Renewing My Vows

I was inspired to renew my vows with my number one trail shoes this evening.  Cheesy?  Duh.  But one day you, too, will find that perfect pair of shoes with which to share the trail and will feel compelled to share just how you feel.  Love is precious, so I'm getting up on top of that mountain and shouting it out to the world (blog-land)!

Dear La Sportiva Wildcats (aka Sporty Cats),

I promise to always share the trail with you, through thick and thin, wet and dry, singletrack, fire road, crushed limestone and the occasional paved road (but not too much road because that's just wrong).

Through the good times and the bad, victories and defeats, you will always be my number one trail shoe.  Look at you, with your perfect autumn/Halloween colors, you are all but begging me to lace you up and take you for a spin.  How adorable are you?!

My very first pair of Sporty Cats were there for me along that winding and rooty trail in Huntsville, Texas, through all those tough long training runs at Palos and Waterfall Glen, through the seemingly endless stream crossings out of Twin Lakes, up and over Hope Pass in Winfield, Colorado.  You shared the triumphs with me, and you hugged my feet tight as I swallowed the bitter pill of my first DNF ever.  You were there for me, and held up at the seams (literally), draining quickly and allowing me to run (and death march) with dry feet.

Sporty Cats, you always seem to know just what I need, when I need it.  My (nearly) blister-free feet thank you each time I lace you up, and my Drymax Max Pro socks are the perfect compliment to your slightly wider toe box, snug heel cup, sewn in tongue and ballistic rock shield.

I pledge to always reach for you in times of trail runs, to believe in your ability to get me to the finish line, wherever it may be.  Your low weight and cushion-y sole make my heart sing.  I look forward to sharing the next trail with you soon and placing you in my shoe closet alongside my very first pair of trusty Sporty Cats.  Don't worry, you'll get your 100 mile fix soon, too :)

Love,

Paige

Thank you Wilderness Running Company for continuing this love affair.  Everyone should be so lucky as to have a pair of Sporty Cats in their life :)

Crash, out.

"How Did I Get Here?" A Leadville 100 Race Report

I'll spare you the gore if you just want the outcome: this is indeed a Leadville DNF story...

The sky was that late afternoon, hazy sort of bright and only just beginning to turn shades of purple and pink as the sun began its slow descent behind the mountains, but inside my head all was dark and suffocating.  I fell into the abyss and was scrambling to climb out but found myself with nothing to grasp.  It was like a bad dream, but it was so very real.  

I kept thinking to myself, "How did I get here?"  

As I pulled off the steep trail at a switchback, I leaned down and grabbed onto a smooth log on the ground and sat on it, sobbing with heaving gasps, unable to catch a full breath.  "I can't, I don't want, I just, I can't, how?..." I couldn't even form a sentence.  I had words in my head, but they came out solo between short breaths, not quite stringing together to form a coherent thought.  I felt...dreadful.

The mountain had beaten me.  It had beaten me good.  You do these sorts of things, you step outside of your comfort zone (in this case, I took a running, pole-vaulting leap outside of my comfort zone!) to learn more about yourself, to see what you are made of.  I didn't like what I saw.  I saw fear, weakness, frailty.  I saw my race ending, a smug race official clipping off my medical wristband, thinking to themself, "rookie."  But what gripped me most and only tightened the further up that mountain I headed was the fear of damage not just to my ego, but to my well being.  It was over for me, I knew this, but it needed to be on my terms at that very moment.  The lack of nutrition, salt and oxygen in my body surely blinded my judgment, but I knew deep down, this was it.

For the first time in a race, my mind got the better of me.  The one thing I really had going for me was actually failing me.

LEADVILLE TRAIL 100 RUN...A Lesson in Futility.

Waaaay back in January was when it all began, officially.  Geof, Brian and I submitted our race entries, paid our fees and set the plan in motion.  I had all the time in the world to prepare myself mentally for the challenge ahead of me.  And, after pulling through a dark spot during Rocky Raccoon 100 the following month, I felt confident in my ability to push through the muck and get it done.  But lets be real here folks, Leadville ain't no joke and I knew it was going to hurt in more ways than one and that the challenge was going to be greater than anything else I'd put myself through.  There was no way to gauge just how tough I was going to need to be to get through it successfully. 

Well, now I know :)

The flight and drive out to Leadville went very smoothly, and after a stop off at 11,990 ft. Loveland Pass...

...and more pee breaks than I can count (lets just say I managed to pee 7 times from the time we took off from Chicago to the time we grabbed our stuff from baggage in Denver...I lost count after that), Brian, Kelly, Deanna, Geof and I arrived at the steps of the Leadville Hostel.

This is a fanTASTIC place to stay if you ever find yourself in the area.  I'd go to Leadville just so I can stay at the Hostel, it was that good!  Anywho, we enjoyed a tasty dinner at the pre-race feed down at the gymnasium after picking up our packets, and then tucked in for the night as we had an early start to the day on Friday. 

Medical check-in went smoothly...

...followed by the pre-race meeting (which was P-A-C-K-E-D).  The gymnasium wasn't really meant to hold 700 bodies so I found myself heading outside to catch a breeze to avoid a fainting spell!  Geof and I stood in the doorway and just as we planted ourselves there, in walks Tony Krupicka.  I'm not gonna lie, I was a little star struck.  But lets not over analyze that :)

Our fantastic crew (Rob, Rina, Lucy and Tom) showed up just in time to catch the crew briefing, and afterwards we all gathered outside to head over to High Mountain Pie to give our taste buds a delightful, doughy treat.  We all gave them 16 thumbs up for the food and general awesomeness of the place. 

After lunch, we headed back to the Hostel to begin organizing our drop bags.  What a pain in the butt it is to do these, but a very necessary pain in the butt.  It's tough to put these together when you have no idea what to expect from the weather, not to mention your stomach.  I think we spent about two hours on this little task, and got to the courthouse lawn just in time to drop them off before race volunteers hauled them off to the various aid stations along the course later that evening.  Once that was done, I felt like I could finally relax.  I had my crew bag all organized and ready to go, my clothes and shoes laid out for the morning, a delicious lasagna dinner in my belly, and, for the first time pre-race, not a single non-water beverage (maybe that was my first mistake!!).  Surely, I kid ;)

Turquoise Lake...we would be running around this gem in the dark wee hours of the next morning, so I'm glad we got a chance to check it out in the daylight beforehand.  Not too shabby, huh?

We set our alarms for 2:00 a.m. (gross, right?!) and somehow I managed to wake up at 1:37 without assistance...that was weird.  At least I got a very good night's sleep that night and the previous one.  Wild Bill (one of the proprietors at the Hostel) insisted we "evacuate" (his words, not mine!) as soon as we woke up, eat and then get ready.  I decided to take his advice and it seemed to work out just fine :-)  The rest of the troops awoke without any pushing and very soon the Hostel was buzzing like a generator!  Whew, talk about excitement in the air, and we weren't even at the starting line!  I focused on keeping my cool though as my heart rate was already going to be elevated due to the altitude, I didn't need nerves raising it any higher. 

At 3:15 we headed for the starting line at 6th and Harrison just in time to do a final racer check-in and then play the hurry-up-and-wait game.  Suddenly, it was all very real.  We were there, finally.  It was no longer a story playing out in my mind, a visualization, it was actually really real.

Geof and I with our amazing crew: Rob, Tom, Rina and Lucy

With Brian and Geof

As you can imagine, it was a bit of a zoo with almost 700 runners toeing the starting line.  After some quick words, the RDs sent us off into the cool morning to begin our 100 mile journeys.

I'll not give a blow-by-blow of the course because I think everyone else and their mother has described the LT100 course in painful detail...emphasis on painful.  Anywho, after a really great warm-up of a run down a dusty dirt road and then some wide double-track trail around the lake, the sun began to rise over the mountains, casting a beautiful glow between the trees.  I should note that even though there were a gagillion runners out there, I never had an issue with the "single track" which was actually quite wide and allowed plenty of room for passing in most sections.  Coming out onto a road, we were led into the first aid station at 13.5 miles, May Queen.  At 2h:35 minutes, and just five minutes behind schedule, I was pumped to see Rina standing to the left of the tent, and to my surprise, so were Rob and Tom!  We planned on having Rina stick with me all day, and the boys were going to take care of Geof since he was planning on shooting for a sub-25 hour finish and thus moving much quicker than I.

"So what are you guys doing here?   Where's Geof?" 
I look like a bug with my clear-lens sunglasses :)

Turns out, Geof was only about five minutes ahead of me at that point.  Rina had a fresh bottle o' Perpetuem ready for me and the guys handed me more gels and swapped out my clear lenses for my dark lenses since the sun was up now.  This was a smooth and fast turn around and I was out of there quickly.  I couldn't remember what the next section was, but as I headed up the road out of the AS, I knew it wasn't going to be a fast one.

It's a rocky climb up some mound of dirt and I recall thinking to myself, "what the eff is this?!  And why wasn't this on the course description?"  I found myself stuck in the middle of a long train of chatty dudes and decided to just zone out rather than plug in the iPod.  Eventually, the climbing shut everyone up pretty well :)  Sherpa John passed me for the first time here and I smiled as he passed and said hello.  I love seeing familiar faces on the trails.  Eventually, the climb gets out of the trees and we're on a steadily climbing and switchbacking dirt road.  I still had no clue where we were.  I was looking for powerlines, thinking maybe it was Sugarloaf, but it just didn't seem like I'd come that far already, and it certainly wasn't anywhere near as bad as a lot of people described it.  

Turns out, we were climbing Sugarloaf Pass :)

I caught up to and then passed Brian, making sure we could keep our own paces.  I was power hiking like a mutha and really enjoying it a lot.  Eventually, the steep Powerline descent began and Brian shot by me like a bat outta hell.  I gingerly ran down, saving my knees and quads for later battles.  Sherpa John passed by me again here...wait a minute, what?  He was having some GI wars with nature.  We eventually got onto a boring road section that went on for a ways, and then brought us to Fish Hatchery.  This is a place where fish...hatch.  I didn't see them, but I did see Rina's smiling face running out into the road telling me to run up to and through the barn, grab some more gels, and then come back to her on my way out.  I loved that they were stocking my favorite gels, Powerbar Gel, so I grabbed a buttload of them and brought them back with me.  Rina, of course, was on top of everything and had my next bottle and gels ready for me to swap out.  I was then on my way to Treeline.

I don't really remember the run up to Treeline, but I feel like it involved roads again.  Then again, I may be confusing it with the lead-up to Fish Hatchery.  But, I digress.  I was feeling groovy, swapping spots with Brian, back-and-forth.  He's a great downhiller and I'm more of an uphiller.  Nothing really stands out here, other than I noticed that all the aches that ran with me the first part of the race were now non-existent and everything was feeling great.  Treeline is about mile 27 and replaced the original Halfmoon AS, which was inaccessible to crews.  However, there is a new Halfmoon (II/Box Creek) that is at mile 30, so aid was close together here, unlike the rest of the course.  Coming into Treeline, Rob met me along the dirt road, "I have a surprise for you!" "What?  Is it Geof??" "It is!"  I couldn't help it, I teared up I was so freakin' elated!

Geof decided it was futile to push to chase a time he wasn't going to hit, and miss out running together, so he decided to wait for me at Treeline.  After a quick shoe change (into my La Sportiva Wildcats) and removal of my warm top layer, we were off on the trail, together.  My favorite way to be :)

I should note that I really hit it spot on with my clothing.  The weather really cooperated (sun, 60s) and rain was never even threatened.  I ran the whole time with a rain jacket around my waist or on my pack, but never needed it.  My RecoFit leg sleeves kept my legs warm and feeling really good.  And, of course, my Atayne CHUG shirt just looked smokin' hot :)  And, yes, I did in fact wear my treasured racing pearls under my Buff.

I was on cloud 9 now that Geof and I were running together.  He keeps me moving faster than if I were on my own, but still within my comfort zone.  Plus, how could you NOT want to stare at those legs for another 70 miles?! :)  Again, I digress.  It was a quick jaunt up to the Halfmoon II AS where I grabbed a couple more gels and Geof topped off my Perpetuem.  After that, I think the trail actually skirts around Mt. Elbert, which is pretty cool.  Lots of gorgeous terrain, shady, quiet, calm.  Eventually the course takes a downhill turn and you ride that all the way down to Twin Lakes, which was the antithesis of that serene trail we were just on.  It's a very rocky final descent and super steep, but then your are in the middle of a full on human zoo.  Watch out, runners coming through!!  Geof's friend Julia met us at the trail head and ran with us to our crew.  Geof changed into trail shoes and I grabbed a long sleeve shirt to tie around my waist.  I decided that since I hadn't peed since earlier in the race, and we were now at mile 39.5, I should try to make amends with my bladder.

This was a great waste of time.  I wasn't concerned though since my hands weren't puffy and my stomach and legs felt great.  I just needed to drink more water.  I was, however, starting to get moody, which usually means I need fuel. 

Heading out of Twin Lakes, and towards the motherload: Hope Pass

They say you should get out of Twin Lakes before you see the front runners coming through, so we were feeling good when we were halfway through the marshes out of TL before we saw Tony Krupicka running towards us.  Bam!  So, yea, how about those stream crossings?  These were another thing that got a lot of "hype" and were actually nothing.  Yea, there were about seven in a row, but they were shallow, and the actual river crossing had a rope across it to help you stay upright, and it wasn't any deeper than my knees.  The cold water felt GREAT on my hot spotted feet.  I decided to do without gaiters for this race and subsequently got a good amount of dirt and debris in my shoes, nothing too horrible, but my Drymax Socks were unhappy with my decision.  Ah well, I still only ended up with one blister that disappeared in a day :)

As we headed for the Hope Pass trailhead, Geof strongly suggested I take a gel, as I was now Ms. Crankypants.  So, I did, and as we ascended higher and higher I noticed I was feeling better and better.  Isn't that weird?  I could tell throughout the day that breathing was slightly more labored up in the higher altitude, but it wasn't bad and just required me to take it a tad easier to avoid going anaerobic.  However, climbing Hope Pass was a slightly different story.  While we were both getting winded more easily, climbing 2499 feet in about 2.5 miles (or something like that), we kept on moving.  We did stop a number of times to sit on a log along the trail and get our heart rates down to a human level.  We also spent some good trail time with Monica Scholz, chatting it up with her.  She is just lovely!  Her Leadville finish is her 16th or 17th 100 mile finish of 2010.  Freakin' amazing.  Anywho, little by little, and baby step after baby step we made it out of treeline and before too long, we came upon the Hopeless Aid Station at just before 3:00 (an hour and a half to spare on the cutoff time!), just under a mile from the top of the Pass.  Llamas are the only way to get all the AS supplies up top, so they were grazing in the open field.  We stopped for a short bit to lower the HR and get some water, and then trudged on, finally tackling the rocky stretch that led us to the top of the Pass.

I wish I had had a camera for the top, but I'll tell you it looks just like all the amazing photographs I've seen of it.  Breathtaking...literally!  Standing 12,600 some feet above sea level, drinking it in.  How cool!  It was windy and brisk up that high, but at least the sun was out in full force.  Not much time to kill here, so we immediately set about the steep and ROCKY southern descent, moving aside for all the uphillers because we are just nice peeps :)  Holy EFF, where did these rocks come from?  It's like they imported them from the Sucky Rock Place in Suckville, USA just to make this section suck worse than it already did.  It was a long trail of suck, causing a suckfest to commence in my head.

I should have told myself to shutup.  This was the first crack in the foundation.

Finally we make it back below treeline, and it's more moving to the side for others, smiling, saying hello to familiar faces and generally enjoying myself, but still knowing there's a major battle about to wage war in my head.  I was not hungry so I hadn't had a gel for a bit, and my hands had become pretty puffy by the time we hit Hopeless AS, and I still had yet to pee a second time.  I knew this meant to stay off the salt, and keep up with the liquids to force myself to pee.  Of course, no salt meant my stomach was going to start going south, not to mention my mental faculties.  (Who has a faculty in their head?  I dunno, but that's what they say :))

People were very encouraging, but I was starting to get really irked by everyone saying the bottom was "really close" "just a few minutes down the trail" "you're almost there!"  Honestly, runners who've been on the trail for 50+ miles, at altitude, should NOT be giving distance estimates, ha!  So, when we did finally reach the bottom of the trail and turned onto the dusty road to Winfield, I was only slightly demoralized.  Then we determine it's another 2.5-3 miles UP this really awful road to get to the turnaround.  My mind entered a whole new level of darkness.  To add insult to injury, we'd managed to lose almost all of our time cushion and were now pushing the cutoff at Winfield.  We had just 45 minutes to get up there and turn it around.  AND the dusty crappy road was filled with crew cars flying by us kicking up dust and dirt so I pulled my Buff up over my face to keep it out, but still managed to fill my lungs with it.

Geof was getting more vocal about his worry surrounding the impending cutoff and I quietly ran behind him a few strides, sulking and falling ever deeper into a strange feeling of despair.  Every corner felt like it was going to be the aid station, but it was just another long stretch of hellish uphill road.  I couldn't believe how quickly I'd fallen in the last couple of hours.  I was trying to channel that happy place I felt running through a random mountain meadow on the climb up the north side of Hope.  Nothing.  As we finally neared the aid station and could hear the buzz of a packed house, Geof waited for me to get to him and grabbed my hand.  I was now hyperventilating.  Whoa, where did that come from?  I couldn't form tears, so clearly I was dehydrated, which set me off into a mental tailspin.  Geof voiced his concern over missing the next cutoff since we were so close to this one, but added, "You know we have to leave this aid station, right?  We have to try."  I came undone.

Finally getting into Winfield...I was bummed to say the least

After getting weighed in the med tent (I'd actually lost .4 pounds, but my hands still looked like jumbo marshmellows!) and moved along, our crew made quick business of getting us out of there.  Rina was jumping in with me and Tom was joining Geof.  I finally managed to pee, hooray! and down a Starbucks Doubleshot.  Rob gave me a S!Cap and then we were out of there, with 8 minutes to spare.  This was far too close for comfort.

On the road back out, Rina was saying all the right things and being such a good sport, and I was such a basketcase.  All I could think about was how we had only 3h:45m to climb up and over Hope Pass, when it just took us almost 5 hours to do it the first time, on far fresher legs!  I couldn't come up with a way that it was going to happen.  I was pissed.  I choked down a gel, thank goodness, and drank water like it was my job.  But something was still off.  I felt like I was teetering on the edge of something, but what, I couldn't tell.  We ran and walked that 3 mile stretch and I hated every footfall.  Tom and Geof were just ahead of us, mimicking our stride.  Eventually, we made it to the trailhead and began the climb up.  I almost immediately began talking myself out of it.  It was so strange to actually be in the spot I was in, totally demoralized and completely stripped of any happy place.  I was toast, and it happened so quickly; I never saw it coming.

Not more than a mile up and I'd had it.  My breathing was heavily labored and short, my stomach was souring, my hands were getting puffier, I didn't want anything to eat that I had on me and I was starting to shiver.  This was it.  I was sobbing, shamelessly, uncontrollably.  Geof was holding me trying his best to comfort me, to convince me to go on.  I couldn't.  Tom did his best to make me laugh, and I couldn't even muster that.  I knew that if we continued on together, neither of us would make the cutoff, but I knew that Geof, on his own, would make it.  I just knew it.  I begged him to go on, and after quite a bit of this, he finally decided he'd go on.  I could tell it wasn't easy for him and that it hurt maybe as much as it hurt me to turn around, but I knew I was only going to hold him back.  Heading back down that mountain was crushing in a way I've never been crushed.  The last 8 months flying through my mind, seeing Brian shuffling up the road to Winfield, having missed the cutoff, and telling us to, "Keep moving, go get it!" and seeing all the haggard souls snailing up the mountain in front of us.  This hurt, but there was no turning back now.  Coming upon two trail sweepers, it suddenly became completely undoable.  They clipped off my medical bracelet, officially ending my race...and I completely lost it again.  How did I get here?

I'll reiterate, Rina was SUCH a good sport and had nothing but positive and encouraging things to say to me.  It actually softened the blow of my very first DNF, so for that I thank her deeply.  Riding in the back of a Search and Rescue truck on the way to Twin Lakes, I stared out the window and did my best to compose myself, knowing I had a long night ahead of me still.  My race was over, but Geof's was just beginning.

THE LIGHT SIDE OF THE MOON :)

Geof came screaming into Twin Lakes with Tom at 9:25, 20 minutes ahead of the cutoff...yes, that means the dude ran up and over Hope Pass in 3h:25m...um, who DOES that?!  Rob, Rina and I were momentarily speechless.  Snapping to it, we got him into dry shoes and warm clothing.  He was a man on a mission.  I knew right then this was his race and he wasn't going down without a fight!!

The rest of the night went much like this and I was SO proud to be out there crewing for him, getting to see this bare-knuckle-fighter side of his running.  Everyone was frustrated with the ridiculous cutoffs, and Geof managed to fuel his run with that frustration, moving back through the course as smoothly as he had the first half of the race.  I was blown away!  While the night was long and cold, mixed with intermittent sleep and plenty of laughs thanks to Tom, it certainly turned into a far more rewarding experience than I had envisioned as I climbed down Hope Pass, defeated and broken.  How did I get here, again?

As the night faded and slowly turned into a gleaming day in the mountains, the sun warming our faces again, we headed out of May Queen for the final time.  After showering at the Hostel, we grabbed Brian, Kelly and Deanna and walked down to the finish line to await Geof's arrival.  I was struck with bouts of sadness as I stood there, overwhelmed by those crossing the finish line, knowing they fought the good battle and came out the other side, knowing that on this day they were far stronger than I.  I struggled in those final hours with how to balance my intense disappointment with myself, and extreme elation over Geof's incredible accomplishment.  How can I be envious and overjoyed at the same time?  I decided I needed to forget my own selfish issues and revel in the awesomeness of what Geof was about to do.  As he suddenly appeared at the bottom of the hill, easing up towards the finish line with Rob I was overcome with this all-encompassing feeling of complete happiness.  He was doing it, he was really doing it!  That's MY man!

As soon as he crossed the line, he walked right over to me and held me tight.  We both were completely overcome and I could feel it coursing through him as his torso shook in my arms.  Talk about an emotional finish!  Ay yaya, I'm getting all misty just typing it!  With a time of 28h:21m, Geof got 'er done.  Take that Leadville, with your crappy cutoff times, high altitude and 45% finishing rate! :)  

And now for some deep thoughts.  I don't know that I'll be back at this one, but I sure am glad I tried.  It did show me that I have ginormous...gonzagas...for even attempting this one, as a flatlander, with low-mileage and very little hill training.  So I do give myself credit for it.  I honestly feared this race, and it's the first race where deep down I knew there was a high probability of not finishing.  And yet, I still went for it.  I'm patting myself on the back :)  This race also showed me that most, if not all, obstacles reside within your mind.  

"If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." (Not my quote, I'm not really that insightful, but someone else is, I just can't recall who.) 

This experience has taught me not to take my mind for granted; it is a powerful tool that must be reigned in before it gets out of hand.  I'm not sure where I lost it out there, but I did manage to find it before we left town.  After a few days of letting my first DNF sink in I think I've finally gotten over it.  I don't feel bitter, as I thought I may, and I certainly don't feel like I need to rush back there to get my "revenge".  Actually, it's the opposite.  I respect that race and what it is, and I respect the fact that it's not really my thing at this juncture.  Those mountains take no prisoners, and that's fine with me; I think I'm a better person for the experience.  Cool, huh?

We had amazing crew support for this and I am very much indebted to Rina, Rob and Tom for all their help.  A big thank you to Joe Judd for showing up at Twin Lakes, dressed and ready to pace, and there I was bundled up and a hot mess, feeling sorry for myself.  Luckily, Joe was able to find another runner to pace.  Thank you ALL!  Rina, you are truly wonderful.

Ya' know, maybe one day I will return, if only because it's a beautiful course, but it would only happen after having lived at altitude with plentiful access to really awesome mountain running :)  I do see many Colorado mountains in our future...muhahaha!

I'm thinking we should just change the name "2010 LT100" to the "2010 LT54" :-)  Hey, I got a pretty decent long training run in.  And it would be irresponsible to have all this training under my belt and not use it...watch out!!

So you actually were looking for a successful LT100 race report?  Oh, okay, well you can read Geof's race report HERE :)

This picture cracks me up and I wanted to share it...Brian and Geof, on the way to medical check-in :)

Crash, out.

It All Comes Down to This

It is Tuesday, of the third week in August and for those in the know, that means the Leadville 100 is no longer just creeping up, it is about to come thundering along, crashing into town and taking up shop for 30 hours beginning at the wee hour of 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 21.  As many dreams will be brought to life on those trails as will be crushed (the average finishing rate for the LT100 is somewhere around 40-45%).  I'm thinking, August 21, 2010 is a mighty fine day to liven up my dreams again, why not?  Let's throw another notch in the ol' belt :)

It's official, the entrant's list says so:

Bib #: 776 Paige Troelstrup Chicago IL 28 F F2

Ooo, I even get my very own bib number ahead of time!  Which is great because that means putting together drop bags is easier since I can go ahead and label them with all the pertinent information :)

Speaking of which, I'm all packed!  This is a first, it should be noted in some sort of diary that is kept in some kind of historical records department in a maximum security library.  It's kind of a big deal.

Last Friday night, Geof and I decided to work on our race nutrition and ended up spending the entire evening packing all our nutrition, portioning out individual servings of Perpetuem and Gatorade for the crew vehicle and our drop bags.  Portioning out gels, chews, gum and tasty delights. 

And, heck, why stop there?  We then decided to organize our drop bags with everything we planned on having in them.  Flashlights, headlamps, batteries, foot care, soap, towels, sunscreen, bug spray, Starbucks Doubleshot, food, gum, music, gloves, changes of clothes, shoes, hats, Bodyglide, socks...  Geof stopped at one point, mid-portioning of a baggie of Perpetuem,"I bet we are the only couple in the country spending their entire Friday night putting together race nutrition, a week in advance.  And enjoying it!"  I bet he was right.

We took Saturday off and then resumed packing on Sunday, where I went gangbusters on my running closet and packed all my clothes for the entire trip!  Talk about being on a roll.  Last night I made sure it all fit into my two suitcases, with relative success :)

I would like to say a big THANK YOU and AMEN to the below:

Drymax Maximum Protection socks will keep my feet dry and happy throughout the race

RecoFIT will keep me compressed, warm and hopefully not all puffy!

I should mention I have run a whopping 6.2 miles in the last 6 days due to that nagging adductor issue of late.  I don't know if it's mostly my mind doing its usual pre-race jitter dance on me, but I'm not too keen on getting hurt before the big dance, so I opted to take some rest days.  And what better time to do that than during the taper, right?  Well, it's really a hamstring issue that I'm going to have to address once back from CO, but in the meantime all I can do is maintain.  I did have a successful 2.5 mile run this morning without issue and that's just what I was looking for.  I got a fancy voodoo Rock Tape do from Dr. Heddles at Active Body Chiropractic again yesterday and besides looking like a BAMF, it feels good, too. 

The taper demons are out in force and are resting atop my shoulders.  Where is my freakin' angel to counter-balance these demons?!  It's been long enough since I sufficiently psyched myself out for a race that I've forgotten all the mind games that go on in the days leading up to it.  Since it was quiet at work today, there was ample time to...fester.  Here's hoping tomorrow picks up the pace a bit so I don't have time to do that!

I do think a lot about how much stock we, as ultrarunners, put into single races.  Not everyone is like this, but a lot are.  And everyone deals with it differently.  It's not a pressure, per se, but it's a definite feeling of something akin to that.  You put in all this time and energy and hard work towards this singular goal, and all you can do come race day is...hope for the best.  It's scary!  But, that's yet another reason why I do it.  It's so uncomfortable and takes me so far outside myself, yet it carries with it this intense feeling of accomplishment.  An excruciatingly beautiful experience.

Who are we if we don't put ourselves outside our comfort zone every now and then and dare to experience life outside of it?

But, I digress. 

I'm as ready as I'm going to be, and now it's just a waiting game.  All that time, all that running, all that cross-training, all that...time!  It all comes down to this...

Crash, out.

The Final Straightaway

It is officially Leadville taper time.  Where does time go?  Just 10 weeks ago, Geof and I sat on the floor of our gate at the Tampa Bay airport, mapping out our training schedules...well, Geof did the mapping and I just made suggestions and watched him tap away on the spreadsheet :)  The very next day we set out on day one of official training.  Seems like it was just yesterday.  It was a 16 week plan, but since we only had 12 weeks until race day, we had to make do. 

I think it's turned out pretty well.  I mean, I have actually trained this time!  I put in the time and the miles (well, many of the miles) and feel pretty good going into the taper.  I put in 408.7 miles in the last two and a half months specifically towards this race, and, since January 1, it's been almost 868 miles put in with this race in mind.  Wow.  I likey. 

Just under two weeks to go until race day.  Everything that can be done is done.  I'm as ready as I'm going to be.  There is nothing I can do in the next two weeks, in terms of running, to add to my fitness, other than to relax and recharge.  We are rounding the corner and heading into the final straightaway; the finish line in sight.  That finish line, of course, being the starting line of Leadville.  Gives me chills just thinking about it!!  But it's the good kind of chills :)

I can feel the difference going into this race, compared with my last two hundred milers.  I went into Vermont severely under trained, but managed to pull through and have a great race.  Rocky Raccoon involved one month of focused training, and only three 20 mile long runs.  Suffice it to say, I was yet again severely under trained, yet somehow I got a PR by almost 45 minutes.  This time, we both decided some actual training would be necessary.  You can't cram for Leadville, and you certainly can't fudge your way through a race like that.  I feel infinitely stronger going into this one.  My legs almost don't look like my own; there are muscles showing that I only knew existed because of my anatomy classes ;)  I feel more upright, with a stronger back and shoulders, more stable core, hips that finally do their share of the work, glutes that actually recruit.  It's pretty cool. 

Of course, with consistent training there comes various other things to tolerate.  Like fatigue, aches and pains, soreness, an insatiable appetite, blisters, blahs.  My adductor (inner thigh) muscles have decided they really like the company of my hamstrings and are attached at their fascia (the casing around your muscles), literally.  So that's kinda painful.  Thank goodness for Dr. Heddles at Active Body Chiropractic; his mad A.R.T. skills keep me on the trail.  It hurts something wicked, but it was so nice to finally have an "ache-free legs" long run yesterday, and to be able to run the ups.

Speaking of that, I have no more long runs in this training cycle!!  They are my favorite thing to do, but boy am I ready to just relax and let my legs repair these next two weeks.  Yesterday's long run was a lesson in pain management, and a reminder that mindful running and problem solving are a HUGE part of the hundred mile experience.  Rather than zoning out during my run, I remained present the entire time, which can make time sort of creep by during road runs, but yesterday I really needed to be in the moment, continually evaluating things. 

I had 19.2 on the schedule, and ended up finishing with 19.5, so that was good.  Heading out at 11:00 put me in the heat of the day, which wasn't bad (81) since the humidity was at a recent record low (52% I believe).  I decided to test out my back-up fluid nutrition for Leadville to make sure I could tolerate it, so I left the Perpetuem at home, but not without a little hesitance.  I used to drink nothing by Nuun (lemon-lime), and then one day I stopped.  Now I remember why.  It has a lot of electrolytes in it, but it's deceiving because it's not an instant shot of them (like from a salt tablet); you only get all of the electrolytes if you down the entire 16-20 ounces of water it's mixed into immediately.  I was drinking each bottle of it over the course of an hour.  So, I ended up waaaaay behind on my electrolytes and as a result my abdomen was a big twisted knot of cramping.  Ouch!  This was good though, it reminded me about problem solving.  I kept on moving, making sure not to alter my gait at all, watching my heart rate, letting my mind run  and sort out the problem.  At first, I didn't get it, and it was really irking me.  "What have I done wrong?"  I was taking in three shot bloks each hour and I was drinking plenty.  Everything else felt good, stomach was fine, head was fine, legs were fine.  It was just my torso, and my HR was pretty high.  About 12ish miles in, it dawned on me.  DUH!  I'm glad I decided to bring a small baggie of S!Caps for "just in case".  I took one, and within another 30 minutes, I took another one. Things slowly started to look up.  I had some energy back.  I dumped my bottle of Nuun and replaced it with plain water.  With just 4 or 5 miles to go, I took a caffeinated gel instead of shot bloks.  Whoa, that felt great and my HR finally dropped to a normal level within a few minutes!  So there you go.  I'm glad I tested that out, otherwise I'd have been in a world of hurt come race day.  I will now go back to my tried and true back-up drink of Gatorade (the Frost kind).  Yummy.

Speaking of trying new things, I also took the latest addition to my running wardrobe out for its first official run.  RecoFit Sports is hands down the best in compression sleeves, and I recently acquired a pair of their Armcooler Compression Sleeves to test out.  Yesterday's weather was perfect for these.  I've only ever worn arm sleeves for warmth, so the arm "coolers" were something different for me.  And they live up to their name!  I wore them the entire run, which was fully exposed to the sun for all but maybe .5 miles.  The built in 50+ SPF allowed me to forgo the sunscreen on my arms (with complete success) and the Icefil cooling technology in the fabric (which dissipates heat) gives a slight cooling sensation.  It's not exactly a "brrrr" sensation, but it was just enough to make me feel comfortable.  However, once I started sweating and the wind blew on my arms, it felt downright icy!!  These will definitely be accompanying me to Leadville.  If you haven't checked out their sleeves yet, and are a compression junkie like me, check out RecoFit's stuff.  Wilderness Running Company sells them here.  Now, if only there existed full body cooling compression wear for hot runs! :)

It was so nice to finally sleep in today.  The first Sunday in awhile that we've a) been home, and b) not had a long run to get done.  It's the little luxuries :)  But, this means I now have time to do the things I've been putting off...like finalizing my crew plan/instructions for our rock star Leadville crew.  Yippee!

Crash, out.

Leadville Training Update #3

This past weekend was a final little "hooray" in Leadville Training Land.  A back-to-back long run weekend.  Were my legs ready for it?  One would hope!

Saturday was our free-est day :) so Geof and I decided to do our longest long runs that day.  After some hmmming and hawing we decided to head out to Waterfall Glen in Darien, IL for our day's adventures.  Since Leadville will be somewhat lacking in the department of technical single track, we decided the wide rolling graveled paths at WG would more closely mimic conditions.   Bam.

Geof was going for 30 miles and I had 18 on my calendar so after topping off our bottles from our delightful new water cooler, officially named the CHUG Jug, we set out running the 9.5 mile loop in the clockwise direction.  We noticed we were the only peeps running/moving in this direction.  It was a humid and pretty dreary day, so the trails weren't too packed, but plenty of others were still out enjoying the day.  Within the first couple miles we noticed a guy stashing a Gatorade in the trees alongside the trail, then heading in our direction.  As he stood up, we passed, then he moved along with us.  Tom, as we would find out, asked what we were running and after saying so he simply asked, "oh, well what ultra are you guys training for?"  Hmm.  And so it went.  Tom was on his second of three loops for the day, using this run as a final decision maker for whether or not he should run Leanhorse 100.  Tom was cool.  He stuck with it and ran two loops with us.  We learned a lot about this random stranger on the trail and it was fun to hear his stories of races and adventures' past. 

I was feeling great, especially considering we had run a tough 50-miler just 7 days prior.  It was as if my legs forgot about that minor detail.  Still on our first loop together, a couple approached us that had previously passed us in the other direction.  They were curious about Geof's Badwater shirt.  Beth and Rob ended up joining our little impromptu group run and ran 4-5 miles with us before turning back to head for their car.  They were cool, too :)  Both are marathon runners and were verrrry curious about our ultra world.  Perhaps we'll see them at a CHUG event soon!  Loop 1 ended and we all refilled bottles, pottied, grabbed more gels and then headed out together again.  This time we ran the loop counter-clockwise.  My legs felt even better than they had at the start of the first loop.  I can dig that!  I was drinking from a bottle of plain water, and a second bottle of Clip2.  I wanted to change things up a bit, and didn't want to futz around with salt caps.  It doesn't taste very good, but at least the bad taste is very dull.  The drink worked well, though, as my stomach felt marvelous the whole run and I never had any puffiness in my hands.  I can dig that, too.

Before too long, we shut down loop 2.  Tom peaced out and gave Geof his e-mail so that we could keep in touch, I cleaned up at the water pump in the parking lot, pulled on my RecoFIT leg sleeves and propped my feet up on the dashboard to begin the recovery process.  Geof refilled the bottles and headed out for one final loop on his own.  I got in 19 miles and felt no worse for the wear.  In fact, I felt awesome!  What a fun, and totally random, day on the trail!

Oh, and it turns out Tom did in fact end up signing up for Leanhorse.  We'd like to believe we had a little something to do with that :)

Enter: Sunday.  I haven't really done a truly back-to-back long run weekend before, so this was sort of a first as both runs were over 10 miles.  I had 12 miles scheduled for the day, and after struggling to get up for a bit, we finally headed out the door.  We ran the first six miles together on the Lakefront Path, then I turned around and headed home while Geof kept on going in order to get in his 20 miles for the day.  (How does he do it?!  50 non-race miles in two days...blows my mind and I love it.) 

At first things felt a little tight, but by the first mile, my legs decided to join the running party and relaxed into a good pace.  Now, I felt good again :)  It was warm and getting warmer.  The path was swarming with runners, cyclists, tourists, swimmers, lollygaggers and the like.  It was a beautiful day for a run.  My heart rate was low and the effort minimal.  Always a good thing.  Then I noted as much to myself and almost immediately my HR spiked to its normal rate during a faster long run.  Oh well, at least the effort still felt minimal :)  I decided that this was how I wanted to feel at Leadville, and the pace I wanted to maintain for the initial 30 miles.  So, I began to visualize.  I imagined kicking butt and passing everyone in the first 5 miles to gain the front spot on the single track, leading the pack into May Queen in a blazing fast time.  Hey, a girl can dream :) 

I was in awe of how good things felt.  And, before I knew it I was done.  I could have kept going and going and going.  But there was a smoothie at home calling my name!  So, 31 miles in total for the weekend, a decent amount for me. 

Who am I kidding, that's huge! 

I was pleasantly surprised by my legs and how well they held up.  This is the kind of thing I need to know going into a race like Leadville...that my training hasn't all been in vain.  That's a good feeling.

Another good feeling?  Green olives stuffed with gorgonzola cheese.  Whoever invented such a pairing should be given the Nobel Prize.

Tapering has techinically officially begun.  Just one final long run this Saturday and then it's coasting into the starting line from there!

Crash, out.

Minnesota Voyageur 50M: Getting it Right

Waaaaaay back in 2000, Geof ran his very first ultra at the Minnesota Voyageur 50.  Upon putting together our racing schedule for 2010, we noticed how well it fit in with our Leadville training and decided to make the trip up for it.  After about a 9 hour drive up from Chicago, we arrived in lovely Carlton, MN for packet pick-up followed by a spaghetti dinner at the Cozy Cafe in downtown Carlton.  When we walked into the Cafe, we were greeted by a large table of fellow runners that invited us to join them for dinner.  Sounds good to me!  Robert Wehner (Glacial Trails 50/50 RD), Pat Gorman, Brenda Bland and Kathy Siculan were familiar faces at the table and made us very welcome in their group and we had a great time chatting with them, thanks guys and gals!

After wandering around the waterfront area of Duluth for a bit afterwards and grabbing some much needed ice cream, we headed back to our hotel to put the final touches on our drop bag which we would have waiting for us at the Fond du Lac aid station (miles 15.5 and 34.5).  Lights out by 10:00.  The Country Inn and Suites in South Duluth is where it's at if you're ever in the area...lovely hospitality!

Walking along Lake Superior in downtown Duluth.  Gorgeous, huh?!

Since the race didn't start until 7:00 a.m., and we were only a 15 minute drive from the start, we "slept in" until 5:15, we spoiled ourselves :)  After prepping and dressing, we grabbed some coffee downstairs and I grabbed a plain bagel to help settle my hungry tummy.  I went with my rockin' Atayne CHUG shirt, my Drymax Maximum Protection socks, and my trusty La Sportiva Wildcats for this adventure, along with some compression shorts and a skirt, of course.  I found I was having a blistering issue with the original insoles in the Wildcats, so I did some experimenting at this race.  Since I was already babying two relatively fresh blisters from my long run a week prior (in which I did NOT wear my Drymax socks...coincidence? I think not!) so I wasn't too keen on the idea of adding to the collection.  I pulled out the insoles from my Brooks road shoes and replaced the Wildcat insoles with these.  They fit perfect!  Plus, I had the added benefit of a little extra cushion.  Shazam!  The Wildcat insoles are really smooth and firm and this allows my foot to move around a lot within the shoe which = friction, which = blisters.  Sheer genius if I do say so myself :)

Moving on!  So this race was going to be a little treading of the Leadville waters to see what we each had in the tank.  We decided we were going to run this one together and just enjoy the day.  Voyageur is a fairly technical and challenging out-and-back course, from Carlton to Duluth and back, but I found it to be very runnable in most sections...except for the powerlines (oh good heavens, the powerlines...the pain, the suffering, oh the humanity!).  But I digress.  At precisely 7:00 Andy Holak, RD extraordinaire, sent us off into the warm and muggy morning, skies threatening to open up on us.

The starting field of ~150 runners
Photo Credit: Helen Lavin

This was my very first visit to Minnesota, so this run was going to give me a good tour of what it has to offer.  It is gorgeous!  The first 1/2 mile or so heads up a paved bike path before turning onto the Carlton Trail which was going to be a fast introduction to technical trail running for anyone who hadn't done it before.  Thankfully, I remembered to put on my agility hat that day and managed to navigate the tricky terrain with no problems.  In fact, I managed to stay vertical the whole race, imagine that!  We stayed on the Carlton Trail for about 3.5 miles.  The terrain is very rocky and rooty, and follows along a rushing river.  

The view to your left coming across Swinging Bridge
Photo Credit: Helen Lavin

The trail was lush and green and muddy in spots due to recent rains, and got even muddier after it rained later in the race. Eventually, we got to the Swinging Bridge which literally swung as you ran across it, kind of unsettling at first.

Heading out along Swinging Bridge, ~mile 3.5

Photo Credit: Helen Lavin

The first aid station was right after the bridge, but since we planned ahead and prepared ourselves 4-hour bottles of Perpetuem we didn't need anything so kept on going across the parking lot and back onto another trail.  We were moving good and I felt amazing.  My feet were happy, my legs were happy, my head was in the right place and things were just clicking.  Since much of the trail is single track, I took a spot behind Geof and kept my eyes focused on his feet.  It's hypnotizing and gets me into a really good rhythm for some reason.  His feet are magic :)  We walked big hills and ran everything else.  I was very quickly thankful for all the calf endurance exercises I've been working on, in addition to the gazillion planks and decline squats I do most days!  We noticed others getting off course pretty easily, despite the really well marked course.  There are a number of intersections, though, where, if you're not looking up, it's easy to get off course.  I think technical courses need to mark the trail down low since runners are looking down most of the time in order to negotiate terrain.  Some food for thought.  There are a number of stream crossings in this race, but with some snazzy footwork and balance you can pretty much avoid getting your feet wet. 

Just after the 10.5 mile aid station you enter the portion of the course called powerlines, named for the...powerlines...that you follow along it :)  Holy EFF!  Those things are steeeeeeeep!  I guess it was good training for Hope Pass and Sugarloaf Pass, though.  Geof described the powerlines section perfectly later on: "if you stood straight and reached out two feet in front of you without bending over, you'd touch the hill we had to run, it was that steep."  I don't know how long this section was, but there were more than a handful of these 300 ft. climbs and descents up narrow and slippery trail.  Some portions were so steep going up that I was grabbing branches and plants alongside the trail to keep from tipping backwards!  Then, you had to get down the backside of it.  If the muddy trail had been any muddier, we could have slid down these on our butts very easily!  My quads and hams held up amazingly well during the race, but now I'm feeling it.  The second time over powerlines, heading back to the finish line, the sun had come out and humidity had risen considerably so getting through this section was even tougher due to the exposed climbing.  Beyond the powerlines were miles and miles of glorious runnable trail, stream crossings, technical footing, steep climbs (but not as steep as powerlines!), running across ski slopes, along quiet country roads, and through some of the greenest forest I've ever seen.  The rain trickled down lightly on us from time to time, but the thick canopy of trees kept us from getting soaked.  For a field of ~140 runners on an out-and-back course it sure was quiet.  We could go miles before seeing anyone else. 

Naturally, as soon as I had to pee and stepped off course around a corner, someone pops up behind us and yells that we're going off course...where did she come from?!  I said we were taking a quick pee-tour :) laughing at my own clever quip.  Speaking of bodily functions, I noticed that I was holding up really well.  My stomach was happy, and I was on top of the S!Caps like white on rice.  I was taking a salt cap every 45 minutes since it was so humid and I was sweating so much, and this kept my hands from getting puffy, until the final 5 miles where I completely stopped paying attention to nutrition.  I was drinking my 4-hour Perpetuem from a bottle along with some gulps of plain water from my Nathan Intensity pack to make it taste less gross, and also took in one gel per hour.  Most of the aid stations had watermelon so I ate that whenever we stopped.  We managed to skip the first four aid stations since they were so close together (about every 2-4 miles).  Eventually we began to see the front runners heading back.  Showoffs.  They were moving to effortlessly :)  Before long we knew we were getting close to the turnaround at mile 25 (neither of us were wearing GPS for this race, only HR monitors) so we took it up a notch.  Before we knew it, we were rolling into the turnaround and I was verrrrry happy...

Coming into the Zoo AS Turnaround at mile 25

Photo Credit: Eve Stein

The rain had picked up some and we were running in exposed areas, so both of us were now soaked from that, in addition to being insanely sweaty from the humidity.  Can we say ripe? :)

I grabbed a couple chunks of watermelon and another gel from the aid station table and we headed out.  We were freakin' rockstars with these aid stations.  All our stops were under one minute, generally under 30 seconds I would say, except for Fond du Lac the second time through, at mile 34.5, when we both made a sock change, which may have been close to five minutes.  I liked just rolling through stations rather than lolly gagging.  The way back was more uphill at first so we powerhiked it, then we got to the road and that was downhill, so we ran.  Running across the ski slopes was flat, so we ran that, too.  We were moving, though it felt faster than it actually was :)  I gave up on any sort of PR at the turnaround, which we reached in just barely over five hours, knowing the powerlines were going to give us a run for our money, literally.  So, I let myself settle into having a solid race and feeling good.  I focused a lot on my form once I began to fatigue, which really set in around mile 40.  I made sure my feet were under my hips, hips pitched forward, core contracted, shoulders back.  Magic.  Still, nothing was bothering me and I felt infinitely better than I had during our 24 mile run the weekend before.  Particularly of note, my lower back never made a peep throughout this race...all those planks are paying off, no doubt!

At mile 34.5, we both sat and changed into clean socks to freshen up the feet for the final 15.5 miles into Carlton.  I put on a fresh pair o' Drymax Max Pros and it felt like I had new feet!  We refilled our Perpetuem bottles for the third and final time and then headed back out.  Shortly after this station, we managed to get off course and crossed a stream we didn't need to cross, of which I managed to plant my left foot directly into.  So much for fresh, dry feet!  Once we crossed I noticed there weren't any of the shocking pink ribbons on the trail, so we crossed back over and backtracked a hundred yards and found where we went wrong.  Back on track and we went quietly on our way.  Geof wasn't having the best day, mentally, so he was within himself and I just ran along with sunshine coming out of my every pore!  But, after our second go of the powerlines, I began to get a little grumpy.  Those powerlines took it out of me, but I was still happy to be done with them.  The aid station informed us it was another 10.5 miles and I decided I hated hearing that.  I ate more watermelon and Geof had some pop as we headed back out.  We sort of switched roles here, he was the sunshiney one and I was grumpy.  After a few miles of everything starting to feel achy from the pounding, and my insatiable thirst for water (despite drinking copious amounts of it all day long!), Geof gave me a couple of ibuprofen.  Oh bless it!  Why didn't I do that earlier?!  We got to the second to last aid station and I was sure that was the last aid station and I wanted to shout bloody murder when I was told there were still 5.5 miles to the finish (curses!).  I drank a cup of defizzed Mt. Dew and downed a couple cups of ice cold water as we walked out of the station and across the road.  Now I was peeved.  WTF, where did my good mood go?  Geof said to be patient, that the ibuprofen would kick in and then I'd feel better.

Of course he was right, Geof is always right :)  It kicked in just before the final aid station, at the Swinging Bridge.  I said aloud, "suck it up Troelstrup!" and those were like magic words somehow.  I had some more defizzed Mt. Dew at the station and we kept on our merry way...

Coming into the final aid station, just before Swinging Bridge, mile 46.5
Photo Credit: Helen Lavin

Now we were back on the super-technical Carlton Trail and thank goodness I had my head and my legs back...I needed 'em!  We moved swiftly and consistently, switching back and forth up front.  The rushing river was on our right now and we could catch short glimpses of it when the trail cleared a bit here and there.  The sun had been swallowed by clouds once more and it cooled just slightly for this final stretch.  We could smell the finish line and were getting stoked as we approached the end of the trail. 

We ran alongside this for awhile, it was just beautiful!

Photo Credit: Helen Lavin

The trail plopped us out on the paved bike path and suddenly my legs kicked into high gear.  We began flying, knowing there was a little less than a mile or so to the finish line, around a bend.  I was breathing heavy, but my legs felt effortless in their movement.  As we neared the bend, I saw a runner up ahead, rounding the corner.  I asked Geof if he could tell if it was a chick and as we got closer, saw that it was.  I said something 'competitive' under my breath and then motioned to Geof to follow.  We busted out and around that corner and passed the poor gal like she was just standing there.  I'd like to believe there was a rush of wind as we passed her :)  I felt bad doing that in the final straightaway, but I've never done that before and I couldn't pass up the chance!  I always get passed like that in the final steps and this time it was my turn.  And I loved it!  What a rush!  We crossed the line gasping for air in 11:33:29.  I left it all out there in that final mile and it felt darn good.

Andy came up to congratulate us and give us our custom made finisher mugs, which totally rock.  We then immediately headed to the truck to grab our bags so we could shower up and eat some of the post-race lasagna dinner being served inside the finishline headquarters, Carlton High School. 

This was a fanTAStic race and we will be back.  It was a lot tougher than Geof had remembered it being, but very true to the course description posted on the website, so I wasn't taken off guard by it.  I can't believe how good I felt throughout the race, and how well everything held up.  Other than the weird thirst I was having, causing me to be a little picky about what I ate or drank in the last 20ish miles, everything was spot on.  This was just the confidence boost I needed for Leadville in four weeks.  I finished feeling like I could have gone on...not that I necessarily felt I wanted to go on, but that I could :)  That's a good feeling.  Another good feeling? not having any blisters, even with high humidity!  Also another good feeling? a tummy full of Wisconsin cheddar cheese popcorn and chocolate milk on the drive home after the race. 

Feels good to get it right.

You can read Geof's account of the day here: That's A Wrap.

Crash, out.

Badwater 135: Drinkin' the Kool-Aid

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." ~Edmund Hillary

Badwater.  That race is in a category all its own.  You really can't clump it in with other races.  It's like apples to...mangoes. 

Geof and I had the immense pleasure of joining our friend and fellow CHUG, Adrian Belitu, for his second running of the Badwater 135 in Death Valley, CA from July 12-14.  When we got the call back in May asking us to join the crew, we immediately set about rearranging our schedules and vacation plans to fit a week of Badwater crewing in.  As an ultrarunner, or even as a running enthusiast, you don't pass up an invite to crew at Badwater, you just don't.  Boy were we excited!  A crew of two is now a crew of four. 

So, now what?

Heat training?  Nah, nothing in the world can properly prepare you for the kind of heat you experience in Death Vally.  Nothing.  At least that was our experience.  So I'm glad we didn't waste any time in saunas.  If we were the ones running, perhaps a different story, but as a crew member I wouldn't worry with that.  I'd worry more about getting enough sleep and knowing your runner!

Fast forward a couple of months.  Lisa Smith-Batchen drops from the race due to a broken foot sustained during her 50 miles in 50 states adventure, so that means Ed Kelly and Terry Madl are looking for a runner to crew for.  The sky has cleared, the sun has shone, and the angels are singing in harmony.  We are going to have the most kick ASS crew ever!  And then there were six.

Geof and I fly into Vegas, drive up and down the strip waiting for Jim's flight to get in, then we head towards the local wally world to meet up with Ed and Terry, who drove the 25 hours from Chicago in Ed's mini-van (aka Team Belitu Headquarters).  After buying out Wal-Mart's entire stock of jug water, loading up on Gatorade, crew snacks, sunscreen and Tecate (c'mon, it was Saturday...still two full days before the race!) we began the 150ish mile drive to Furnace Creek, in Death Valley, CA.  We made a couple stops along the way since we're touristy like that.  Dante's View gives you a bird's-eye-view of Death Valley, and from there we could see where the race starts and where the road courses through the valley in the initial miles of the race.  So that was cool.

Once at the Ranch at Furnace Creek we quickly settled into relaxation mode, hanging out in Adrian and Simone's air conditioned room, enjoying some top-notch Tecate from the can, eventually heading over to the restaurant for dinner

  

Oh, did I mention how hot it was?  119 degrees.  And it was mid-afternoon.  Heat so hot you feel like you're sitting in an oven with hairdryers blowing at full blast.  Just like that.  But, there's no humidity, which totally rocks.  It's like being wrapped in a sweat wicking down blanket.  You sweat, but it evaporates.  Ladies, you know when you open an oven to check to make sure you aren't burning your grub and the heat hits you in the face and is so hot your mascara melts to your eyelid?  It was so hot, that actually happened to me.  Note to self: no mascara in Death Valley.

Since we had three vehicles, and you're only allowed two during the race (one as the main vehicle, and the second one as a shuttle for crew), we decided to drop off our rental car in Lone Pine and stash anything we wouldn't need until Wednesday in the trunk.  We devised a plan and early Sunday morning, Ed, Terry, Geof and I set out driving the race course into Lone Pine.  I loved that we did this since it gave us the grand tour of the first 120 miles of the race in daylight.  A bonus since a lot of the course would be in darkness once the race began.

On the drive to Lone Pine we stopped at this place...something to do with Borax mining.  Looked so cool.

Heading back to Furnace Creek...had to stop at this sign :)

Once back at the Ranch we joined Adrian, Jim and Simone in prepping the van for the next day.  It was awesome!  I just kind of observed since Ed, Terry, Jim and Simone were already the crew experts and they had it down to a science getting everything placed right!  I learned a lot from this group throughout the next few days.  Learning from the best!

The start of the transformation of Ed's van...soon it would be bulging with more water, coolers, crew members, spray bottles, food, sweaty shoes and socks, sunblock and lots of laughs.

While we figured out how to put all the appropriate signage on the two vehicles, I noticed a guy with a big camera walking around taking pictures of us...it was Drymax Bob!  It was great to meet the man behind my very favorite socks finally.  Very cool dude, and he hooked up Team Belitu with a bunch of their rockin' Hot Weather Running Socks (very apropos).  These socks really stood up to the test throughout the race and I loved giving them a go.  I love Drymax :)  Thanks, Bob! 

Once the vehicles were ready, it was about time to head over for the pre-race meeting.  This was fun as it gave a chance to see all the runners at once, listen to some funny bantar, stare shamelessly at the big names you read about but never actually see, watch the recap video from the previous year's race, and sweat your ass off in an air conditioned room packed with close to 500 bodies. 

The 2010 Badwater 135 runners

Quick dinner and then we all hit the hay.  Adrian was starting with the 10:00 a.m. wave (there are three waves, 6a, 8a and 10a) so we didn't have too early of a wake-up call, and it gave us a chance to eat a real breakfast before hitting the road in order to arrive by 9:30 for all the shenanigans.

Geof, Me, Terry, Simone, Adrian, Jim and Ed just before leaving FC for Badwater Basin

Ed and Terry being the stand-up guys that they are, they opted to hang back at Furnace Creek so that Geof and I could go to the Basin for the start.  Race officials stressed the rule about having only as many people in a vehicle as there are seat belts, and, as it were, we were going to be over that limit by one person once Adrian was out.  Ed and Terry have been there done that at BW a couple times so it was really cool of them :)  Thanks guys!  The start was abuzz and overflowing with nervous energy: photogs and videographers running around snapping shots and getting B-roll; runners putting on the final touches, chattering nervously with crew and friends; medical staff weighing runners; everyone taking their turn to snap some pictures with the Badwater sign; pit stops at the last actual outhouse for 17 miles; water being consumed at lightening speed to counter all the sweating.  Intense!  

Finally, Chris (RD) rounds up the troops for the group photo in front of the sign before corralling everyone up to the road for the start.

Everyone is so clean and pretty, and smiling.  That won't last very long...!

Jim and I stood up on the gravel to the left of the start, to see the action, "just like it is in the movie!"  Watching them all take off gave me goose bumps.  The first steps in 135 miles of steps.  This was also going to be the first and only time we would ever see the eventual winner, Zach Gingerich...he took off from the start and kept going.  That dude is sick!

We were now getting a crash course in crewing at Badwater.  There would be no downtime for the next three hours as we followed Adrian along the course to Furnace Creek, where Geof and I would swap out with Ed and Terry.  Ed would be joining Adrian on the road, kicking off the pacing duties.  We stopped about every 1/4 mile to jump out of the van, spray Adrian down with ice water, wrap a towel drenched in ice water around his shoulders, swap out his bottle and make sure all was okay, all while running or walking behind him.  It took a few miles, but we did get into a groove: Jim was the sprayer, Simone was the towel-er, Geof was the water bottle swapper and I was the picture taker :) 

I'll say this now: crewing at Badwater is hands down the most exhausting thing I've done...even more so than running 100 miles.  You are constantly prepping things in the vehicle for the next stop, and as soon as you jump back in to head up the road, you're about to jump back out to get something else to the runner.  Don't get comfortable, that's the kiss of death because then you're useless.  Up and down, up and down, my ankles were sore from jumping in and out of the van onto the heavily cambered, gravel roadside!  Every 3-4 hours we would swap out with two other crew members and take a rest.  Geof and I would grab something to eat usually, and try to sleep in the shuttle vehicle, but that usually didn't work out too well, so we were pretty sleep deprived.  It wasn't until the second night (maybe 36 hours into the race) that we finally got actual quality sleep (for 2 hours).

Adrian was a superstar runner to crew for.  We could not have asked for a better person to crew.  He never lost his temper...he never even showed signs of any discontent...he wasn't even close to being demanding, I think he may have been more worried about all of us than he was about himself!  Adrian's a pretty independent dude and knew exactly what he wanted each time he stopped.  This made our job very easy and kept things going really smoothly.  After a couple of early shoe changes due to the ice towel dripping into his shoes, his feet were good to go.  He was moving really well and had such good spirits.  The only real issue was his stomach, and this was something he wasn't anticipating as he didn't have that problem last year.  So, he began the tough process of problem-solving on the go.  Before long, most of his calories were coming from defizzed regular Coke and Mt. Dew, and by the first night he was subsisting on PB&J and...MILK!  Since he was drinking so much milk, he didn't want to run for a bit afterwards so that the milk could settle, very smart move.  He did get sick a couple of times, but just as soon as he was done he was back out on the road.

Geof paced the next 17-20 miles after Terry finished his leg.  This was part of the early, hotter part of the first day and he did so well!  I was proud of him and couldn't help but picture him doing this one day...

Van with a view: Adrian and Geof

I was having a great time working with Jim and Simone, learning more and more, and laughing so hard at times I thought I would burst :)  Can't hate that!  After Geof finished pacing, Jim jumped in for a short stretch, running with the water sprayer behind Adrian.  They began the long climb up to Townes Pass, and when they got here... 

Who says the desert doesn't have any good views?!

...it was time to put on the night running gear.  Each person on the road is required to wear a reflective vest and at least two blinking red lights (one front, one back) in addition to a headlamp or handheld light.  This is where I jumped in, 7:00 p.m.  The grade wasn't too steep and easily runnable with fresh legs, but with however many miles it was at this point in your legs, plus the heat, most everyone was hiking up this section.  Adrian and I had a really good clip going up and he was in great spirits still.  We chatted on and off about random things, meeting the crew every 1/2 mile now.  I was really enjoying myself, so happy to be out there with him, experiencing the course from the other side.  I recall the wind.  It was a'blowin' but not as bad as the year before I guess.  I had to turn my head to the side in order to hear Adrian.  The stars, oh, the stars!  They were bright and bountiful, and climbing higher and higher it looked as if you could reach up and touch them.  Adrian would snap off his headlamp from time to time, and I had mine on its lowest setting.  I wouldn't say you could run without light out there (no moon), but it was certainly a lovely sight without one.  I also really enjoyed the power walking; I'd like to think that's my specialty :)  I remember wondering when 100 degrees has ever felt chilly...I got goosebumps a few times during that section!  After spending a day near 130, a 30 degree drop is pretty significant.

Me, Simone, Adrian

I'm not exactly sure how much I got in the way of mileage, but Terry took over with about 3-4 miles left to the top of Townes Pass.  From there Ed would take over and bring Adrian back down the other side of the mountain and into Panamint Springs.  Once they jumped in, Geof and I went ahead into Panamint in search of the shower, food and maybe a nap.  Only two of those things materialized.

At Panamint Springs, there is a hotel with a cabin that is opened up to the runners and crew during the race.  It has three rooms and one bathroom.  The bathroom was stocked with toiletries and hand towels, very cool.  The rooms were stocked with bodies.  We stepped through a thick veil of bugs and into the chilly cabin and found ourselves surrounded.  People passed out on the couch, every bed, the floor.  There were a couple people in front of us in line for the shower, so we sat silently in the front room and waited.  As long as you didn't open your eyes in the bathroom, it was top notch!  I won't go into detail, but it was kinda gross :)  However, it was a shower and presented the opportunity to get clean for the first time in 24 hours.  Glorious!  We grabbed a burger inside the small restaurant and then made a very feeble attempt at a nap after that, but excitement and Adrian's impending arrival kept us pretty awake.  Oh well, maybe we'd get a nap the next evening :)

After a longish rest for Adrian when they came into Panamint, we headed out again.  The night was a funny thing.  Much quieter from the daytime and now runners were getting further and further separated on the road so it was pretty desolate now.  As the sun rose again from behind the mountains to the east (breath-taking) I was with Adrian again.  We witnessed a sunrise of awesome proportions; the mountains behind us were exploding with color and light.  We were hiking up a steep and winding pass up to Father Crowley I believe (man, I'm getting foggy on this already!).  I was holding a can of coke and marching quietly behind Adrian.  He had gotten quiet and seemed to be very within himself.  I'm not sure when the realization hit him, but in those very early morning hours it became clear that his sub-30 hour goal had slipped away in the night.  He seemed to come to terms with a second full day ahead of him very well.  He joked with us about another 24 hours and maintained his relatively sunny disposition and laid back nature.  What a trooper. 

The second day was in large part paced by Jim.  He did an amazing job and really kept things moving.  Great job, Jim!  He seemed taxed after a long stretch, but pushed on nonetheless.  It was another steamer, that second day, and perhaps hotter than the first!  We were convinced the van's thermometer maxed out at 130, but that it was actually considerably warmer, wow!  I was really feeling the effects of sleep deprivation, but was really thankful my stomach held up.  I made sure to keep up on water intake, salt and good calories...things that are far too easy to overlook when you're crewing and worrying about someone other than yourself.  It's so important to take care of yourself as crew/pacer during these events, perhaps equally as important as your runner. 

Boy did we laugh a lot during this journey.  Ed inhaling not one, but TWO double quarter pounders and fries was by far the most hilarious.  "I haven't eaten a burger from McDonald's in over seven years, and here I am eating two!"  I think we turned Ed back onto Mickey D's :)  We got some mileage on that one!  Later in the second evening, Adrian's stomach was really rebelling against him and he had stopped sweating and started shivering so he opted, very smartly, to take an extended rest in the van to catch up on fluids.  Feet up, laying on the floor he rested for a long while, drinking big amounts of Gatorade to rehydrate.  Simone wanted him to stake out so we could take him to medical, but he wouldn't budge.  Then Geof noticed a med official had pulled in front of us to grab something from the side of the road, so he waved him down and had him take a look at our guy.  Adrian was reassured that he would be fine, and to keep up exactly what he was doing.  Phew!  I think this is exactly what he needed and was a turning point for him.  Jim, Terry and Ed were resting in Lone Pine, so the remaining four of us entertained Adrian in the van while he relaxed, talking about all the funny stuff that had happened throughout the day.  This was one of my favorite parts of the experience :)

Geof and I finally got some quality sleep in around 12 a.m. on Wednesday.  We, along with Simone, drove into Lone Pine to our hotel and slept until 3 a.m. (amazing sleep!!) and then drove up the road to meet up with everyone, hoping they were on their way up Mt. Whitney by then.  And boy were they ever!  They had made some really good ground in the time we had been sleeping and I was so excited to see them.  The road up to the Whitney Portals/Finish Line (~8,300 ft.) is a steep mother with only a few switchbacks, but damn is it beautiful!  Outcroppings and vistas galore!  The sun exploded from the Panamint range behind us and we got the best seat in the house for that show!  My heart began picking up speed as we gained more and more altitude and I was downright giddy as it was clear Adrian was going to make it under the 48-hour buckle cutoff.  On the second big switchback, Geof jumped in to walk Adrian in the rest of the way.  We drove up a ways to one of the few safe places to park and I jumped out to watch them come up the road.  You can imagine my shock when I saw that they were RUNNING!  133 miles in, on a steep mountain road and he's running!!  There was one guy he had been leap frogging with and Adrian decided once and for all that was it; that guy was going to be left in the dust.  Terry and Ed had re-joined us now and followed us up to the parking area where we waited for Geof and Adrian.  They rounded the final corner and moved up to us where we all lined up and held hands and we marched toward the finish line.  As soon as the finish line tape was in sight, hands still together, we broke into a sprint, Adrian breaking the tape in 44 hours and some change.  He DID IT!

What a ride!  What an experience!  How exhausting!  I can't fully describe the vibe of the finish line, but it was just awesome.  Goosebumps and all.  The chilly air stood in stark contrast to the baking heat down below at the foot of Mt. Whitney.  The buzz in the air matched that of the starting line, minus the nervous anticipation.  I couldn't believe it, I was actually there, seeing all this with my own eyes. 

After heading back down into Lone Pine for some sleep, some eats, and a short run around Lone Pine, Geof and I headed back up to hike and run up the Mt. Whitney Trail for a few miles.  What a spectacular trail!  I wish we had had more time to spend up there.  I highly recommend it.  Upon returning to the trailhead and Portal Road, we found we were just in time to watch the race's final and oldest finisher arrive, Jack Denness, 75.  It was his 12 official finish and it was another of the big highlights of this experience.  The RD said his finish drew the biggest crowd he'd seen all race.  People were clapping, shouting and whooping as he approached, British flag held high, smiling ear to ear, more than 58 hours after he began his journey.  I was so happy we got to see that and be a part of it all.  That was some history happening right there!

I may have had my sleep-deprivation induced bouts of grouchiness, but I knew the whole time that I was really going to miss this experience once it was over.  And I was right :)  Adrian was such a pleasure to crew for and so respectful and outwardly grateful to have all of us there.  It really has turned me on to this race so much...but not as much as Geof.  I have a feeling we'll be back, albeit in slightly different roles next time ;-)

We are seriously drinkin' the Kool-Aid now...thank you Adrian!!

I took a ton more pictures so check 'em out if you like: Badwater Pics.

Crash, out.