Pony Express Trail 50 miles History: 6 years ago as a newbie to running, I read from one of Davy's early adventurous running blogs about his solo 100 mile runs on the Pony Express Trail. I found it fascinating and thought what a wonderful thing it is to run 100 miles out on the Utah west desert on a historical trail. Two years ago Davy fine-tuned that into an ultra event. So on Oct 16, 2009, with the support of my best friend, Wendy, I ran 54K on the inaugural PE50/100 to celebrate my 54th birthday. Our neighbor, Beth, also ran her *substitute* St. George Marathon there with us that day. My time was just under 7 hours, not bad for having run a SGM course PR 2 weeks prior. The last 5K of that 54K was painfully slow though. I was envious of those running the 50/100 miles. Since then, it has become my goal to run the PET 50 miles. That goal finally became reality this year! :)
Preparation: I've been battling with patella tendonitis all year. It hurts at times but didn't stop me from running Boston, Ogden, UVM, Sogonapmit, Park City, Pocatello, TOU and finally SGM on Oct 1. I've been extremely busy with my master bathroom remodeling and new bedroom addition that my training was limited to recovery and taper runs. I felt that I might not have adequate preparation/training to run 50 miles. I hesitated to ask any friends and family to give up their Fall break to crew me but did challenge my friend Lowell Hawkes to join me. He and I ran the Sogonapmit with a 4-1 run/walk pace and I finished that marathon feeling like I could've run more and literally no soreness. We figured we'd use the same pacing plan for our first 50 miler. He signed up on Thu. and I did the following day, one week before race day. I was excited, anxious, nervous, apprehensive!!! My best friend, Wendy, once again agreed to crew me. Who but your best friend would give up a full day (leaving her husband and children during Fall break) to drive, support, cheer, feed, take care of two old fart/fartette?!!! :) :) :) :) THANK YOU A MILLION TIMES OVER, Wendy (if you ever read this)! YOU ARE THE BESTEST FRIEND one can ever have! I am the luckiest girl. I LOVE YOU and OWE YOU BIG TIME!!!! :) :) :) :)
I made a packing list of food and essentials and a schedule for Thu. and race morning so that I wouldn't forget anything. Went shopping on Wed. night. Washed and cleaned the car Thu. morning. Pack the car with the non-perishable food and gear Thu. afternoon prior to Lowell's arrival. Did all this in between moving into my new addition, cleaning the down stair guest room and bathroom that hubby and I occupied the last 3 months so Lowell would have clean and comfortable lodging. He accused me of tricking him into doing this crazy 50 miler. Plus he had to work half day Thu before making the 3 hrs drive from Pocatello! What a GREAT WONDERFUL friend and running buddy Lowell is!!! :) :)
I made dinner (ham fried rice, pepper-tomato-steak, snowpea-carrot-chicken-cashew stir fry and lots of white rice, calcium fortified OJ) so that we could eat as soon as Lowell arrived at 6:30. We made a last min run to the store to get some mole skin. Lowell did the dishes while I fried up the bacon he bought (but I forgot to pack the bacon the next morning). We turned out the light at 10:30pm instead of the intended 8pm bed time! :)
Race morning: Didn't sleep a wink. Got up at 3am. While Lowell showered, I packed the coolers and we were out the door by 3:45. We couldn't find the McDonald's at Saratoga Springs so grabbed breakfast at Betos. Ate a ham/egg/hash brown breakfast burrito and drank a strawberry banana smoothie while the FINEST, KINDEST, MOST ATTENTIVE Wendy drove us 50 miles from Lehi to Faust. We missed the turn off to Faust Rd at Five-mile Pass and back tracked for a mile or so. There were rabbits darting across the road, thankfully NO deer.
The start: We got to Lookout Pass at 5:20 am. Walked down to the campground where sweet Maurine checked us in and were greeted by my idol/hero/race director, Davy! :) Lowell picked up the satellite phone he rented. Used the tent potty then went back to the car to gear up. It was cold and dark. While Lowell was still putting on his gear, I saw runners with headlamps and glow sticks ran off into the dark yonder. Silly us...we missed starting with the 6am runners!!! What's the hurry! Lowell showed Wendy how to use one of his three super duper cameras, snapped a couple of pictures in pitch darkness and instructed her to take copious notes. FINALLY, we were off! Wendy later said she could hear someone calling out: "Smooth, Smooth, where are you?" :) :) :)
First 5 miles: Within the first mile we passed a lady runner, Meg. The morning was cool and dark, illuminated by stars and a crescent moon. Lowell commented that it's a good thing we started the run in the dark or we might've been discouraged by what we'd see. I was counting on Lowell's headlamp light while running in the dark. All was well until mile 3.75 a ghost or ghastly embedded rock grabbed my right foot causing me to take a tumble, a nose-dive if weren't for the gloved hands. Thanks to my gloves, caprice pants, and long sleeve shirt, only small pieces of my skin on my left knee and right elbow were left on the gravel dirt road. In return received several lovely bruises on my left extremities. My left knee was quite painful and I was concerned that I might've chipped the left patella since I have missed two dosage of Fosamax (I have osteoporosis). But Lowell would have none of that. So off we went to chase after Wendy who did not witness my embarrassing biff. :/ Lowell's head looked like a gigant light bulb! :) I had a pink flashing flash light.
With a big burrito breakfast and smoothie at 5am, we only needed to drink water every 2 miles for the first 6 miles. Ate a gu at mile 6.8.
What a beautiful sunrise behind us.
Time to take off the glow necklace, headlamp and flash light. We didn't plan this, but both wore our Boston 2011 outfits...we're twinners! :)
 Wendy sacrificing her day...hadn't even had a chance to eat breakfast or put in her contacts to crew us. She attended to our every need with loving care!!!! :) Met Kyle whom we would leap frog and run with for the rest of the day. His dad was his crew support. They were wonderful company.  We saw some wild horses around 8:22am. What a beautiful, calm cool morning! Stop to take pictures (having 4 cameras with us, no reason to not stop and take copious amount of pictures!). Ate 1/3 banana and drank gatorade. The first place 100miler, Jay Aldous passed us at around mile 13 just before 9am running fast and shirtless. We were doing the 4/1 with the running pace in the 9s. Lowell was concerned about the poop-a-loo. I had bought a Luggable loo but didn't need to use it afterall. One of my favorite part of running this trail is *you cannot get lost*. Lowell commented that *you can't be found either*! :) I absolutely love the surrounding mountains and barren desert. 
Mile 16.4 ~ Heading to the Simpson Springs parking lot/bathroom (had only a small trickle; and that was the last time I pee'd 'till the finish). Ate a mini muffin and rest of the banana then head down to check in at the corral. According to the result page, my time was 3:16:41 and I was in 30th place. Phil Lowry passed us at Simpson Springs.
Lost Lowell for a mile or so when he stopped to chat and thank Russ, the satellite phone lender. I ran with Kyle and commented that I seem to loose Lowell at mile 17/18 at every marathon we started together. Lowell needs to quit running in circles! :)  After reuniting with Lowell, the goofy party resumed! He is SO FUN!!! :) 
The hunters with their SUVs, trailers & ATVs were now in drove causing humongous dust clouds. To add insult to injury we had a westerly head wind blowing the dust straight into our lungs! Lovely! I used the bandana I got from the race packet until it got too warm when I shed the l/s top and caprice pants. Here's a runner struggling with an injured mcl and dust storm!   One of the best part of the day was when jun (Craig) passed us. He stopped to chat with us a bit. He was running smooth, fast, strong and looking GREAT! :) Wish we were fast enough to snap a picture.
Another high light of the day was running a little bit with Davy as he passed us. THANKS Davy for slowing down to visit with us. Davy's in his yellow Bear100 shirt. 3rd highlight of the day ~ Somewhere along this straight 18 mile stretch, Scott passed us pacing his friend. SO NICE of Scott to stop and visit a bit.  Wendy recorded that I ate some pretzels and gatorade after the Simpson Spring stop. By mile 24 Lowel and I each ate 1/2 peanut butter sandwich, a cheese stick. I was drinking gatorade and on my 3rd bottle of water. By noon we had eaten couple potato wedges with salt, drank a smoothie. The sun was beating down on us with clear blue sky. Gotta hydrate well and take in enough sodium.  Mile 25, HALF WAY, Lowell holding up 2 fingers, me 5...feeling GREAT!  Mile 27: Lowell hit a low point. He was feeling tired and started to have doubt about running 22 more miles. He suggested that I ran ahead and he'd find another runner to share crew with. We've been running with Kyle Quist, leap frogging with the Fleming brothers, Sean and Matt whose wives and children were terrific cheer leaders. We also met a runner with his dog, Duke who had kept us company for a few miles. Duke was AMAZING!!! So there would've been no problem with him finding support crew. But I would have NONE of that! I told him we would continue on with our 4/1 plan and stopped to eat and drink at every mile 'till we get to Dugway Topaz Well around mile 33.5 (where I finished my 54K two yrs ago) a distance that Lowell has run before in one of his moonlight training runs. I instructed Wendy that we would stop there and to have the camp chair ready for Lowell and I would doctor my blister. My plan was for Lowell to sit/rest for 10-15 min. That stop lasted 36 min. No, Lowell didn't sit that long. It's here that Kelli ran up to us and visited and even ran some with us. We also had to wait for a long line of vehicles to pass so that we could take a picture of us standing in the same spot of my 54K finish 2 yrs ago at Dugway Topaz Well. We just had to visit with the last driver of the parade of vehicles.  After packing up and ready to leave, a gigantic truck hauling some huge machinery bearing down from Dugway Pass formed a huge dust storm about choked me off of O2. I took my inhaler in preparation for the lung searing run up Dugway Pass. Three BYU students passed me heading up to the climb. The boy in #6 started his 50 miler at 8am and his shirtless buddies paced him. Later, on the other side of Dugway Pass, we found them being pampered by numerous crew members under a canopy. Was that necessary?!!! :)  Me a huffing up Dugway Pass. You can see the switch back turn to the left with vehicles going up up up in a low gear, a *you gotta be kidding* sight! Wendy must've waited forever to snap these pix of us going up the gigantic hill.    Half way up the Pass to see where we've run from!!!  Almost to the top. A camping trailer look like a toy car. To the east horizon, one can see a cloud of trailing dust created by hunting vehicles heading south. At the top of Dugway Pass (Mile 37.5), the result shows my time at 8:51:20 and in 28th place. Here I'm mooching off some pineapple from Kelli's car. Kyle started to have tummy issues.  Kelli waiting with worries for Scott; but later was happy to see Scott ran all the way up
One of Davy's many great volunteers with clip board in hand by the *shoulder drop off*
The other side of Dugway Pass was a scary sight for my wobbly knees. My left ITB and right patella tendon were burning with pain with every foot fall. I walked down the steepest part with Kyle, fearing that one misplaced step on a rock would send me tumbling. I wish I had the trekking poles with me. I got them out later when Wendy drove past. Here Kyle's dad pointing to where he would stop the car next. Once we got to his car, he gave me and Kyle some ibuprofen.  I really enjoyed the last 10 miles of the run. The trail after Dugway Geode Beds was mostly soft dirt/sand. We caught up with this guy that had passed us early at mile 30. I dubbed him *speedo*. Lowell accused me of ...  I think this is Dorsimus and his pacer friends looking AWESOME! 
Kelli drove up to us while I stopped to change socks for the last time. I've changed socks 3 times. It was so GREAT to see Kelli, wish we could've run more together.  I took a gu (my second one) with 5 miles to go. It must've had caffeine 'cause it kicked in 15 min later. We hit a shady spot around Sweeping turn to north and I felt a surge of energy and took off like *horse smelling the barn* as Wendy put it. She said she would tell Lowell that I'd keep running and she'd meet me at the finish. So I took off with a bottle of water running at high 9 paces. We had to run .75 mile out after passing the finish at Blackrock Station. It was fun to run past the finishers heading to their cars. Although I did not enjoy the cars heading our way creating more dust cloud. I was mentally prepared for the 1.5 miles out-n-back and concentrated on passing couple runners on the .75 mile stretch. I saw and met Jim Kern on his return from pacing Davy. It was cool to see the 100 milers kept going while the 50 milers touched the turn-around sign.
That green dot in the distance is me chasing down the runners ahead on the out-n-back. Me kicking dust on the return with 0.25 to go.  Finished my FIRST 50 mile trail run/race with a nice medal that matches my shirt! :)  Ran back out to meet and run Lowell in.   We did it, finished our FIRST 50 miler happy. We made some friends along the way.  We could have NEVER EVER done it without the loving care and support of our AWESOME Wendy.  At Blackrock station. I think Dorsimus is the one in green bending over by the monument while his buddies (in red) congratulating him. :)
A beautiful sunset to end a fun fun day. We ran from sunrise to sunset, enjoyed every swiftly passing minute of the day at the Pony Express 50 miler run! :)
We stayed for about an hour at the finish. Ate the hamburgers the volunteers cooked, used the tent-potty, called home and RAD on the satellite phone. Just as we were ready to leave, we saw Scott run in. It was so fun to see Scott and Kelli kissed. Then as we were getting in the car, jun (Craig) ran thru looking strong, like he'd hardly ran, but had run 68 miles! WOW!!!! He was close to catching Phil Lowry and eventually took 3rd.
It was a long drive home in the dark but neat to pass the first 100 mile winner. Wendy expertly drove the entire day of nearly 200 miles round trip leaving from and arriving at civilization in the dark. We were waved down by a fellow pacer whose vehicle got two flat tires. He commented how lucky for him to get two flats and then find someone with a satellite phone to call home. We stopped at Simpson Springs to use the bathroom while Lowell walked down to the corral to return the satellite phone. It was so dark that I wondered if the 100 miles finisher would be able to see the turn down to the corral.
Post-run thoughts: I loved every single second of my first ultra experience. The fall at mile 3.75 and the wobbly knees descending Dugway Pass were not that bad. We had wonderful weather despite dealing with dusty headwind at times. The commaraderie was AWESOME. The Pony Express 50/100 has the potential to be the fastest, friendliest, greatest ultra trail event in the country. I am now believer of the run/walk method along with proper eating and hydrating. I feel that it was a successful 50 miler. I slept like a log that night and am feeling fine since. The only pain comes from the bruises which will heal up quickly. May loose a few toe nails. I did not gain or loose any weight. I ate well and had no down moment.
What a FUN FUN FUN day!!! :) I am forever grateful for wonderful friendship of Wendy and Lowell. :) THANK YOU BOTH SO SO SO SO MUCH!!! :) :) :)
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