Full race report can be read at: http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=155
Well, I finished the Big Horn 100 for the 4th time. "Finished." That is what the goal turned out to be for me. This turned out to be the roughest 100-mile finish of my 24 100-mile finishes. I'll get into the gory details in my full race report later this week. The tough factors were: Heat, shoes that didn't fit right, mud, mud, mud, and again not dressing warm enough after sunset. The biggest factor was the poorly fitting shoes. The ball of my right foot became very swollen by mile 55. I decided that I would quit once I reached mile 66 so just took it easy. Once I got to the aid station at mile 66, I told the volunteers that I would likely quit, but I took my sweet time, washed and cared for the feet, put on shoes that fit better, and decided to still give it a go. By then I was about three hours behind schedule. The next 3.5 miles went great during a huge climb. But then the heat slammed me again. The previous afternoon I had become badly dehydrated and since then any heat affected my system poorly. Again, I decided to quit the race but had a seven mile stretch to go before I could reach a place to quit. A friend passed me and went ahead to tell the aid station that I would be quitting.
Well, in answer to prayer, the clouds came with a breeze and cooled things down nicely. I was going slowly because I knew I was going to quit. But with all that time to think, I finally decided that my excuse list was much shorter because it was now cooler. When I arrived at the station I chowed down on greasy bacon and fried potatoes. I sat in a chair for ten minutes to get a good rest. Finally I announced I would continue on, but I feared the next long six-mile hot road uphill section.
Then something amazing happened. With all of the slow moving for the past ten hour or so, my legs were well rested and ready for a good workout. I ate well at that aid station and now had plenty of energy in my blood. I decided to treat the last 24 miles like a training run. I again started to run, I mean really run. I loved running up the hills and would push them very hard. During the next six miles I passed about 15 runners, most of them mid-pack 50-mile racers. They were all shocked to see me cruising. I passed my friend who thought I had dropped, and I passed him on a very steep hill that I was running up very hard. He let out a shocked comment as I cruised by.
I reached the next aid station in great spirits. A buddy from Colorado, Paul Grimm was there helping out, and he turned all his attention to me. I no longer cared about my finishing time or placement, I now only wanted to finish. I spent a full 30-minutes in the aid station, again washing my feet, lubing them, and putting on clean socks. I even enjoyed just talking to people and sharing the experience of the past day, night, and day.
I'll save the details for the race report, but for the next ten miles I REALLY cruised. I probably passed about 20-30 runners in both the 100-mile and 50-mile racers. On the four-mile 4,000 foot drop, I put it in full-speed downhill gear and pushed my pace as fast as possible, as fast as I would do on fresh-legs. I don't think I have ever run such a tough, long downhill section that fast. Over and over again, runners would step off the trail and watch me blast down ahead of them. My split time for that section was faster than all of my four years in the race.
When I reached the aid station at mile 92.5, I plopped down in a chair and let friend Jody Aslett help me recover from that amaing sprint. She said, "The have been a couple other runners who looked worse than you." Ha, ha.
Well, it was 30:30 and I had 7.5 miles to go. I had plenty of time to reach the finish by the 34-hour cutoff. I decided to just walk the rest of it in and just enjoy the finish. I talked to many of the runners who passed me by while I was walking. I watched the thunderstoms roll in, wishing it would rain, but it didn't.
I finished in 33:21, walking in slowly to the cheers of so many friends. I was just happy to finish a race that I had quit twice. Over 33 hours is just too long to be running. I have a much greater respect for back-of-the pack runners who normally finish these races in over 30 hours. Finishing 100 miles in 24-27 hours is much easier. | 