Salt Flats 50 Mile Race 2016

What a long day, but oh so worth it. It all began with my 2:30 alarm waking me after about 2 hours of sleep. A quick shower, bowl of oatmeal, and put all my gear outside by the garage door and then wait for Heather, Kaylee and Chris to pick me up. They got to my house within minutes of me settling onto the couch and we were on our way to pick up Andrew at the 43rd S. McDonalds parking lot.
We had fun getting to know each other on the drive out to the Bonneville Salt Flats.
You could tell everyone was excited by our faces stuck to the windows of the van seeing the shimmering salt flats in the darkness. They should not have been shimmering but were covered by water from the heavy rains the week before. We knew we'd be running on an alternate course and would not be running on the flats at all.
After a quick pit stop at the Sinclair gas station we arrived at the start line. We collected up our race packets and bibs and within a very short time everyone was at the start waiting for GO!
Met up with Amy and her husband Matt and a few other familiar faces.

Myself and Matt before the race

Beautiful sunrise on the flooded salt flats

And then we were off...the sun had come up so we were able to see the surrounding scenery as we ran west on the paved causeway. Mile 1 was done, and its hard not to think, only 49 more miles to go. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and handed my sunglasses to me. They had fallen off my hat and I didn't even know it. He told me I owed him 10 seconds which I would have gladly given him :)
I visited a little with Andrew Jensen on this stretch but then lost site of him as he sped ahead in his 100 mile endeavor.

Andrew Jensen

There were about 4 miles of running the flat pavement and it wasn't hard to keep a pace of under 10:00/m for the first 5 or 6 miles as it was very flat. we then started following the shoreline road going north and then east. Its a soft packed road for the most part and felt really good to run on. Aid station one was done, grabbed a small cup of coke and kept going. By the second aid station I needed to use the porta-potty and that wasted quite a bit of time as a few people were ahead of me.
I ran for a short time with Chris, but ended up stopping to take my wind breaker/rain jacket off and get it packed away and he put a lot of distance between the two of us.

Dee Wolf

Dee Wolf with Heather and Kaylee

We saw lots of Matt Jensen in his jeep taking pictures of all the runners. We so appreciate the effort he put into that.
My goal was to beat my Antelope Island finish time of 10:43:51 which I thought wouldn't be too hard as there isn't as much climbing in this race, BUT the majority of the climbing is in the end, the opposite of the Antelope Island race which meant I'd be tackling those hills on very tired legs.

Matt on the return from the 22 mile
Aid station. He was about 6-7 miles
of me.

Chris Raver and I running together

I had my virtual partner in the watch set at a 12:30/m pace which would give me a finish time of 10 hours and 25 minutes, a nice buffer to my previous 50 mile finish. For the first 20 miles I was trying to keep it around a 11:00/m pace. I think it was around mile 18 Heather and Kaylee caught up to me. They ran ahead into the aid station at mile 22 which was our turn around point. The change of route worked out great to give us the chance to see those runners who were ahead of us. Occasionally I was able to get my camera out and snap a picture of a few of them such as Matt Watts.

Matt Jensen taking pictures

By the 22 mile aid station I had already taken off my long sleeved shirt and had it packed away. Coming out to this point the wind had been cool and no matter what direction we were running the wind always seemed to be in our face.
I hoped it would be warmer heading west. I switched out my Olympus shoes which my feet were complaining loudly about at this point, for a brand new pair of the same shoes. The cushion on them felt firm but much more comfortable. I hoped they would serve me well for the next 28 miles. From there were headed by west along the same road we had just ran up.

Heather, myself, Kaylee and Dee at the aid station at mile 22.

Within a few miles I was heating up pretty good so took off my t-shirt and ran for a few hours without my shirt on, the way running was meant to be.
Around mile 29 a truck was driving towards us and Ryan was driving it. He turned around and drove beside me as we continued to the 32 mile aid station where he would be joining me in my run to pace the final 18 miles. I was at an overall pace of 12:10/m by this time.  It was so tempting to climb onto the trucks running boards but Ryan reminded me, "not allowed my friend".

A storm in the distance pummeling the Aid station at our mile
22, about 10 miles away.

We could see a huge storm was hitting the area of the aid station at mile 22 and heard they were being battered with hail and a few people had chosen to DNF at that point because of it. We were almost ready to get going and Heather and Kaylee arrived at the aid station. Kaylee said she was having a bit of an issue with her hip. I hoped this would ease up for her and she'd be okay.

The girls in the distance gaining ground.

From this aid station is a climb to get to the pass before going down the other side of the mountain range. It seemed to go on forever. There was a lot more hiking than running for sure. By the time we got to the top I had lost all of the banked time and was at an overall pace of about 13:10/m. I thought we could make some time up going down the other side as its downhill for a few miles, but my overall pace hardly dropped at all. We got to the lowest point on the other side and we could see Kaylee and Heather coming down not far behind us.  We ran as much as possible trying to make up some time before we got to the next aid station but weren't too successful. By this aid station I was hoping for some real food. I was getting tired of my fig newton's. They ended up having some cheese enchiladas, bacon, chips, coke and water melon which hit the spot for sure. The girls arrived and we found out Kaylee had been puking on the way up the climb on the other side. The people at the aid station helped her out with getting her stomach settled and we took off, knowing they'd be close behind us. We could see Chris about a mile ahead of us with another guy in red, ahead of him. Ryan wanted to make it a goal to catch up to Chris, I thought, he's going to kill me in the process. We knew we had another climb ahead of us and I was nervous of how much more time I was going to lose on this climb. I was giving up on beating my Antelope Island finish time and was consoling myself that each race is different and you can't compare them to each other for finish times. 
On the way up the hill to the next pass we could see Chris had passed the guy in red and had already gone over the top. We could see the girls not too far behind us coming up the road.

Ryan and myself at the top of the final hill.

 We finally got to the top which wasn't as long a climb as the first climb we encountered, took a few pictures and started down the hill. The downhill felt very painful at first, but I think it loosened up my legs and I was finally going at a pretty good pace. Now my goal was just to finish below a 13:00/m pace. I still had given up on getting a PR. We could see Chris wasn't too far ahead of us and walking down the hill. Ryan figured he must be injured. The guy in red had also passed Chris. We caught up to him and found out the downhill was extremely painful for him that's why he was walking. Knowing he was okay, we took off and doing as Ryan is known to do wanted the goal of catching the guy in red. We passed a self serve aid station of a water jug with pump and a porta potty, and pushed to walk as little as possible. We were within 6 miles of the finish line and saw the guy in red had headed out east rather than going to the 1 mile out and back to the convenience store. Ryan got his attention and he came back and followed us towards the store. I would have loved to have skipped this part too, but we'd have been 2 miles short!  We got to the aid station near the store, had a Dr. pepper, and banana and got out of there as quick as possible. On the way back we passed Chris and the girls, I ran across the road and gave them both a high five and Kaylee and I almost smashed up our elbows in the process of running between them.

I was checking my watch and trying to calculate things which I find very difficult to do when tired. At mile 46 I realized, 4 miles to go and I'm 10 hours into the race. That 40 minutes to do 4 miles. I can't do that, I just don't have the energy. But then thought I do have a few minutes above that 40 to still get a PR, it was too close to at least not try. The first mile of running that torturous road that never ends was at a 10:05 pace. Not bad for tired legs. I thought 3 more miles and I have about 33 minutes to get a PR of at least a few seconds, IF the course isn't long.

The Endless Stretch

Ryan saw two people ahead of us by at least a mile and he says, lets catch them! That ain't happening! The next mile was around a 10:40/m pace, still going good. I tried tucking in behind Ryan to help fight the wind coming off the water but it didn't seem to help at all. 2 more miles with about 22 minutes to do it in. I didn't want to but had to take a couple of short walking breaks. I would count 25 strides and push again. One mile to go, those cars at the finish line looked like they weren't getting any closer at all. I was pining to myself this course is going to be way long and I'm wasting my time.

Kaylee and Heather happy to be done!

A quarter of a mile to go according to my watch and the finish line still looked a long ways off. Ryan could see the finish clock ticking away the seconds and I pushed hard, which I'm sure looked quite pathetic to anyone who may have been watching, crossed the finish line and I think the time was 10:41:43 and a finish distance according to my watch of 50.02 miles. You can't get much closer than that. A 2 minute PR, which for the last 15 miles I didn't think I had any hope of getting and I wouldn't have gotten it without Ryan's help and encouragement.

Chris finishing his first 50 mile race!

The wind was so cold and I hobbled up the stairs into the race trailer and with the help of Vince and Chris his wife I enjoyed some chili and a Dr. Pepper. Heather and Kaylee crossed the finish shortly after me and I was able to get some pictures without having to get out of the trailer, the same with Chris a few seconds later. Ryan was able to hitch a ride with someone to retrieve his truck and then it was time for us all to get some well deserved food.

It was an incredible experience spending time with each of my friends in this race. I cherish the friendships, new and old and a day after the race I'm already looking forward to doing another one with these incredible people.

The four of us, very happy to be finished.