Somewhere In Vermont There's 100 Miles of Hills…
Well first of all it was easier than I thought it would be. NOT counting how hard it was just to keep moving for 25 hours 40 minutes and 27 seconds, that comes with the territory. Or the fact that 15,000 ft. of hill climbing and 15,000 ft. of decent really makes your body hurt in places you didn't know existed, but for me at least I was mentally enjoying the whole thing. And that probably was the most important part..I was never sick or hurting bad enough that I had to stop for a while and the running through the night was actually fun.
My buddy Rob Scott, who was really the one responsible for me being there in the first place, did have a bout of nausea around 50 miles but in true ultrarunning form managed to keep moving until it passed and he finally finished up strong. I guess I was lucky to have avoided those problems, especially when I found out later how many people actually dropped out due to sickness. The first few unmanned aid stations were pretty bare by the time I came through them and I was really getting hungry after 10 miles of running. Other runners around me all said the same thing. Finally we came to a manned and well stocked station at 12 miles by the river and we all pigged out on everything they had. From that point on all the aid stations had so much food that when they weighed me at the medical stops I had even gained some weight. One medic said I'm not supposed to look that good!
The horses weren't what I expected. I think all together there were only 12. They went by me, usually in groups of 3, about one and a half hours after I started and were all gone in less than 10 minutes. All that was left was the hoof prints and horse poop that we kept stepping in all night.
The Princeton Matrix LED. headlamp that I was using worked great and was very comfortable. However as most of you who have run through the night know, it's hard to identify exactly what that is in front of you until it's too late.
There were some good looking horses though and the riders were very supportive of us as they went by. I couldn't believe how they charged up some of those hills. (Some of the "hills" were several miles long and talk about steep!) I bet the riders were sore after bouncing in the saddle for 100 miles, not to mention the poor horses.
Somewhere between 35 and 40 miles I kept passing and being passed by Tony from Michigan. Soon we settled into the same rhythm and ended up running the last 60 miles together. Tony had completed several 100 milers including one at Mt. Rushmore last year so I figured it would be a good idea to try and stay with him and draw from his experience at finishing these runs. I didn't realize how important it is, especially throughout the night, to have someone's company. He pushed me when I needed it and I did the same to him. Just to know someone else is there with you at night is a huge mental boost.
I now understand why people have pacers at night. You can waste a lot of time trying to find your way and also being by yourself you easily loose focus and start to drift. Although the next runner may be only a minute or two behind you or ahead of you, out there in the Vermont mountains at 1:00 or 2:00 AM you're about as alone as you can be. Just to hear some footsteps or have a conversation with someone, no matter how silly the subject, is more important than you realize.
I think you also feel the fatigue set in more when you're by yourself. We passed at least 15 runners through the night and several that were running alone seemed to be out of it. You could tell they were not in focus to the race.
So my thanks to Tony for allowing me to use him to reach my goal of finishing my first 100 and I hope I really did help him like he said I did and wasn't just saying that to be kind.
I'm looking forward to an e-mail from him now and then.
And while I'm at it I'd like to thank Peter Clark and his son Ben for crewing. Pete is a friend of Rob's and was there to see him through it, but was kind enough to help me through it also. Just the fact that he was there at the aid stops to keep us moving and organized was a real blessing. His presence there was more important to me than he thinks it was. And I believe and hope it was some kind of an adventure for him too
I never did set my sights on breaking 24 hours and didn't push my training for that goal. My only goal was to finish my first 100 in the time allowed. The only problem I had other than my quads being shot by 65 miles was the stabbing type pain in my knees when I tried to run down the hills the last 35 miles or so. Typical over-use injury most people get when you push yourself beyond what is normal for you. There was no pain when I walked or ran flats and uphill so I wasn't too worried about it, but I really think I would have broken the magical 24 hour mark if I could have gone faster on the down hills late in the race. But I have no regrets. If anything I now know what it takes and how to go about it so IF I decide to try again someday I have all that experience to fall back on. Of course I paid the price for all this the day after as my legs were as stiff as wood and my knees were swollen to twice the normal size, but within a few days I was pretty much back to normal and still on an emotional high.
The good weather we had also really helped. Mid 80's but almost no humidity. My high tech running clothes stayed dry and comfortable all day and my shoes and socks felt great also, not one blister! I did do a complete change of clothes and shoes at the 68.2 mile aid station just before running through the night, and I would really recommend that idea to anyone.
Like I said before my headlight worked great but it really only lights the path directly in front of you, so I was glad I had brought along a small cheap regular flashlight. I used this off and on for a minute or two at a time, usually just to see what was waiting for us up ahead or in a rough section of the trail.
It also proved to me that the giant ferns along the side of the road were really ferns and not lawn chairs begging me to sit in them for awhile. But that's another story so let's just say that light came in handy even though I had to change the batteries every couple of hours.
I had heard later that there were 254 official starters but only 174 official finishers, so you can see how many dropped out, were pulled off the course, or didn't make the cutoffs in time. Both Rob and I know we were lucky enough to finish our first 100 miler on our first attempt and we now have some newfound respect for those of you who do this all the time or even just one time.
So all and all it was a wonderful experience and I'm glad I had the chance to do it.
-- "Will Run"
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