Went to do pacing duties for Brian Beckstead at Wasatch 100. Brian did well but I could see online that he had to stay 1:15 at Lambs. From there it looked like it was taking him forever to reach Big Water. But I decided to head up anyway. My wife and daughter drove me up from Midway to Guardsman pass at about 10 p.m. From there I ran the Deso trail and got on the course. I greeted a couple guys doing well coming down and ran into my runner from last year, Matt Van Horn. We chatted for awhile and I ran down with him a ways. Despite the terrible heat he was two hours ahead of our last year's pace. He was in 27th place.
When I reached Scotts, I checked online and asked the radio guys to check Brian's status but still he had not reached Big Water. Not good. I stayed at Scotts for awhile and help a couple thrashed runners, trying to give them some advice and help.
From there I decided to just head toward Desolation Lake and when I ran into people I knew, or people who knew me, I turned around and ran with them for awhile. I ran all the way back to Scotts a couple times with Craig and later Phil.
As I was running toward Deso, I ran into a guy with treking poles staggering around like a total drunk. I grabbed him but he didn't stop trying to go forward and he was jabbering but not making sense. I pulled him to the ground and made him sit. I asked him his name. He replied, "Name?" Eventually he said, "Chris. What day is this." Others arrived and someone told him to stop and sleep. He asks, "Is there a cot here?" "No, this is not an aid station, it is two miles more." He insisted on getting up and continued to stagger forward after a train of runners. I needed to go find Brian, so I told a friend who was pacing one of the runners to watch him closely. He did and eventually made the guy stop and sleep next to the trail near a log. He then went to Scotts for help and a couple guys went back to help him.
Eventually I received word from runners about Brian, he had been sighted leaving Big Water and some thought he was right behind them. He wasn't. Eventually the Brian sightings stopped and I knew that wasn't good. I called his wife and found out he had headed back, got a ride to Brighton and dropped there at 1:30. I didn't receive word until after 2 a.m.
I decided that I would go ahead and try to run much of the course as fast as I could. I reached Scotts about 3 a.m., passing many and then blasted down the hill to Brighton. I would need to explain to the surprised runners that I was just a pacer without my runner. I reached Brighton in less than and hour. Once at Brighton Chad B asked me if I could help his runner who had just left try to break 30 hours. We would only have seven hours to do that, it would be tough. I was up to the challenge, so I grabbed some food and quickly started to charge up the hill. I eventually found the runner, Mark and we teamed up. We did very well getting to the top by 5:02, but after that, Mark's downhill speed was slow, which made it painful.
At Ant Knoll, it was fun. Many runners and volunteers knew who I was and had fun asking me questions and commenting on my adventures. Our stop was pretty quick and we continued but breaking 30 was out of the question at the pace we were going. I just couldn't get him to really run. So I decided that I really didn't want to slowly finish after 1 p.m. in the heat. I had really wanted to short cut the course after Pole Line and try to catch up with friends who would finish around 28 hours. But, the slow pace had taken its toll on my feet (too much walking) and legs so I was ready to quit.
Dawn arrived before we reached Pole Line. I explained to Mark that I was going to whimp out on him and leave him at Pole Line, and then run the five miles or so down to the condo where my family stayed the night. He was fine with that and I encourage him to really start running. I felt quilty leaving him, but I had really signed up to pace Brian. Doing a death march to the end just isn't fun.
So, in the early morning light, I left the course and ran down a road the eventually joined the old Wasatch Route above Pot Bottom. I looked down there and knew that Craig and others were probably nearby. But I was done. I found the single-track trail that took me down to my Dad's condo and finished my 31 miles before 9 a.m.
After resting and showering, the family was going to watch a movie so I drove to the start and watched friends finish. It had been a wild Wasatch 100 this year. I was very glad that I didn't run the race this year in that heat. I believe I would have finished, but it would have made me sick for days. I just can't handle that type of heat very well.
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