I'll post more details in my personal running blog later. For now, let me say that this is BY FAR the toughest thing I have ever done. I have learned a lot through this experience.
Thursday afternoon my sister came by and we loaded up her van with all my accumulated race supplies and headed out to the Pony Express Trail. We camped for the night near the pet cemetery and visited with Davy Crockett and some of the other runners and crew. This is probably my first race where the Race Director hand delivered the goody bag. Spent some time going over race plans and directions with Marcia and then we set up the van so we could sleep in the back for the night. The sky that far from civilization was gorgeous. We laid one of the sleeping bags in a clearing and stared up at the sky. I had no idea there were that many stars out there. We even saw some shooting stars. My body finally gave in and let me sleep from a little after midnight until 4:30 a.m. Good thing I slept 9 hours the night before. We saw the vehicle from the other runner in our crew waiting by us, so I got dressed in the dark since I wasn't into exhibitionism that early in the morning. A little before 5 we walked over to the trail and cheered on the early start 100 mile racers. Some of them were already walking - only in a ultramarathon will you see that. Introduced ourselves to Jim Kern and then went back and finished getting ready. As I put on my designated racing shoes, I realized the laces were too tight and had to adjust them. This should have given me a clue. I noticed a week or so before that the insoles had worn out, so had placed my heat fitted insoles in the shoes. I've run with these insoles before with no problem. We drove the half mile up to the starting line and Davy gave a little speech and someone joked about singing the national anthem and at 6 a.m. the 50 mile early start was off. The first half mile is a steep downhill, so held myself back. Jim and I ended up visiting and running together for the first 16.6 miles, so it was nice to have a companion. We ran with headlamps and flashlights for the first 6 or so miles until it was light enough we could run in the dark. I think we were all enjoying the cool of the morning because we knew it would heat up soon. One of the support crews flew a UFO to entertain us (a remote plan with LED lights) and that was fun. Marcia was going about 4 miles ahead at this point and mainly pulled over so we could strip off layers of clothes and get sunscreen sprayed on us. About mile 10 we hear this yell behind us and it was Davy Crockett bounding along looking strong. He started an hour after us and had already caught up. At mile 14, Craig/Jun also passed us and gave me a hug. He looked fit and strong. After a long uphill we pulled into Simpson Springs and reported in our numbers. I grabbed new water bottles and Jim stopped to fill his bottles and that is the last I saw of him. About mile 21, Marcia passed me and Jim was now a passenger. He had to DNF at mile 19 when he stepped on a rock and felt a pop in his foot. I felt bad for him because I know how devastating my DNF was and because he was using my crew for his crew, he was stuck with us all day. But it was nice having an additional crew member. I got really spoiled.
I was maintaining a 8 minute running/2 minute walking routine for most of the initial portion of the race - except for walking the uphill into Simpson Springs. At this point I was on the long straitaway where you could see the road ahead of you for miles. It was already seriously hot and I was doing the best I could to take in fluids and foods and keep cool. My daughter, son-in-law and grandkids had sent me a care package with race food and posters (which I was ordered to not look at). Every once in a while Marcia would put up new posters and it would make me smile to see her drive past and enjoy them. I think I passed the halfway point at 5:49 and marathon distance around 6:15. It was about the 25 mile mark when I started to seriously suffer. I could feel my legs still somewhat heavy from St. George 13 days earlier and the heat was zapping my insides. Took some Immodium to settle down the intestines, but the stomach was now bothering me. Nothing serious, but I couldn't tolerate the thought of eating many foods. Some things would appeal to me for a short period of time, but often I would start to eat something and then spit it out because it started to gag me. I called a 10 minute sit down break at the 50K point. I set a new trail PR for that distance during the race, but my notes are still in my sister's van. Marcia and Jim were helping me to clean up and wash my feet, change shoes, etc. I could feel some serious hot spots on my big toes and wondered if they were from the harder edges of my insoles. It turns out they were. A couple of decent blisters on each one, plus another blister on the bottom of my right heel that had Marcia concerned. We taped my feet up and then Marcia massaged my left foot. I had felt 'cramping' for 10+ miles in that foot and it turns out it was my neuroma flaring up - again I think that had to do with the insole because it had not happened before. The new shoes and socks felt wonderful and I was glad I traded them in. Rest breaks were now down to every 3 miles or so. I wanted to make sure I got my walking poles for the hills up Dugway Pass. I thought those would help me power walk up the hill better. As I headed up Dugway, I had my head down and was just focusing on step at a time when I suddenly heard a rattle. I looked up and there was a rattlesnake about 2 feet in front of me. He was smaller then me, but I decided to cross the road and give him the right of way. On the way up the pass I thought it was interesting that I struggled more on the less steep portions and felt pretty good on the steep sections. One more sit down break at the top of the pass and then I headed down the downhill. I was able to run nonstop for a while and the different muscles used on the uphill and downhill enjoyed getting used. By this point in the race I had given up on solid foods. I pretty well couldn't even handle Ensure any more and had switched from Gatorade Endurance to G2. I was able to occasionally force down a Gu, but even struggled with that. Water was about it. The downhill hurt my stomach muscles incredibly. Up until then, I didn't know how tired my abs and lungs were. Had to battle a bit of nausea, but since I didn't have much in my system, what little I had drank stayed down. At mile 41 I received another boost as my Jeep pulled up alongside me with my son, Kevin, in it. He had come out to cheer me on in my great adventure. We talked for a minute or so, then I sent him on ahead and asked him to walk back and push me along at the next break. I was still running more than walking, but not for more than 2-3 minutes at a time. With three people in my crew, I was really rocking the spoiling. I decided to try the walking poles again from 43-45 and actually got a second wind that allowed me to run almost that entire section. 45-47 was another struggle, so I tried the poles again and they seemed to help me run more. I would use them to help me count 200 pole plants running, then 100 pole plants walking. It was a beautiful site to see Blackrock. Unfortunately, you have to go past Blackrock for .6 mile and then come back. I was soooooo tired at this point in time, and ready to be done. I touched the turnaround sign and headed back. It was a long way back. I bawled most of the way and had a big stupid grin on my face. I had requested my crew to come out and join me and we ran the final steps in together. Marcia put my finishers medal on me at my request and then we all hugged each other. What a day. Final time was 13:07. I was next to last, but couldn't care less. I have now accomplished another one of my dreams.
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