June 19, 2009
Dayton, Wyoming
This post is late in coming and I'm still working on Cascade, Hundred in the Hood, and Sisters Poker Run.
I did this race in 2007 and practically had to walk the last 30 miles. A combination of a pulled hip flexor at mile 68 and asthma slowed me to a crawl. I finished in 31:49 but wanted to return and have a stronger and faster race. I thought I could complete it under 30 hours and with a 24 hour race and a 150 mile race under my belt earlier in the year, I felt ready. I even skipped a weekend of racing as part of a taper. Unfortunately, the days leading up to the race left me feeling tired and poorly rested at the starting line.
My husband and I planned a 12-day road trip and car camping with my race in the first part and rock climbing to follow. We wanted to leave early Wednesday to have a relaxing 2-day drive down to Dayton, WY. But the CD player in our Pathfinder crapped out a few days before leaving. We were able to order a replacement but the earliest it was due to arrive was Wednesday between 10-noon. We had planned on leaving about 7-8am. It did arrive at 10:30am, but wouldn’t you know it, it was defective. So we left at 11am without a player and already behind schedule.
We drove for most of the day Wednesday and set up camp in St. Regis, just past the Montana border after making a stop in Spokane to pick up climbing supplies. There were 3 sites, but I didn’t feel safe about the location, especially with the stories of crazy people out there. I called my brother-in-law, Cliff, and told him where we were, aware of the fact that it was not really remote since I was able to get cell reception. Still, I didn’t like the look of our neighbors. We set up camp around 8pm, which was close to the road it came off and under a train tressel. So needless to say, sleep was fitful and everyone knows that your sleep the two nights before the race is the most important, not the night before.
Thursday was another long day of driving. There was quite a bit of road construction on 1-90 that slowed us down and I was worried we were not going to make it in time for the packet pick up and mandatory weigh in. We arrived in Sheridan with 20 minutes to spare. We were not able to make it to the pasta feed because we had a little more driving to do to get to our camp site at Burgess Junction at 8’000 feet. The drive up was incredible with many rock formations which were labeled with their age, with the oldest dated 2 billion years old. We again set up camp around 8pm. I had soup and a ¼ bagel for dinner, but should have stopped and gotten something more substantial, but we were running out of daylight. I got some sleep. I knew I was dehydrated because I did not pee much overnight. I did have breakfast, but the race did not start until 11am and we had a briefing to go to at 9am in Dayton. I did have another bagel and a Boost before the start but overall, I felt like I was dehydrated, poorly rested, poorly fueled, and deoxygenated from sleeping at 8’000 feet. Plus, at 11am, it was already hot. I was not heat or altitude trained. I was already behind the eight ball.
My plan was to start out slow and pick it up in the second half. That didn’t happen. I slowed quite a bit in the second half, again because of my asthma, which was aggravated by the altitude. In 2007, I had a faster start and had plenty of time to finish when I slowed, but this time, I started out slow and was running out of time as the race went on. I was feeling okay until about mile 40 when darkness came and it started to get cold. The dry air and cold made my asthma really noticeable by then, but I was having trouble breathing after the 50K mark. I felt I was hydrating and taking salt well initially, but as sometimes happens, I became less religious about it in the later hours of the race and I think that also contributed to more problems with my breathing. Because of my slower pace, my muscles were not that taxed and I had no cramping issues or joint pain. But I did have hot spots in both of my feet from stream and mud crossings. I really struggled on the uphill parts with my breathing, and even though running downhill was better, it still taxed me, feeling as if was I was getting the wind knocked out of me with the pounding. I encountered the front runners on their return trip earlier than in 2007, indicating to me that I was behind that year’s schedule by quite a bit. We were running into a headwind and I was glad that I decided to take my windproof pants from the 30 mile aid station. I also had 2 shirts on, a shell, two hats, and gloves and was still cold. The cold and my struggle with breathing were draining my calories faster than I could replace them.
We started the race along part of the Tongue River, already thrashing and beautiful. There's a bit of climbing early on but with large rock cliffs on both sides opening up into flowered covered hills, the climb was breathtaking. At the first aid station, I sampled the shrimp cocktail that I declined a couple years ago. It was okay (I'm not a big dill fan but it didn't really affect my running). I felt pretty good coming into the second aid station at Dry Fork where I first saw Ken about 13 miles in. The next time I would see would be at the turn around point halfway. I was already behind schedule but feeling good. We adjusted my arrival time there. The next section involved some service road before getting back into single track which was nice running. The next major aid station at the Footbridge of the Tongue River (about 50K) after a steep descent was where I readied myself for the night. There was still light when I went through and I was amazed at the huge boulders that I was running along, the size of houses. Night time came and I slowed down, not just from the darkness, but from the cold as well. I was passed by a bunch of runners and thought I was one of the last stragglers to get to the turn around.
I arrived at the almost halfway mark (49 miles) at Porcupine aid station at almost 9,000 feet exhausted but had no intentions of quitting. Ken was there to make sure I had some solid food. He had been waiting for me for a while and gets very worried when I arrive much later than when I told him I would. I had originally told him 12 hours but saw him at 13 miles and told him probably more like 13 hours. I arrived at 15 hours. I had some protein and a cup of noodles. In an effort to make conversation with me, the aid station worker told me how the lead male runner, Karl Meltzer, had been attacked by a moose. Ken was thinking that was the last thing she should have told me. Sure enough, I left there very scared but was able to catch up with another runner, Dennis Aslett, whose brisk walk was faster than my slow run. He stayed with me until it got light and I enjoyed his company. Here was a veteran Ultrarunner who has run the Bear 100, which is just as difficult as Bighorn, which he had done several times, and had even run Hardrock but had to drop at 95 miles! I thought I was moving along pretty well but kept getting passed by men with gray beards. This was pretty discouraging. But we ran together as the sun was coming up and we were in a valleywith massive rock cliffs on both sides at a distance with a full moon. Again, breathtaking and calming at the same time. It was getting warm as the sun rose higher and higher. I shed most of my clothes except for my windproof black pants. I didn’t want to stop to take them off and fortunately we were in and out of shady areas. But by the time I got to The Footbridge aid station at 66 miles, I was very glad to get rid of my night clothes, which were weighing down my hydration pack. I had a sleeveless shirt on and my arms got fried. One of the other runners was gracious enough to give me some sunscreen.
I left The Footbridge knowing that I had a long and steep hike up. The first 50 mile runner coming from Porcupine passed me as I started out. Then another and another…I thought, this sucks! In 2007, I was passed by them further in the race and on a road, so there was plenty of room. Stepping off the trail constantly on an uphill, muddy, single track just sucked! This is the worst part of the trail in the race with shoe sucking mud and nowhere to step off at times it seems. It started me thinking and gaining a greater appreciation for early starters at races that have that option. (As you probably have guessed, there is no early start at 100 mile races, just cut-off times. More on that later.) But with races that have a shorter distance sharing the same trail, it is quite a hassle! Getting up 3 miles in just under 3000 feet of elevation stressed my lungs quite a bit. It took me a while to recover from that effort, forcing to me to walk even slight inclines. The day was getting hotter and hotter and it was hard to believe that just a few hours earlier, I was freezing. The hot spots in my feet had long since developed into blisters. I kept thinking that I would need to change shoes at Dry Fork at about 82 miles, but kept going back and forth since that would take time, and I was starting to worry about the cutoffs.
So, about the cut-offs. I have been fairly lucky that I run well enough that I have never had to worry about cut-off times. For the first time, I was asking at the aid stations that had cut-offs how much cushion I had there, and when did I need to get to the next one? The climb out of Footbridge decreased my cushion from 2 ½ hours to 2 hours. So in addition to being passed by guys with gray beards and by a constant stream of 50 milers, my running ego was taking a beating. I developed another appreciation. First it was for early starters, now it was for back of the packers. Actually, they are often one in the same. I know 2 hours seems to be a pretty good cushion, but everyone knows that can change quickly with a trip and fall, poor nutrition causing nausea and vomiting, dehydration, or heat exhaustion. For me, it was my asthma. I had it in my head that we only had 4 miles from the next aid station to Dry Fork at 82 miles, but it was actually 6 miles. I just could not do the math right. Once I realized that, I took off as fast as I could on the downhills, and ran as much as I could on the uphills. Those 6 miles are a never ending up and down of dirt road with the last bit straight up to the aid station. Everyone looks terrible going into this aid station and it is a common place to quit. I had my last weigh in and for the entire race never fluctuated more than 2 pounds. Ken was there with a Boost and tried to force me to eat a ham and cheese tortilla wrap and a small slice of pizza. I decided not to change shoes. At that point, my asthma was slowing me more than my feet, and the longer I stopped, the worse my asthma got. Anyone who has asthma knows that if one is to continue, it is better to get moving since the adrenaline that is pumping in your system actually dilates the air tubes in your lungs. Sure it was very painful in my feet to get moving again, but eventually, the blisters settled in their place and unless I stepped on a rock just wrong or stubbed my toe, the pain was manageable. I stopped long enough that my asthma got pretty bad again to the point that I was burning calories very rapidly just trying to breathe. This forced me to slow down and I could not keep up with Vinny, a guy I had been running with for a while. I kept downing gels, but they took several to get me out of that empty, bonking feeling. I let Vinny go. There was one last steep climb, and I knew there was no way I could do it without stopping several times to catch my breath. Sure enough, on that climb, I was passed by three guys. I couldn’t keep track of the 100 or 50 milers at that point. Once on top of the climb, it was a treacherous and long downhill 5 miles or so. Ray Gruenweld said that this was the kind of race where the trails were difficult enough that you had to pay attention to every step you make, even on the dirt roads. This adds to the effort involved just to move forward. I couldn’t agree with him more.
I let gravity carry me down the trail but had to brake quite a bit because of the steepness and technical trail. Breathing was better on the downhill. Somehow I caught Dennis and then he and I caught Vinny. I passed one guy on an uphill who was tripping and cursing. I said to him, "I'm so ready to be done." He was "f--cking this and f--cking that!" We all finally arrived at the last aid station with 5+ miles to go on a flat, never ending road back to the park in Dayton. I stopped in the outhouse, "lightened" my load, and started making my way to the finish. I started out running with Vinny, but found the pace to be too slow. Dennis was challenged by another runner to catch that guy who was tripping and cursing and took off. I would pick a tree or a fence or another runner to run to. It still took forever to cover that last bit. I looked back and saw a girl coming on fast. I wasn't sure if she was a 50 or 100 miler. So what? I knew I was going to finish over 33 hours but just didn't want to be the last girl in the 100. So against my wishes, I pushed myself. Dennis did catch that tripping and cursing guy but they finished pretty close in time. I came in not long after, having caught another 100 miler but ran in with him, didn't want to pass him in the last 100 yards.
Immediately on finishing, my breathing got worse and I was coughing. I got some extra attention from the EMTs, who were shaking their heads that I had just finished 100 miles. I think it was more amazing that it took me 33 hours, 14 more hours than Karl Meltzer and 9 more hours than the first woman. They gave me an albuterol treatment. We headed back to the car and Ken got me some food while I got off my dirty running clothes and put on some dry clean clothes with the heat blasting. I was depleted of energy and was cold. I ate some of the food Ken brought me but overall just didn't want to move anymore, not even to chew. The wind was picking up outside. In the last 5 miles, it was thundering and lightning was striking in the distance. A ton of pollen was blowing all over the park, one reason we didn't stay at the camping ground next to the park like we did in 2007. We decided to head back to our camp and left our folding chairs there. The drive back was amazing with lightning across the valley. We got back to our tent and just crashed. Ken was just as tired as me and seemed to zonk out. I tossed and turned trying to find a comfortable position but mostly just hacked and coughed most of the night. I think I got some sleep towards the morning.
We got moving in the morning and headed to the awards ceremony, which included a pancake breakfast. We arrived just in time to catch Karl giving his account of his moose attack. He got lots of laughs from the audience. I don't know him personally, but he has a reputation of being a nice, shy, but approachable guy. Then the 100 milers were awarded their belt buckles (in order of finishing time), finisher's jacket, and age group awards. Gwen Scott, a good running buddy of mine and runner extraordinaire, came in second woman and won her age group. The 40-49 women spanked the 30-39 women, which I came in first. Actually, I was the only 30-39 woman to finish. The other girls had a rougher day than me. I got a pretty cool shaped rock with engravings of the race, mountains, and my place. I was estatic and my WA cheering section went crazy!
After we left, Ken and I hiked back up the trail that I ran down just hours before. So we still had not showered. It had been 5 days and 100 miles ago. Yet here we were hiking up a trail in the heat of the day with packs on our backs. The Tongue River Canyon is just gorgeous. We found the sport climbing routes above the trail and Ken climbed two routes. I did not have the desire to stuff my swollen feet into tight climbing shoes. So more sweating and getting dirty. We had been invited to visit Gwen and her crew to one of her crew's relative's home in Story, WY. We were treated with great hospitality by a stranger with food, drinks, and a SHOWER! We hung out on her patio, played with Dyno, and looked out on her many acred property.
The next morning we headed to Tensleep, WY, a climber's destination. I had not seen any wildlife the entire trip but on our drive out, we saw a Mama moose with her baby moose, who looked like it was just learning to walk the way it was wobbling about. Ken had seen a group of them at our race camp site while I was running. We arrived our next destination with enough time to set up camp and find some climbing routes. Our camping spot was clearly a climber's campground. It was at 5000 feet and off an old dirt highway opened only several months of the year. Ours was a little off the road with 3 sites. There was a fire pit right up against a boulder in a site that looked pretty permanently occupied. And there was someone's camper at the other site but no one around. We set up then loaded up our packs. We parked off the main highway through the canyon and hiked up to the climbing site. Immediately, I had trouble breathing and coughed my way up. It was not a long way but still had switchbacks and several times I had to lean on my hiking poles. It took us 30 minutes to get to the base of the climbs. I can't remember if I climbed, don't think so, but Ken did two routes. The routes were long and ratings a little stiffer than we're used to. It got cold and we called it a day.
We awoke the next morning and headed out climbing. Again, I struggled up the trail. We did a warm up route, but it was hard for me. It was already hot with sun beating on the rock. We found a route Ken wanted to do where the first bolt was pretty high up. It was a challenge for him to get to it. The next bolt was even more challenging. He made a dyno move for a hold but it was not as positive as he thought it was going to be and popped off the hold. Next thing I know, he dropped 20 feet to the ground and rolled to the trail just below me. What happened? Climbing involves a belayer (me) who is supposed to catch the climber if he falls. I was using a new belay device called a Cinch that is supposed to be idiot proof and will catch the climber without me having to use my braking hand. I had already belayed Ken with this device few times and we always tested it before he started climbing. The only thing I could think of was that something caught the release button and let the rope run through. I really don't know! All I knew was that I was so scared. I immediately ran to him and said, "Are you okay?" He said, "What happened?" "I don't know!" I said. "Somehow the rope didn't catch." Ken touched his head to see if there was any blood. There was none. I looked in his ears to see if any blood or fluid was coming out. (He wasn't wearing a helmut-I know-bad bad!) Ken said that he couldn't remember what happened. I asked him if he knew what month it was. He didn't know. What state are we in. "Don't know." Do you know what year it is? "2007?" Who is the president? "The black guy?" he said with a quizzical look on his face. He said his head was ringing a little but denied any headaches everytime I asked him. I said we needed to get him in the shade and have him drink some fluids, since we had been bad about hydrating all morning. After about 20 minutes, he was able to tell me what state we were in. He still could not remember what happened right before he hit the ground. He did remember that the hold he was going for was not as good as he thought and not hitting the end of the rope. Next thing he knew was that he was on the ground with a ringing in his head. I was worried about him and he was worried about the two pieces of gear still left on the route. But he was in no condition to climb. He belayed me on top rope off the second quickdraw (a type of climbing gear with carabiners where the rope runs through) and somehow I got to the first quickdraw and retrieved it. Then I had to climb up to the second one with Ken's help pulling me up because the difficulty of the route was beyond me. I got to the second quickdraw but had to replace it with a carabiner that I put the rope through to lower off of and retrieve the second piece of gear. So the only thing we lost was an old carabiner.
Amazingly, Ken wanted to keep climbing, but I urged him to hike down because he still looked a little razzled. Instead of going back to our camp and sitting around, we decided to drive to Buffalo, WY. We had a nice semi-fancy early dinner. There was an emergency room there and I asked Ken if he was willing to be checked out. Nothing doing. I was worried that something bad was going to happen because recently in the news, Liam Neelson's wife died hours after having hit her head skiing. Turns out he had a concussion after he told his doctor climber friend George Wiggins what happened. We headed back to the camp with me constantly asking him how he felt and if he had a new headache. No, fine. Even so, while we were sleeping, I made sure I could hear him breathing. When we arrived back at camp earlier, the occupant of the camper was there. He had three ferocious dogs that jumped on our car and barked constantly and through the night. He made what we felt were pretty feeble attempts to control his dogs.
Ken got in a good day of climbing the next day, doing many of the classics. He had great fun. There were very few easier routes, so I don't think I climbed much or if all. We came back to our camp and decided to move over to another area, which gave us great views of the rock formations and got us away from those terrible dogs. It was a much better site and would be the spot we would go back to if we ever return. I can't remember if we climbed another day. We headed back west and visited friends at Priest Lake, Idaho. We got to see their new home, had another shower, and stayed in their guest house. Again we encountered a Mama and young moose on our drive out, this time much closer up. I enjoyed it in the comfort and safety of our car. Then we stopped at another's friends new home in Twisp, WA. We had a nice dinner, slept well in their guest bedroom, and went climbing in Mazama the next day before heading home. I actually did some good climbing there. The drive through the North Cascades was beautiful.
Well, pretty full vacation. 100 miles, good times with friends, days without a shower, exploring a new climbing area, a concussion. What more can you ask for?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
McNaughton 150 Mile-Entering Unchartered Territory
4/10/09 Pekin, IL
This is going to be a long report. So grab a cup of coffee, or two, or three and read on if this is the kind of stuff that pushes your buttons, and if so, you are probably just a little sick like me.
This race really snuck up on me. After 2008, I backed off on racing every weekend and April seemed so far away. Before I knew it, it was here. But after a good run at Pac Rim One Day with a strong recovery, McNaughton seemed doable.
I took the day off before we flew to Illinois to pack and get as much rest as possible. Turned out that it was a pretty hectic day and I didn’t get to sleep until about 10:30pm, which was restless of course. We had to get up at 2:45am to be ready to leave at 3:30am and drive over to Tony Covarrubias and Shawn Lawson’s house where Shawn’s brother was going to drive us all to the airport so that we could leave our car at their house. They had signed up for the 150 mile as well. I hardly got any sleep on the airplane, even though I was very tired. Ken got to rest his eyes while I watched the movie Marley and Me on the screen. We picked up our rental car and headed to Pekin from O’Hare, a 3 hour drive. We stopped for lunch partway. I stole a few moments of sleep with my head bobbing and my mouth propped open, but it was not refreshing. The drive was not very stimulating with flat, mowed corn fields. As we approached Pekin, there was one hill.
We got to Pekin and Shawn and tc were just checking into the hotel. Ken and I headed over to Walmart to get supplies for the race, including a chair, large plastic container for all my drop stuff, Frappuccino, cup-a-noodles, Gatorade, water, and food for him. Poor Ken. He and Walmart are not a good match. But he was such a sport all weekend, returning there if I needed something else that I didn’t have. We returned to the hotel room and I got all my race stuff ready. We were going to meet tc and Shawn for dinner, but they were going to Appleby’s and Ken declined, saying going to Walmart was enough of a stretch for him that day. We found a local pub. The food was okay. It did the trick. We retired at about 10pm. Sleep again was poor for me in a strange surrounding. So two nights of poor sleep before my race. Also, it started to rain overnight, and that got me worried. We woke up at 7am and finished getting ready. Originally, I pulled out shorts to wear for the race but changed my mind, remembering how cold I got at Pac Rim and how difficult it was for me to get moving again after getting cold.
We ate breakfast and headed over to the race start at 10am. The race was to begin at 12pm. It was rainy and windy and people were running back and forth to their cars to try to stay dry and warm. But there was a glimmer of hope since the forecast was calling for good days for Sat and Sun, perfect for the 100 mile and 50 mile runners. We just needed to get through the start of a nasty day. I said hi to several people I knew while getting my spot ready where Ken was going to be every loop to crew me. I checked in and got my race number and goodie bag. The 150 and 100 milers got a tech tee and a fleece pullover, both very nice. I put them in my car hoping that I would be able to wear them, contingent on my finishing. I was dressed for the cold, including a long sleeve with hoodie, my red shell, gloves, tights, shorts, gaiters, gore-tex wind and waterproof mittens, and a plastic poncho. I was cold standing there at the start but was wearing a Nathan pack without the water bladder and knew I could stuff excess material that I could easily discard after the first lap. I carried one water bottle, as there were two aid stations on course.
There were forty nine 150 mile starters and a handful of 100 mile runners getting an early start. Apparently, two of the 150 milers were already on course since the day before-Thursday. I kissed Ken goodbye and ran off in the middle of the pack. The rain was still falling and the wind was strong at times. That morning the wind was 15-20 mph with gusts of 30mph. It was less noticeable in the woods, but there was plenty of open field running. I almost fell on my butt immediately after the start where we headed down a steep slick hill with deep ruts. Footing could be found if you bounced back and forth from side to side. After about 100 yards, you turned and ran clockwise on the outside edge of a flat field for about a mile. This part became increasingly hard with each loop, since it was a part you needed to run because it was flat and walking it meant losing quite a bit of time. Since I’m not a very good power walker, I did lose time here walking, but I tried to use this spot to eat and walk. It was tempting to run across the field after so many loops instead of around it but at the pre-race briefing, race director Andy Weinberg, who is quite an endurance athlete himself, having done double and triple Ironmans, stated that littering and cheating were grounds for disqualification. Okay, so that’s obvious. But he also said that he had recruited high school students to hide in the bushes and if anyone was caught doing either, they were given permission to peg us with paint ball guns. Apparently cheating has occurred since this very challenging 10-mile loop can really get to ya. Andy had traveled from Middlebury, Vermont, his new home to direct this race one last time. It must have been hard to put on a race from afar, but it sounds as if he had a good group of people in Pekin to mark the trail and get other details ready.
Next was “Tanner’s Pass,” a short but very steep hill. It started with ankle deep shoe sucking mudd (my new four letter word) that never dried up over the entire weekend. So very early on for each loop, you feet were covered in mud. The mud was either sopping wet or heavy clay-like mud. You crested out on an open grassy field before hitting the first section of the Red Trail, also known as the Potowatani Trail. Now came several ups and downs here which included running through a boggy section of above ankle water and mud, which became worse with each loop. The sides of the trail started out as areas that you could plant your foot, but eventually, all that was turned into a mess too. You were better off just going through the shortest route. You encountered another steep hill up and after that a section of several steep ups and downs mixed in with rolling hills and not much flat. On the first day, it was treacherous to run down these hills because of the rain and very slick conditions. There was plenty of mud on people’s back sides. You’ll notice a trend here that there was very little flat running. The down hills were harder than the up hills.
The first aid station was at 2.5 miles and known as the Totem Pole aid station. I did actually use the aid stations on course so that I only needed to carry one water bottle. Usually I filled my water bottle here and grab light snacks like cookies, banana, pretzels, or chicken noodle soup at night. More rolling hills in open grassy fields followed, across a “Blue Bird” section where there were several bluebird houses. Then came “The Beach”, a section of sand. I have to say, this was not as much of a “beach” as it could have been. There was enough moisture to keep the sand packed down. We crossed some water and I thought this was the first creek crossing and felt it wasn’t so bad. Then came the real crossing of Lick Creek at 3.5 miles, which for me on the first day was knee deep at the deepest sections where the water was rushing the most. I have to say though that it was refreshing initially but cold at night. It cleaned up the shoes nicely.
After the creek, which was just over 3 miles, we ran some flats and some more hills before arriving at “Golf Hill”. This had a rope to help you climb up, since the trail drops off on both sides and it is steep. More hills, including one called “Heartbreak Hill”. We ran down to the road and made a hairpin turn towards the next aid station including going up another steep section, running in fairly flat open grassy fields, and passing Meyer’s Cemetary. One runner asked the aid station volunteers if the cemetery had bodies of previous runners. Finally, we arrived at the second aid station at 5.8 miles, through “Heaven’s Gate”, which had great food and a nice fire. I made an effort to eat real food here, which included mashed potatoes with cheese and bacon bits, egg salad sandwich, or turkey and cheese sandwiches. These were good in the beginning, but at some point, I just got tired of constantly eating and no food appeared appetizing, even if I enjoyed it before. This aid station also got very cold at night, since the wind seemed to blow there more and stopping to get food further chilled me. I’m sure the wind chill fell well below 30 degrees. On the second night, I wore two long sleeves, one short sleeve, my red shell, thick tights, a pair of shorts over that, and capris over that, as well as a beanie, heavy fleece gloves, and a plastic poncho, and I was still cold! I would take my food here and eat on the run in a one mile loop that included some flat running along the creek as well as hills and a section of open field that was a tedious trip through more shoe sucking mud that never dried up over the weekend. It was “demoralizing!” The end of the loop brought us back to the aid station, but I usually did not stop a second time. This was now 6.9 miles that continued on with more rolling open field running, steep hills, and everything in between before arriving at the second creek crossing at about 8.6 miles. This was almost as deep as the first but not moving as fast. It was a welcome crossing, since by then, my shoes were really covered in mud and I would have a clump of mud under the ball of my foot that would wash out nicely, at least for a while. The last 1.4 miles had a decent amount of runnable terrain but also some steep hills and very muddy trails. You had to be careful not to be pegged by serious Frisbee golf players since we ran through their area.
Each loop had 1600 feet of elevation gain and same of loss. Multiply that by 15 and that’s 24,000 feet! Day one featured very slick conditions on the hills, but after drying out on Sat and Sun, they became hard as rock and painful to run down. At least the footing was better, but there were still plenty of sections that did not receive any sun and stayed wet all weekend. I finished the first loop in 2:01 and my body, especially my back, was already hurting. I was using so many dormant stabilizing muscles. Basically, my first 20 miles hurt until I figured out how not to fight the muddy trails. I forced myself to plant my foot securely before moving forward. I felt this saved me time and energy in the long run. I watched so many people slip and slide trying to move through these areas quickly but ended up slipping backwards and falling side to side. I knew several girls were in front of me and did not try to catch them because pacing myself was the most important thing I could to do finish. Besides, I let them duke it out and hoped they would wear each other out.
At the end of each loop, Ken was waiting for me. I wanted to drink a Frappuccino before the start of each loop and did this while walking through the start/finish area. He also handed me a new bottle with water or Gatorade and more Gu. I would change clothes if needed and he had my down jacket ready so that I could wear it if I stopped too long and got cold. I ate a cup-a-noodle a few times. Sometimes he would grab me a grilled cheese sandwich from the aid station or other food, but mostly, I stuck with my own stuff. I was peeing so much and didn’t realize it was from all the caffeine from the Frappuccino and Gu. Duh! I backed off on drinking the Frapps until I realized that I was low on calories and getting tired and started up again. I took salt about once an hour initially but stopped because I was peeing so much and thought it was too much salt when really it was too much caffeine. Fortunately, I had no problems with nausea or cramps, so I probably was getting enough salt in the soup and other sources. It was good to see Ken every 10 miles but hard to leave again to keep moving. I tried to smile and be positive and even gave him a kiss now and then before heading off. People were cheering me on and I waved and smiled for them too. I think it’s important to acknowledge people as much as possible since they are there either volunteering or crewing for other runners in the cold and dark. I also feel that even if you are feeling bad, forcing yourself to be upbeat might even help. Ken said of all the races he has crewed for me, I looked the best at this one. I did change my shoes once at mile 60, and almost was scared to look at the state my foot and skin were in, but it wasn’t so bad. I ended up changing it back to my original shoe after another 30 miles. Otherwise, I wore the same disgusting sports bra, tights, and undie for the entire race! Ken had washed my shoes before I changed them back to the Cascadias and said they were really heavy before he was able to get all the mud off them, which took him 15 minutes.
By the end of the first loop, I was 5th place woman. I stayed in 5th through the 6th loop. By mile 70, I was in 4th place and stayed there through the 9th loop. Shawn passed me by 100 miles and I was back in 5th place. But then everything changed. The four girls that were in front of me for most of the race had dropped out. Charlotte Vasarhelyi, who set the women’s course record (46:21:29) last year in the 150 mile in worse conditions than what we were having, dropped at 90 miles. When I lapped her on her 9th loop and I was on my 10th, it looked like she was having nausea problems. Tracy Thomas, who held the 100 mile record for this race and is a very accomplished 48 hour racer, quit after 100 miles due to painful feet. She was a whole loop ahead of me when she quit. The two other women who I didn’t know or remember seeing during the race also stopped after 100 miles and were also a loop ahead of me when this occurred. So that left me, Shawn, and another gal named Nikki Seger. I spoke with Nikki after the race and this was her third try at the 150 miles. The first year she made it to 100 miles, 2nd year 110, and this year 120. I can’t imagine going that far and having to quit. I couldn’t believe that after 70 miles, I had already been running almost 23 hours and I was not even halfway done! At that point, I was really starting to worry if I could finish.
It was sunny Saturday and I was even stripped down to a t-shirt but still wore my tights since it would have been impossible to take them off and put them back on again. It got warm enough that I needed to wear a hat to shield my face, which was quickly getting bronzed. I had made it through the first night without sleeping and all day the second day. I was told that people who took a quick nap felt refreshed and returned running stronger. So after lap 11, I tried to take a 15 minute power nap but was too cold to ever fall asleep. Besides, Ken had found a pacer for me and he was patiently waiting in the cold. This loop had the longest elapsed time from my attempt to sleep and I had crossed the timing mat before heading to the car. I was glad to have a pacer because I was scared the first night on my own. I was running along on the trail with one headphone in when I heard a “Grrrr.” I yelled out “Go on! Get out of here!” I ran away fast from that spot thanks to the rush of adrenaline. In a little while I heard some howling. I came up on a slower runner who had a dog with him. He said the dog had followed him from about mile three at the first creek crossing but was friendly. I figured that was the dog that had growled at me from the bushes and did all that howling. But since I was moving faster than this other person, the dog decided to tag along with me. It was okay that he was friendly and all, but he was running back and forth and circles around me, running and bumping into me. It was getting old. I arrived at the second aid station and asked if they knew this dog. They found out later for me that it belonged to a woman at the first aid station and had gotten loose. It followed me for another mile for a total of 3 miles before tagging along with another runner. In all, it ran with 4 other runners before his owner got a hold of him. Anyhoo, I now had a pacer starting loop 12. His name was Jamie, and he was a GREAT pacer. I learned a lot from him about how to be a good pacer. He had come to pace Charlotte 80 miles, but when she dropped, he had only gotten in 30 miles. He still needed 50 miles. I only had 40 miles to go and he joked that I’d have to run an extra loop. Jamie ran behind me and held his strong flashlight above my head, which was nice because my headlamp was not that powerful. Or if he could, he would run on the side of the trail to light my way. He asked me frequently if I was eating or drinking. He encouraged me to run the flats and down hills, which I was having trouble getting motivated to do in the flats and thus lost a lot of time.
In the 12th loop, my right knee was really starting to hurt when it didn’t hurt before. It made it very difficult to run the steep down hills. I had never taken any anti-inflammatories during a run, having heard too many horror stories of kidney failure or stomach bleeds. But I had been peeing a lot and Jamie encouraged me to take one of his Aleve’s with some cookies. I decided I had better try it since I still had over 35 miles to go and these loops were already taking me 3 ½ hours to complete. I’ve heard of loops taking 5 hours, and that could seriously jeopardize finishing under 52 hours for the cut off. It started to kick in after ½ hour enough to dull the pain. I was exhausted though using extra energy to baby that knee.
By the 13th loop, about 39 hours into the race, I started to yawn, the first time since waking up 7am on Friday. Then I said something like. “I’m so cold, I wish I could sit on some seated heats.” “Heated seats,” Jamie corrected me. Then the hallucinations started. I was stumbling a bit, but not enough for Jamie to reach out and try to grab me. I had to force myself not to look at stumps, bushes, or trees. I was seeing too many figures and tried to focus my attention on the trail. Jamie was getting tired too and started to take caffeine pills. Next thing you know, he’s stopping every 10 minutes. But he kept talking to me and me to him and we kept each other awake until the sun came up. I had tried a knee brace on this loop and ended up taking it off because my whole body so swollen and it was too tight. Jamie gave me another Aleve before the end of this loop and it really helped the rest of the race. He also encouraged me to pick up the pace, not only to stay awake, but also to potentially win this race. I had no idea where Shawn was, but I knew she was behind me from taking a longer sleeping break than my 15 minutes. However, I also knew that she and tc were moving faster than I was the last time we ran together when she passed me and got to 100 miles first. I was whining to Jamie that I didn’t care if I won. I was tired and hurting and wanted to walk. I considered taking a nap at the end of this loop. But by then, the sun had come up and we realized that I had a good chance of staying in front of Shawn, so I kept going.
At the start of the 14th loop with only 20 miles to go, Jamie told me that he would only be able to run half of this loop with me since he had to get Charlotte home. He was going to run with me to the second aid station at mile 5.8 and take a short cut back to get to Charlotte by 9am like he promised her. That was totally fine with me and I thanked him for getting me through the night and pushing me. He really did help make the miles go faster. I would have preferred the company, but I simply pretended he was next to me telling me to run when I wanted to walk, eat, and drink. We really picked up the pace in those last 6 miles he was with me. My split for that lap was much faster. But because of the increased pace, my shin splint came back and I was in quite a bit of pain in my 15th loop. I made the mistake of tying my shoe tighter, thinking that my right foot was swimming in my shoe, causing the problem. What I realized later was that tightening me shoe caused more pressure on my tendon, more friction, and thus more inflammation. Still I kept the pace up and hit the aid stations in really good time. I was really hobbling though by mile 4 in the last loop and was walking by mile 7-8. That was about the time I caught up with tc and Shawn and was about to lap them. Realizing I had this much of a gap to win, I walked and let them go ahead. Shawn had long been dealing with blisters. I had a couple, but they were not slowing me down as much as her. Somehow, I managed to continue at a decent pace and finished my last loop with the 4th fastest loop time of all the loops I ran. But the fast time probably had to do with my spending very little time between loop 14 and 15 and it being the last loop without any need to re-stock for another loop. My last loop was also the second fastest last loop of all the 150 and 100 mile finishers except for one guy in the 150 mile who ran his in 1:56:10. However, my last two loops combined were faster than any 150 or 100 mile finisher. The first place 150 mile finisher’s last two laps combined were 19 seconds slower than mine. I CRANKED in the end!
I ran in the last stretch to a roaring crowd of a dozen people or so. Ken took pictures of my exhausted face. Jess Mullen was there and I ran into her arms and burst into tears. I was so physically and emotionally drained. I did not sleep the entire race: 47 hours 39 minutes, and 12 seconds, first woman and 6th overall of 12 finishers and 49 starters for the 150 mile race. Race director Andy came over and gave me a hug and my 150 mile buckle. Jess ran incredibly well, beating down her DNF demon from last year at 70 miles. She finished 2nd woman and 8th overall with a time of 28:27:22. Shawn and tc ran together the whole time and finished in 51:16:30. All the Washington state runners finished! We are one tough as nails group!
Ken and I headed back to the hotel and grabbed some Quiznos and a shower. I was really hurting by then in my ankle/shin, barely able to put weight on it. I even thought I might have a stress fracture. We returned to the race to see Shawn and tc and a few others finish and Ken had to support me while I walked because of such sharp severe pain. He even had to give me a piggy back up the stairs at the hotel. I was not the only person who burst into tears when finishing. There was a 19 year old who finished the 150 miles about 10 minutes before Shawn and tc who cried upon finishing. He had run the 100 mile the previous year and the 50 mile the year before that. What an accomplishment for a 19 year old! Shawn also shed some tears.
We decided to get together for dinner in the evening. Ken and I laid down our heads to try to get some sleep before dinner, but I was not able to due to the pain in my right ankle and knees. We drove quite a distance to find a restaurant because most places were closed for Easter. We came back to the hotel and proceeded to pack because we had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning for the 3 hour drive back to O’Hare and return the rental car. Finally, we went to bed by 10pm after I had been awake for the last 63 hours. I did get some sleep but nodded on and off during the drive to O’Hare. Ken was a lifesaver for me on this weekend crewing me and doing all the driving. The weather when we awoke Monday morning was severe. It was raining hard and wind was blowing 40mph sustained. The drive was very stressful for Ken. I kept thinking how fortunate we were with the weather for the race. We had a pretty good window. It was rainy and windy at the start, but that seemed to have subsided after the first 2 loops. Yes, the nights were cold, but it certainly could have been worse.
The flight back was very uncomfortable for tc, Shawn, and me. Shawn and tc had lots of cuts and a pretty bad rash on their legs, probably from horse manure in the creeks. I fared better, maybe because I wore tights the whole time and they wore shorts most of the time. Tony said he was hardly able to take off his tights because they were stuck to him. Another lady had the same problem. It was hard for me as well but I think I fared better. Tony had weeping from his legs the morning after the race and Shawn had very red legs. We all had significant worsening of calves swelling on the flight, but particularly tc. Plus, he had to leave for India for three weeks for work, just 2 days after getting back from McNaughton. I told him to take some aspirin to prevent blood clots. I had one blister on the top of my middle toe on the right foot, the same foot as my inflamed ankle tendon. That blister now was filled with pus and my toe and right foot were very swollen. While sitting at the terminal at the airport, I drained the blister (gross!) and the redness and swelling of my toe improved from then. The swelling of both my ankles took much longer, more like a couple days.
Finally got home, ate, and went to bed by 7:30pm. Sleep was very restless for me because of my swollen calves and sore ankle. I tried to sleep with my feet on a pillow to get it above my heart and help with the calf swelling, but that was hard to do. I have been ice massaging my creaky tendon, which at its worse felt like BB pellets rubbing up against my tendon every time I flexed and extended my ankle. It seems to be getting better every day but might not be good enough to run a 50K by the weekend.
So, I did it. I set out to run 150 miles and somehow I was able to get it done. Although I didn’t have a bad race, I certainly had problems. I had asthma problems starting at 50K. I had back pain, knee pain, shin splints, and an inflamed tendon. I was not able to keep my body temp under control when it was cold or when it got too warm for me. I attribute my ability to finish to my fitness level and my will to succeed. You too can succeed with the right attitude!
Happy trails!
Pigtails
This is going to be a long report. So grab a cup of coffee, or two, or three and read on if this is the kind of stuff that pushes your buttons, and if so, you are probably just a little sick like me.
This race really snuck up on me. After 2008, I backed off on racing every weekend and April seemed so far away. Before I knew it, it was here. But after a good run at Pac Rim One Day with a strong recovery, McNaughton seemed doable.
I took the day off before we flew to Illinois to pack and get as much rest as possible. Turned out that it was a pretty hectic day and I didn’t get to sleep until about 10:30pm, which was restless of course. We had to get up at 2:45am to be ready to leave at 3:30am and drive over to Tony Covarrubias and Shawn Lawson’s house where Shawn’s brother was going to drive us all to the airport so that we could leave our car at their house. They had signed up for the 150 mile as well. I hardly got any sleep on the airplane, even though I was very tired. Ken got to rest his eyes while I watched the movie Marley and Me on the screen. We picked up our rental car and headed to Pekin from O’Hare, a 3 hour drive. We stopped for lunch partway. I stole a few moments of sleep with my head bobbing and my mouth propped open, but it was not refreshing. The drive was not very stimulating with flat, mowed corn fields. As we approached Pekin, there was one hill.
We got to Pekin and Shawn and tc were just checking into the hotel. Ken and I headed over to Walmart to get supplies for the race, including a chair, large plastic container for all my drop stuff, Frappuccino, cup-a-noodles, Gatorade, water, and food for him. Poor Ken. He and Walmart are not a good match. But he was such a sport all weekend, returning there if I needed something else that I didn’t have. We returned to the hotel room and I got all my race stuff ready. We were going to meet tc and Shawn for dinner, but they were going to Appleby’s and Ken declined, saying going to Walmart was enough of a stretch for him that day. We found a local pub. The food was okay. It did the trick. We retired at about 10pm. Sleep again was poor for me in a strange surrounding. So two nights of poor sleep before my race. Also, it started to rain overnight, and that got me worried. We woke up at 7am and finished getting ready. Originally, I pulled out shorts to wear for the race but changed my mind, remembering how cold I got at Pac Rim and how difficult it was for me to get moving again after getting cold.
We ate breakfast and headed over to the race start at 10am. The race was to begin at 12pm. It was rainy and windy and people were running back and forth to their cars to try to stay dry and warm. But there was a glimmer of hope since the forecast was calling for good days for Sat and Sun, perfect for the 100 mile and 50 mile runners. We just needed to get through the start of a nasty day. I said hi to several people I knew while getting my spot ready where Ken was going to be every loop to crew me. I checked in and got my race number and goodie bag. The 150 and 100 milers got a tech tee and a fleece pullover, both very nice. I put them in my car hoping that I would be able to wear them, contingent on my finishing. I was dressed for the cold, including a long sleeve with hoodie, my red shell, gloves, tights, shorts, gaiters, gore-tex wind and waterproof mittens, and a plastic poncho. I was cold standing there at the start but was wearing a Nathan pack without the water bladder and knew I could stuff excess material that I could easily discard after the first lap. I carried one water bottle, as there were two aid stations on course.
There were forty nine 150 mile starters and a handful of 100 mile runners getting an early start. Apparently, two of the 150 milers were already on course since the day before-Thursday. I kissed Ken goodbye and ran off in the middle of the pack. The rain was still falling and the wind was strong at times. That morning the wind was 15-20 mph with gusts of 30mph. It was less noticeable in the woods, but there was plenty of open field running. I almost fell on my butt immediately after the start where we headed down a steep slick hill with deep ruts. Footing could be found if you bounced back and forth from side to side. After about 100 yards, you turned and ran clockwise on the outside edge of a flat field for about a mile. This part became increasingly hard with each loop, since it was a part you needed to run because it was flat and walking it meant losing quite a bit of time. Since I’m not a very good power walker, I did lose time here walking, but I tried to use this spot to eat and walk. It was tempting to run across the field after so many loops instead of around it but at the pre-race briefing, race director Andy Weinberg, who is quite an endurance athlete himself, having done double and triple Ironmans, stated that littering and cheating were grounds for disqualification. Okay, so that’s obvious. But he also said that he had recruited high school students to hide in the bushes and if anyone was caught doing either, they were given permission to peg us with paint ball guns. Apparently cheating has occurred since this very challenging 10-mile loop can really get to ya. Andy had traveled from Middlebury, Vermont, his new home to direct this race one last time. It must have been hard to put on a race from afar, but it sounds as if he had a good group of people in Pekin to mark the trail and get other details ready.
Next was “Tanner’s Pass,” a short but very steep hill. It started with ankle deep shoe sucking mudd (my new four letter word) that never dried up over the entire weekend. So very early on for each loop, you feet were covered in mud. The mud was either sopping wet or heavy clay-like mud. You crested out on an open grassy field before hitting the first section of the Red Trail, also known as the Potowatani Trail. Now came several ups and downs here which included running through a boggy section of above ankle water and mud, which became worse with each loop. The sides of the trail started out as areas that you could plant your foot, but eventually, all that was turned into a mess too. You were better off just going through the shortest route. You encountered another steep hill up and after that a section of several steep ups and downs mixed in with rolling hills and not much flat. On the first day, it was treacherous to run down these hills because of the rain and very slick conditions. There was plenty of mud on people’s back sides. You’ll notice a trend here that there was very little flat running. The down hills were harder than the up hills.
The first aid station was at 2.5 miles and known as the Totem Pole aid station. I did actually use the aid stations on course so that I only needed to carry one water bottle. Usually I filled my water bottle here and grab light snacks like cookies, banana, pretzels, or chicken noodle soup at night. More rolling hills in open grassy fields followed, across a “Blue Bird” section where there were several bluebird houses. Then came “The Beach”, a section of sand. I have to say, this was not as much of a “beach” as it could have been. There was enough moisture to keep the sand packed down. We crossed some water and I thought this was the first creek crossing and felt it wasn’t so bad. Then came the real crossing of Lick Creek at 3.5 miles, which for me on the first day was knee deep at the deepest sections where the water was rushing the most. I have to say though that it was refreshing initially but cold at night. It cleaned up the shoes nicely.
After the creek, which was just over 3 miles, we ran some flats and some more hills before arriving at “Golf Hill”. This had a rope to help you climb up, since the trail drops off on both sides and it is steep. More hills, including one called “Heartbreak Hill”. We ran down to the road and made a hairpin turn towards the next aid station including going up another steep section, running in fairly flat open grassy fields, and passing Meyer’s Cemetary. One runner asked the aid station volunteers if the cemetery had bodies of previous runners. Finally, we arrived at the second aid station at 5.8 miles, through “Heaven’s Gate”, which had great food and a nice fire. I made an effort to eat real food here, which included mashed potatoes with cheese and bacon bits, egg salad sandwich, or turkey and cheese sandwiches. These were good in the beginning, but at some point, I just got tired of constantly eating and no food appeared appetizing, even if I enjoyed it before. This aid station also got very cold at night, since the wind seemed to blow there more and stopping to get food further chilled me. I’m sure the wind chill fell well below 30 degrees. On the second night, I wore two long sleeves, one short sleeve, my red shell, thick tights, a pair of shorts over that, and capris over that, as well as a beanie, heavy fleece gloves, and a plastic poncho, and I was still cold! I would take my food here and eat on the run in a one mile loop that included some flat running along the creek as well as hills and a section of open field that was a tedious trip through more shoe sucking mud that never dried up over the weekend. It was “demoralizing!” The end of the loop brought us back to the aid station, but I usually did not stop a second time. This was now 6.9 miles that continued on with more rolling open field running, steep hills, and everything in between before arriving at the second creek crossing at about 8.6 miles. This was almost as deep as the first but not moving as fast. It was a welcome crossing, since by then, my shoes were really covered in mud and I would have a clump of mud under the ball of my foot that would wash out nicely, at least for a while. The last 1.4 miles had a decent amount of runnable terrain but also some steep hills and very muddy trails. You had to be careful not to be pegged by serious Frisbee golf players since we ran through their area.
Each loop had 1600 feet of elevation gain and same of loss. Multiply that by 15 and that’s 24,000 feet! Day one featured very slick conditions on the hills, but after drying out on Sat and Sun, they became hard as rock and painful to run down. At least the footing was better, but there were still plenty of sections that did not receive any sun and stayed wet all weekend. I finished the first loop in 2:01 and my body, especially my back, was already hurting. I was using so many dormant stabilizing muscles. Basically, my first 20 miles hurt until I figured out how not to fight the muddy trails. I forced myself to plant my foot securely before moving forward. I felt this saved me time and energy in the long run. I watched so many people slip and slide trying to move through these areas quickly but ended up slipping backwards and falling side to side. I knew several girls were in front of me and did not try to catch them because pacing myself was the most important thing I could to do finish. Besides, I let them duke it out and hoped they would wear each other out.
At the end of each loop, Ken was waiting for me. I wanted to drink a Frappuccino before the start of each loop and did this while walking through the start/finish area. He also handed me a new bottle with water or Gatorade and more Gu. I would change clothes if needed and he had my down jacket ready so that I could wear it if I stopped too long and got cold. I ate a cup-a-noodle a few times. Sometimes he would grab me a grilled cheese sandwich from the aid station or other food, but mostly, I stuck with my own stuff. I was peeing so much and didn’t realize it was from all the caffeine from the Frappuccino and Gu. Duh! I backed off on drinking the Frapps until I realized that I was low on calories and getting tired and started up again. I took salt about once an hour initially but stopped because I was peeing so much and thought it was too much salt when really it was too much caffeine. Fortunately, I had no problems with nausea or cramps, so I probably was getting enough salt in the soup and other sources. It was good to see Ken every 10 miles but hard to leave again to keep moving. I tried to smile and be positive and even gave him a kiss now and then before heading off. People were cheering me on and I waved and smiled for them too. I think it’s important to acknowledge people as much as possible since they are there either volunteering or crewing for other runners in the cold and dark. I also feel that even if you are feeling bad, forcing yourself to be upbeat might even help. Ken said of all the races he has crewed for me, I looked the best at this one. I did change my shoes once at mile 60, and almost was scared to look at the state my foot and skin were in, but it wasn’t so bad. I ended up changing it back to my original shoe after another 30 miles. Otherwise, I wore the same disgusting sports bra, tights, and undie for the entire race! Ken had washed my shoes before I changed them back to the Cascadias and said they were really heavy before he was able to get all the mud off them, which took him 15 minutes.
By the end of the first loop, I was 5th place woman. I stayed in 5th through the 6th loop. By mile 70, I was in 4th place and stayed there through the 9th loop. Shawn passed me by 100 miles and I was back in 5th place. But then everything changed. The four girls that were in front of me for most of the race had dropped out. Charlotte Vasarhelyi, who set the women’s course record (46:21:29) last year in the 150 mile in worse conditions than what we were having, dropped at 90 miles. When I lapped her on her 9th loop and I was on my 10th, it looked like she was having nausea problems. Tracy Thomas, who held the 100 mile record for this race and is a very accomplished 48 hour racer, quit after 100 miles due to painful feet. She was a whole loop ahead of me when she quit. The two other women who I didn’t know or remember seeing during the race also stopped after 100 miles and were also a loop ahead of me when this occurred. So that left me, Shawn, and another gal named Nikki Seger. I spoke with Nikki after the race and this was her third try at the 150 miles. The first year she made it to 100 miles, 2nd year 110, and this year 120. I can’t imagine going that far and having to quit. I couldn’t believe that after 70 miles, I had already been running almost 23 hours and I was not even halfway done! At that point, I was really starting to worry if I could finish.
It was sunny Saturday and I was even stripped down to a t-shirt but still wore my tights since it would have been impossible to take them off and put them back on again. It got warm enough that I needed to wear a hat to shield my face, which was quickly getting bronzed. I had made it through the first night without sleeping and all day the second day. I was told that people who took a quick nap felt refreshed and returned running stronger. So after lap 11, I tried to take a 15 minute power nap but was too cold to ever fall asleep. Besides, Ken had found a pacer for me and he was patiently waiting in the cold. This loop had the longest elapsed time from my attempt to sleep and I had crossed the timing mat before heading to the car. I was glad to have a pacer because I was scared the first night on my own. I was running along on the trail with one headphone in when I heard a “Grrrr.” I yelled out “Go on! Get out of here!” I ran away fast from that spot thanks to the rush of adrenaline. In a little while I heard some howling. I came up on a slower runner who had a dog with him. He said the dog had followed him from about mile three at the first creek crossing but was friendly. I figured that was the dog that had growled at me from the bushes and did all that howling. But since I was moving faster than this other person, the dog decided to tag along with me. It was okay that he was friendly and all, but he was running back and forth and circles around me, running and bumping into me. It was getting old. I arrived at the second aid station and asked if they knew this dog. They found out later for me that it belonged to a woman at the first aid station and had gotten loose. It followed me for another mile for a total of 3 miles before tagging along with another runner. In all, it ran with 4 other runners before his owner got a hold of him. Anyhoo, I now had a pacer starting loop 12. His name was Jamie, and he was a GREAT pacer. I learned a lot from him about how to be a good pacer. He had come to pace Charlotte 80 miles, but when she dropped, he had only gotten in 30 miles. He still needed 50 miles. I only had 40 miles to go and he joked that I’d have to run an extra loop. Jamie ran behind me and held his strong flashlight above my head, which was nice because my headlamp was not that powerful. Or if he could, he would run on the side of the trail to light my way. He asked me frequently if I was eating or drinking. He encouraged me to run the flats and down hills, which I was having trouble getting motivated to do in the flats and thus lost a lot of time.
In the 12th loop, my right knee was really starting to hurt when it didn’t hurt before. It made it very difficult to run the steep down hills. I had never taken any anti-inflammatories during a run, having heard too many horror stories of kidney failure or stomach bleeds. But I had been peeing a lot and Jamie encouraged me to take one of his Aleve’s with some cookies. I decided I had better try it since I still had over 35 miles to go and these loops were already taking me 3 ½ hours to complete. I’ve heard of loops taking 5 hours, and that could seriously jeopardize finishing under 52 hours for the cut off. It started to kick in after ½ hour enough to dull the pain. I was exhausted though using extra energy to baby that knee.
By the 13th loop, about 39 hours into the race, I started to yawn, the first time since waking up 7am on Friday. Then I said something like. “I’m so cold, I wish I could sit on some seated heats.” “Heated seats,” Jamie corrected me. Then the hallucinations started. I was stumbling a bit, but not enough for Jamie to reach out and try to grab me. I had to force myself not to look at stumps, bushes, or trees. I was seeing too many figures and tried to focus my attention on the trail. Jamie was getting tired too and started to take caffeine pills. Next thing you know, he’s stopping every 10 minutes. But he kept talking to me and me to him and we kept each other awake until the sun came up. I had tried a knee brace on this loop and ended up taking it off because my whole body so swollen and it was too tight. Jamie gave me another Aleve before the end of this loop and it really helped the rest of the race. He also encouraged me to pick up the pace, not only to stay awake, but also to potentially win this race. I had no idea where Shawn was, but I knew she was behind me from taking a longer sleeping break than my 15 minutes. However, I also knew that she and tc were moving faster than I was the last time we ran together when she passed me and got to 100 miles first. I was whining to Jamie that I didn’t care if I won. I was tired and hurting and wanted to walk. I considered taking a nap at the end of this loop. But by then, the sun had come up and we realized that I had a good chance of staying in front of Shawn, so I kept going.
At the start of the 14th loop with only 20 miles to go, Jamie told me that he would only be able to run half of this loop with me since he had to get Charlotte home. He was going to run with me to the second aid station at mile 5.8 and take a short cut back to get to Charlotte by 9am like he promised her. That was totally fine with me and I thanked him for getting me through the night and pushing me. He really did help make the miles go faster. I would have preferred the company, but I simply pretended he was next to me telling me to run when I wanted to walk, eat, and drink. We really picked up the pace in those last 6 miles he was with me. My split for that lap was much faster. But because of the increased pace, my shin splint came back and I was in quite a bit of pain in my 15th loop. I made the mistake of tying my shoe tighter, thinking that my right foot was swimming in my shoe, causing the problem. What I realized later was that tightening me shoe caused more pressure on my tendon, more friction, and thus more inflammation. Still I kept the pace up and hit the aid stations in really good time. I was really hobbling though by mile 4 in the last loop and was walking by mile 7-8. That was about the time I caught up with tc and Shawn and was about to lap them. Realizing I had this much of a gap to win, I walked and let them go ahead. Shawn had long been dealing with blisters. I had a couple, but they were not slowing me down as much as her. Somehow, I managed to continue at a decent pace and finished my last loop with the 4th fastest loop time of all the loops I ran. But the fast time probably had to do with my spending very little time between loop 14 and 15 and it being the last loop without any need to re-stock for another loop. My last loop was also the second fastest last loop of all the 150 and 100 mile finishers except for one guy in the 150 mile who ran his in 1:56:10. However, my last two loops combined were faster than any 150 or 100 mile finisher. The first place 150 mile finisher’s last two laps combined were 19 seconds slower than mine. I CRANKED in the end!
I ran in the last stretch to a roaring crowd of a dozen people or so. Ken took pictures of my exhausted face. Jess Mullen was there and I ran into her arms and burst into tears. I was so physically and emotionally drained. I did not sleep the entire race: 47 hours 39 minutes, and 12 seconds, first woman and 6th overall of 12 finishers and 49 starters for the 150 mile race. Race director Andy came over and gave me a hug and my 150 mile buckle. Jess ran incredibly well, beating down her DNF demon from last year at 70 miles. She finished 2nd woman and 8th overall with a time of 28:27:22. Shawn and tc ran together the whole time and finished in 51:16:30. All the Washington state runners finished! We are one tough as nails group!
Ken and I headed back to the hotel and grabbed some Quiznos and a shower. I was really hurting by then in my ankle/shin, barely able to put weight on it. I even thought I might have a stress fracture. We returned to the race to see Shawn and tc and a few others finish and Ken had to support me while I walked because of such sharp severe pain. He even had to give me a piggy back up the stairs at the hotel. I was not the only person who burst into tears when finishing. There was a 19 year old who finished the 150 miles about 10 minutes before Shawn and tc who cried upon finishing. He had run the 100 mile the previous year and the 50 mile the year before that. What an accomplishment for a 19 year old! Shawn also shed some tears.
We decided to get together for dinner in the evening. Ken and I laid down our heads to try to get some sleep before dinner, but I was not able to due to the pain in my right ankle and knees. We drove quite a distance to find a restaurant because most places were closed for Easter. We came back to the hotel and proceeded to pack because we had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning for the 3 hour drive back to O’Hare and return the rental car. Finally, we went to bed by 10pm after I had been awake for the last 63 hours. I did get some sleep but nodded on and off during the drive to O’Hare. Ken was a lifesaver for me on this weekend crewing me and doing all the driving. The weather when we awoke Monday morning was severe. It was raining hard and wind was blowing 40mph sustained. The drive was very stressful for Ken. I kept thinking how fortunate we were with the weather for the race. We had a pretty good window. It was rainy and windy at the start, but that seemed to have subsided after the first 2 loops. Yes, the nights were cold, but it certainly could have been worse.
The flight back was very uncomfortable for tc, Shawn, and me. Shawn and tc had lots of cuts and a pretty bad rash on their legs, probably from horse manure in the creeks. I fared better, maybe because I wore tights the whole time and they wore shorts most of the time. Tony said he was hardly able to take off his tights because they were stuck to him. Another lady had the same problem. It was hard for me as well but I think I fared better. Tony had weeping from his legs the morning after the race and Shawn had very red legs. We all had significant worsening of calves swelling on the flight, but particularly tc. Plus, he had to leave for India for three weeks for work, just 2 days after getting back from McNaughton. I told him to take some aspirin to prevent blood clots. I had one blister on the top of my middle toe on the right foot, the same foot as my inflamed ankle tendon. That blister now was filled with pus and my toe and right foot were very swollen. While sitting at the terminal at the airport, I drained the blister (gross!) and the redness and swelling of my toe improved from then. The swelling of both my ankles took much longer, more like a couple days.
Finally got home, ate, and went to bed by 7:30pm. Sleep was very restless for me because of my swollen calves and sore ankle. I tried to sleep with my feet on a pillow to get it above my heart and help with the calf swelling, but that was hard to do. I have been ice massaging my creaky tendon, which at its worse felt like BB pellets rubbing up against my tendon every time I flexed and extended my ankle. It seems to be getting better every day but might not be good enough to run a 50K by the weekend.
So, I did it. I set out to run 150 miles and somehow I was able to get it done. Although I didn’t have a bad race, I certainly had problems. I had asthma problems starting at 50K. I had back pain, knee pain, shin splints, and an inflamed tendon. I was not able to keep my body temp under control when it was cold or when it got too warm for me. I attribute my ability to finish to my fitness level and my will to succeed. You too can succeed with the right attitude!
Happy trails!
Pigtails
Monday, March 23, 2009
100 UNDER 20
(Warning! This is a long article, but what do you expect for a 100 mile race?)
After several years of running ultras and all the goals that I have placed on myself and achieved, one would think that I’ve done it all. But setting new challenges is what keeps me motivated to get out there to train and race. Setting PRs at various distances is a challenge that is hard to achieve the older and slower one gets. Yes, yes, I know I’m just a babe in many people’s eyes, but in terms of lifetime miles from the time I started running 7 years ago, I have put a lot on these tires of mine and feel as if the tread has been worn on them for a while. So where did I get this crazy notion of trying to run 100 miles in under 20 hours?
In 2007, when I was around the peak of my running, I ran Rio Del Lago 100 mile race in Sacramento. I finished in 21:48 (which fulfilled my goal of 100 miles in less than one day), but felt that my asthma, losing the trail several times, and running without a pacer in an unfamiliar city at night resulted in a slower time than what I was capable of. Since then, I have felt that 100 miles under 20 hours was within my reach. But after completing my 3 years with 51 or more races per year of mostly ultras and getting into the Maniac Hall of Fame, I was worried my speed was pretty much gone. I knew there was no possible way of running such a time in a mountainous 100 miler. I know of fairly “flat” 100 milers, but those races are pretty far away. I never considered running a 24 hour run but decided that Pacific Rim One Day was my best chance. Usually on this particular weekend in March, I sign up for Chuckanut 50K. I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of running around a one mile loop at Pac Rim 100 times, but I thought that was preferable to a high school track.
Training leading up to the race was sub-optimum. I pretty much cannot run during the week due to long hours at work, and I just can’t seem to wake up at 3am to get my running in on my treadmill. I’m an outdoor runner. I was able to get out for long runs on a few Mondays that I have off, but the majority of my running has been back-to-back long runs on the weekends, often involving a race on one of those days. I didn’t do any type of speedwork. The fastest I ran before the race was with a couple other girls who I met at 5:45 on a Saturday morning to run 9 miles before the larger Cedar River Runners group met at 7:30am to run 14 flat miles. I ran with Heather, who is in her 40s, has 4 kids, and is incredibly fit and Sarah, who is younger than both of us and has a family of her own too. I was thinking we’d start out slow and pick up the pace. But Sarah with her bouncy morning person stride took off like it was a 5K race and Heather and I struggled to keep up (at least I was). Heather’s heart rate monitor and watch were beeping off letting her know it was too high. She said it was running 200! We slowed down, briefly. Fortunately, when we were done and met the 7:30 group, I could catch my breath and have a more leisurely run settling in the usual plodding pace that I am used to.
I took the day off from work the day before the 24hr, a luxury of resting before race day that I don’t usually have. Friday’s are always hectic at work with patient’s calling to get in before the weekend and being on my feet constantly. This type of being on my feet bothers me a lot more than if I had just run that day. My Friday off was still very busy doing chores around the house and getting ready for the race. I made garlic mashed potatoes and Rice Krispies treats to eat during the race. Boiled potatoes for me are always hard to chew and swallow, often because they are undercooked. I decided it would be easier to get mashed potatoes down, and I made it with lots of butter, garlic, and sour cream. I loaded everything I needed in a large cooler: extra clothes, shoes, Gu, E-caps, my inhaler, Imodium, Mucinex, the mashed potatoes in paper cups, Rice Krispies treats, vanilla Frappuccinos, Coke, my MP3 player, and extra batteries.
I had a restless night, dreaming about a very small circle that I kept running around and around on and the circle kept changing in size. I met Tony Covarrubias at 6am Saturday morning and we rode to the start together at Longview, WA. Many were already there set up. Tony felt there were more runners than usual, possibly because Chuckanut filled up very early. He also warned that despite what other areas were doing, this race is notorious for wind and rain. We had lap counters and there was an aid station at the start of each loop, which I only used a few times the entire race. There was also a Honey Bucket just past the ½ mile mark as well as flushing bathrooms at the end of each mile loop. The loop consisted of running about 200 feet on a concrete sidewalk before it turned into a fine gravel groomed path. Just a short distance after, you had to make an almost hairpin turn (my cooler was just before the turn), then very slight down for a short distance followed by a short but little steeper up on a section of the trail where the gravel was very loose and annoying. Most people walked this early on but I refused to do so. Then you had to run across a metal bridge over the water just about 150 feet that made a terribly loud noise, followed by 50 feet of concrete before getting on the groomed trail again. Then you ran straight on this flat section of trail for just over a ¼ mile before a short steep hill (just a few steps) onto another bridge over the water that was concrete (I started to walk this flat bridge after 26 miles because it was hurting my feet slapping against it). After the bridge, you could stay on the concrete sidewalk or run on the grass that people were stomping out a trail before turning right for another over ¼ mile straight section back to the start. This sections starts with a slight down, then flat, then slight up to a turn for the last straight section to the finish, which again was a concrete sidewalk that I ran on the grass nearly every time. So the loop is not completely flat and the turns and slight ups definitely slowed people down. I didn’t run one mile under 9 minutes, and my average pace for 100 miles is just under 12 minutes. It’s strange how the slight downs are imperceptible and at least in my case did not help at all, but the slight ups definitely were challenging, especially as the miles rolled by. The race was on the trail system around Lake Sacajawea. Although I recently cut 3 inches off of hair, I bet my pigtails made me look like the ghost of Sacajawea from behind. I bet she would have been a great Ultrarunner!
I started out conservative, averaging around 9:30 pace for the marathon distance. I covered that in about 4:20 including a couple bathroom breaks. The weather was very good, considering past runs. I was out for 22 ¼ hours and it only rained on us once, which even then only lasted 5 minutes. We did have breezy conditions during the day, but again, could have been a lot worse. After I stopped running, the rest of the people still out there had to deal with rain and wind while I tried to warm up in Tony’s car. I finished 50K in about 5:05 (PR 4:28). Someone asked me afterward how I managed to pace myself to meet my goal. I told her I didn’t have a plan other than having to keep my overall pace below 12 min/mi. So I knew that I had 2 hours to finish 10 miles, an easy way for me to keep track. Of course I knew I wouldn’t be running that slowly to begin with but I still found myself keeping up the pace to bank time because I knew I would slow down significantly in the second half. Now we all know that it is not wise to bank time in a race. Doing it in a marathon is unwise, and doing it in a 100 miler could be simply catastrophic. I have also told people asking me how to pace for a 100 miler that if they are feeling good, they are going too fast. My first 20 miles actually hurt, but I settled into a nice slower and less painful pace from then until 50 miles. Basically, I was throwing all the rules out the window and just kept moving forward. I feel that one of my gifts as a runner is my ability for relentless forward motion. For the entire 100 miles, I probably walked no more than 3 miles of it (such as when I started walking the concrete bridge after 26 miles, when I drank my Frappuccinos, and when my quads were shot from miles 94-95). Veterans of 24 hour races will tell you that a run/walk strategy like run 5 miles/walk 1 mile will allow you to keep going for 24 hours. But that was not my goal. My goal was to get 100 miles under 20. I hit 50 miles around 8:30 (PR 7:19) and 100K around 10:40 (PR 10:23). These splits are not much slower that my PRs for these distances, so I really was pushing myself. I stopped at 50 miles to adjust my shoes. My feet were swelling and my big toes were rubbing against the shoe, causing hot spots. So I sat on my cooler and took of my liner socks and slathered Vaseline on my big toes and more under my bra and between my knees. I didn’t have gaiters on. I had lent them to Olga because she forgot hers. I did have small rocks in my shoes, but Olga looked like she needed them more than I did. My hot spots went away and I had very little blisters at the end. After sitting about 3 minutes (the longest time I stopped moving) to do that, getting up and moving again was quite a chore. I had stiffened up a lot in that short period of time. That’s why I never sat down at CCC 100 miler.
The miles just dragged. Listening to music did help and I had it blasting at times. Many people tried to talk to me and occasionally I would take out an ear piece and talk back, but for the most part, I just kept moving. I had a plan and was focused. Plus, no one was really running my pace. Either they were going slower or faster. I needed to maintain my pace. After 70 miles, the music did not really help much anyway. It’s amazing that I was only able to get through 270 of the 470 songs on my player in the entire time I ran. I couldn’t believe that at 60 miles, I still had 40 miles to go. Hitting 70 was better to take, since I knew I only had 50K to go. At 70 miles, I still had about a 1hr45min cushion if I maintained 12 minute miles. But at that point, my mile splits were just about 12:40 pace, so my cushion was slowly disappearing. At 80 miles, that cushion shrank to 1hr30 min, and by 90 miles, it was just over an hour. But then, at about 94 miles, my quads just stopped working. I had done a good job up until that point of eating and drinking. My schedule was eating mash potatoes every 2 hours (after my marathon distance) and alternating a Frappuccino every two hours. The mashed potatoes in paper cups were great. I had a spoon and just scooped it out little by little and licked it like it was a popsicle. It went down easy and I could continue running. The Frappuccino required me to walk to avoid getting it all over myself or choking on it. I walked twice per loop to get it down, 20-30 seconds each. Next time, I will put them in bottles with mouth pieces so I can continue running. I also continued my Gu in between and took a Succeed E-cap every hour. I had a hand held bottle with Gu20 that I refilled every 5 miles and ran without it while I either ate mashed potatoes or drank my Frappuccino. I had pretty much a system down. I never ate any of my Rice Krispies treats. Between the Gu and Frappuccino, I didn’t want anything else sweet. Same with the Coke. I grabbed a cup of water every once in a while at the aid station to rinse my mouth out. By mile 94, I had run out of Frappuccino, the mashed potatoes were not as tasty as earlier, and it was starting to get cold. I think my body simply decided to shut down. I started walking/running. Regulating your body temperature was hard on this course because one side of the water was warm and the other breezy and colder. Finally, at 94 miles, I stopped and put on a pair of pants and long sleeved shirt. Up until then, I had worn shorts, a short sleeved shirt, heavy arm warmers, gloves on and off, and a Smartwool head band. By mile 95, I recuperated after adding clothes and eating again. My last mile was under 13 minutes and I finished with a healthy cushion in 19 hours and 31 minutes! I was elated! Finally, I could walk, eat, RELAX!
But as soon as I stopped, I froze! I was planning on walking the rest of the time, but I just couldn’t warm myself up. I went to the car and changed into a dry sports bra, couple shirts, shell, fleece pullover, and thicker long pants. I changed my socks but kept the same shoes. I put a new hat and gloves on and just started walking. With the clothing change, it took 45 minutes to finish that lap. I walked the next two miles, then had 3 or 4 good miles where I was actually running again, then hit a wall again at 106 miles. I dragged in another 2 miles of 20+ minutes each and called it quits. I needed to warm up again. I went back to the car and threw my sleeping bag over me. I was shivering and forced down some food. I watched from the comfort of the car people running in the last few miles and minutes before the cut off in the rain and wind. It was impressive to see how fast they were moving after running for nearly 24 hours. I brushed my teeth, which was great! My teeth were not sensitive, thanks to rinsing my mouth with water frequently.
Lisa Bliss finished first woman with 113 miles. I finished with 108. She continued on for the entire 24 hours while I ran 22:19. Although I finished 100 miles before she did, she ran a smarter race to be able to continue to the end. But I had a different goal for the day and was pleased I met it. Lisa was able to run this many miles despite nausea. She is such an impressive runner who is even tinier than I am! She has run much tougher races including winning Badwater 135 miles a couple years ago. The top male was her main squeeze, Tim Englund, with I think 126 miles. These were both new course records, and rightly so with the weather cooperating. *tc ran 108.5. I think we were all winners that day.
The volunteers were just great. Every mile I came in, I received a “Go Van!” or other cheer. And similarly, other runners were rooted on. The food at the aid station look appetizing, but I didn’t even allow myself enough time to stop and enjoy the selection. The lap counters sat in the cold keeping track of our mile splits. I was hitting my watch every time for my splits and it went over 100, but unfortunately, it only stores 30 splits! There were two “Pitch In!” trash containers after the start of each loop, which were these creative stands of a person holding a trash bag. What was nice about this was that you didn’t have to slow down to throw your trash away. They were right off the trail. There were garbage cans on the trail, but most of them you had to step 1-2 steps off the trail to throw something into them and I just didn’t have the time to do that-crazy as that may sound.
I looked miserable to the other runners after the race, hobbling along slowly to the brief awards ceremony. I could have used crutches at that point because my right knee and right sacroiliac joints locked up. Went to breakfast with a bunch of people but the food did not look appetizing when they brought it. I knew I needed to eat to help with the nausea I was feeling and picked a little at it. Tony drove us home with me bobbing my head and talking in my sleep. At first, he was not sure what to make of it but then realized he could ignore me. I was planning on helping him drive but I was useless. He did stop to catch a few zzzzzs part way home. I slept poorly that night unable to get into a comfortable position with my knees. Then I was in surgery and on my feet all day on Monday with 7 cases, holding retractors and big legs up. This was followed by being on call that night. So I had poor sleep the night before the race, no sleep day of race, poor sleep night after race, and on call on the 4th night. My first full night of sleep did not come until 6 days after the race. I was able to walk normal by Thursday without any pain and went on a run on 6 mile 9:30 pace run Friday. By Saturday, I ran 14 miles with the Cedar River Runners and had no pain anywhere. In fact, I felt good enough to run a 50K. That made me feel confident that I will probably be ready for my 150 miler after just over 2 ½ weeks of taper. Yes! This time, I’m actually going to taper!
Well, there you have it. It was the longest distance I’ve ever run. The longest time I’ve ever run was 35+ hours at Coyote 2 Moon. I know that if I finish McNaughton, I will have both run my longest race and been on my feet longer than ever before. I’m going to miss the Maniac Reunion at Yakima River Marathon since I’m on call for work! Best to you all and wish me luck as well in my 150 miler!
Pigtails
After several years of running ultras and all the goals that I have placed on myself and achieved, one would think that I’ve done it all. But setting new challenges is what keeps me motivated to get out there to train and race. Setting PRs at various distances is a challenge that is hard to achieve the older and slower one gets. Yes, yes, I know I’m just a babe in many people’s eyes, but in terms of lifetime miles from the time I started running 7 years ago, I have put a lot on these tires of mine and feel as if the tread has been worn on them for a while. So where did I get this crazy notion of trying to run 100 miles in under 20 hours?
In 2007, when I was around the peak of my running, I ran Rio Del Lago 100 mile race in Sacramento. I finished in 21:48 (which fulfilled my goal of 100 miles in less than one day), but felt that my asthma, losing the trail several times, and running without a pacer in an unfamiliar city at night resulted in a slower time than what I was capable of. Since then, I have felt that 100 miles under 20 hours was within my reach. But after completing my 3 years with 51 or more races per year of mostly ultras and getting into the Maniac Hall of Fame, I was worried my speed was pretty much gone. I knew there was no possible way of running such a time in a mountainous 100 miler. I know of fairly “flat” 100 milers, but those races are pretty far away. I never considered running a 24 hour run but decided that Pacific Rim One Day was my best chance. Usually on this particular weekend in March, I sign up for Chuckanut 50K. I wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of running around a one mile loop at Pac Rim 100 times, but I thought that was preferable to a high school track.
Training leading up to the race was sub-optimum. I pretty much cannot run during the week due to long hours at work, and I just can’t seem to wake up at 3am to get my running in on my treadmill. I’m an outdoor runner. I was able to get out for long runs on a few Mondays that I have off, but the majority of my running has been back-to-back long runs on the weekends, often involving a race on one of those days. I didn’t do any type of speedwork. The fastest I ran before the race was with a couple other girls who I met at 5:45 on a Saturday morning to run 9 miles before the larger Cedar River Runners group met at 7:30am to run 14 flat miles. I ran with Heather, who is in her 40s, has 4 kids, and is incredibly fit and Sarah, who is younger than both of us and has a family of her own too. I was thinking we’d start out slow and pick up the pace. But Sarah with her bouncy morning person stride took off like it was a 5K race and Heather and I struggled to keep up (at least I was). Heather’s heart rate monitor and watch were beeping off letting her know it was too high. She said it was running 200! We slowed down, briefly. Fortunately, when we were done and met the 7:30 group, I could catch my breath and have a more leisurely run settling in the usual plodding pace that I am used to.
I took the day off from work the day before the 24hr, a luxury of resting before race day that I don’t usually have. Friday’s are always hectic at work with patient’s calling to get in before the weekend and being on my feet constantly. This type of being on my feet bothers me a lot more than if I had just run that day. My Friday off was still very busy doing chores around the house and getting ready for the race. I made garlic mashed potatoes and Rice Krispies treats to eat during the race. Boiled potatoes for me are always hard to chew and swallow, often because they are undercooked. I decided it would be easier to get mashed potatoes down, and I made it with lots of butter, garlic, and sour cream. I loaded everything I needed in a large cooler: extra clothes, shoes, Gu, E-caps, my inhaler, Imodium, Mucinex, the mashed potatoes in paper cups, Rice Krispies treats, vanilla Frappuccinos, Coke, my MP3 player, and extra batteries.
I had a restless night, dreaming about a very small circle that I kept running around and around on and the circle kept changing in size. I met Tony Covarrubias at 6am Saturday morning and we rode to the start together at Longview, WA. Many were already there set up. Tony felt there were more runners than usual, possibly because Chuckanut filled up very early. He also warned that despite what other areas were doing, this race is notorious for wind and rain. We had lap counters and there was an aid station at the start of each loop, which I only used a few times the entire race. There was also a Honey Bucket just past the ½ mile mark as well as flushing bathrooms at the end of each mile loop. The loop consisted of running about 200 feet on a concrete sidewalk before it turned into a fine gravel groomed path. Just a short distance after, you had to make an almost hairpin turn (my cooler was just before the turn), then very slight down for a short distance followed by a short but little steeper up on a section of the trail where the gravel was very loose and annoying. Most people walked this early on but I refused to do so. Then you had to run across a metal bridge over the water just about 150 feet that made a terribly loud noise, followed by 50 feet of concrete before getting on the groomed trail again. Then you ran straight on this flat section of trail for just over a ¼ mile before a short steep hill (just a few steps) onto another bridge over the water that was concrete (I started to walk this flat bridge after 26 miles because it was hurting my feet slapping against it). After the bridge, you could stay on the concrete sidewalk or run on the grass that people were stomping out a trail before turning right for another over ¼ mile straight section back to the start. This sections starts with a slight down, then flat, then slight up to a turn for the last straight section to the finish, which again was a concrete sidewalk that I ran on the grass nearly every time. So the loop is not completely flat and the turns and slight ups definitely slowed people down. I didn’t run one mile under 9 minutes, and my average pace for 100 miles is just under 12 minutes. It’s strange how the slight downs are imperceptible and at least in my case did not help at all, but the slight ups definitely were challenging, especially as the miles rolled by. The race was on the trail system around Lake Sacajawea. Although I recently cut 3 inches off of hair, I bet my pigtails made me look like the ghost of Sacajawea from behind. I bet she would have been a great Ultrarunner!
I started out conservative, averaging around 9:30 pace for the marathon distance. I covered that in about 4:20 including a couple bathroom breaks. The weather was very good, considering past runs. I was out for 22 ¼ hours and it only rained on us once, which even then only lasted 5 minutes. We did have breezy conditions during the day, but again, could have been a lot worse. After I stopped running, the rest of the people still out there had to deal with rain and wind while I tried to warm up in Tony’s car. I finished 50K in about 5:05 (PR 4:28). Someone asked me afterward how I managed to pace myself to meet my goal. I told her I didn’t have a plan other than having to keep my overall pace below 12 min/mi. So I knew that I had 2 hours to finish 10 miles, an easy way for me to keep track. Of course I knew I wouldn’t be running that slowly to begin with but I still found myself keeping up the pace to bank time because I knew I would slow down significantly in the second half. Now we all know that it is not wise to bank time in a race. Doing it in a marathon is unwise, and doing it in a 100 miler could be simply catastrophic. I have also told people asking me how to pace for a 100 miler that if they are feeling good, they are going too fast. My first 20 miles actually hurt, but I settled into a nice slower and less painful pace from then until 50 miles. Basically, I was throwing all the rules out the window and just kept moving forward. I feel that one of my gifts as a runner is my ability for relentless forward motion. For the entire 100 miles, I probably walked no more than 3 miles of it (such as when I started walking the concrete bridge after 26 miles, when I drank my Frappuccinos, and when my quads were shot from miles 94-95). Veterans of 24 hour races will tell you that a run/walk strategy like run 5 miles/walk 1 mile will allow you to keep going for 24 hours. But that was not my goal. My goal was to get 100 miles under 20. I hit 50 miles around 8:30 (PR 7:19) and 100K around 10:40 (PR 10:23). These splits are not much slower that my PRs for these distances, so I really was pushing myself. I stopped at 50 miles to adjust my shoes. My feet were swelling and my big toes were rubbing against the shoe, causing hot spots. So I sat on my cooler and took of my liner socks and slathered Vaseline on my big toes and more under my bra and between my knees. I didn’t have gaiters on. I had lent them to Olga because she forgot hers. I did have small rocks in my shoes, but Olga looked like she needed them more than I did. My hot spots went away and I had very little blisters at the end. After sitting about 3 minutes (the longest time I stopped moving) to do that, getting up and moving again was quite a chore. I had stiffened up a lot in that short period of time. That’s why I never sat down at CCC 100 miler.
The miles just dragged. Listening to music did help and I had it blasting at times. Many people tried to talk to me and occasionally I would take out an ear piece and talk back, but for the most part, I just kept moving. I had a plan and was focused. Plus, no one was really running my pace. Either they were going slower or faster. I needed to maintain my pace. After 70 miles, the music did not really help much anyway. It’s amazing that I was only able to get through 270 of the 470 songs on my player in the entire time I ran. I couldn’t believe that at 60 miles, I still had 40 miles to go. Hitting 70 was better to take, since I knew I only had 50K to go. At 70 miles, I still had about a 1hr45min cushion if I maintained 12 minute miles. But at that point, my mile splits were just about 12:40 pace, so my cushion was slowly disappearing. At 80 miles, that cushion shrank to 1hr30 min, and by 90 miles, it was just over an hour. But then, at about 94 miles, my quads just stopped working. I had done a good job up until that point of eating and drinking. My schedule was eating mash potatoes every 2 hours (after my marathon distance) and alternating a Frappuccino every two hours. The mashed potatoes in paper cups were great. I had a spoon and just scooped it out little by little and licked it like it was a popsicle. It went down easy and I could continue running. The Frappuccino required me to walk to avoid getting it all over myself or choking on it. I walked twice per loop to get it down, 20-30 seconds each. Next time, I will put them in bottles with mouth pieces so I can continue running. I also continued my Gu in between and took a Succeed E-cap every hour. I had a hand held bottle with Gu20 that I refilled every 5 miles and ran without it while I either ate mashed potatoes or drank my Frappuccino. I had pretty much a system down. I never ate any of my Rice Krispies treats. Between the Gu and Frappuccino, I didn’t want anything else sweet. Same with the Coke. I grabbed a cup of water every once in a while at the aid station to rinse my mouth out. By mile 94, I had run out of Frappuccino, the mashed potatoes were not as tasty as earlier, and it was starting to get cold. I think my body simply decided to shut down. I started walking/running. Regulating your body temperature was hard on this course because one side of the water was warm and the other breezy and colder. Finally, at 94 miles, I stopped and put on a pair of pants and long sleeved shirt. Up until then, I had worn shorts, a short sleeved shirt, heavy arm warmers, gloves on and off, and a Smartwool head band. By mile 95, I recuperated after adding clothes and eating again. My last mile was under 13 minutes and I finished with a healthy cushion in 19 hours and 31 minutes! I was elated! Finally, I could walk, eat, RELAX!
But as soon as I stopped, I froze! I was planning on walking the rest of the time, but I just couldn’t warm myself up. I went to the car and changed into a dry sports bra, couple shirts, shell, fleece pullover, and thicker long pants. I changed my socks but kept the same shoes. I put a new hat and gloves on and just started walking. With the clothing change, it took 45 minutes to finish that lap. I walked the next two miles, then had 3 or 4 good miles where I was actually running again, then hit a wall again at 106 miles. I dragged in another 2 miles of 20+ minutes each and called it quits. I needed to warm up again. I went back to the car and threw my sleeping bag over me. I was shivering and forced down some food. I watched from the comfort of the car people running in the last few miles and minutes before the cut off in the rain and wind. It was impressive to see how fast they were moving after running for nearly 24 hours. I brushed my teeth, which was great! My teeth were not sensitive, thanks to rinsing my mouth with water frequently.
Lisa Bliss finished first woman with 113 miles. I finished with 108. She continued on for the entire 24 hours while I ran 22:19. Although I finished 100 miles before she did, she ran a smarter race to be able to continue to the end. But I had a different goal for the day and was pleased I met it. Lisa was able to run this many miles despite nausea. She is such an impressive runner who is even tinier than I am! She has run much tougher races including winning Badwater 135 miles a couple years ago. The top male was her main squeeze, Tim Englund, with I think 126 miles. These were both new course records, and rightly so with the weather cooperating. *tc ran 108.5. I think we were all winners that day.
The volunteers were just great. Every mile I came in, I received a “Go Van!” or other cheer. And similarly, other runners were rooted on. The food at the aid station look appetizing, but I didn’t even allow myself enough time to stop and enjoy the selection. The lap counters sat in the cold keeping track of our mile splits. I was hitting my watch every time for my splits and it went over 100, but unfortunately, it only stores 30 splits! There were two “Pitch In!” trash containers after the start of each loop, which were these creative stands of a person holding a trash bag. What was nice about this was that you didn’t have to slow down to throw your trash away. They were right off the trail. There were garbage cans on the trail, but most of them you had to step 1-2 steps off the trail to throw something into them and I just didn’t have the time to do that-crazy as that may sound.
I looked miserable to the other runners after the race, hobbling along slowly to the brief awards ceremony. I could have used crutches at that point because my right knee and right sacroiliac joints locked up. Went to breakfast with a bunch of people but the food did not look appetizing when they brought it. I knew I needed to eat to help with the nausea I was feeling and picked a little at it. Tony drove us home with me bobbing my head and talking in my sleep. At first, he was not sure what to make of it but then realized he could ignore me. I was planning on helping him drive but I was useless. He did stop to catch a few zzzzzs part way home. I slept poorly that night unable to get into a comfortable position with my knees. Then I was in surgery and on my feet all day on Monday with 7 cases, holding retractors and big legs up. This was followed by being on call that night. So I had poor sleep the night before the race, no sleep day of race, poor sleep night after race, and on call on the 4th night. My first full night of sleep did not come until 6 days after the race. I was able to walk normal by Thursday without any pain and went on a run on 6 mile 9:30 pace run Friday. By Saturday, I ran 14 miles with the Cedar River Runners and had no pain anywhere. In fact, I felt good enough to run a 50K. That made me feel confident that I will probably be ready for my 150 miler after just over 2 ½ weeks of taper. Yes! This time, I’m actually going to taper!
Well, there you have it. It was the longest distance I’ve ever run. The longest time I’ve ever run was 35+ hours at Coyote 2 Moon. I know that if I finish McNaughton, I will have both run my longest race and been on my feet longer than ever before. I’m going to miss the Maniac Reunion at Yakima River Marathon since I’m on call for work! Best to you all and wish me luck as well in my 150 miler!
Pigtails
Monday, January 26, 2009
Pigtails 4th Annual Lake Youngs Run
1/24/09
It was another great turnout for this year’s winter trail run. We had 119 runners (49 50Kers, 3 three loopers, 31 two loopers, and 36 1 loopers. The weather was perfect, no rain or snow in sight. The temperature started in the low 30s, but runners said it varied throughout the course. The trail was in good condition and no one got seriously injured. Barb Blumenthal fell at mile 3, but continued to finish 3 loops for 28.8 miles before her swollen bruised knee protested to further running. Apparently, Eric Barnes got poked by some prickly vines during nature’s call, but luckily they were fairly low to the ground! Several said there was a guy on a bike who was a little scary talking out loud, whether to himself or to the runners. There was also a crew working on taking down a tree the entire race.
The “free race” tradition continued as people generously brought food as the race fee to donate to the Maple Valley Food Bank, who was reported to have been in low supplies since the winter started. I ended up filling my SUV with the back seat down with donations and even went through the trouble of sorting the food for them (box of chicken noodle soup, box of chili, box of dried goods, etc), which was greatly appreciated. We also had great food to share at the aid station during and at the end. The chicken noodle soup and butternut squash were a huge hit as was anything sweet or salty. All the gummi bears, M & Ms, red vine licorice, homemade cookies, Chips Ahoy cookies, banana bread, Kettle chips, and bars were gone at day’s end.
The men’s 50K race was tight through loop 3 until Ryan McKnight overtook Alex Swenson for the win. Although Ryan broke the male open course record by 3 minutes with a time of 3:51, Alex still holds the overall course record of 3:48:15. Both brought home the bacon! Wendy Wheeler Jacobs was largely unchallenged throughout the day, although I’m sure this was just a training run for her. She finished first woman overall and masters for the day with a strong sub-5hr time of 4:50. Stephanie Day was surprised to have come in first female open in 5:07, also taking a relatively easy day. The women took home the sausage, with all prizes coming from our mini-farm.
The 19.2 mile race saw a new overall course record by John Collins from Oak Harbor with a time of 2:13, wiping out Kyle Skagg’s time of 2:18 in 2006. The first male masters went to Bruce Hoff in 2:23, a perennial strong runner. The female race was won by Iliana Sach in 2:34, who missed Annie Thiessen’s course record by two minutes set in 2008. First female masters winner Anne Hobson ran well under 3 hours with a time of 2:54.
Bjorn Begelman took off and never looked back as he crossed the finish line in 1:02:13, well under the previous one loop course record time set by Matt Morrison in 2007 of 1:04:09. That’s cookin’! Five men ran under last year’s master’s course record by Jamie Gifford of 1:15:00, but Gregg Walchli prevailed with 1:05:47. Karen Leahy just missed the overall course record of 1:14:36 set in 2007 by Amy Grable but came away with a new female master’s course record of 1:15. First female open win was shared by two Tahoma X-country girls, Emily Duerson and Gracie Libby in 1:35. Way to go!
Other notables:
Ryan McKnight had a 50K PR in addition to winning the race.
Tony Covarrubias and Shawn McTaggart did 5 loops in preparation for the McNaughton 150 mile in April in Illinois. I get to go, too!
Jess Mullen ran 4 loops, also in preparation for McNaughton 100 mile.
Linda Barton ran the gnarly HURT 100K the weekend before.
This was Heather Nugent’s and Jessica Williams’ first 50K.
Eric Barnes, Nic Plemel, Jill Hudson, Linda Walter, and Monte Pascual did the double with Yours Truly 50K on Sunday. Nic also had a PR at my race.
Susan Cooley and Amy Begnal had 50K PRs.
Lisa Switzer, Janine Windom, Deanna Vig, and Whitney Janicki ran the furthest they had ever run. Lisa is training for her first marathon at Eugene and is hooked. She even wants to try Mt Si 50K. Janine is looking forward to Yakima, Deanna is looking forward to Whidbey, and Whitney is on the Tahoma X-country team.
Nicola Wethall pushed a stroller the entire loop.
It was Kane Jamison’s birthday. Thanks for spending it with us!
Thanks to my husband for helping with set up and take down. He had a chance to go back home and climb in his home rock climbing gym with George Wiggins, who finished one loop.
Thanks also to Ray Shaw, who called out numbers while I wrote down split and finish times. That was a huge help! Too many numbers running through my head!
As for me, I had a long day with getting up at 4:30 then not getting to sleep until 10:30pm after having spent the evening with my family for Chinese New Year’s Eve. Then it was up early the next morning for the Yours Truly 50K. A dusting of snow fell overnight and made the first half of the run enjoyable with snow on the ground and trees. I loved the feel of the soft snow under my shoes, but it became more slippery in the second half with it warming up slightly, although not that much since the temperature when I finished was still 33. The course was supposed to be an out and back twice, but due to a bridge out for some construction, it was changed to a quadruple out and back. There was the option of detouring around the construction, but apparently race director Brian Pendelton was chased by a mean dog and had to fend it off with rocks. No thanks! So we all (about a dozen with a few 25Kers) turned around at the fenced off area and saw each other frequently during the day. For the 50K runners, an extra short out and back was required in the end to make it a full 50K, which I did before going out for my last long out and back. I was well hydrated the first half, having to stop several times. As a result, I had a pretty negative split and finished in 4:47, first one in. But 5 people out there were doing doubles, so kudos to them! Brian had hot chili with pepper jack cheese and sour cream, tortilla chips, and hot chocolate at the finish. It’s amazing how much better food tastes after a cold run. At least it didn’t rain.
Well, that’s a wrap. Be on the lookout next year about this time again for the 5th annual Pigtails Lake Youngs run!
It was another great turnout for this year’s winter trail run. We had 119 runners (49 50Kers, 3 three loopers, 31 two loopers, and 36 1 loopers. The weather was perfect, no rain or snow in sight. The temperature started in the low 30s, but runners said it varied throughout the course. The trail was in good condition and no one got seriously injured. Barb Blumenthal fell at mile 3, but continued to finish 3 loops for 28.8 miles before her swollen bruised knee protested to further running. Apparently, Eric Barnes got poked by some prickly vines during nature’s call, but luckily they were fairly low to the ground! Several said there was a guy on a bike who was a little scary talking out loud, whether to himself or to the runners. There was also a crew working on taking down a tree the entire race.
The “free race” tradition continued as people generously brought food as the race fee to donate to the Maple Valley Food Bank, who was reported to have been in low supplies since the winter started. I ended up filling my SUV with the back seat down with donations and even went through the trouble of sorting the food for them (box of chicken noodle soup, box of chili, box of dried goods, etc), which was greatly appreciated. We also had great food to share at the aid station during and at the end. The chicken noodle soup and butternut squash were a huge hit as was anything sweet or salty. All the gummi bears, M & Ms, red vine licorice, homemade cookies, Chips Ahoy cookies, banana bread, Kettle chips, and bars were gone at day’s end.
The men’s 50K race was tight through loop 3 until Ryan McKnight overtook Alex Swenson for the win. Although Ryan broke the male open course record by 3 minutes with a time of 3:51, Alex still holds the overall course record of 3:48:15. Both brought home the bacon! Wendy Wheeler Jacobs was largely unchallenged throughout the day, although I’m sure this was just a training run for her. She finished first woman overall and masters for the day with a strong sub-5hr time of 4:50. Stephanie Day was surprised to have come in first female open in 5:07, also taking a relatively easy day. The women took home the sausage, with all prizes coming from our mini-farm.
The 19.2 mile race saw a new overall course record by John Collins from Oak Harbor with a time of 2:13, wiping out Kyle Skagg’s time of 2:18 in 2006. The first male masters went to Bruce Hoff in 2:23, a perennial strong runner. The female race was won by Iliana Sach in 2:34, who missed Annie Thiessen’s course record by two minutes set in 2008. First female masters winner Anne Hobson ran well under 3 hours with a time of 2:54.
Bjorn Begelman took off and never looked back as he crossed the finish line in 1:02:13, well under the previous one loop course record time set by Matt Morrison in 2007 of 1:04:09. That’s cookin’! Five men ran under last year’s master’s course record by Jamie Gifford of 1:15:00, but Gregg Walchli prevailed with 1:05:47. Karen Leahy just missed the overall course record of 1:14:36 set in 2007 by Amy Grable but came away with a new female master’s course record of 1:15. First female open win was shared by two Tahoma X-country girls, Emily Duerson and Gracie Libby in 1:35. Way to go!
Other notables:
Ryan McKnight had a 50K PR in addition to winning the race.
Tony Covarrubias and Shawn McTaggart did 5 loops in preparation for the McNaughton 150 mile in April in Illinois. I get to go, too!
Jess Mullen ran 4 loops, also in preparation for McNaughton 100 mile.
Linda Barton ran the gnarly HURT 100K the weekend before.
This was Heather Nugent’s and Jessica Williams’ first 50K.
Eric Barnes, Nic Plemel, Jill Hudson, Linda Walter, and Monte Pascual did the double with Yours Truly 50K on Sunday. Nic also had a PR at my race.
Susan Cooley and Amy Begnal had 50K PRs.
Lisa Switzer, Janine Windom, Deanna Vig, and Whitney Janicki ran the furthest they had ever run. Lisa is training for her first marathon at Eugene and is hooked. She even wants to try Mt Si 50K. Janine is looking forward to Yakima, Deanna is looking forward to Whidbey, and Whitney is on the Tahoma X-country team.
Nicola Wethall pushed a stroller the entire loop.
It was Kane Jamison’s birthday. Thanks for spending it with us!
Thanks to my husband for helping with set up and take down. He had a chance to go back home and climb in his home rock climbing gym with George Wiggins, who finished one loop.
Thanks also to Ray Shaw, who called out numbers while I wrote down split and finish times. That was a huge help! Too many numbers running through my head!
As for me, I had a long day with getting up at 4:30 then not getting to sleep until 10:30pm after having spent the evening with my family for Chinese New Year’s Eve. Then it was up early the next morning for the Yours Truly 50K. A dusting of snow fell overnight and made the first half of the run enjoyable with snow on the ground and trees. I loved the feel of the soft snow under my shoes, but it became more slippery in the second half with it warming up slightly, although not that much since the temperature when I finished was still 33. The course was supposed to be an out and back twice, but due to a bridge out for some construction, it was changed to a quadruple out and back. There was the option of detouring around the construction, but apparently race director Brian Pendelton was chased by a mean dog and had to fend it off with rocks. No thanks! So we all (about a dozen with a few 25Kers) turned around at the fenced off area and saw each other frequently during the day. For the 50K runners, an extra short out and back was required in the end to make it a full 50K, which I did before going out for my last long out and back. I was well hydrated the first half, having to stop several times. As a result, I had a pretty negative split and finished in 4:47, first one in. But 5 people out there were doing doubles, so kudos to them! Brian had hot chili with pepper jack cheese and sour cream, tortilla chips, and hot chocolate at the finish. It’s amazing how much better food tastes after a cold run. At least it didn’t rain.
Well, that’s a wrap. Be on the lookout next year about this time again for the 5th annual Pigtails Lake Youngs run!
Monday, January 12, 2009
A Self Imposed Double in a Day
I did it! What you say? Ran two 50Ks in a day. One a training run; the other a race. So only one counted. Why? To prepare for the McNaughton 150 miler in April. My race plans for 2009 will involve less races but longer distance. I’ll be bringing you along on the journey. Join me if you want!
I only know of one other double in a day here in the Pacific Northwest. In March, you can run Chuckanut and then drive 3-4 hours to Longview, WA and join the Pac Rim 24hr run already in progress. This year I’ll be foregoing Chuckanut and trying a hand at my first 24hr run. I don’t really know what running around on a one-mile loop will be like. I’ve run around a track for 6 hours and have done a 12 hour run on a 5-mile loop. Who knows? I might actually enjoy it!
Earlier in the week, I came up with idea of running about a 50K distance before the 3pm start of Bridle Trails. If you have ever run Bridle Trails, you know this is a tall order since conditions are typically wet, cold, and muddy. Think over 200 people running on a rolling 5-mile loop that is a horse trail with rain making each loop increasingly difficult. Originally, I wanted to run the first 50K at Bridle trail self supported and then run the race. I e-mailed what I felt were like minded masochists such as *tc, Shawn McTaggart, King Arthur, Eric Barnes, Rob Hester, Jess Mullen, and others. No takers! I re-thought the idea after we had record flooding from rain combined with all the snow that melted from our winter snow.
Friday night before race day came and I decided to run my 50K with members of the Cedar River Runners. Mary “mph” Hanna was looking for a long run and was in for 28 miles. We met at 6:30am Saturday and ran only 5.5 of our goal of 7 miles before the usually group met for 14. I had never seen Cedar River so high and fast flowing. We saw many homes surrounded by water. So sad! Mary and I had nearly 20 flat miles and capped it off with two hilly 4 mile loops of the Bear Run in Maple Valley. I then added the rest to make 31 miles. Weather was good. I was done by noon and had 3 hours before Bridle Trails. A couple years ago, Mary and I had run a half marathon in the morning and then Bridle Trails in the afternoon/evening and I developed hypothermia, almost causing me to DNF. I found that I needed to refuel my calorie deficit to avoid that problem. Knowing this in preparation for this double, I had all the intention of filling my tank. But I made the mistake of going to a teriyaki place and ordering yakisoba. First, it took forever for them to make it, there was not enough noodle to vegetable ratio, and the shrimps were pathetic! I barely had enough time to eat it and digest if before the race started. I should have gotten some pizza or a burger! So needless to say, I felt somewhat empty starting out the race.
The 5 milers started first, then 5 minutes later the 10 milers, then 5 minutes after that the 50K solo runners and 50K relay teams. I stayed in the back of the pack, determined to take my time and not push myself. Most of the trail is pretty wide but you feel that it is almost single track because you have to pick yourself through the mud and spots that have better footing. The 5 and 10 milers had already churned up the trail, which was the worst on the back side of the trail at miles 2-4. It’s a 5 mile loop and the first two of six loops can be done without a headlamp. Uli Steidl, the male winner had three loops in before dark and lapped me twice during the race. Results are not back yet at the time of this writing, but I expect he ran well below 4 hours.
Some maniacs caught me halfway through the first loop. Them: “Hey, I think that’s Pigtails, but I only see a ponytail.” Me: “I was lazy.” Them: “We shouldn’t be passing her.” Me: “It’s okay, it will be a long night for me. I ran 50K this morning.” Them: “What race was that?” Me: “Just a training run. Don’t let me catch you later!” I finished the first 2 loops each in under an hour. But the third loop was slow and hard. I was working too hard to keep my form running while slipping and sliding. So I started walking. I was still under 4 hours after three loops. Loop four felt better but I was just over 4 hours at the end of it. It started raining before the race and never stopped. I was getting wetter and colder with each loop, and my calorie deficit was the reason. I stopped by the aid station every loop to find food. Aid station volunteer: “Hey Van, how are you doing?” Me: blank stare. Volunteer: “Can we get you anything to eat?” Me: “Soup.” Volunteer: “Can we get you anything else?” Me to myself: a warm bed, a hot tub, common sense? I had put on all the clothing that I had in my drop bad, and they were all soaked.
Each time I left the aid station, I was shivering and was sure that I would never warm up again. But each loop after I got moving, I’d warm up enough to continue. But I was constantly cold. Plus, I had to stop at least once each loop and twice in loops 5 and 6 to pee. Thank goodness none of the other! Even though it seemed like I was well hydrated, once when I went to pee, my shoulder blade muscles seized up on me. By loop 4, I found that I did a better job running through the mud and horse-sh-- puddles if I just ran through the middle and taking small steps instead of trying to weave from side to side trying to find good footing. This was even more important in the dark when you couldn’t really see that well. It took me over an hour each to finish loops 5 and 6. My original plan to take it easy and go slow changed when I got too cold going slow and I wanted to get out of the elements as soon as possible. With about 2 miles to go, I picked up my pace and even ran all the hills. But my faster pace actually made me colder maybe from the wind moving over me faster. And my right IT band at my knee started to ache. So close to 62 miles and I had to slow down!
I finished in 6:23. Scott McCoubrey, the RD, said that the race was probably more like 30 miles, but I told him that it was probably 5 miles long with all the slipping and sliding. I headed straight for my car. There were less than a dozen cars left when earlier before the start of the race parking had filled up fast and people resorted to parking on the road or across the street in residential areas. King Arthur, who had a strong race finishing something like 4:44, walked me to my car, started it for me, and helped me put my heavy fleece robe on. I have found that bringing my robe to races and training runs during the winter is great because you can put in on over you right away if you are cold and change underneath it. I had a hard time getting into the car because one of my shoulder blade muscles cramped when I tried to close the door. I went to the other side and used my other arm. While my car warmed up, I sat there shaking uncontrollably. I had just paid $400 the previous week to replace a broken thermostat in my car that prevented it from heating up the car. Best money I have spent in a while! I slowly peeled my drenched clothes off without going into a full body spasm and just sat there in my robe for another 15 minutes. After my Succeed caps kicked in and I had changed into some dry clothes, I headed home, but not before grabbing a burger. I still woke up at 3am starving marvin. So that sounds miserable, right? Well, actually the first 50K was fine. I enjoyed it. Bridle Trails yes was mostly miserable, but the way I think about it, the misery that I experience now will hopefully make my 150 mile experience less miserable. We all know that the feeling that we get after finishing a race is what keeps us going and coming back for more.
Summary: 50K training run in morning: 4:50. Bridle Trails: 6:23. Total: 11:13 Note to self: Volunteer at Bridle Trails next year. The End!
I only know of one other double in a day here in the Pacific Northwest. In March, you can run Chuckanut and then drive 3-4 hours to Longview, WA and join the Pac Rim 24hr run already in progress. This year I’ll be foregoing Chuckanut and trying a hand at my first 24hr run. I don’t really know what running around on a one-mile loop will be like. I’ve run around a track for 6 hours and have done a 12 hour run on a 5-mile loop. Who knows? I might actually enjoy it!
Earlier in the week, I came up with idea of running about a 50K distance before the 3pm start of Bridle Trails. If you have ever run Bridle Trails, you know this is a tall order since conditions are typically wet, cold, and muddy. Think over 200 people running on a rolling 5-mile loop that is a horse trail with rain making each loop increasingly difficult. Originally, I wanted to run the first 50K at Bridle trail self supported and then run the race. I e-mailed what I felt were like minded masochists such as *tc, Shawn McTaggart, King Arthur, Eric Barnes, Rob Hester, Jess Mullen, and others. No takers! I re-thought the idea after we had record flooding from rain combined with all the snow that melted from our winter snow.
Friday night before race day came and I decided to run my 50K with members of the Cedar River Runners. Mary “mph” Hanna was looking for a long run and was in for 28 miles. We met at 6:30am Saturday and ran only 5.5 of our goal of 7 miles before the usually group met for 14. I had never seen Cedar River so high and fast flowing. We saw many homes surrounded by water. So sad! Mary and I had nearly 20 flat miles and capped it off with two hilly 4 mile loops of the Bear Run in Maple Valley. I then added the rest to make 31 miles. Weather was good. I was done by noon and had 3 hours before Bridle Trails. A couple years ago, Mary and I had run a half marathon in the morning and then Bridle Trails in the afternoon/evening and I developed hypothermia, almost causing me to DNF. I found that I needed to refuel my calorie deficit to avoid that problem. Knowing this in preparation for this double, I had all the intention of filling my tank. But I made the mistake of going to a teriyaki place and ordering yakisoba. First, it took forever for them to make it, there was not enough noodle to vegetable ratio, and the shrimps were pathetic! I barely had enough time to eat it and digest if before the race started. I should have gotten some pizza or a burger! So needless to say, I felt somewhat empty starting out the race.
The 5 milers started first, then 5 minutes later the 10 milers, then 5 minutes after that the 50K solo runners and 50K relay teams. I stayed in the back of the pack, determined to take my time and not push myself. Most of the trail is pretty wide but you feel that it is almost single track because you have to pick yourself through the mud and spots that have better footing. The 5 and 10 milers had already churned up the trail, which was the worst on the back side of the trail at miles 2-4. It’s a 5 mile loop and the first two of six loops can be done without a headlamp. Uli Steidl, the male winner had three loops in before dark and lapped me twice during the race. Results are not back yet at the time of this writing, but I expect he ran well below 4 hours.
Some maniacs caught me halfway through the first loop. Them: “Hey, I think that’s Pigtails, but I only see a ponytail.” Me: “I was lazy.” Them: “We shouldn’t be passing her.” Me: “It’s okay, it will be a long night for me. I ran 50K this morning.” Them: “What race was that?” Me: “Just a training run. Don’t let me catch you later!” I finished the first 2 loops each in under an hour. But the third loop was slow and hard. I was working too hard to keep my form running while slipping and sliding. So I started walking. I was still under 4 hours after three loops. Loop four felt better but I was just over 4 hours at the end of it. It started raining before the race and never stopped. I was getting wetter and colder with each loop, and my calorie deficit was the reason. I stopped by the aid station every loop to find food. Aid station volunteer: “Hey Van, how are you doing?” Me: blank stare. Volunteer: “Can we get you anything to eat?” Me: “Soup.” Volunteer: “Can we get you anything else?” Me to myself: a warm bed, a hot tub, common sense? I had put on all the clothing that I had in my drop bad, and they were all soaked.
Each time I left the aid station, I was shivering and was sure that I would never warm up again. But each loop after I got moving, I’d warm up enough to continue. But I was constantly cold. Plus, I had to stop at least once each loop and twice in loops 5 and 6 to pee. Thank goodness none of the other! Even though it seemed like I was well hydrated, once when I went to pee, my shoulder blade muscles seized up on me. By loop 4, I found that I did a better job running through the mud and horse-sh-- puddles if I just ran through the middle and taking small steps instead of trying to weave from side to side trying to find good footing. This was even more important in the dark when you couldn’t really see that well. It took me over an hour each to finish loops 5 and 6. My original plan to take it easy and go slow changed when I got too cold going slow and I wanted to get out of the elements as soon as possible. With about 2 miles to go, I picked up my pace and even ran all the hills. But my faster pace actually made me colder maybe from the wind moving over me faster. And my right IT band at my knee started to ache. So close to 62 miles and I had to slow down!
I finished in 6:23. Scott McCoubrey, the RD, said that the race was probably more like 30 miles, but I told him that it was probably 5 miles long with all the slipping and sliding. I headed straight for my car. There were less than a dozen cars left when earlier before the start of the race parking had filled up fast and people resorted to parking on the road or across the street in residential areas. King Arthur, who had a strong race finishing something like 4:44, walked me to my car, started it for me, and helped me put my heavy fleece robe on. I have found that bringing my robe to races and training runs during the winter is great because you can put in on over you right away if you are cold and change underneath it. I had a hard time getting into the car because one of my shoulder blade muscles cramped when I tried to close the door. I went to the other side and used my other arm. While my car warmed up, I sat there shaking uncontrollably. I had just paid $400 the previous week to replace a broken thermostat in my car that prevented it from heating up the car. Best money I have spent in a while! I slowly peeled my drenched clothes off without going into a full body spasm and just sat there in my robe for another 15 minutes. After my Succeed caps kicked in and I had changed into some dry clothes, I headed home, but not before grabbing a burger. I still woke up at 3am starving marvin. So that sounds miserable, right? Well, actually the first 50K was fine. I enjoyed it. Bridle Trails yes was mostly miserable, but the way I think about it, the misery that I experience now will hopefully make my 150 mile experience less miserable. We all know that the feeling that we get after finishing a race is what keeps us going and coming back for more.
Summary: 50K training run in morning: 4:50. Bridle Trails: 6:23. Total: 11:13 Note to self: Volunteer at Bridle Trails next year. The End!
Monday, December 22, 2008
3rd Annual Pigtails Flat Ass Race Report
SATURDAY 12/20/08
Wow! What a week and weekend! The weeks leading up to the race had people signing up and cancelling, some for reasons other than the weather. Of course, the most cancellations came the day before the race and people not showing race day. Without any cancels, I would have had well over 100 people come to run. Nevertheless, we still had 58 runners with 22 braving the 50K and three more runners who did a point to point from Renton to Landsburg for 15.87 miles. Val Beyer, one of the volunteer at the 50K turn around, ran 18.4 miles, ½ before the race and ½ after. So she ran, stopped and volunteered, and ran again! I actually had a few people sign up the night before and a couple show up race day!
About a week before race day, my e-mail crashed and I lost all everyone’s e-mail. I spent 5 hours on the phone with EarthLink but was not able to retrieve any of my contact information. So I then started saving e-mails from then on of whoever sent me one and combed through the maniac site for whoever had their e-mail listed, since most entrants were maniacs. Because of this, when the weather turned south and the forecast was ominous for Saturday, I couldn’t very well cancel or postpone the race since I did not have everyone’s e-mail who signed up. I’m glad I didn’t, because the weather was as good as it could have possibly been given the warnings.
Also, leading up the race, I made my homemade medals, now an anticipated tradition each year. It’s getting harder to come up with new designs, but I’ll keep trying every year. This year, my husband was a big help. He is a woodworker and uses exotic hardwoods for his pieces. He turned European Pear wood on his lathe and the made medal sized slices, beveled the edges, and drilled a hole for the string. Now, this is not your ordinary wood. It is much denser than your typical domestic hardwood like cherry or oak. Believe me, he can make exquisite pieces of furniture with similarly hard woods (see his web site: kenrichardsfurniture.com to see what I mean), so these medals were just child’s play for him. Still, he took time out of his work day to do this. I then put a couple coats of finish on them then drew a pig’s face on the front, glued felt pig ears to it, and wrote on the back race name, distance, and date. At one point when it looked like I had almost 100 runners signed up, I continued making more, for a total of 105. From their responses, people really liked them!
I had to work the day before the race and was not able to check my e-mail during the day. When I got home, I had over 60 e-mails to read. Do you know how long that takes to read and respond? When I got home, Ken and I went out to fill propane tanks and mark a couple spots on the trail. It was dark by then. I ran about a couple miles to mark and got a fairly good idea of the trail conditions, runnable on snow ½-2 inches deep. But even in that short distance, I was using different muscles with slipping and sliding in trail shoes. Also the cold air aggravated my asthma and it was predicted to be colder the next day. Got home, ate, and set about loading up my vehicle with supplies that I had staged for each aid station. Then I read my e-mails and updated the entrants list based on cancellations and add ons. I was in bed by midnight and woke at 4am.
After filling the water jugs with hot water and loading them in my SUV, I got on the icy/snowy roads until I got to the main roads, which were bare and dry. I know those who showed up had the same experience. As soon as they got past the surface streets and onto the freeways, it was fine. But I know some people’s surface streets were steeper and harder to get through and I’m glad those people stayed home instead of jeopardizing getting into trouble. I set up the two self serve aid stations at mile 9.1 and 5.6 with a 5-gallon hot water jug and 5-gallon Gatorade jug, bag of hammer gels, trash bag, and covered the jugs with a blanket to keep the liquids from freezing. Then I had one more area to mark with tape and arrived at the start at 6:10am. One or two people had already arrived. Many came early because the roads were not as bad as they anticipated. I did let some start earlier than what they were signed up for but for the most part, people started at their listed times. I had group start at 7am (50K early starters), 7:30am (marathon early starters and 50K regular starters), and 8am (marathon regular starters which only had about 5 people). Sorry if I was short with anyone wanting to start early, especially after I had sent an e-mail saying it was okay. It turned to be a lot more complicated than I thought. Next year, everyone is starting at the same time: 7am so that I don’t have to keep 3 different watches, in which one was lost yesterday somewhere on my trip back to the finish after checking in on the 12.5 mile aid station. The temps were in the high teens to start and probably crept up to 20. It was not windy and the sun even came out in the first two hours. It became overcast after then and the wind only slightly picked up after 6 hours. So conditions were favorable for just about everyone. Ken helped me set up the propane heater and check people in. People brought canned goods as their entry fee for the food bank and also donated money for supplies. Thanks! It does help a lot!
After sending everyone off, I took down check in and waited ½ hour for any stragglers that might have taken longer to get there due to the roads. As I was leaving, Thomas Tan arrived looking relieved that I was still there. He took off alone saying that he might not run the entire marathon and just do a long training run. He did 26.2. I stopped at mile 5.6 aid station to see if the nozzles had frozen on the jugs. They were still okay after having sat out in the cold for 3 hours at that point. Some runners were arriving and I helped them out. Then I stopped at the 9.1 aid station. It was fine too. I arrived at the 12.5 mile aid station and it was bustling. Shawn McTaggart, *tc, and Jess Mullen were busy unfreezing people’s water bottle tops by dipping them in boiling water. We had fig newtons, chips, M&Ms, gummi bears, hot chocolate, Nuun, salt tabs, and hand warmers as well as encouragement for the runners. Some 50kers decided to cut back to marathon but no marathoner wanted to run a 50K. Gee, I wonder why? A lot of the runners had frost on their caps or hair sticking out. There were frozen eyelashes and eyebrows. Some were cheerful, others more subdued. After leaving the list of confirmed entrants with my three helpers, I headed back to the start to get soup heated up. I didn’t check in on the 50K turn around volunteers, Dean Kayler and Val Beyer, but word is that they were great as well!
I want to thank the people who brought stuff to share. Betsy Rogers, who I heard is a chef, made an incredible Thai Butternut Squash soup. Samuel Pichinini brought another wonderful soup. I asked him what it was called. He called it Pigtails Soup! Isn’t that great? He sounds like quite the cook! It had lentils, collards, kale, and a bunch of other yummy stuff! They both got all eaten up, a lot by me! We also had chicken noodle soup and cream of mushroom. Jill Hudson, did you bring those “healthy” chocolate chip cookies that you said were not so good? They were great and popular. Someone brought really good nutless banana bread. Steve brought me homemade jam. Mary Hanna brought delicious pumpkin bars. If I’ve forgotten anyone, sorry. It was a rather hectic day.
Runners were nice and spread out coming in. No course records, as to be expected on this tough day. Bryce Mercer won the 50K in 3:58, off his 3:41 win in 2006 and Bronwen Williams in 5:24, both getting a stuffed pig and $3.10 for their efforts. In the marathon, Shawna Wilskey ran 3:41, taking $2.62 and a pig for her win. I mistakenly awarded Joe Tompkins the male marathon win expecting no other runner to run faster but had forgotten about David Cole who started at 8am. Joe did ask before leaving if I was sure there was no one else out there faster, and I said yes, yes, I was sure. He proved me wrong. When David came in, I told him I had made a mistake and he was gracious about it and would have donated the money back anyway. Joe came in with Shawna at 3:41 and David ran a fine 3:35. Runners have such great attitudes!
Special note for some accomplishments. Bob Dolphin ran his 439th race. Brian Hampsch, Jerry Thayer, Ashley Kuhlmann, Michael Kuhlmann, Andy Fritz, and Bronwen Williams ran their first 50K. Ryan McKnight ran a one minute 50K PR, which is just wrong, given the conditions! But Ryan, I feel, just has not peaked yet in his running. He ran a great race at Seattle Marathon, finishing 17th overall in 2:54:08. Jessica Williams, BJ Farish, and Lisa Hurley became Maniacs with my race. Linda Walter achieved 5 Maniac stars with my race, having run 26 races in 12 months, starting with this race last year. Bruce Hoff has run all three of my Pigtails Flat Ass 50K and this one was his 100th of marathon or longer. Thanks for choosing my race to accomplish your goals! Jon Yoon came to the end of the race to drop off soup to donate, even if he could not make the run! What a funny guy! Thanks Jon!
Paul Piplani went out for a double marathon after completing his first one in 6:23. He was signed up for the double this weekend with the Christmas Marathon and was disappointed that the latter was cancelled due to weather warnings. I urged him not to go back out because the wind was supposed to pick up and it was supposed to snow as well. I also was going to clean up the aid stations, so he had to be self sufficient for his second marathon. He went anyway and assured me he was going to be okay. He fueled up before leaving.
I stuck around until the last finisher came in and headed out to the self serve aid stations to clean them up. Paul was just leaving the 5.6 mile aid station and I gave him some more food. The weather was still okay at that time, but it was about 2:45. Darkness would come soon. My two blue water jugs were stolen at the 9.1 mile aid station. I just bought those! I was heading home but thought I should go to the store and stock up on food before the storm and possible power outages. Seemed like everyone else had the same idea as me because Safeway was packed and a lot of shelves empty. But I didn’t have to stand in line too long. For once, I picked the right lane!
When I came out, the weather had really gotten bad. It was miserable just getting to my car with wind and snow. I thought about Paul and how terrible it had gotten. I was about to turn onto my road home, but decided I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I didn’t at least try and go out and look for Paul. So now it is dark, the wind is really blowing, and snow is coming down, and I’m trying to drive and look at the trail at the same time. If you have ever done this, it is hard even in good weather. There are some parts where I could not see the trail from the road along Hwy 169, where I expected he was. Judging on how long it took him to get to 5.6 miles, I did not expect him to be at the more secluded gravel part of the trail. I drove all the way down to about where there was less than 2 miles to the finish and didn’t see him. All I could do at that time was hope that he hitchhiked his way back to the start and his car. But he did run a second marathon in less than 6 hours and is safe.
Got home, showered, had dinner at my brother-in-law’s (Cliff Richards) next door, came home, went to bed, and I was OUT! The wind never got really bad, thank goodness. I was planning on running the Dumb Ass on Sunday, but had already been cancelled. A few were planning on running anyway and the weather was actually okay down here in Maple Valley, not sure how bad it was up on Tiger. It was good for me to sleep in and spend the day with Ken. I spend too many weekends away.
So there you are! Long report for an eventful weekend. I’ll see most of you at Last Chance! Remember, I have an event at Lake Youngs in January 2009. It will be on 1/24 or 1/31, depending on my call schedule. Come out to run one loop (9.6mi), 2 loops (19.2mi), or a 50K. I will know before the end of the year on the final date.
Pigtails
Wow! What a week and weekend! The weeks leading up to the race had people signing up and cancelling, some for reasons other than the weather. Of course, the most cancellations came the day before the race and people not showing race day. Without any cancels, I would have had well over 100 people come to run. Nevertheless, we still had 58 runners with 22 braving the 50K and three more runners who did a point to point from Renton to Landsburg for 15.87 miles. Val Beyer, one of the volunteer at the 50K turn around, ran 18.4 miles, ½ before the race and ½ after. So she ran, stopped and volunteered, and ran again! I actually had a few people sign up the night before and a couple show up race day!
About a week before race day, my e-mail crashed and I lost all everyone’s e-mail. I spent 5 hours on the phone with EarthLink but was not able to retrieve any of my contact information. So I then started saving e-mails from then on of whoever sent me one and combed through the maniac site for whoever had their e-mail listed, since most entrants were maniacs. Because of this, when the weather turned south and the forecast was ominous for Saturday, I couldn’t very well cancel or postpone the race since I did not have everyone’s e-mail who signed up. I’m glad I didn’t, because the weather was as good as it could have possibly been given the warnings.
Also, leading up the race, I made my homemade medals, now an anticipated tradition each year. It’s getting harder to come up with new designs, but I’ll keep trying every year. This year, my husband was a big help. He is a woodworker and uses exotic hardwoods for his pieces. He turned European Pear wood on his lathe and the made medal sized slices, beveled the edges, and drilled a hole for the string. Now, this is not your ordinary wood. It is much denser than your typical domestic hardwood like cherry or oak. Believe me, he can make exquisite pieces of furniture with similarly hard woods (see his web site: kenrichardsfurniture.com to see what I mean), so these medals were just child’s play for him. Still, he took time out of his work day to do this. I then put a couple coats of finish on them then drew a pig’s face on the front, glued felt pig ears to it, and wrote on the back race name, distance, and date. At one point when it looked like I had almost 100 runners signed up, I continued making more, for a total of 105. From their responses, people really liked them!
I had to work the day before the race and was not able to check my e-mail during the day. When I got home, I had over 60 e-mails to read. Do you know how long that takes to read and respond? When I got home, Ken and I went out to fill propane tanks and mark a couple spots on the trail. It was dark by then. I ran about a couple miles to mark and got a fairly good idea of the trail conditions, runnable on snow ½-2 inches deep. But even in that short distance, I was using different muscles with slipping and sliding in trail shoes. Also the cold air aggravated my asthma and it was predicted to be colder the next day. Got home, ate, and set about loading up my vehicle with supplies that I had staged for each aid station. Then I read my e-mails and updated the entrants list based on cancellations and add ons. I was in bed by midnight and woke at 4am.
After filling the water jugs with hot water and loading them in my SUV, I got on the icy/snowy roads until I got to the main roads, which were bare and dry. I know those who showed up had the same experience. As soon as they got past the surface streets and onto the freeways, it was fine. But I know some people’s surface streets were steeper and harder to get through and I’m glad those people stayed home instead of jeopardizing getting into trouble. I set up the two self serve aid stations at mile 9.1 and 5.6 with a 5-gallon hot water jug and 5-gallon Gatorade jug, bag of hammer gels, trash bag, and covered the jugs with a blanket to keep the liquids from freezing. Then I had one more area to mark with tape and arrived at the start at 6:10am. One or two people had already arrived. Many came early because the roads were not as bad as they anticipated. I did let some start earlier than what they were signed up for but for the most part, people started at their listed times. I had group start at 7am (50K early starters), 7:30am (marathon early starters and 50K regular starters), and 8am (marathon regular starters which only had about 5 people). Sorry if I was short with anyone wanting to start early, especially after I had sent an e-mail saying it was okay. It turned to be a lot more complicated than I thought. Next year, everyone is starting at the same time: 7am so that I don’t have to keep 3 different watches, in which one was lost yesterday somewhere on my trip back to the finish after checking in on the 12.5 mile aid station. The temps were in the high teens to start and probably crept up to 20. It was not windy and the sun even came out in the first two hours. It became overcast after then and the wind only slightly picked up after 6 hours. So conditions were favorable for just about everyone. Ken helped me set up the propane heater and check people in. People brought canned goods as their entry fee for the food bank and also donated money for supplies. Thanks! It does help a lot!
After sending everyone off, I took down check in and waited ½ hour for any stragglers that might have taken longer to get there due to the roads. As I was leaving, Thomas Tan arrived looking relieved that I was still there. He took off alone saying that he might not run the entire marathon and just do a long training run. He did 26.2. I stopped at mile 5.6 aid station to see if the nozzles had frozen on the jugs. They were still okay after having sat out in the cold for 3 hours at that point. Some runners were arriving and I helped them out. Then I stopped at the 9.1 aid station. It was fine too. I arrived at the 12.5 mile aid station and it was bustling. Shawn McTaggart, *tc, and Jess Mullen were busy unfreezing people’s water bottle tops by dipping them in boiling water. We had fig newtons, chips, M&Ms, gummi bears, hot chocolate, Nuun, salt tabs, and hand warmers as well as encouragement for the runners. Some 50kers decided to cut back to marathon but no marathoner wanted to run a 50K. Gee, I wonder why? A lot of the runners had frost on their caps or hair sticking out. There were frozen eyelashes and eyebrows. Some were cheerful, others more subdued. After leaving the list of confirmed entrants with my three helpers, I headed back to the start to get soup heated up. I didn’t check in on the 50K turn around volunteers, Dean Kayler and Val Beyer, but word is that they were great as well!
I want to thank the people who brought stuff to share. Betsy Rogers, who I heard is a chef, made an incredible Thai Butternut Squash soup. Samuel Pichinini brought another wonderful soup. I asked him what it was called. He called it Pigtails Soup! Isn’t that great? He sounds like quite the cook! It had lentils, collards, kale, and a bunch of other yummy stuff! They both got all eaten up, a lot by me! We also had chicken noodle soup and cream of mushroom. Jill Hudson, did you bring those “healthy” chocolate chip cookies that you said were not so good? They were great and popular. Someone brought really good nutless banana bread. Steve brought me homemade jam. Mary Hanna brought delicious pumpkin bars. If I’ve forgotten anyone, sorry. It was a rather hectic day.
Runners were nice and spread out coming in. No course records, as to be expected on this tough day. Bryce Mercer won the 50K in 3:58, off his 3:41 win in 2006 and Bronwen Williams in 5:24, both getting a stuffed pig and $3.10 for their efforts. In the marathon, Shawna Wilskey ran 3:41, taking $2.62 and a pig for her win. I mistakenly awarded Joe Tompkins the male marathon win expecting no other runner to run faster but had forgotten about David Cole who started at 8am. Joe did ask before leaving if I was sure there was no one else out there faster, and I said yes, yes, I was sure. He proved me wrong. When David came in, I told him I had made a mistake and he was gracious about it and would have donated the money back anyway. Joe came in with Shawna at 3:41 and David ran a fine 3:35. Runners have such great attitudes!
Special note for some accomplishments. Bob Dolphin ran his 439th race. Brian Hampsch, Jerry Thayer, Ashley Kuhlmann, Michael Kuhlmann, Andy Fritz, and Bronwen Williams ran their first 50K. Ryan McKnight ran a one minute 50K PR, which is just wrong, given the conditions! But Ryan, I feel, just has not peaked yet in his running. He ran a great race at Seattle Marathon, finishing 17th overall in 2:54:08. Jessica Williams, BJ Farish, and Lisa Hurley became Maniacs with my race. Linda Walter achieved 5 Maniac stars with my race, having run 26 races in 12 months, starting with this race last year. Bruce Hoff has run all three of my Pigtails Flat Ass 50K and this one was his 100th of marathon or longer. Thanks for choosing my race to accomplish your goals! Jon Yoon came to the end of the race to drop off soup to donate, even if he could not make the run! What a funny guy! Thanks Jon!
Paul Piplani went out for a double marathon after completing his first one in 6:23. He was signed up for the double this weekend with the Christmas Marathon and was disappointed that the latter was cancelled due to weather warnings. I urged him not to go back out because the wind was supposed to pick up and it was supposed to snow as well. I also was going to clean up the aid stations, so he had to be self sufficient for his second marathon. He went anyway and assured me he was going to be okay. He fueled up before leaving.
I stuck around until the last finisher came in and headed out to the self serve aid stations to clean them up. Paul was just leaving the 5.6 mile aid station and I gave him some more food. The weather was still okay at that time, but it was about 2:45. Darkness would come soon. My two blue water jugs were stolen at the 9.1 mile aid station. I just bought those! I was heading home but thought I should go to the store and stock up on food before the storm and possible power outages. Seemed like everyone else had the same idea as me because Safeway was packed and a lot of shelves empty. But I didn’t have to stand in line too long. For once, I picked the right lane!
When I came out, the weather had really gotten bad. It was miserable just getting to my car with wind and snow. I thought about Paul and how terrible it had gotten. I was about to turn onto my road home, but decided I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I didn’t at least try and go out and look for Paul. So now it is dark, the wind is really blowing, and snow is coming down, and I’m trying to drive and look at the trail at the same time. If you have ever done this, it is hard even in good weather. There are some parts where I could not see the trail from the road along Hwy 169, where I expected he was. Judging on how long it took him to get to 5.6 miles, I did not expect him to be at the more secluded gravel part of the trail. I drove all the way down to about where there was less than 2 miles to the finish and didn’t see him. All I could do at that time was hope that he hitchhiked his way back to the start and his car. But he did run a second marathon in less than 6 hours and is safe.
Got home, showered, had dinner at my brother-in-law’s (Cliff Richards) next door, came home, went to bed, and I was OUT! The wind never got really bad, thank goodness. I was planning on running the Dumb Ass on Sunday, but had already been cancelled. A few were planning on running anyway and the weather was actually okay down here in Maple Valley, not sure how bad it was up on Tiger. It was good for me to sleep in and spend the day with Ken. I spend too many weekends away.
So there you are! Long report for an eventful weekend. I’ll see most of you at Last Chance! Remember, I have an event at Lake Youngs in January 2009. It will be on 1/24 or 1/31, depending on my call schedule. Come out to run one loop (9.6mi), 2 loops (19.2mi), or a 50K. I will know before the end of the year on the final date.
Pigtails
Friday, December 5, 2008
TRIPLING ON THE WAY TO THE MARATHON MANIACS HALL OF FAME
Short:
Friday 11/28/08 Wishbone Trail Run 27.4 mile-4:18:14 (3rd woman)
Saturday 11/29/08 Ghost of Seattle 50K+-4:47:31 (1st woman)
Sunday 11/30/08 Seattle Marathon-3:53:47 (whatever woman)
Long:
It kinda just creeped up on me. Before I knew it, my hall of fame race came before December even started. This was a long time in coming, thousands of miles traveled. This triple weekend was ideal with local races and good running weather. And I was not alone. Many completed the triple and many more a double. Some of those their first. It’s nice to be surrounded by other sick people.
Friday’s race was in Gig Harbor, just a stone’s throw from Bill “Hotrod” Barmore’s house. He had wonderful volunteers, including Val Beyer, Lesa Overfield, and Karen. The course was a twisty, turny 6.85 mile trail loop done 4 times, which was reverse the direction of his July run. It was overcast but not cold. I twisted my ankle twice in the first loop and 3 more times before the run was over. Both sides. Of course when the trail was not as technical. I had a nice time running with Merita Trohimovich-Pollard, who ran the Turkey Trot 10K the day before and still managed to finish over 3 minutes before me after leaving me at the halfway point of the last loop. She wasn’t even planning to run the whole thing! It’s great to see her back at the races despite a nagging injury. Shawna Wilskey ran an “easy” 3:48:30 in her first race of two in her first double. She recently placed 9th woman at the Marine Corps Marathon, easily breaking 3 hours in a time of 2:57 and change. She looks so effortless running it’s sickening! First guy was Ken Reinkensmeyer in 3:43:20, then Joe Tompkins with the same time as Shawna and his first double as well, then Rich Hieb in 4:07:30. Afterwards, we were rewarded with yummy huckleberry pancakes and a medal with a wishbone attached! I love those homemade medals!
Saturday morning came, again with good weather. Warm for my standards. The course took us around Seward Park then an out and back along Lake Washington Blvd (50Kers went a little longer, of course up a hill), then repeat for the marathoners. The 50Kers had to do a third loop of Seward Park. I ran the race pretty much in shorts and sports bra. Same with Shawna Wilskey, who had no trouble finishing in 3:20. Terry Sentinella won with a time of 3:14. Shawn McTaggert and I swapped leads several times, when one of us had to hit the honey bucket. Me twice and Shawn several times. Poor Shawn, she didn’t realize that we had to do one more loop of Seward Park and increased her speed heading to the finish line. She even sat down on the grass thinking she was done until someone asked her if she was just running the marathon. Reluctantly she got up and started running again, which was about 4 more miles to go. I must of passed her one last time when she hit the honey bucket, still feeling good at that point and was able to have a strong last 4 miles. Post race hot dog and chicken noodle soup hit the spot! Some brave souls soaked in the lake. I had to get to the Seattle expo to pick up my race packet.
Sunday came too soon. I arrived in Seattle early to get a decent parking space before all the roads got blocked off. I woke up with sore ankles and knees, worried about a repeat of my DNF last year when I had to quit at mile 8 because of an inflamed Achilles tendon. After stepping off a curb and feeling a sharp pain in my side tendon on the right ankle, my fears increased. I did some gentle stretching after heading to the start line and told myself to just take it easy and get my hall of fame run done. I saw several doublers and triplers throughout the run. I also saw tons and tons of maniacs. It was great seeing Annie out there and even better to hear that she won after trailing in 8th place when I saw her on the out and back at the bridge and 3rd on Lake Washington Blvd when she was at about mile 15. It took me about 10 miles to loosen up. I sped up around Seward Park when the trail got narrow with too many runners and went through ½ way in about 1:57. I maintained my effort for the rest of the race, finishing with an even split. My goal for the weekend, other than just finishing all three races, was not to walk at all, which I was able to do. Afterwards, I got together with Cheri Pompeo and Gregg Wachli to celebrate his 200th marathon at Zeke’s Pizza!
So, I think I was the first woman to meet the criteria to be inducted in the Marathon Maniacs Hall of Fame. And I’m not done with my year! I have 4 more races to go, shooting for 55 to make my average for three years an even number of 53. So what’s next after this year? I’m signed up for the McNaughton 150 mile race in April. If I do well, there is a 200 mile endurance run in the fall in Vermont put on by the same guy. If you are interested, there is also a 100 mile fun run as well. Plus several 100 milers in between. Less road marathons, more trail ultras.
Well-see you on the trails! Great job to all you doublers and triplers!
Friday 11/28/08 Wishbone Trail Run 27.4 mile-4:18:14 (3rd woman)
Saturday 11/29/08 Ghost of Seattle 50K+-4:47:31 (1st woman)
Sunday 11/30/08 Seattle Marathon-3:53:47 (whatever woman)
Long:
It kinda just creeped up on me. Before I knew it, my hall of fame race came before December even started. This was a long time in coming, thousands of miles traveled. This triple weekend was ideal with local races and good running weather. And I was not alone. Many completed the triple and many more a double. Some of those their first. It’s nice to be surrounded by other sick people.
Friday’s race was in Gig Harbor, just a stone’s throw from Bill “Hotrod” Barmore’s house. He had wonderful volunteers, including Val Beyer, Lesa Overfield, and Karen. The course was a twisty, turny 6.85 mile trail loop done 4 times, which was reverse the direction of his July run. It was overcast but not cold. I twisted my ankle twice in the first loop and 3 more times before the run was over. Both sides. Of course when the trail was not as technical. I had a nice time running with Merita Trohimovich-Pollard, who ran the Turkey Trot 10K the day before and still managed to finish over 3 minutes before me after leaving me at the halfway point of the last loop. She wasn’t even planning to run the whole thing! It’s great to see her back at the races despite a nagging injury. Shawna Wilskey ran an “easy” 3:48:30 in her first race of two in her first double. She recently placed 9th woman at the Marine Corps Marathon, easily breaking 3 hours in a time of 2:57 and change. She looks so effortless running it’s sickening! First guy was Ken Reinkensmeyer in 3:43:20, then Joe Tompkins with the same time as Shawna and his first double as well, then Rich Hieb in 4:07:30. Afterwards, we were rewarded with yummy huckleberry pancakes and a medal with a wishbone attached! I love those homemade medals!
Saturday morning came, again with good weather. Warm for my standards. The course took us around Seward Park then an out and back along Lake Washington Blvd (50Kers went a little longer, of course up a hill), then repeat for the marathoners. The 50Kers had to do a third loop of Seward Park. I ran the race pretty much in shorts and sports bra. Same with Shawna Wilskey, who had no trouble finishing in 3:20. Terry Sentinella won with a time of 3:14. Shawn McTaggert and I swapped leads several times, when one of us had to hit the honey bucket. Me twice and Shawn several times. Poor Shawn, she didn’t realize that we had to do one more loop of Seward Park and increased her speed heading to the finish line. She even sat down on the grass thinking she was done until someone asked her if she was just running the marathon. Reluctantly she got up and started running again, which was about 4 more miles to go. I must of passed her one last time when she hit the honey bucket, still feeling good at that point and was able to have a strong last 4 miles. Post race hot dog and chicken noodle soup hit the spot! Some brave souls soaked in the lake. I had to get to the Seattle expo to pick up my race packet.
Sunday came too soon. I arrived in Seattle early to get a decent parking space before all the roads got blocked off. I woke up with sore ankles and knees, worried about a repeat of my DNF last year when I had to quit at mile 8 because of an inflamed Achilles tendon. After stepping off a curb and feeling a sharp pain in my side tendon on the right ankle, my fears increased. I did some gentle stretching after heading to the start line and told myself to just take it easy and get my hall of fame run done. I saw several doublers and triplers throughout the run. I also saw tons and tons of maniacs. It was great seeing Annie out there and even better to hear that she won after trailing in 8th place when I saw her on the out and back at the bridge and 3rd on Lake Washington Blvd when she was at about mile 15. It took me about 10 miles to loosen up. I sped up around Seward Park when the trail got narrow with too many runners and went through ½ way in about 1:57. I maintained my effort for the rest of the race, finishing with an even split. My goal for the weekend, other than just finishing all three races, was not to walk at all, which I was able to do. Afterwards, I got together with Cheri Pompeo and Gregg Wachli to celebrate his 200th marathon at Zeke’s Pizza!
So, I think I was the first woman to meet the criteria to be inducted in the Marathon Maniacs Hall of Fame. And I’m not done with my year! I have 4 more races to go, shooting for 55 to make my average for three years an even number of 53. So what’s next after this year? I’m signed up for the McNaughton 150 mile race in April. If I do well, there is a 200 mile endurance run in the fall in Vermont put on by the same guy. If you are interested, there is also a 100 mile fun run as well. Plus several 100 milers in between. Less road marathons, more trail ultras.
Well-see you on the trails! Great job to all you doublers and triplers!
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