Today was a successful day. I didn't get any blisters or chaffing, didn't lose any toenails, didn't do any faceplants on the trail, lost 5lbs, had an awesome pacer and did exceptionally well in the last 10 miles.
The beginning of the day was not that successful. I got off work very early but stopped at McDonalds for my wife on the way home and stupidly grabbed a big mac for me. I got to bed around 10:00 so had at least 4 hours of sleep, more than I've had at other 50 mile races. My alarms were set for 2:15 and I woke up a few minutes before they made their horrid noises and I turned them off, got up and got dressed. I then realized I felt awful. I was sick. I felt like I was moments from throwing up and had serious stomach problems. But I went through the motions of getting ready for the race. I normally have a bowl of oatmeal and a bagel before a race but barely made it through half the bowl of oatmeal. Angela had to pack my bladder with ice and gatorade, I just couldn't do it on my own.
I drove south to Vivian Park in the Provo Canyon and there was a bit of confusion at the parking lots. Or at least I was confused. I missed the proper parking lot so they told me I had to go back down the highway and park there but I was allowed to leave my drop bags, plus I had given Susette my home phone number instead of my cell number so she was inadvertently trying to call me but getting my house instead. But, I was able to meet up with her get my bib and race packet at the lower parking lot and we did the 1/2 mile walk to the starting line. I stopped at the toilets for about the fifth time that morning and got into the start line with everyone else.
THE START
I had two GPS watches with me in case the Garmin did what it did to me awhile back and lost the last 21 miles of a 50 mile race. The race started at 4:03, and we were off. The main pack pulled away from me quite fast. I was trying to get my Epson to get the satellites and it took two tenths of a mile before it finally got linked. While I was doing this I thought I'm in no rush, its going to be a long day.
The first two miles are a slight downhill run on a paved trail. I should have been doing a 9:00-10:00/m pace, but it was closer to 12:30/m for those two miles. I was also supposed to begin the race with Angie Pace, but there was no sign of her at the start. Fortunately she caught up to me in the first mile or so and we ran together. It wasn't long before we turned to the left, off the paved trail and started climbing in the dark through dense undergrowth which lined the sides of the trail.
A few more people passed us and soon we figured we were at the back of the pack of the early starters. I wondered how long it would be before the 5am people would be passing us. Angie wasn't feeling very strong either and wanted to take it easy as she had two races the following weekend. After a normal paced couple of miles of climbing I began to slow down quite a bit and Angie was pulling ahead, I hollered to her to keep going, don't worry about me.
The next three miles I averaged 32:00/m. I was struggling badly, as I wasn't eating, was feeling like crap and having doubts I was going to make the cutoff. I kept trying to do math in my head to figure out the pace needed for that cutoff, but as usual, I just can't do math when tired while running.
Going through a camp ground they had toilets there so took advantage of that, and then going up out of the campground realized the aid station had been right around the corner. At each aid station they record your bib number when you enter it, and record when you leave. I didn't feel like eating anything, but had some coke and a sausage. I chewed on the sausage for about 1/4 of a mile before I finally gave up and spat out the pieces. I just couldn't swallow it.
It was in this section after the aid station the leaders of the 5am start passed me on the single track trail. Curtis Eppley was up there, Eric Nelson, and then someone ran by with the thumbs up shouting "Go Canada Go". I mumbled back "yeah right". I didn't recognize who it was, but later found out it was Paul Moody. Brian Passey wasn't too far behind them.
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| Father and Daughter running the 50 mile race. |
My pace picked up some after this, but around mile 8 I came across Angie sitting in the middle of the gravel road. She was having dizzy spells and had to sit in case she fell on the road. She had taken some salt tablets and soon after she got up and we continued together to the first pass in the race which is around 8000' above sea level.
We had climbed around 3000' already in the race. Andrew Jensen visited with us for a moment while we were there, I introduced him to Angie, but for the life of me could not remember his name. Then Jade Magnus also came along and hung with us for a bit. He was saying he'd already taken about 200 pictures. Its always fun to see friends in a race.
I had been told you can divide the race into 4 sections. 15 miles of climbing, a 10 mile drop, then another 15 of climbing and the last 10 miles again dropping into the finish. At mile 25 I'd be meeting my pacer Ryan Delany.
When Brian Passey passed me I asked him if he happened to see Ryan to let him know I'm going slower than I figured I would be.
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| Brian Passey |
I continued with Angie until we got to Kolob Overlook Aid station around mile 15 and I knew it was downhill for most of the next 10 miles. Met up with Carl Tippets at this aid station so we visited while we ran together. At this aid station we had drop bags, but there was nothing in them I needed. My music had stopped on me ages before and I gave up being able to listen to it for the rest of the race. Angie had settled down in the aid station, I grabbed a can of coke and figured I'd sip on it while going down the road. I told her I'm going to head out. Called out to the volunteer my bib number 199 and I started the next section.
I had drop bags at aid stations #4, #6, #8 and #10. With two of them having extra shoes and socks in case I needed them.
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| Girl from Arkansas |
It had taken me 5 hours to do that first 15 miles. This was not a good start for sure.
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| Angie was having problems in this section. |
The next section was partly a rocky fire road where I saw an older guy take a nasty tumble. Turned out he was trying to catch up to his daughter and had been calling her, but she couldn't hear him because she said had zoned out listening to her music. I talked to her later and told her not to blame herself.
A lot of the downhill was a single track trail which is the best to run on. For the next 6 miles my pace was much better, around 11-12:00/m. Saw another guy, Quinton I think, take a fall on the single track trail. I spend a lot of time looking at the ground when running and around mile 21 I was doing this, and looked up and there was Ryan standing in front of me. There was a long road behind him and I thought where did he come from, how did he get here, is it just an apparition? Turned out he wasn't a ghost but it was him. He had seen runners entering the Hobble creek road and thought maybe he had missed me at mile 25 at the aid station so decided to drive
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| Almost got Andrew Jensen in the picture! |
back down and walk up the gravel road to see if he would meet up with me.
HOBBLE CREEK
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| Carl Tippets |
We visited the short walk down to Hobble Creek road, then he drove up to the aid station to wait for me and I started the trudge up Hobble Creek road which is about 4 miles of pavement and it was hot with very little shade. I told him I'd be about 45 minutes but I think it was closer to an hour. Carl Tippets passed me on this stretch and I didn't see him again for the rest of the race. I walked more than I wanted in this section but my pace for it wasn't too bad, around a 14:00/m pace. Carl was surprised this was my first time doing this race and said "Ohhhh you are in for a treat". I think he was referring to Bozung Hill.
It was in this area John Bozung the race director drove by and asked me "Are you glad you joined us?" I said yes! But I've been sick during the beginning of the race. He then handed me a banana flavored Creamy which was great! A car also parked on the side of the road further up asking runners if they needed water. I had plenty still, but asked them if I could soak my buff to hang it around my neck.
It was tough going up towards the aid station #6 at mile 25, but I finally made it there. Ryan had my drop bag ready and I met up with Marsha Monson and her two girls(Doggies) volunteering at that aid station, she's a friend of mine who lives in Riverton. Again there was nothing in the drop bag I needed as I decided not to change my shoes as it would take extra time and the ones I had on were working fine. I stored my mp3 player, battery and headphones, got rid of some garbage and after some coke and snacks we were done and out of there.
We were around 5400' at this point and Ryan and I headed out from there up a gravel road or old creek bed, I wasn't sure which it was but it could have been both. For the next 15 miles there was going to be a lot of climbing. We went about 4 miles to the next aid station #7. I had a few cokes and a bag of nachos. We climbed a total of about 2000' before we finally had some downhill before we got to the next aid station which was the cutoff point in the race, if you weren't out of their station by 2:30 you would not be allowed to continue the race. As we were going through this area we knew we were going to be okay for the cutoff deadline, but we didn't have a lot of room for error.
Every time we crossed any water, I would fill my hat and plunk it on my head to cool me off. The cold water running down my back felt awesome. In one section of the climb the trail disappeared and we were following a bank cut out from runoff. We finally climbed out of that and saw the real trail which we had missed down lower. A number of other people had done the same thing as us. The 200' downhill felt great as we were approaching the aid station. We pulled in there around 1:51 pm which meant we had 39 minutes to get out of there, not that we'd spend that amount of time there. After some slices of water melon, filled my water bottle and the bladder with ice and water, ate potato chips etc we announced we're done, sign us out. It was 2:01pm. If I had started the race at 5am I would have had a nice 33 mile training run and a free ride in a truck back to the starting line.
But the pressure was off, I had made the cutoff and we could relax, almost. We still had the most difficult part of the race to do.
BOZUNG HILL:
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| This guy was doing his 10th Squaw Peak race. |
We had eight miles until the next aid station which was on the other side of the pass. We climbed about 1000' then dropped about 400 in the first 6 miles, as we ran around the side of huge open forested canyons we could see the mountain we were supposed to climb up to and go over Windy Pass. This was the part of the course I was dreading. I hated that drop of 400' as I knew it would add to the climb ahead and thought that was so cruel. And then it began...it was steep to say the least. It might not be so bad if it was in the beginning of the race, but after already doing 40 miles? I don't think so.
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| Looking down a part of Bozung Hill |
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| One of many climbing breaks |
We would climb and I'd be watching the altitude climbing on my Epson. Each step burned as we looked to see where we could place our next footing. We would climb about 100' and then take a break, sometimes lucking out by having some shade to get a break from the heat. I knew the top was at 9000'+ so each 100' was bringing us closer.
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| Looking up a tiny section of Bozung Hill |
There were about 8 - 10 other people climbing ahead or behind us and everyone was taking a break. It was like a war zone with guys laying beside the trail trying to get their heart rates down. It also seemed like the heat was at its hottest for the day and it was taking its toll on everyone. We had filled up our bottles and bladders at the previous aid station to make sure we didn't run out before cresting the top which helped, but my shoulders were aching from the weight. The climb seemed to go on forever. We could see people in the distance a few miles behind us and felt sorry for them knowing what they had ahead of them.
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Runners struggling to climb Bozung Hill
(Photo Credit, Jade Mangus) |
As I climbed I'd see a ridge ahead and think it was the end, but then there'd be more. When we finally got to the top and began our decent to the aid station my Epson was reading about 9320'. On the way up I was figuring I am probably still going to be last to finish the race, but then talking to one guy I was telling him I was surprised at how many guys were racing who were in my age group. He asked me how old I was, told him 59, he was 53, then he told me he had started with the 4am group. I thought hmmm. If I get ahead of him, I won't be last to finish. It gave me a glimmer of hope.
As we crossed the summit we had a huge slab of snow to cross. My Altra Olympus aren't good crossing snow as they like to slide sideways so I choose to go down below it and met Ryan on the other side. While doing this I also grabbed a handful of snow shoved it into my hat and plunked it on my head. It didn't take long to get a massive headache and I had to take it off, I tried this a few times with the headache showing up each time. I finally lined the snow with my buff and that snow dripped cold water on me for the next 5 or 6 miles. It was awesome. I'm sure the people at the following aid station wondered why I was dripping so much.
THE RUN DOWN:
I tried not to spend too much time at the Windy Pass Aid station. We got there and a number of the people who had been climbing up Bozung Hill were still there, but I think they all left before we did.
The aid station had run out of coke, so I had half a Redbull and some fruit and told them I'm out of here. This was the section I wanted to try to make up some time.
The soles of my feet were extremely tender, but I figured I'd do what I could. The trail at first was clambering over mud blackened snow from the other runners feet and muddy streams following the trail as the snow was melting. This went on a lot further than I thought it would but in this section others were going pretty slow and
between the slabs of melting snow I would attempt to run. We would come across the other runners and they graciously stepped to the side to let us by. I started counting. Ryan always adds the challenge in a race to try to pass others and I started this without any encouragement from him this time. Passing #10 and #11 I realized I was counting out loud and said "self, don't do that". I kept my counting quiet from then on. I passed the 53 year old guy who was in my age group. I wasn't going to be last after all. We'd always seem to pass people in pairs, sometimes even groups of 4.
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| My hat is sitting high because of the snow inside :) |
Most were walking but some were doing a slow jog. On the packed dirt trails without the rock beds I would fly, but there were long sections of rocky trail which if you fell on that stuff you'd look like ground beef by the time you stopped. I surprised myself at the speed that I was doing in some spots even though we had already covered 42+ miles. There was one section where we climbed some and we had a couple of people we wanted to pass but I'm not good on the uphill. I could see them ahead and with short sections of running on that climb we caught them and pulled ahead. Ahead of them were two Addict 2 Athlete guys, they were running, but not fast, 2 more passed. I had no idea if some were pacers, if they started at 4 or 5am but figured the more I passed the better I'd be placed overall. Plus it helped me keep running.
We came through this one area that was filled with yellow flowers and I had to get my camera out to get a photo. We ca
me across the course photographer just below this. At least I think that's what he was.
We then crossed a huge field of grass before getting onto a road. Its a field we could see from way up in the mountains.
We got to the final aid station #10 at mile 47, and Marsha was there once again. The aid station volunteers told us we had 3.5 miles to the finish line. I hoped they were right, but I had seen some peoples maps of the course and they had been long by 2 miles. Their info plus what my watch was showing meant the course would be about 50.6 miles. I grabbed a cup of coke and got out of there tout suite. One runner walked out of the aid station just before us and we quickly passed him. 29 people passed.
We got onto the pavement and more people were ahead of us. Some had gone to a walk and looked like they were going to walk the rest of the way, but one girl was ahead of us as we passed one guy, she turned saw us and ran, I thought crap I don't need this but I waited until we got to a nice downhill stretch and I thought I can do this and pulled ahead saying to Ryan, Lets Go! We passed her, #33, and when we finally had enough space ahead of her I had to take a short walk break.
We passed a few more and then we had another guy we passed and for quite awhile he began to run trying to overtake us, I never looked back, but Ryan would look now and then and tell me he's getting close. He might have been just yanking my chain to get me to run more, and if he was, it worked. We had gone this far without anyone passing us and I wanted to keep it that way if we could. I was thinking if this course is going to be longer than planned I'll be in trouble and he will pass me, but fortunately the aid station people were right and it was going to be around 50.6 miles at the finish. A few more people were walking and we passed them. Coming down past the houses we knew we were close, there was the park, we were almost done, the cones were set up to guide the runners, I turned to the right, saw one guy in the finishing area and pushed as hard as I could, heard my name being called and was tickled to see Susette Fisher sitting there cheering us on, I passed person #39 just before the last corner and I was done. Finish time was 16:02:?? I was so glad to be done.
There was an empty chair in the finish line and I plunked down into it and didn't move for what seemed like hours. Susette came over and sat with me and we had some great laughs about the race and the possibility of doing this race again next year. She was adamant I would. It was so good to see others who had finished hours before me still there. When I heard the river was very close I thought I need to go cool off in it, but as soon as I stood, I started shaking with the cold. It was almost like my body temperature had dropped instantly and there was no way I was going to go to the river.
This race was an incredible experience. I couldn't have done it without Ryan, he is the best. Anyone who is looking for a challenge should do this race. You see countryside that most people in this area will never see in their lifetime. The race packet was the best I have ever had in all previous 60 races. Bozung Hill adds character to the race and I'm sure its what places this race into what a lot of people say is the 4th most difficult 50 mile race in the USA. I have no interest in knowing which ones the other three are, or even running them, but I will definitely do this race again.
The only thing I would recommend for the race to change is mark the course with more than the few flags. A number of places I would have gotten lost and left the course where it turned off a road or trail if I hadn't had others I was following to help me or correct me. Even some chalk or flour poured onto the road making arrows would be great as a lot of time is spent watching where to put your next step and in that moment you might miss the flags in the tree.
My official finish time was 16:02:28. There were 59 guys registered in the race in my age group of 50-59. Out of those 59, 38 finished the race and I was 31st. Overall, I think there were about 350 who registered, 264 of those finished the race and I was 220th.
Running the 5th Huntsville Marathon I had lofty goals, such as getting a good enough BQ to actually enter and be accepted. My PR going into this race was 4:13:55 and I needed around a 3:52 to accomplish this. If I could do it, it would be a huge PR but I thought it was actually possible. My plan was to run the first 16 miles at an 8:00/m pace, then the last 10.2 at a 10:30 pace or faster if I was able. This would give me a finish time of 3:55 or better. If the race went well, I figured I could eat up some more of that time in the last 10 miles. Well, you know how the best laid plans of mice and men go...
The expo was in Ogden the day before the race, I drove there, picked up my bib #12 and headed to work after doing a quick browse of the vendors. I also asked the organizers if they were doing anything recognizing those who have done all 5 of the races since 2012. I guess I wanted some kind of recognition :) I got off work 2 hours early hoping I could get a bit more sleep than I usually do before a race and I think it worked. I got around 5 hours. 4:15 the first alarm went and I was up before the second one could go. On the road just after 5 a.m. and arrived in Huntsville a few minutes before the buses departed.
I met up with Joshua and after a few attempts we got an acceptable selfie done.
Rachel encouraged me saying I'm going to do great today and I've got this! The running community is awesome with encouraging one another. They had a lot more confidence in me than I did.
Mile 24 was around 13:34 and the next goal was being threatened, Ryan Delany's PR. The wheels totally fell off the final 2.3 miles. It took me 34 minutes to complete that distance and I was trying to play all kinds of mind games. Run for 25 strides, walk for 25 strides. At one point this young girl came bouncing past running with an older guy and she invited me to run with them, I said "I'll catch up to you in a minute" Lies, all lies.
I was quite familiar with the course and knew we were coming to the final turn. There were three guys ahead of me who all looked like they were around my age, really old. I thought I've got to get ahead of them, just in case. Pushing with all I had I did pass them on the slight hill before the turn. I got around the turn and had to take a walk break. Then out the corner of my eye I thought one of them was trying to pass, so I got into a jog/shuffle mode again, it turned out it was Galen. He encouraged me once more and it helped but I couldn't keep it up even though the finish was only 2/10's of a mile away. I told him, one more walk break, and I slowed to a walk for a few moments then figured I can do the rest. The crowd was great, they were hooting and hollering for the runners which helps so much. I finally crossed the finish line and bent over so glad it was over with. They asked if I was okay and I told them I just need to lay down some place. I was thinking along the lines of some grass, but they had a tent set up with recliners and I happily went there with some water to recover. London came in soon after as she has seen me finish and offered to get me a creamy which I thought would be great.
