After visiting my adorable grand baby at Robbins AFB in Georgia in February I had to find an excuse to drive the 10 hrs to see her again asap. Stumbled on Endurance Hunter 100 on a google search, taking place 2 months later. An inaugural race with advertised 15k elevation in the Georgia mountains. I watched their 6 min advertising video and it showed nice smooth hilly trails so I figured it would be something I could handle, though 15k is pushing my training. With Ute 100 looming in August I figured this would be a good mountain test. When the weather was tolerable I hit the rocky rugged roller coaster of the AT 1-2 x a week, carrying a 10lb weighted pack to get stronger on climbing. It turned out this was precisely the training I'd need for this race ..and by just barely enough!
I came down with Jason a day early to spend a day with my son and wife and the cutest happiest grand baby in the world! Made we wanna tough things out in the upcoming race, though I was doubting my ability to finish under cutoff, because I wanna be an epic grandma for her. <3 We also met up with some great friends Dave & Desiree and their 6 kids. ...I did a mom headcount of 5 and was reminded very strongly that there were 6 and they were all together. As angel parents themselves they've been a huge support to Jason and I, navigating the marriage, church and grief struggles following child loss. Felt grateful to be with them laughing and talking and smiling knowing we all had a spot of permanent pain in our hearts, and it was ok.
Was really nervous as this was a 1st year race, not much info on trail conditions, I only knew that half the aid stations were 11-15 miles apart so I would have to plan on being self sufficient + have Jason crew me wherever possible. Started 7am in Blue Ridge, Ga I'd read this was bigfoot country, so that was kind f funny. Luckily I came through this experience without seeing one, either real or a hallucination. ha!
There was a 100% chance of rain for 15 hrs the day before, but race morning started out at a moderate temp with party cloudy skies. I knew we'd hit rain up in the mountains so I had an emergency poncho stuffed in my pack. Definitely ended up needing that ha! The first few miles were on the outskirts of Blue Ridge Ga. About a mile in we hit a 2 mile stretch of rotting weedy railroad tracks. It felt like 2 miles of creek hopping! I was concerned about burning out early so I took my time. My first special experience of this race came early. While hopping tracks the Styx song "Sing for the day" "...sing for the moment, sing for the time of your life!" played.
I felt the sweetest rush of spirit through my heart and Dexter giving me advice on what was to come...." When it gets tough, be in the moment and feel the joy like Hannah would. She would love this adventure." <3 Yes, less than 3 miles into this race my heart was already full and tears were in my eyes. My daughter Hannah has a beautiful free spirit so much like her brothers and she's been such a support with empathy and faith, strength and so much love through my mourning, I thought of her beautiful smile and the reminder to have joy in the moment and it stayed with me through some real extremes.
8 rolling miles, I texted Jason and said, well so far nothing steep, its been pretty easy and fun. Blew through the 8 mile AS with 12 till the next. They had a full spread of snacks and individual packs of jerky was my favorite! From that point on the race was mostly single track.
Just as I told Jason the hills weren't bad, the elevation kicked in and I could swear we ran uphill for the next 22 miles to the mountain peak! Ha! I saw Hunter, the RD, a 20yr old adventure runner who had been on Amazons world's toughest race, just as I really started climbing. I was impressed, he was out on all over the course checking on runners, super friendly with lots of advice.
The mountains to AS2 were steep with narrow trails and long drops off one side so I was really watching my footing but my legs were really strong on those climbs and it gave me confidence, though nothing could prepare me for what was ahead. I called Jason and just as I told him it wasn't too technical, it got technical! My kids would laugh at me because I have a habit of jynxing things haha. The views at the mountain top were spectacular, up pretty high & looking down at misty mountain tops. Around then a heavy gale - like thunderstorm hit. It was wild and a bit scary. The rain was coming down so hard that it hurt my skin and I thought about pausing for shelter under a tree, but decided with early spring leaves it wouldn't be much cover anyway. It got very cold though probably only in the 50s. I pulled up my arm sleeves and stopped long enough to get the rain poncho on.
The rain let up after awhile. Got to AS 2 and picked up a second water bottle with one of the long stretches with no aid stations coming up. I met the RDs mom, Melissa, at this AS. She was so young & sweet and funny and so encouraging. We chatted for a few minutes with some other female runners about how hard it was to find places to poop for females on a 100 course ..always looking for the 'pooping tree' and the phenomenon that a group of men guaranteed would be running by just at that moment. It was pretty funny and true. She stocked me up with fruit leather which I was excited to get, because before this race I'd had the thought I should try it out. Ended up being perfect. Sometime between the 2nd & 3rd AS my gps stopped working. It was dropping miles every time I got out of the connection areas. So though I never got lost on the course my mileage accd to my watch was only 84 miles. This ended up as a blessing in disguise. As the race had a 35 hour cutoff, I though I was behind schedule by several hours, so I forced myself to keep a solid steady pace. That wasn't the easiest thing to do in the next stretch...when the skies opened up and hit us with hours of heavy rain. I actually had a slight worry about getting hypothermia being wet and chilled for so long so I pushed enough to stay warm.
Before the race I'd asked several times if there were river crossings and I never did get an answer , so I just planned on it ..and BOY were there river crossings. Ha! Apparently some wouldn't have been bad but the heavy rain made them even more challenging. Several were knee deep, one was mid thigh with water rushing hard enough that I thought for a minute that I could get swept over the waterfall! I counted at least 12 river crossings in this stretch in addition to the downpour. My daughter loves the rain so every time I was tempted to wallow, I thought instead of Hannah and I really did find a deep and profound joy even in the extreme conditions. I was smiling and feeling joy and laughing at the absurd weather while running through a magnolia tree forest. Reminded me of my mom's funeral and all the Magnolia trees at Arlington cemetery. I was party miserable but loved it. I did have a solid wallow mile around 50k I think, where I was miserable and feeling sorry for myself climbing a cold steep mountain road, feeling like I was swimming in the rain . It SUCKED...It was at that point I felt a strong US Marine Corps whisper in my ear to 'Suck it up!!' It gave me a boost of strength to power up a tough climb I just grinned and thanked SSgt Taylor Wilson for taking a few minutes from the spirit world, to kick my a$$ up that sucky soggy mountain.
" Suck it up" indeed.
For what felt like miles upon miles I ran from river to river crossings up and down steep rocky hills, through the magnolia forests. The trail had become like a creek so I was hopping back and forth to each side of the trail to find the most secure footing. I remarked to another runner that we might be drier if we were running in the actual river. Ha! There were some 30- 40 trees down from a severe storm that had recently passed through the mountains.. The race staff & volunteers had tried to move some but there were so many that we were climbing over and through and around downed trees constantly. There was one that I literally had to crawl under through the mud. I was annoyed that my hands were all muddy but it didn't matter much because of yet another river crossing was just yards away where I could wash them.
By the 3rd ...somewhere just before 40 miles my watch had already lost miles and the race tracker had cut out and only showed a marathon had passed. Lots of runners had problems with their trackers through that storm. It made it tough for Jason to meet me. The AS was at the foot of a stunning waterfall, but thinking I was 3 hrs behind I took no time to look and started the...."climb" to the next section. This was literally a climb. In the mud we grappled up the side of a hill at roughy an 80% angle. I had to dig in the mud to get a grab on tree roots to haul myself up. That was.a.beast. I was very glad we had a long downhill gravel road section after that to recover. Met Hunter out on course again and he gave me lots of encouragement. The next stretch was a long haul of 14 miles. Luckily the rain had stopped and temps were ok. I drank alot, filled my bottles and grabbed extra calories including choco chip cookies. The AS volunteers had given me every single fruit leather they had and so I had just the right amount of calories on board. The sky had cleared and the late afternoon sun was beautiful.
I had a sweet grandma moment along this stretch. When I bit into a cookie from the AS I could taste the hint of baking soda and I was kindof overcome with the feeling of love from my Grandma Mounteer who died when I was 15. I got teary eyed and talked out loud to her. I apologized that my sister's and I had always laughed at her yucky cookies with too much baking soda, haha, and that I was sorry I hadn't thought of her for a very long time. I expressed my understanding being a grandma now of how much she must have loved us kids and I thanked her for visiting me when I was 15 and in a deep depression. That's the age that I knew that ministering angels were real. It was an unexpected visit and full of love. ❤️
Met another runner, Brian, former US Army along here. He'd noticed my music and asked if it was Imagine Dragons. Of course, then he was my favorite other runner on the course, haha. We ran together awhile and chatted, later in the race he kept me from getting lost. He was ahead of me most of the race, I was super glad to see he powered through and finished behind me. I must have passed him at an AS.
This stretch was where I was very grateful that the weather was cool. We'd turned on our lamps as the evening got dark. It was a pitch black night with no moon. I ran out of water and was parched, obsessing over wanting a drink of water. I was worried I was dehydrated, even in thr rain wed been through. I then remembered that I'd packed a life straw for just that occasion. Of course this ended up being a dry section! I did find 2 small tricking waterfalls and was able to get 2 16 oz fills that got me through. I had no problems after that. I did take a few short stops to turn off my headlamp and look up at the brilliant stars.
Jason was finally able to catch up with me at around 51 miles. My brain was off as was my watch so I had no idea of my progress. Was finally able to change out of my soaking wet shoes. My hands and feet were totally shriveled prunes. I took a decently long stop there, lubed my feet with A&D ointment and dry socks felt amazing! Happily despite 10+ hrs in wet shoes I had no blisters. I ate 2 hot ramen noodles loaded with extra salt. Jason had brought boiling water in a thermos and it worked perfectly, no soggy old or cold noodles. Sadly it didnt work well for the mac and cheese. The noodles stayed hard so I just drank the cheese juice, ha! Restocked with orange juice, lots of fruit snacks & headed into the night for the next 11 miles. I really dont remember much about this stretch, just alot of single track up & down and trying to follow the trail blazes in the dark.
Jason met me again around 100k My watch was only showing 50 miles so my brain wouldn't put 2&2 together that 50 miles was the last AS, not 38-40. I was overjoyed when Jason reminded me again that I was at 62! I had taken notes about the course description that I carried with me, and I'd written ' big climbs'! Through those 3 aid stations. No joke. Another ramen and more fruit snacks and headed out on loop 1 of the Gahoti trail.
The real test of this race kicked in after 100k. There are 2 loops around Fort Mountain state park. One 10.5 miles, one 15. I thought I'd get through the 10 pretty quickly but it took me 4 hours! The terrain here was just like at home, steep and ridiculously rocky. I was grumbling out loud, a little ticked off that the race promo video hadn't shown any rock sections haha. My moods swung all over, and the trail was a bit hard to find. I almost took the wrong route twice. That 4 hrs was very solitary, no other runners all alone in the dark. I remembered Hannah's smiling at adventure and just about then came out on a ridgeline that overlooked the city lights for miles. It was stunning. I realized how cool it was to be at the top of a mountain in the middle of the night. :) Sadly no sign of bigfoot. haha. I distracted myself from the exhaustion and difficult terrain by looking for heart shaped rocks and found enough for Dexter, Taylor and Jacob. Jason was still at the looped AS as I came back around 73 miles-ish. This was the section I was dreading, it was about 5 am and I had a 15 mile stretch ahead. The AS volunteer said not to worry, the next section wasn't as technical ( partially true) but to watch out because there was a very steep climb. After about 4 steep climbs I decided he had definitely downplayed that!!
Though my legs were exhausted and I had some hot spots on my feet I was moving pretty well for miles 74-89. I'd changed my batteries 3-4 times because I needed the brighter light to see the rocks & roots. I was looking for Melissas ' pooping tree' haha, when I went down hard! So hard I did half a somersault. I think I mildly sprained my wrist but luckily nothing I couldn't recover from.
It was along the top of a mountain....what I thought was the top...where I was treated to the most spectacular mountain sunrise. Again I felt so much joy to be out in the wild and so grateful for the strong body that God has given me. Right at sunrise I felt a strong impressions from my friends brother Nate, whose 1st angelversary is in April. I'd been concentrating so hard that I hadn't prayed much. He impressed on my mind to not forget his mom and sister. Right at that moment I looked down and a sparking heart shaped rock was on the trail for them. It was pretty special.I prayed that Nate's family would feel him close.
My annoyed face when I encountered yet another steep rocky climb.
So last weekend was LDSGeneral Conference and the prophet President Nelson gave a sermon about having faith to remove the mountains in our life. A quote from that stuck in my mind all week and came to me as I started up a steep slope.
"The Savior is never closer to you than when you are facing or climbing a mountain with faith."
I've had many proverbial mountains to climb the last 3 years, but on this morning, it was a real mountain. Ha! I needed strength to pull out a strong finish in this race. Since it was Sunday morning I put on some church music. and tried to tune in to the spirit to help me. Listening to moms favorite hymn "How great thou art" on top of a mountain on a beautiful sabbath morning with crisp air, bright blue skies, birds chirping, wildflowers in bloom including wild purple iris, I could feel mom and my Saviors love and felt so much gratitude.
At 9am i checked my phones reception and actually had a signal so I decided to Zoom into our Sunday morning church service. It was pretty funny listening to the normalness of church almost 90 miles into an ultra. Haha! I noticed zoom was sapping my phone battery so I only got in 30 min just as I was hitting the climb I'd been warned about. I put on some Sabaton climbing music and started cranking up the hill. But, this was no hill. This was the.steepest trail I have ever been on. In my head I'm saying... "Heavenly Father, I made it to church, can you please help me up this mountain??? Ha! Every 10th or so of a mile I thought, surely I'm at the top. But no, it kept going. And going. And going. We have a very steep section of trail at home that in training I'll count 100 steps to the top. It usually helps me crest the top but....I just kept counting to 100. I lost track of how many 100s I went through. I would take 100 steps, then pause to rest, then take 100 more. Over and over. Higher and higher. I finally reached an open power line stretch where I could see the top, I swear a quarter mile away. It was slightly less steep the last stretch so I gave it all I had and powered to the top. As I crested the last hill isaw someone had planted a small American flag at the top and it warmed my heart, I felt like I'd just climbed Everest haha.
Not sure if I was going the right way, I started running downhill and just a short way off there was the ARGeorgia ambulance AS vehicle with Jason and Hunter both there. I was elated! Hunter said he couldn't believe how fast I'd climbed that mountain because he was watching me on the tracking and said I just flew up. I told him it's cuz I went to church hahaha. They had the most delicious spaghetti & I ate two bowls full. In fact it was probably mediocre spaghetti but it tasted amazing. We chatted about the ridiculous climb and Hunter said he couldn't believe my quick turnaround. Said after the climb people were taking 30-40 minute breaks but I was ready to go under 10 min. They got me stocked up with OJ, fruit snacks and a cup of soup for the road. 3 miles to the next AS, then 8 to the end, mostly downhill.
It was almost 10:30 and I thought maybe I could finish by 2:00, the 32 hour mark, 3 hrs before cutoff. Met Melissa again at the last AS and she dug out all the fruit leather she had for me, plus some peanut butter corn flakes squares...delicious! Jason was there & refilled my bottle with OJ. Kissed and I hit the last 8 miles. Again almost got lost but managed to guess right.
This was mostly downhill with a few moderate climbs. I had 2 hours to cover 8 miles for my goal of 2pm... =15 minute miles to do that. My whole body was completely wiped out but again I remembered to "suck it up" and gave it my best. I was pretty well on track until the last 2 river crossings and half a dozen trees to climb over. Full sun with some partial shade, the sun was wiping me out so I calculated that I'd miss 2:00 by 5-10 minutes. Kinda bummed but I kept pushing. Took a 2 minute break at 95.5 miles at a river to just sit in the cold water for a moment. That felt sooo great on muscles and cooled me off. I splashed water over my shirt and got in 1.5 quick miles, but I dried off fast in the sun and was soon feeling a bit dizzy and slightly nauseous. I'd eaten all my snacks and only had 3/4 a bottle of OJ left with 3 miles to go. I didn't want to take time to fill my life straw from the river so I budgeted out my remaining drink into 3rds, 1/3 each mile. Picked up pace watching the clock every few minutes. Down the the last mile....
I had 18 min to hit 2:00. I thought, in this still air and blazing sun, I'm not going to get in before 32 hours hit. I looked up at the blue sky and said 'Heavenly Father, I know I ask a lot but I'd be so happy if I could make it by 2:00....a solid strong finish to honor Dexter Taylor and Jacob.
Right as the words left my lips, a stiff cool breeze came rolling down the mountain and blew cooling air for the next mile. There was a long uphill though with a mile left to go. I power hiked as fast as I could go but looking at my watch I had 2 minutes & was still pushing. I thought....well, nobody but me will know that I didn't hit 32 hours. But.. I will know!
I thought I still had half mile to go when suddenly I saw Jason come around the corner. A blessed sight lol!! I yelled to him
" how far to the finish?" "About 150 yards"
"150 yards?" Move out of my way!"
Ghost Division, one of my favorite cranking running songs had just come on so I ran as hard as I could.
"Fast as the lighting phantoms swarm...born to compete, never retreat, ghost division!"
Saw my watch turn 2pm and I went full throttle through the finish before the clock turned to 2:01. Not sure there is anything in the world that has ever felt like that. It was exhilarating, knowing it given it my best. It wouldn't matter to anyone but it mattered enough to me for God to let me have a big USMC push there at the end.
After I collapsed with happiness and relief on the ground i found out that my ultra brain math was off by an hour + change. I actually finished at 30:58 & 38 seconds...an hour faster than I'd hoped at the end, and 4 hours above the cutoff. :) :) :)
I am so so happy with this finish. Fastest time on a hard trail race with no comparable elevation or steady trail difficulty. It was so well executed and Jason was ready to get me in and out of the AS as fast as possible. Also my training and fueling and hydration were just about perfect. No real nausea, no blisters and no injuries aside from the mild wrist strain at the 'pooping tree' haha. I feel so much more confident having had a strong finish, with a stream of hard races coming up this summer + fall. & btw, I think this course was closer to 18k elevation. :-P Jason remarked that he'd never seen me so happy, just beaming through the race. I attribute that to the example of joy from my daughter Hannah and her big brother Dexter reminding me to look for it in the mountains, and I truly found it. ❤️❤️❤️
"Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability to move the mountains in your life, even though your personal challenges may loom as large as Mount Everest."
-Russel M Nelson
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