My 5th Bighorn finish and my 32nd 100-mile finish. A quick report before I get some sleep. I had a good race. The race starts (at 11 a.m. on Friday morning) with a huge climb of more than 4,000 feet in 4 miles. I purposely held back a little, although it turned out I did my fastest climb of the 5 years. Go figure, it didn’t feel like I pushed it super hard. I came into the 13-mile aid station in 30th place. I hoped for a top-20 finish, so my strategy was to just be patient and pick off runners one by one. My strategy hit a snag when I needed to take a 10-minute bathroom break at mile 22. I probably fell to about 42nd place.
At mile 27 the course takes a dive, losing 3,000 feet in under three miles to cross over the Little Bighorn River. I believe that I passed 8 runners, back in 34th place. However, I spent a long 10 minutes at this aid station to fix a problem shoe and was again passed by several runners.
From mile 30 to 48 the course does another huge climb of more than 4,800 feet but it is spread over 18 miles. I discovered that many runners who beat me on the morning climb no longer had an uphill running gear. I passed runner after runner as I ran probably 75% of that climb. My pace was personal record pace. The leader of the race, Mike Wolfe, came running toward me, already on his way back, at about mile 39, 18 miles ahead of me. I was stunned because I knew he was on course record time. (He did break the course record, finishing in 18:43, when I still would have 30 miles to go.)
I had never before reached the 43.5-mile aid station in the daylight. Usually I have to turn on my light at about mile 41. On this day I didn’t need to turn it on until mile 46. So I was very pleased. From mile 42 to the top at mile 48, the course is muddy, snowy, and swampy. I did my best to not worry about wet muddy shoes and just plowed through the problem areas. Near the high point, we slogged through about a quarter mile of icey, swampy water. Our feet really got cold. I reached the turn-around at mile 48 at the 11:38 mark at 10:38 p.m. I didn’t stay long and headed back out into the cold. It was below freezing near the top (about 9,000 feet). I reached the turn-around in 24th place. So I had passed about 18 people since my long pit stop.
Doing the turn-around is exciting because you could see how your friends are doing behind you. But the 18 miles back down are frustrating. Now in the dark it is very hard to push a fast pace. Much of the trail is pretty technical with lots of rocks to trip on and I just didn’t want to face-plant. Oddly, my split times going down in the dark were a little bit slower than my split times going up in the light. (I did spend a little more time in the aid stations) I returned to the footbridge aid station (Little Bighorn River crossing, mile 66) at the 17:02 mark. (4:02 a.m.). Despite my slowness in the dark, I was now over an hour ahead of my best time. Usually, I’ll spend about 20 minutes at this point recovering, eating, and perhaps working my feet. But today, I decided to make my stop very fast, probably about 4 minutes. When I jumped up to leave, I noticed that about 5 other runners were surprised and had concerned looks on their faces as they were still taking their time. Away I went.
Next was a climb of 3,000 feet out of the river gorge in under three miles. I just did a steady pace and in under 1:30, the climb was done. I had passed a runner in the process who I had never seen before. I was probably in 16th place. Dawn arrived at about mile 68, but the sun didn’t shine on me until about mile 74. It was pretty nippy. At times I could see a half mile behind me. No other runners were seen. At the aid station at mile 76.5, I chowed down on bacon and potatoes fried in bacon grease. It really hit the spot and gave me new energy and calmed down my stomach.
From mile 76.5 to mile 84 I got lazy and took the foot off the gas. I was passed by three runners. But at the aid station at mile 82.5, I made a six minute stop. In past years, my stop there is usually 20 minutes to wash my feet, lube them, and get clean socks on for the finish. Not this year, I decided to save time, stay with my muddy wet shoes and hope that my feet didn’t hurt too much for the finish. At this aid station, I was in 19th place. I arrived there at 9:32 a.m. The 30K race started at this point at 10:00 a.m. and followed the rest of the 100-mile course. So at mile 85, the 30K runners caught up to me. It was odd to have company around me because for the past 9 hours I had seen very few runners because we were so spread out. The front packs were fast and I just couldn’t keep up, so I would step aside and let 30K runners pass me.
But at mile 88 after a final steep 1,000-foot climb, I really put it into gear for the massive 4,000-foot descent. I passed about 20 30K runners as I blasted down the hill. They gave me stunned looks and comments because they knew I was a 100-mile runner. But after mile 92.5, they all passed me back as I eased off. The last five miles is dirt road pounding. The course doesn’t finish where it started, that would make it only 96 miles. It continues for another 4 miles into the town of Dayton, Wyoming at a park. I was passed by two 100-milers. I did my best to keep a strong run going and re-passed one of those runners. All my road races were helpful. I knew how to keep the legs moving on flat roads. The heat was pretty bad for the finish, but I came into the park and crossed the finish line at 26:38. My previous best time on that course was 29:00.
I finished in 19th place, 2nd in my age group. There were 154 starters. There were 95 finishers. | 