body forward but fortunately no injuries at all as the path was soft
smooth dirt where I landed. Drop down
about 1000’ before the next aid station.
23.8 miles; 91st place; Duncan Canyon. Dan Burke is at the aid station and gives me
a shout-out. I get a good sponging down
with cool water and again fill my hat with water – time for Canyon #1. 2 minutes at aid station.
A couple miles more and I’m at the bottom of Duncan Canyon
where I jump in the water and get everything cool and wet then start the
climb. Then the climb out – most isn’t
so bad but there’s a steep part in the middle of the climb that is a grind – a
gut on the climb is saying this is the hardest canyon of them all because it’s
at elevation – I’m not sure I believe him.
29.7 miles; 88th place; Robinson Flat. The whole crew is here and I spend time
changing my gear to handle cold water.
Ice everywhere – in bandana, vest, vest bladder with the water, bandana,
hat – I leave the aid station kinda coldJ. Crew did it all perfect – felt like nascar –
and I got a nice good luck kiss from my wife in my send off. 7 minutes at aid station.
The next few aid stations through Last Chance are pretty
much on plan. The ice refilled at each
aid station is keeping me cool despite temperatures up approaching 90s. I stop to help one guy whose getting light
headed and give him a bunch of my ice to cool him off. I’m really not feeling much heat at all. But all the water dripping down did give me
shorts issues for a while as they kept wanting to fall down – shifting some
weight out of the pockets into the vest seemed to fix that problem OK. Here’s splits for next few aid stations:
34.4; 94th place; Miller's Defeat 12:17pm – 3
minutes at aid station
38; 96th place; Dusty Corner 12:57 pm – 4 minutes
at aid station
43.3; 88th place; Last Chance 1:48 pm – 8 minutes
at aid station (w/ the races one and only pit stop)
After the training run I identified the stretch from Last
Chance to Foresthill to be the make or break for this race. 3 canyons with little break between – they killed
me on the training run – I feared them more than a little – here’s where the
race gets hard.
Drop off into Devil’s canyon isn’t too bad – and I run it
trying to stay relaxed. At the bottom
I’m told its worth the break to get into the river so I spend a couple minutes
getting wet in the river. As soon as I
start jogging out of the river I can feel a big blister on my left big toe and
I’m worried I’m going to have to stop to deal with it. The climb out of the canyon is brutally steep
but “only” 1.5 miles long so I take it on.
At the top I’m pretty out of it and the volunteer tells me to talk to
medical – I was planning to do that anyway with the feet but I’m wondering what
he was seeing to suggest I needed to.
Mile 53.25 of Western States 100 – I’ve only climbed ½ mile
out of the longest canyon on the course – there is still 2 miles and 1300’ to
climb to get to Michigan Bluff where my family awaits. I’m sitting by a tree – I tell each racer
that runs by I’m just taking a rest – no I don’t need anything. In a private moment I try taking an S-Cap for
electrolytes which promptly stimulates a vomitus response. Mostly the race has been per plan so far but
things are going south – foot issues and stomach issues. For the stomach - the thought of taking a
drink of the fuel I mixed into my bottle makes me want to gage. The very helpful lady at the last aid station
back ½ mile at the bottom of this canyon suggests that sometime the body just
wants some real food when I told her I didn’t want any of my pre-mixed fuel
anymore so I eat a couple slices of watermelon, and I don’t remember what else
– whatever it was it all sits a little downhill from me now in a wet pool. Regarding the feet - I really feel bad for
what the two medical people did for me at Devil’s Thumb. At that aid station I asked for a blister to
be drained off my right big toe which was bugging me since I stepped in the
river to cool off at the swinging bridge back before climbing up to Devil’s
Thumb. Both medical aid station people
were very professional as they removal of my gross mud covered gator which it
took both of them to figure out how to unlatch, then the shoe with the double
knot that wouldn’t easily release, then two pairs of gross sweaty socks I had
on. Reveled was a totally waterlogged
foot – like it had been sitting soaking in water for the last 10 hours since
the race started. The lady looked at my
sock and asked what kind of material was this sock anyway – I didn’t know –
it’s injinji – the most popular sock choice of Western States 2014 according to
the survey on the website – toe socks – then I added a second sock over that
one – a thin asics sock. Well something
in this combination was just not right because my foot looked way too waterlogged. She asks if I have any other socks to put on
and I say no – not until Michigan Bluff so those gotta go back on – I do have
her toss the asics sock and just stick with the injinji. I’m informed as I leave Devil’s thumb that I
am behind 24 hr pace and looking back indeed I was 2 minutes behind when I
entered Devil’s thumb and 19 minutes behind when I left – a 17 minute aid
station stop – not good. Off I go – from
Devil’s thumb there’s still 50 more miles to go. I take a tums, sip on some chicken broth –
try to get the stomach to calm down – and I walk a little out of there – then
jog my way to the bottom of the next canyon pondering my feet situation – what
would happen after 14 more hours of waterlogged feet with constant pounded on
them? What was wrong with my foot set-up
that let this happen? I lathered up the
feet pre-race with something I’d not used before – Aquaphor – maybe that wasn’t
the right stuff to use – I usually use Hydropel but I ran out and Amazon
doesn’t sell it anymore. The double sock
injinji/asics had been my method many times before although it occurred to me
somewhere along the way I switched from Ultrathin to Medium thickness injinji
because they don’t wear out so fast – maybe the medium thickness wasn’t drying
like the ultrathin? I’ve never actually
run a race where my feet get so wet running through stream crossings – maybe I
was supposed to do something different for this kind of race? Also I’ve had a constant flow of water off my
back and head as ice melted to cool me off – was this creating the waterlogged
feet? Maybe I should have used the flat
insert in the Hokas shoes instead of the cupped ones? Maybe this is the way everyone’s foot looks
in this kinda race and I’m just worrying about nothing? Anyway – nothing I could do about it and with
the bandage around my toe at least that spot felt decent again. Here I am sitting by a tree pondering all
this in my pitty party and finally a guy who passes by me sitting by the tree
says a few good words – “how about you come walk with me” – just what I needed
– a challenge to move – yeah – OK – I get moving.
I’m not able to keep up with him very long but I thank him a
few times for getting me moving – he says he still smells silver no matter what
the aid station signs say about being behind – I pretend I can still smell it
too but I’m not sure how things can turn around – I’m only at the half way
point. I look him up after and he indeed
gets silver by ½ hr or so. I keep moving
up the hill and finally 45 minutes later I get to the top. There’s a little downhill to the aid station
and a few of my crew are looking up this hill and watching me walk down it – I
feel a little embarrassed to be putting on such a sorry looking show so I trot
down the rest of the hill and Ryan my son is assigned to stay with me as the others
run up the road after the aid station to get everything ready. The aid station captain here is a friend of
mine – Kevin Sawchuk – his wife spots me and calls Kevin over and he starts the
bantering – I recall something like “this ain’t no easy 2:38 marathon – welcome
to a real race” – after a few other good zingers he gets me smiling a
little. His wife gives me some chicken
broth to sip on and Kevin asks a few questions of what’s going on. I tell about emptying my stomach then as if
on cue I step over to the trash can and demonstrate emptying my stomach again
of the chicken broth – Dan Williams is also there and decides this is a good
time to take a picture of me – yeah a nice Kodak moment – Kevin’s wife says she
made that broth special for me and feels a little insulted I just threw it all
up – later I came up with the right reply but the brain wasn’t working fast
enough at the time “well it was so good I wanted to taste it again” – Dan and
Kevin show off their hard earned belt buckles (Dan’s got a 2000 buckle for
doing this race 20 times and Kevin’s got a 10 day buckle for doing this race 10
days under 24 hours) – and get me out of their aid stations. A couple more things I recall Kevin saying
that helped were – it gets better after the heat stops when the sun goes down
and also after you get pacers – just get to foresthill. He also reminded me of a story he’d told me a
couple weeks ago on a run about his first Western States where he walked 20
miles from Foresthill to past the river then switched it on and still got
silver. There’s still time.
I get to my crew just past the aid station and they are so
ready for a Nascar like quick aid station but I’m just not going that
fast. I’m offered the Vanilla Shake I
special requested to be waiting for me at this aid station – and I can only say
– Who’s crazy idea was it to have a Vanilla Shake here? Which gets a good laugh – I change into a
looser shirt and take almost nothing they had waiting for me and move along. I’ve apparently forgotten my hat so my Niece
Judy comes running to catch up and give me a hat filled with ice. I’m a little irritable and give her some very
unclear instructions about wanting the other hat – she runs back and the whole
crew is ripping through everything trying to figure out what other hat I’m
talking about and after I wait around a minute or so I decide to move along
without the hat. Total Aid Station Time
for Michigan Bluff – 17 minutes and I check out of there – I’m now 43 minutes
off 24 hour pace.
Less than a mile down the road and I’m totally wallowing in
self pity – I’m looking for a place to sit and rest some more – but I want some
privacy for my pity party this time so decide to get off the trail a little so
no do-gooder will again challenge me to go for a walk again. I find a tree behind a bush that blocks the
trail and sit.
Mile 59 – I’m sitting at the lowest point on the Western
States 100 trail between Michigan Bluff and Foresthill at 7:30 pm Saturday
afternoon. All was good – all was great
just 14 miles ago as I was executing my race plan flawlessly. The only minor thing that had happen the
first 46 miles of the race was I dropped my iPOD and had to run back for
several minutes looking for it – no big deal.
Then from 46 to 59 I’ve burned through 5 hours on the clock. Two long aid stations stops at mile 47.5 and
another at 55.5 for 34 minutes lost between them – first was for a foot
assessment for a blister that was bugging me since I got out of the river to
cool off at mile 46 and the 2nd was get a pep talk from my crew and
Team Diablo’s Kevin and Dan that things get better by nightfall and with pacers
- as I threw up the soup Kevin’s wife gave me into the trashcan (They are WS
veterans – they can handle it). 3
non-aid station stops – first to sit and rest and throw up a little climbing up
to Michigan Bluff – a runner finally challenged me to “come walk with me” which
got me going again there, 2nd to just sit down and wallow in pity
off the trail a little hiding from any human eyesight – no one’s going to ask
me to walk with them if they can’t find me hiding behind the bushes – I guess I
should have noticed the ants swarming on the tree I sat against – after
brushing the ants off and shaking them off my shirt I found a place to lie down
– my vest made a nice pillow – but a minute of that and I look at my legs to
see a dozen mosquitoes feasting away. I
didn’t invite all these bugs to my pity party – I guess I better get moving
on. Here I am at my 3rd
non-aid station stop at the stream that runs at this low point between the aid
stations. I decide to try my go-to fuel
for marathons – a Caffe Latte Cliff Gu – as I sit there taking some water from
the stream and pouring it on my head I don’t feel like tossing my cookies again
– just maybe this stuff is going to work. In all I’ve lost another 26 minutes with those
stops. I get up and climb the ¾ miles
from this river up to Bath Road where I find John Loftus – my friend and pacer
for this next section. He’s been waiting
here a while as I’m very much later than the predicted time of arrival based on
when I left the last aid station. I
share I’m in a bad place and his easy going encouraging nature lifts my spirits
– also I’m feeling the effects of some carbs and caffeine kicking in and it
doesn’t suck. The walk up bath road is a
bit more of a power hike then the shuffling walk I’ve been doing – turning the
corner to run a slight downhill down Foresthill Rd towards family and the aid
station and we charge down the hill at a more normal 10 mpm pace.
8:18 pm with 38 miles to go I’m out of the Foresthill aid
station with two hand bottles – one filled with ginger ale which I thought might
settle the stomach and the other with icewater.
Still feeling charged by the Gu and energized by family cheers and
smiles and encouragement – and now on the best most runnable fun portion of the
whole course with John there to keep me out of the pity parties and encourage
me – I’m ready to roll! But I’m 93
minutes off 24 hr pace and in 133rd place (hindsight – I didn’t know
at the time – but I figured silver was OUT).
8:55 pm – to next aid station (Cal1) – that was sub 10 mpm
for that 3.5 mile downhill stretch – I’m loving the downhills just letting
gravity take me. Dave LaTourette gives
John a text telling me to “Own the night”.
At Cal1 I put on the headlight.
Still going with ginger ale and water for the bottles – I try eating but
it’s just not working and most anything I take a bite of I spit out and discard
the rest. But I keep sipping on the
Ginger ale. I notice a sign at the aid
station that indicates I was supposed to be here 1.5 hrs ago to be on 24 hr
pace (actually it was 86 minutes). No
way no how I think.
9:59 pm – to Cal2 There was a ¼ mile climb near Cal1 with
the rest rolling hills – overall around 13 mpm still is moving pretty
good. There’s a lot of people to catch
that helps motivate – with headlights it’s easy to spot them in the distance
and reel them in. By Cal2 I was at 112th
place
10:34 pm – to Cal3 More downhill and I tuned off all breaks
down – for about 1.8 miles all downhill I’m down around 9 mpm – then a hill
with the nickname 6 minute hill took me 7 minutes to climb (cursing every
minute – I’m really hating climbing hills) – then another downhill into the aid
station where I was rolling 7 mpm pace at one point. Overall about 11 mpm between aid stations and
now the time off 24 hr pace was trimmed to 70 minutes.
11:40 pm – to Rucky Chucky – mile 78 – river crossing – I’ve
moved to 103rd place and run 13:50 mpm since the last aid station
and John gives Andy the debrief for pacing me the next section. Still just getting Ginger ale and water for
the bottles and getting near no other food at the aid stations – I’m not sure
how long I can last on so little calories but I can still go so I do.
12:16 am – to Green Gate – Mile 79.8 – The river crossing
took about 10 minutes then I got my good flashlight gear from the drop bag I
had for across the river and Andy and I power walked up the hill. Although John was saying silver was still possible
I didn’t really believe him. Andy and I
chatted our way up the hill – I made sure he had a couple basic pointers for
running trails especially downhill and we started doing some math to project
what was required to get silver. My 80
mile tired mind wasn’t working so well but finally at Green Gate the math
problem got easy – 280 minutes to go in the race and 20 miles to go – 14 mpm is
what it would take – That didn’t seem so un-doable. Taking stock – me feet hurt like hell – but
surface stuff like blisters and toenails – nothing I couldn’t ignore – my
calorie intake was minimal at pretty must just ½ a bottle of gingerale between
aid stations – but at least that was something – we rock it on to the next aid
station. Per the 24 hr pace chart I am
still 56 minutes off 24 hour pace at Green Gate – I’ve moved into top 100 at 98th
place.
1:26 am – to Auburn Lake Trails – the roadkill are not near
as plentiful to go after as the other side of the river – runners are spaced
out pretty far – but we manage 13 mpm pace since Green Gate on a nice rolling
hill section of trail. I was using a
really cool high contrast green flashlight that I’d read in someone’s race
report and ordered off Amazon and I’m thinking animals maybe can’t see the
green light as we came up on a huge jackrabbit (I swear it was 3 feet tall
including ears – it could have been in Alice and Wonderland) and it didn’t seem
to acknowledge our approach for way too long.
With the light of the aid station approaching I decide to take a piss
and Andy joined apparently needed too as well which apparently the cheering
people as we approached the aid station found entertaining. The medical guy there said – well I was going
to ask how things were flowing but I guess I can see the answer J. He was a particularly interested medic and
seemed to want to get the full recount of all my ailments which I knew would
only earn me a trip to a chair – words I was thinking “well I’ve thrown up
everything I try to eat for the last 30 miles and my feet were completely
waterlogged at Devils Thumb and hurt like hell” were not going to help me keep
14 mpm pace to the finish so I just said I was find and ready to get this thing
over with. Andy was great to jump in and
deflect further interrogation and I tried a few things off the aid station and
we head for the exit – I proceed to throw up all that I consumed at the aid
station as we exit – I was getting very proficient at doing this without even
breaking stride – I choose NOT to look back at the medic and make eye contact -
we take off. I’m still 98th
place but now I’m only 36 minutes off 24 hour pace – we’ve made up 20 minutes
since Green gate with 15 miles to go.
2:32 am – to Brown Bar – We caught a couple people in this
stretch then the third just would not be shaken and after passing him and his
pacer he stuck on us for a mile or so.
It was actually very motivating to keep moving to have someone right
there. The ginger ale was starting to not
go down so well and my other option of water was for some reason very
unappealing and almost made me gage when I’d take a sip. We manage 13:11 mpm to this aid station and
the guy following us rolls in and out just ahead of me. Same routine here – get some ginger ale – wish
I could take some of the other yummy things around – but skip them and
roll. 94th place and 27 minutes
off 24 hr pace.
3:33 am – to 49 crossing – There’s a nice downhill at the
start of this section and I take off down it passing the guy that came out of
the aid station a little quicker and going like a bat outta hell opening a
monster distance to him. Unfortunately I
didn’t provide as good a lighting system for Andy as I had and he couldn’t see
quite as well and at some point took a spill on that downhill stretch. After he wasn’t behind me for a while I
turned around and asked if he was OK and he just shouted – keep going – so I
did. Eventually the downhill turns to an
uphill and he catches back up as I’m walking the uphills. He doesn’t mention anything and sluffs it all
off but apparently got a minor ankle sprain out of that fall but was still able
to run on it. There’s a good long hill
at the end of this stretch up to 49 crossing and we power walked up the
hill. The cool green flashlight battery
was dying and I tried to change batteries as we walked but couldn’t get all the
+/-‘s right – I handed to Andy to see if he could figure it out but in the end
I had to dump that light at 49 crossing and rely only on the headlight to the
end. Andy had text ahead and Ryan was
ready to go and finish this thing off.
That was a slow one with the climb at the end and I averaged 16:15/mile
since the last aid station – 94th place and 23 minutes off 24 hr
pace. – 6.7 miles to go. Overall since
we’d set the target of 14 mpm back at Green Gate to here we’d actually averaged
including aid station stops 14:13 mpm – so needed faster the last 6.7 miles.
4:14 am – to no hands bridge – course goes up a little, flat
then drops a bunch down to the bridge over north fork American River. We attack everything up flat or down –
although down had issues as the headlight was not near as good as the green
light I had before and dust in the air clouded visibility – I traded lights
with Ryan to get the slightly better light but still had to be a bit more
reserve downhill than I wanted to be. I
accidently asked for gatoraid instead of ginger ale and didn’t like that in the
bottle but since I wasn’t taking water anymore I asked the other bottle to be
filled with coke – I love coke – it was so good and such a refreshing change
from the ginger ale I’ve been mostly living off since foresthill. I guzzled the whole bottle by no-hands and
asked for more. We made good time – 12
mpm down to no hands bridge. My sister
and niece were down there screaming “go go go” as the time left to climb the
last hill to Auburn before 24 hours looked ambitious and maybe impossible based
on the time posted at the aid station – I dropped anything I didn’t need for
the finish with them and charged away.
3.25 miles to go with an 800’ climb and 46 minutes – off we go – I’m
preparing to dig deep for whatever’s needed especially the last mile after the
climb.
4:41 am – to Robie Point – the first part is a steady
incline still runnable and we maintain 10 mpm up this section. Then it gets over 10% grade and we power hike
the rest up to Robie point – overall average 13 mpm to get there and at this
point I’m actually only 1 minute behind 24 hr pace with 1.3 miles to go – no
aid station stopping at all.
4:55 am – to the finish – we power walk up the hill –
there’s the mile 99 sign with lights and a plasma TV set up to display what the
clock says at the finishline – and at that moment I knew it was in the
bag. I was reving up to drop a 7 mpm run
to the finish if required when we got to the top but there was loads of time to
spare and so I started to savor the moment with a mile to go. A guy comes by me with his pacer who turns
out to be the guy who wouldn’t be shook way way back at Browns Bar – he must
have had his cross hairs on me for the last 2-3 hours and I’m glad I could help
him to get his silver too. The last mile
was run comfortably at 8:30 mpm pace and it felt like a victory lap on a road
I’d run dozens of times over on runs from my Dad’s house over the last 4 years
dreaming of that finishing mile I was experiencing right here and now. Ryan wants me to catch that guy back and it
would have taken so little more to do it I was so amped up – but I decide to
let him have his finishline moment then I’ll have mine. Down the last hill – onto the track where
there was a lot of nail biting going on by all my crew. Website prediction up to the last second were
calling for 5:10-5:30 am finish so it seemed apparently pretty incredible that
I run through the gate onto the track with time to spare. A group of us run the far side track together
– John Loftus, Andy, Shirley and I think Terri and Judy join up with Ryan and I
cheering and excited then peel off as I make the final turn leaving Ryan and I
to finish this baby off.
Wow – what a race – what a last 38 miles since forest hill. As it turns I was the only one leaving Foresthill as late as 8:18pm to make Silver this year (or last year, or the year before). It was an amazing rush to do it running on barely anything with the most painful feet I’ve ever run on. What a rewarding experience this was and now I get to put a big “check” on this biggest bucket list item of them all.
Cheers.
