My training this summer was good, I have enjoyed the benefit of running 5-6 days/week with the cross country team this fall, and I felt confident entering the race. I was lucky enough to have a marketing teachers' conference in Breckenridge the two days before the event, allowing me to get in a bit of early adjustment to the altitude. This also allowed me to spend 2 hours Thursday night packing and organizing drop bags and a race plan. Friday Meggan and the girls drove up, and we went to Vail in a mix of rain/snow/sleet to pick up my race packet. Then we went back to Breckenridge, where Angela was kind enough to let us cook a chicken/pasta dinner at her house before we went to the hotel.
Saturday morning Meggan was up at 5:00 to feed Ava, and the rest of us were up by 5:30. This was the first of many times during the day that Meggan would be an amazing wife. We headed down to the start, outside Vertical Runner on Main Street. As we tried to keep warm in the below-freezing temps, we wondered where all the other athletes were, until we realized everyone else was crammed into the store! We spent our time celebrity-gawking, and making sure everything was ready and thought out for the day.
Just before the start, the beautiful alpenglow I know so well started making its way down Peaks 8 and 9. I was quite emotional about starting my first 100km in the town where I "grew up," discovered playing outdoors is a major part of my life, and trained for my first real difficult trail race, the Pikes Peak Marathon.
We took off just after 7am, and made our way on the road to Four O'Clock trail, which would take us up the first 2500' climb up Breckenridge Ski Resort. I felt calm, and happy to begin my day of playing in the beautiful mountains. My original pace "guesstimates" were for a finishing time of 11:30-14:00, depending on how things went. As we climbed trails I used to run almost daily from the BOEC, there was a funny moment when the old Madonna song, "This used to be my playground" popped into my head! I chatted with other runners, and kept my pace comfortable. Sadly, I did not win the cash premium for being the first to the top -- ha! I descended comfortably as well, chatting with Nick Smith of Dillon. We passed through the first aid station, and Meggan was able to hand me my running pack while holding Ava and a very upset and crying Rachel -- poor Mommy!
I continued to feel good as we traversed the Peaks trail to Frisco. Running down Main Street after approximately 14 miles (the course was definitely longer than the advertised 100km), I passed my friend Claire cheering for me! Then as I neared the aid station at 9100' in Frisco, I saw Spider-Man shooting pictures and waving. He asked me, "how are you doing?", pointed out where he had my stuff set up, and began helping me get organized. Thanks Eric, for your support all day, and for wearing your usual fun pacing/crewing costume. It was great to move through aid stations so efficiently -- I've never run a race long enough to have an official crew. Meggan has always had to balance those duties with the kids, so this was an amazing treat. After leaving the aid station I saw the girls in the car just up the road and swung by for a quick hug.
The climb up Miner's Creek road was much steeper than I thought it would be, and I was thankful to reach the end of the road and begin the trail ascent. As we climbed above treeline, there was lots of snow, probably 12-18" inches in places, but thankfully packed down by the preceding runners.
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| Ascending from Miner's Creek |
We crossed the highway and entered Copper, running another mile or so before reaching the plaza where the aid station was set up. I was pleased to see my crew in the warmer weather, and learned that even the elites had been an hour longer than expected to this point, approximately 28 miles. In my brain, this aid stop took forever, but I needed a mental recharge after the cold of the pass and before the upcoming half-marathon on the paved recreation path (ugh). But first, we had a short, super-steep climb up Copper Mountain. The grade of the recreation path was covered most efficiently at a power-hike; I was pleasantly surprised to be able to maintain a smooth pace all the way up. Meggan greeted me at the Vail Pass tourist info center, and we walked through the parking lot since both girls were asleep. Then she drove down the road to the aid station next to Black Lake, where I commented on my knee pain and she gave me a great taping. This held up for the rest of the race -- physical therapists are amazing, especially my wife! My stomach wasn't very excited with more gels, so I tried some soup and had a brief rest at the aid station. It was great to see my crew again; even though I was trying not to spend lots of time in aid stations, it was still good to see them, because I knew it would be hours before I would again.
Descending the recpath started off well, but about a mile from the aid station my stomach rejected the soup, and everything else. In hindsight, I should have given it a while to recover and then started to refuel. Instead, I felt so good running that I went all the way to the end of the recpath before even thinking of refueling. My running pace was good, and I felt better with an empty stomach. I even tried to get some 18-wheelers to honk at us while we were running next to the interstate -- no luck, though.
I reached the aid station at approximately mile 41, feeling reasonably comfortable about my race so far, but quite nervous about what would happen if I couldn't fuel well. I continued to baby my stomach, a stupid idea. As I climbed the super-steep (2100' in 2.5 miles) canyon on the Two Elk trail, I got very cold. The canyon was shaded, damp (next to a creek), snowy in places, and steep. After the sunshine of the recpath, and coupled with my lack of eating, this was a disaster. It took me forever to reach the top of the ridge, and begin a more gradual climb to the Two Elk Lodge in the fading sunlight. The ridge had sun, but also the wind that often precedes sunset in the mountains as the warmth fades away.
At some point I called Meggan, to let her know I was up there, and would be much later than expected into Minturn. My left ankle was getting quite stiff, and it was difficult to run smoothly. I stayed quite chilled, although I did manage to finish a mini-size clif bar before reaching the aid station -- it took me 11 bites. At the aid station, the two volunteers were busy with other runners and cooking things, so I struggled to change my clothes and shoes and get warm, but I didn't really want anything to eat. I finally took two pieces of plain bread and tiny 1/4 of a pb&j sandwich with me. I took off across the ridge, into a headwind, though thankfully not as severe as the earlier one. It was just enough to keep me from warming up very much, and I called Meggan again after a while to let her know I could maintain 12-13 mins/mile on flat and longer on uphills. She implored me to continue moving forward, and I could hear the emotion in her voice as she encouraged me to finish, and not worry about her and the girls.
I began calculating in my head how much quickly I needed to move to have a chance of earning the belt buckle. The course time limit was 19 hours and 30 minutes, with those finishing in under 17 hours earning a belt buckle in addition to their finisher's medal. I had been out for over 11 hours when I left the Two Elk aid station, and I knew I needed to get to Minturn before 14 hours to have a reasonable chance of finishing inside 17 hours. This part was very interesting, then and in hindsight. I was struggling physically, with a stiff ankle, bad stomach, and chilled body. But in this race I was never in doubt that I would finish. I am proud of my own effort for so many hours, as I traversed the course much slower and later than planned, but always moving forward as best I could. I learned a lot about myself as an ultrarunner during the 15-mile section from the end of the recpath to Minturn. The sunset was pretty, as well.
Eventually I reached the Grand Traverse and began a slow descent across the back bowls of Vail, with a tiny flashlight lighting the way through random tree patches. This light was in my drop bag with the assumption I would use it for no more than 30 minutes, but it was my only source of light for nearly 2 hours. I was thankful for my regular Wednesday night run and the experience I have running with low/no light. Gradually the descent became steeper and more technical, which was hard on my ankle, but I maintained confidence in my ability to traverse rocky terrain, and dropped toward Minturn. I passed several crew members who were hiking up the trail to try to find runners whose lights had died or were moving very slowly. I knew I was going to reach Minturn eventually, but the descent still seemed to take forever. I saw no other runners for nearly 90 minutes, not even lights!
I dropped into Minturn, and called Eric to let him know I was coming (I didn't know if Meggan was there or back at the hotel). In the darkness, I nearly ran past him as he cheered, "nice job, only 1/2 mile to the aid station," thinking I was a random runner. I said, "hey," as we realized our mistake, and shuffled into town. I told him I was still having trouble with food -- again, in hindsight, I could have taken in more by this point -- and asked for 4 slices of bread to take with me. Kate was there, waiting to pace (SO excited to see her!), and my girls were, too! Rachel was clearly tired but gave me a hug, and Meggan was super encouraging. I feel like this aid station took forever; it seemed hard to focus on what I needed, with clothes, food, etc. piled everywhere since no one knew I would be doing.
We left the aid station with 10 miles to go, and my watch reading 13:57 elapsed time. I planned to maintain a strong hiking pace up the ascent, and then give it everything I had on the descent of Vail, which I knew was on the main maintenance road (and therefore not technical at all). I hoped I would have enough time left after the climb. Kate was awesome at randomly telling me stories, reminding me to eat, and trying to get me to jog slightly flatter sections (which I was terrible at). She also offered me a jellybean, which turned out to be great because I was able to eat a bunch of them, 1 or 2 at a time, for the rest of the race with my bread. One guy blew by us on the ascent, but I reminded myself to keep my pace strong and I'd be okay. The climb was quite steep toward the end, and my mile pace dropped from ~20 minutes to ~26. I felt the time slipping away, and needed to get to the aid station and know how much was really left. Finally we reached the crest, heard the aid station, and jogged down to it. 4.7 miles left, nearly all downhill, and about 1:20 to get it done. I knew I could maintain a 12/13 minute mile, but wasn't sure how close it would be at the bottom. We barely slowed at the aid station, merely giving a pat on the back to "Hawaiian shirt Ray" as we passed. He passed us back in a few minutes and flew down the descent.
Kate kept reminding me to try to run, even slowly, every time I stopped for a walk break. My gait was pretty crazy as I tried to get my left ankle to loosen up, my stomach to take some food, and focus on the finish. Eventually we managed to run quite a bit, mostly because I realized I was losing time. I thought once we dropped to town we still had to run a bit through town, and was getting concerned that we'd run out of time. Through Kate's prodding, we slowly picked up the pace, and made our way down the endless switchbacks. My ankle loosened quite a bit as we increased the pace, and I was running with a fairly good stride. We were just about to call Meggan to come out from the hotel, and that it would be really close (I thought we had nearly a mile to go), when we made a turn and realized we were down, and the finish line was there. Cheers arose, and we crossed the line for a finishing time of 16:51:17. Eric was there for a photo, too!
We went inside, but I was cold and felt a bit sick with all the lights and movement. We only stayed for a few minutes before heading back to the hotel, where Meggan got me a warm bath to warm up before bed.
My GPS from the race: http://www.strava.com/activities/85911035.
Race results show me as the 65th finisher of 78. 142 starters means a 55% finish rate for the race. (www.ultraroc.com)
Awesome job, my friend, and a write-up that really captures the physical and mental aspect of this kind of race! Boo yah night run training!
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