This thing is a hundred miles long.
Short version:
Great race, better than expected, no major issues, great support by family and friends, will do it again.
Long version:
I am finally sitting down to write this thing and I don’t even know where to start. What an incredible experience. Going into this thing, I thought I might just be a “one and done” 100 mile runner. You know, get it done, check it off the list , put it behind me and have more ”fun” running 50 mile and 50k type races. I couldn’t really understand to allure of running multiple one hundred mile races, being out on course for a whole day and night or more, and the drama that always seems to go with the reports and stories of running that distance.
Well, if this race was any indication, I think I have found my favorite distance. I absolutely enjoyed every step of the entire race. There were significant highs and lows (more about that later) but overall, a completely positive experience.
I was a bit of a wreck in the weeks leading up to the start. I was more nervous than usual about the unknown. I had run up to 50 miles, but never beyond, and I had no idea what waited for me in the night during the second half of the race. I had been told all the horror stories of hallucinations, sickness, stomach shutting down, crazy hunger, sleepiness beyond anything experienced before and on and on. Basically everything I had heard scared the hell out of me. Interestingly, as race day approached my nerves started to relax to the point that standing in the dark at the starting line, listening to the countdown, I was totally calm and excited to get after it.
The go was given and we were off into the night. A couple of blocks on the road and we were on the dirt heading up Dry Canyon. I could see FRBer Jon a few yards a head, and spent the first little bit running next to Tom, Corey, and Scott Jamie. I didn’t realize it, but I guess Scott grew up in the Ogden area, so here we were a bunch of Ogden runners (3 with incredible talent and experience and one wannabe) laughing it up in the first couple of miles. Pretty quick Scott took off, next Tom, and Corey and I stayed together all the way up Dry Canyon, talking with lots of other runners along the way. The pace was very comfortable, just as it should have been.
It seemed we reached Logan Peak aid very quickly. Amazing how much easier that section felt at that easier pace than when I have done it in the past during the Logan Peak race at full red-line pace. Once we passed the Logan Peak aid, every step of the course would be new territory for me.
Leaving the first aid, we enjoyed a nice gradual climb for a bit up a road through thick pines before cresting a saddle and starting the long descent into Leatham Hollow aid. After some nasty descending on loose rocky road, the course split off onto absolutely perfect single track trough thick pines and aspens. This was the best section of trail on the whole course. I felt great and let it roll pretty good through this section catching and passing a few people, most of whom would catch and re-pass me in the next 19 hours or so. It was in this section that I passed Davey moving well downhill.
I pretty much blew through the Leatham aid. I grabbed a banana and a hand full of watermelon, FRBer Cody said hi and told me Jon was just up the road, I said, ya right, just a couple of hours up the road. There were about 8 of us leaving the aid at the same time and it turned into a bit of a footrace up the wide mellow grade road to Richard’s hollow. It seemed one guy would speed up and we would all follow, on and on, until we were all probably running faster than we wanted to be.
I was kind of frustrated with myself for getting caught up in that at that point. I had told myself going into the start “my race, my pace.” Mentally, I kept up the mantra that the only concern I had was the 30 feet in front of me and 1 foot behind me. I didn’t care who was chasing and I wasn’t going to run a pace faster than what I thought was conservative no matter what was going on in front of me.
I got through Richard’s Hollow pretty quick, taking a minute to say hello to the Moore family who I spent the day with last year helping out at the same aid station. The climb up to the 4th aid station, Cowley, was getting pretty hot and I hit my first low point here. The trail was great and canyon we were in were stunning, but my energy was low and I couldn’t seem to get moving as quickly as I liked. I had been running with a couple of guys and they were good company, but as I waivered they pulled away and I was alone for the first time in the race. I stepped off the trail to take care of business (the standing kind, clear as water by the way) and just as I got back on the trail and going again the first girl came barreling by. I looked up as she went past and could see the determination and work on her face. It was exactly what I needed. It snapped me out of my lazy low spot and I jumped in behind her and let her pull my up the trail. Within a few minutes I was feeling great again. She asked if I wanted to pass, I told her no her pace was perfect, and that I appreciated the lift. Within a mile or so we caught and passed the group I had been with. We crested the long climb out of Richard’s hollow much more quickly than I thought we would and endured another boring, but smooth dirt road descent into Cowley aid.
I pulled into Cowley a good hour ahead of my estimated splits. I was really hoping that my wife and friends were able to see on the live updates that I was ahead on my times so that I wouldn’t miss my buddy Melinda who would pace me from Right Hand fork to Tony Grove. After pacing me, she then planned to spend the night as crew and company for my wife as they would follow us to each aid station that allowed crew beyond Tony Grove. I was also concerned that I might miss my wife and 2nd pacer Cody, a friend from Logan, at Tony Grove. I told them 6:00 at the earliest, but was looking like I might be there between 5:00 and 5:30. As it worked out, Melinda was literally walking up the aid station table just as I came into Right Hand Fork. Perfect.
We grabbed my drop bag and took off. About a mile up the trail, I realized I had left my S-Caps in my drop bag at the aid station, and had no extras on me. I was hot and I was fighting a few cramps and testy stomach already. My awesome pacer volunteered to run back and pick them up while I went ahead. I continued on slower, so that she would be able catch up quickly. I stopped for a minute at the creek and soaked my shirt which helped. A half hour or so had gone by and nothing. I hoped all was o.k. Just then I noticed something on the trail in front of me, a package of 6 S-Caps, pretty much sealed, that somebody had dropped. I guess if we had just trusted in fate she wouldn’t have had to go back. Eventually she came back up the trail, but was pretty beat from having to run so hard to get down to the aid and catch back up. We enjoyed a nice fast paced run down into Temple Fork. A quick thanks to Brian K for pointing out the tricky right hand turn onto single track off of the Temple Fork dirt road. Might have missed that, thanks.
Poor Melinda was trashed when we got to Temple from having to run flat out for probably nine miles so she elected to get a ride up to Tony. I settled into the second longest climb on the course, from Temple to Tony Grove, about 2600 ft in 5.5 miles or so. I knew it was going to be a grind, and it was, thankfully most of it was in the shade and all of it was beautiful. A few false summits later I found myself running nice single track downhill through the pines and over to Tony Grove lake. My buddy Cody, was waiting for me at the lake and ran with me the last ½ mile or so into the aid. As we approached the parking lot I could hear my sweet wife and Melinda cheering loudly for us, a welcome sound that would lift my spirits over and over again for the next 14 hours.
I changed shoes here, switching from my Wildcats to my Hoka’s. When I took off my socks, my feet were pretty trashed. I have never ever had any foot issues at all, not in long races, not in long training runs, heat, water, never an issue. Leave it to my first 100 to have my first blister issues. I spent way too long dealing with that and chatting with my wife. Thankfully she kicked me out of there or I would have been there for who knows how long.
There is a short climb out of Tony Grove, and Cody and I took it pretty easy. Chatting about the race up this point and being glad that I was way ahead of where I thought I would be which meant we would be done earlier hopefully. When we hit the long descent into Franklin Basin, I let it roll a bit and soon we were flying down perfect single track with stunning views in every direction. The fall colors were really out up here. We were clicking along at a sub 8 minute pace downhill which neither I nor Cody could believe that I had in me after 50 plus miles. All good things come to an end though, and just before we got to the Franklin Basin aid I hit a bit of a low and we ended up walking the flatish section before the aid.
We pulled into the aid station right at dark to the cheers and encouragement of my wife and Melinda. I changed shirts into a long sleeve, grabbed my jacket and lights and sat down in a chair at the car to do inventory on my gear. Again, it was so comfortable to sit and chat with my wife that it was hard to leave and we ended up spending way too much time stopped in the chair. Which really, I’m o.k. with for this one. My goal was to finish and to have a good time doing it. I was alright being conservative and relaxing a little. I know I could have shaved an hour off my time if I had been a little more efficient about this, but that’ll come next time, for this one it was more about getting to the finish than getting there particularly fast. Oh, and I had some hot chicken soup broth here, ohhh that hit the spot.
Leaving Franklin Basin, I was extremely cold. I took a good ten minutes of uphill hiking to stop shivering. I knew the next 20 miles or so were going to be the crux of the course. Cody and I named the section between Franklin and Beaver Creek the three wicked witches, because if you look at the elevation, there are three climbs in a row that look like witch hats, pointy, straight up and straight down. We were now rolling into the first of the three witches. It was dark and my stomach felt horrible. The thing I feared most coming into this was stomach issues. I have to be really careful about what and when I eat even in shorter races. I had no idea how my gut would react after so much time and so many miles. My legs were good, but we were crawling uphill because every time my heart rate would rise my stomach would get fowl right off the bat. We saw lights coming up from behind and I said to Cody I’ll bet that’s Tom and Chad, even though I hadn’t seen them since passing them before the first aid station. I knew Tom would be flying on the last half, and just had a feeling that was him. We pulled over to pee and let them pass, and sure enough it was Tom and his dog followed by Chad and another guy. Tom made some funny remark about going out too fast, I said ya, ya rookie mistake. I could hear Tom yelling back at me for the next ten minutes even though he was well out of sight “come on Bryce, keep up!” “get up here” “you got it”. Such a good guy, the encouragement really dug me out of that low and soon enough we running along again following the lights out in front of us. The stomach issues would come and go throughout the night, but were never horrible, and I never puked!
We only got lost twice, and probably lost a good 30 minutes. The first time was coming out of Logan River. A lady told us to head down the road to a glow stick, turn left and cross the river. Well we turned left at the glow stick, and after following several cow trails around in the sage brush figured out we turned too soon and made our way back to the road and down to the correct turn. After crossing Logan River we had a great time on the gradual climb. As we got higher the trees thinned out and we were able to turn out our lights cruise by the light of the huge full moon. It was awesome! The second time was both coming into and leaving Beaver Lodge (another aid we spent way too much time in). Just couldn’t find the right trail (it was poorly marked). Thankfully Darcie G and her pacer bailed us out on that one and we followed them and had a good time talking part way up the road to Gibson Basin. I was feeling good and started to run again, telling Darcie and her pacer as we went by that I was sure we would see them again in a few minutes when this high spot wore off. They cheered us on and told us to stay strong. Gotta love the people that do these races.
Gibson Basin was cold. Like scary cold for me. I was shivering uncontrollably as we walked out of the aid station, despite having drank a cup of hot broth and carrying another. I couldn’t get warm. My incredible pacer Cody, gave me his jacket to put over mine and encouraged me to run a bit harder to warm up. Did the trick perfectly. It’s unbelievable what an awesome job he did. Made the whole race for me. Kept me focused and moving when he needed to, pushed me just the right amount. We had some great conversation. He took care of all kinds of little things that made a huge difference, from holding my gloves when I needed my hands, to opening gels for me when my fingers wouldn’t work. To having very detailed course notes on him and a GPS with aid stations marked, and only telling me when we were very close to the aid stations, not saying we still have 4 miles to go (in fact refusing to tell me when I asked if we still had a long way to go), but instead waiting until we were close the saying, hey we’ll be there in ½ mile lets pick it up a but for this last stretch. Having my wife out there also made a huge difference. It was indescribable how great it felt to come into an aid station and have her there taking care of us.
It was hilarious to me how the mind goes out in the middle of the night. I remember, not the exact numbers, but the conversation, saying to Cody, well we have been out 19 hours we probably have 8 left so we should get to the finish at 29 hours. Him correcting my basic math mistake, and me arguing that 19 plus 8 is indeed 29, not 27. And the hallucinations. Crazy. The full moon made it worse I am sure, but I remember clearly seeing someone on the side of the trail several times and it always turned out to be nothing. Tree shadows across the trail started to look like logs laying in the trail. I swore I saw flagging on a tree off on a side trail and thought we missed a turn. I argued with Cody a little on that one, pointing my light at nothing, saying, see it’s right there. Him saying ummm, there’s nothing there. I didn’t take any caffeine at all during the night for fear of getting sick, I’m sure that would have helped with the focus. Nothing too major, but a funny thing to look back on.
Toward the end of the race, at Beaver Creek and Ranger Dip, I knew my time was going to be better than I expected so we took it easy a bit. I sat by the fire for a few minutes at Ranger Dip, which was divine. Even leaving the last aid with less than 8 miles to go, I never let myself think I am going to finish. I still was waiting for a wheel or two to come off, for something to go horribly wrong. I had really been conservative the whole race and I think because of that, nothing did, everything felt solid. Melinda joined Cody and I for the last stretch from Ranger Dip to the finish. It was great to her along. We all found a hiking stick and used them to help haul our corpses up and over the last nasty climb, Ranger Liftoff, the steepest hill on the course. When we got to the top, the sky was brilliant orange and red and Bear Lake stretched out huge in front of us glowing in the twilight. It was absolutely stunning! The daylight and site of the finish gave me a big lift and we started really pushing the last downhill. We made great time, pushed up and over the last little grunt and we were on the final couple miles down groomed road to the finish. As soon as we hit the road, it hit me. I had it, I was going to finish and in great time, much better than expected. We kept a good strong run all the way to the highway. Once we made the turn and I could see the finish I made sure to consciously think about the moment, how great it felt and what it took to get there and how incredibly thankful I was for the support of everyone involved in getting me there. As we rounded the corner into the park I could see two of my sisters had come up to see me finish and my wife all cheering loudly as we came through. Hugs were exchanged a pictures taken. It was early and there was nobody around really. The 23 people who had finished in front of me were either sleeping or had left, so it was kinda nice having the place to ourselves.
My sisters hung around for a bit but had to get home. Cody and Melinda left with them so my wife and I had a great day being lazy and hanging out at the finish talking with other runners and their families. The people who run these things might be a small band of lunatics, but they are some of the best people I have ever met.
The most inspiring moment of the entire race came just as we were walking to the car to leave. It was 5:50, ten minutes to the cut off and we looked down the highway and could see a runner surrounded by people making their way to the finish. They were going to make the cutoff, but it would be close. All day, I and some of the other Ogden runners had been wondering about Ogden local Celeste C. She has started a bunch 100 milers and has yet to finish. She is a solid runner, she does all the races and can usually be counted on to finish, but has never been able to complete a 100, either missed time cutoff’s or dropped herself. I know one year she got to mile 80 something at Wasatch and was stopped by not making a cutoff. Well, the runner coming down the road was Celeste. She was running with Jim Thornberg, another Ogden local who finishes Wasatch every year, and her brother Mark C, who, like Jim, is a multiple Wasatch finisher. Mark was freaking out, jumping around yelling “you got it!!” “it’s right there, you got it!!” “you’ve made it!!” Celeste was bawling, Jim was even cracking a little. I couldn’t help it, I ran over to the finish to watch her cross. I don’t think anyone there had a dry eye. Unbelievable!
Such a great race. Perfect course, perfect time of year, put on by great people. This thing will be a lotto entry like all the other good ones soon. Do it while you can.
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