Great highs and lows putting on the race and running it too. Won't do that again, the race is getting too big. Way too much stress.
I only slept 5 hours Wednesday night and only 1 hour Thursday night. Zero hours Friday night. Not good.
I was in a great mood heading out to the course until my car died a couple miles from the start because of shoddy work done on it Tuesday. I had to hike into the start and Frank's crew camped there helped me shuttle all my stuff to the start. It was frustrating not to have a car there and it changed all the plans that I had put together. To make things worse, I had badly burned two fingers working on the car and they blistered up terribly.
But Maurine showed up and perked me up. We all had great fun in the evening with a campfire with a group of runners.
Little sleep during the night thinking about all the things that needed to get done including getting ready to run too. I finally got up at 3 a.m. and started getting things ready for everyone.
Runners started to arrive by 4:30 and it was great fun to greet everyone and start the various waves of the race.
But then I needed to run. I was scrambling like crazy. My crew car was so unorganized. My stuff was just in a heap in a box. This was not good.
But I started and felt OK and ran well for the first few miles, but then could tell that it would not be my day. Finally about mile 12, I started to warm up and feel better and started to gain on Craig, but it didn't last long.
I just couldn't find the speed I usually have during this race. By mile 35, I usually have passed all the early starters. Not so today. Oh well. I just enjoyed the run. A 15-minute bathroom break was a bummer. I would catch up with someone and then run slower with them for awhile which was great fun. It was super to see my son Kevin at about mile 32 running well.
At about mile 40, Britta and Matt ran passed as I was sitting in a chair near my crew car. I got up fast and within a mile caught up and passed them, doing 8-minute pace, but my stomach told me to quit it, so I did and slowed down.
When I reached Blackrock, mile 48.5, it was a grand party there. Britta had finished her 50-mile victory and didn't even look tired. It was so fun to see all the smiles on the runners and crew. The race seemed to be going great.
But my race was a mess. Oh well. It was only about 73 degrees, but with the sun out, it felt hotter. Jim Kern ran with me for a couple miles. It was fun to talk to him about how things were going. Jay, the leader of the 100 was walking slowly into Blackrock, badly dehydrated. I hoped he could get things fixed. I saw Phil and Craig on the out-and-back about 6 miles ahead, where I should have been, and was close to last year.
I plodded on. Fish Springs area was amazing before dusk. The colors were spectacular. Wow! At Fish Springs Carl and his son ran with me back to Blackrock. Carl was great company. He ran that stretch with me last year and reminded me how I really worked him. Not so this year, he reached Blackrock well before me.
The night was a disaster for me. Because I wasn't moving fast enough I got cold. Once cold, I would get very drowsy and started to stumble around like a zombie. Finally on the long stretch from Dugway Pass to the finish, I had no choice but to jump in the car, turn up the heat, get in warmer clothes, and try to rest my eyes. A few runners eventually passed me, including Matt Watts who I had been about six miles or more ahead of.
I must have spent a total of 1.5 hours sitting in my crew car a dozen times. One stop was long, 20 minutes and I managed to sleep for a few minutes.
I discussed with my crew chief Paul about quitting, and belive it or not, I wished I would have. It would have been much more fun to drive to the finish and greet all the runners coming in. But I thought of my non-DNF streak, and my goal to finish 10 100-milers this year. So I pushed myself out the door and ran again. I would have some good stretches, running 10-minute pace, but only for a mile, then the drowsy spells would start again. I even had to have Paul stop every mile, just in case I was having trouble. In past years, I could do that stretch with 3-4 mile stops. It was very hard.
What was crazy was the change in temperature. We would go through pockets of about 32 degrees, and then it would be 45 or more. Clothes went on, came off, went back on, etc. I had plenty of time to think about what went wrong and I concluded that with all the stress, my concentration was just not there. I decided that this would be the last year I would run and direct. It was time to only direct. My little fun run had grown up. I almost DNFed again with about 8 miles to go, but I kept it up. It was fun to see the lights of the cars in a line across the desert floor. There were lights ahead too, and at times I was reeling them in, but then faded again.
Dawn arrived, and now my goal was to get to the finish before the sun hit it. I reached that little goal. Next, I was greatly disappointed that the belt buckles were missing. No one knew where they were. Brad and driven all over during the night trying to find them. It was so disappointing to see runners finish and not have the buckle for them. (It turns out that because of my car trouble, back at the start during clean-up, someone by mistake put a container in my wife's car that needed to go to Simpson Springs. I had failed to label it because I planned on just sticking it in my car which would go there.) So, I'll mail out all the buckles.
I was grouchy for awhile, but all the smiles on the faces of runners and crews finishing in the back of the pack perked me up. It seemed like everyone had a great time.
It really was a couple days of highs and lows. My race staff worked so hard and did so well. They are very good and know how to run a good race now. I really look forward to next year. I will cruise around the course, jump out and run with many runners. That will probably be a first during an ultra, to see the race director running all over the place. It will be great fun.
The race was a great success as far as I can tell. Almost every runner set a PR, and there were a ton of very happy first-time finishers. Wow!
So, my little adventure run that I started in 2005 with a dream seems like it has turned into quite the production. It makes me very happy that I have been able to share this dream with others and know that I have done something to make them very happy.
On another bright side, when I got home, I checked the car repair invoice and sure enough they had replaced the oil cooler hose that came loose. | 