Rocky Raccoon 100 Pacing/Crewing Report - Bottom Line - I have never had an opportunity to witness firsthand something quite so amazing as a few hundred people skirting the line between death and success. I have seen many great runners and many great races, but I now more fully comprehend the mental fortitude of the few crazy runners who decide to race a 100 miler. Jon and Davy have my complete respect. It was a weekend I will never forget. Well done! The nitty gritty - 1600 miles by car and airplane on Friday 24 hours of following Jon (and to some extent Davy) around on his 5x's 20 mile loops 1 free breakfast of waffles (2), hard boiled egg, danish, oj, etc, 1/2 pizza, bag of twizzlers (I shared with people I swear), 4 banannas, 1 gallon of gatoraide, bite of grilled cheeze sandwich, a cup of apple pie, handful of m&ms, 0 frosties, 1 wendy's chicken sandwich with cold fries and rootbeer, 2 oz of energy gel, 2 cookies and yes, I still had room for a full IHOP meal for breakfast the next day. I was fortunate enough to have Paul with me for most of the crewing to keep me company. We had a lot of fun writing down Jon's splits, running on the trails, driving (pretty much idling) back and forth on the state park's road. We met some cool people who were crewing for runners who were leapfrogging Jon. We even made up a game of winning points for doing things right for Jon. We would award points to ourselves if we were able to anticipate things that Jon would need at the next aid and have it ready for him. We got points for being on-time and getting him back on the trail ASAP. We also deducted points every time he asked for something we didn't have handy. Major negative points for things still in the car 1/4 mile away. I made too many trips sprinting to the car. I think I was in the hole by the end of the race. I would think that I won them back though with my awesome pacing skills. But Jon's slowest lap (by far) was the lap he ran with me. More negative points. My stories were putting him to sleep but I was just plain out of material. I got to run some of the course with Paul in the daytime, but all of my lap (20 miles) with Jon was in the dark. I imagine that it was scenic, but I wouldn't know. The weather was perfect for running and much nicer than the 15 degree weather I returned home to. In all, it was a tremendous success for both Jon and Davy as Jon was able to break 20 hours and hit my 19 30 something goal I threw at him. Davy was able to PR by a huge margin and even stay ahead of Jon for a good chunk of the race. 1600 miles by car and airplane again on Sunday.
Well done gentlemen!
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