When I saw I had 5 weeks between Beast of the East and my January race Shippey 100, in Missouri, I hopped on ultra signup to see if there were any races available over New Years. In the past it's been a tough week for me, coming off the holidays, starting a new year is a painful reminder of another year gone by since we lost Dexter. I thought if I could find a race, I might actually stay up till midnight to celebrate the new year, and it would be less of a depressing day. Well, I stumbled on RUUTR100. Immediately wasn't a big fan with their race photos having skeletons and a graveyard set up. Not exactly the vibe I like. When someone you love lives in a cemetery and has a headstone, faux graveyards aren't so funny or cool. When I saw the buckle had a cool UFO on it, and it was a mix of aliens & zombies I decided I could ignore the whole undead thing and still have a good time, maybe avert my eyes at the aid station. The race was a 5-mile loop, 20 loops in the Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham Alabama.
It was a long10 hour drive. I carbed up with homemade meals of homemade sourdough, honey and apples <3 but kept the calories on the light side. After I ran Beast of the East and found out my buddy Paul signed up to run Ouray 100 in Colorado in July, literally one of the hardest.races.in.the.world.... I was of course overconfident and foolish and registered as well. I figured if I would ever run it, it may as well be now in my journey, I'm not getting any younger! At least I would have a friend out on the course. Well, that made for some early new yrs resolutions, including cutting out all non-race day sugar, cleaning up my diet and losing 10 lbs before July, plus working up to 20-30 min a day on my vert climber (on top of already planned training full of trails, hill repeats and climbs.) So anyway, with those things in mind a road trip is way less fun counting calories.
I listened to some church sermons, ufo podcasts, Percy Jackson novel, Lightning Thief (watching the new series on Disney with Peter, it's awesome!) and tried to keep alert and entertained. I was pleasantly surprised how beautiful Alabama is with its rolling hills and forests. Because it was a short loop race and we're still really pinching pennies at home, I decided to drive down to the race alone and sleep in the car, save on meals and hotel costs. I've got a foam mattress and a good sleeping bag and they fit the back of my SUV nicely. After I made it safely to Pelham and hit up packet pickup, I scouted out the national park, some nearby hotel parking lots, neighborhoods, but finally settled on the local Super Walmart. I saw there were already semi trucks and some work type vehicles parked in the corners of the parking lot so I took that as a sign that I could camp there undisturbed. I had to go in the store to get cash for a $5 park entry fee, so at the same time I bought a 99 cent butcher knife for when I had to make some nightly trips behind the bushes, lol. I'd forgotten my regular knife and pepper spray at home. I used the Walmart bathroom to get ready for bed & do some pre-race leukotape taping because I figured that would be easier than trying to do in the backseat of my SUV in the cold morning.
I settled into the backseat and was pretty comfortable, but the night got cold very quickly.
Luckily I had an extra blanket and my sub zero coats, so I was able to use those on top of my sleeping bag and keep a nice toasty cocoon of warmth to sleep in. Temps dropped down to 27 and if moved an inch away from my sleeping space, it was FREEZING. I read my scriptures, listened to some music, used my portable charger to charge up my watch & phone for my race the next day and tried to get some sleep. When I woke up at 2am and had to pee, contemplating getting out of the car and go out into the icy cold behind the bushes, I wondered what in the heck I was doing, sleeping in a random Walmart, hundreds of miles from home, in below freezing temps, all alone, when I could be warm in bed at home with my husband. As I looked out the skylight window and saw the moon, I caught its reflection on a couple of my bumper stickers...glimmering with the frosty windows, it was a really beautiful reminder of why I was there.
To make myself feel better I grabbed a couple homemade gingerbread cookies from my race fuel and monched them down before going back to sleep. Gingerbread oranges cones with frosting and orange spice drops from my Ouray 100 gingerbread house, actually. Kinda felt like a taste of good luck. :-D
Honestly the campout ended up not being that bad. Some guy was wigging out in a car about 10 spaces away from me, I couldn't tell if he was rocking to music, having a seizure or just angrily pounding his head on the steering wheel. I waited about 30 min until another car coming to camp parked between us, then felt better about leaving my vehicle lol. I was very happy when the sun came up and Walmart opened. I lost my hairbrush in all my stuff, so I had to run into Walmart for a new one, and grabbed some snacks -grapes, carrots, mustard pretzels- for the road trip home. I got dressed for the race in my car with the heater on because it was still below 30 degrees. It took twice as long as it usually does, but I managed to get everything done and get to the race start in time to get my gear and supplies set out near the start line. The aliens were fun and I was very happy to see the race ditched the graveyard. I can handle a santa skeleton without too much angst.
I had on a warm coat the first 5 miles loop, but the sun coming up got pretty warm quickly so I shed it after the first 5 miles. I really enjoyed the trail. It was moderately technical with roots and rocks, fairly gentle rolling hills, so completely runnable, but after I did a faceplant and several runners around me tumbled and scraped knees and cut up hands, I decided I'd better play it safe and run with my poles. Then I could move a little more quickly without worrying as much about tripping. I still took a couple falls but the poles prevented many more.
The course was really a beautiful trail through the woods. There was about a mile that was rockier and steeper than the rest, about a mile and a half through a pine forest with thick needles on the ground and pinecones as big as my head, and another mile and a half or so with views of a lake. Seemed to me to be the perfect place to be on New Years Eve. The first 10 miles I really didn't fuel on anything, the 2am frosted gingerbread was pretty packed with calories, plus a couple bananas and 2 brownies pre-race, I was set. About mile 10 I started in on my other treats and hydration. I decided to just stick with the race provided tailwind since temps were in the 40-s -50s and I wasn't sweating a whole lot. My daughter Hannah had sent me a full pound of good & plenty licorice candies for Christmas, so I ate probably a quarter of that bag and some chocolates, some more fudge brownies left over from Christmas baking, a couple baggies of gumdrops from Christmas, kept me moving pretty well for the first 50k or so.
It was the perfect temp, warmed up to prob 58 degrees in the trees. They had a big chart set up where we put on a sticker for every loop. Made it easy to keep track. One really annoying part of the race was this seemed to be a popular mountain bike trail so we had to keep getting out of the way of people zipping by on their bikes. All day. It ate up time constantly moving off the trail for the bikes. After the first loop we could run the course either direction but I just stuck with doing all the loops one way so I wouldn't get confused as I got tired, lol. There were quite a few runners out with various distances, I think 30 or so people running the 100. Maybe I was putting out antisocial vibes, but as the day went on and runners spread out, I really didn't run near anyone and when I did, nobody really struck up a conversation, everyone was concentrating on their own efforts so I was pretty much alone with my thoughts for most of the race. In a way that was really nice, I didn't feel much like conversation anyway. I really did appreciate and love that the RDs and volunteers were incredibly friendly, cheerful, helpful and encouraging, also other crews, so every time I got to the aid station I had a pump in motivation and the reminder that I was supposed to be having fun. Because it was Sunday, I spent a good part of the afternoon listening to gospel music as a way to worship even tho I was racing. I'd heard a good question on my drive down, “Are you bored by your own prayers” I chewed on that for awhile and how I could do better with my prayers and communicating with my Heavenly Father in the new year.
Starting late afternoon one of the RDs – his name escapes me, started offering me hot food every loop and that was just the best. I had at least 2 hot dogs for lunch & dinner + a burger. so happy, they even had ketchup and mustard. You'd think that was a given, but it doesn't always happen at aid stations!
Sunset came early so before I even got to 40 miles I had my lamps -coat- mittens -mask on for the night.
Ended up switching to a warmer coat but luckily it really didn't drop much below the high 30's. I never really got cold or had to use hot hands, though I did have to change out my winter hat a couple times, keeping a dry hat helped keep the rest of me warm.
One thing that I really hated was with a thermal shirt on, and then a coat, it is harder to adjust your layers of clothing, so after so many miles the lining of your clothes, bra straps, seams and such, start to get irritating and itchy, so you have to take time to just shift your layers around to a slightly different place. For some reason everything was feeling harder than it should have. It wasn't a difficult course, the climbs weren't hard, I ran everything... it wasn't all that technical, the trail wound around the forest so it didn't really get boring, but through the night hours everything just felt, hard. But, I kept plugging and moving forward every possible second. I don't recall that I ever sat down the entire race. I would stop long enough at the aid station for a bottle refill of tailwind or apple juice, a drink of coke and a warm cheese quesadilla or hot dog or burger, a couple cups of ramen noodles were a big mental boost. I think this was where the hype and fun and excitement the RD in the sparkly vest who just made you feel like you were totally awesome everytime you came through, really helped my mental state and I just kept heading back out. I wanted to take home some of the giant pinecones but holding poles, I had no way to carry them, so in the dark I threw a couple in my hat to carry back to the aid station lol.
My favorite race, No Business, had registration open at midnight, but I couldn't get the site to work, and it sold out while I was running. That was depressing. I got on the wait list, but I'm still bummed about it. I kept a fairly steady 15 min mile trail pace, though it got slower and slower as the miles wore on. My brain was in zombie mode, I was listening to music but overall felt emotionless and I had to really focus and think about Dexter and my angel Marine families and pray for them to remind myself why the heck I was out all alone in the cold in the woods on New Years Eve. Jason called from home at midnight to say Happy New Year, so that was really sweet. He was having a gaming party at home. I knew I'd probably be in bed anyway, so even if I was suffering, walking in my sleep a bit and tired and a little bored, at least I was doing something worthwhile out on the trail.
I was relieved when morning came and I could shed my coat, you can see abt mile 80 that I don't look like I'm having a heck of alot of fun.
The sun felt beautiful and warm and my spirits lifted. Around the lake we'd get a blast of frigid air...it wasn't worth putting a coat back on for, though.
When I was down to 4 loops I ran with a lady for a few minutes who was 1 loop ahead of me. She was really nice and we encouraged each other a bit, but still ran most of it on our own. I was super jealous at that point, having 3 more loops felt like forever, 5 hrs left at least. My stomach started to turn, and I was nauseous off and on, I would get cold chills and shivers and then hot flashes, but the worst was I have a reoccurring baker's cyst behind my knee, and it flared up worse than it has in any 100 miler. I was legit concerned, so I did the smart thing, rubbed in a butt-load of voltarin pain cream and ignored it. :P Actually, I had pulled my compression sleeves off sometime during the night, so I put them back on and it seemed to help. I wasn't doing well with my mental game. I was going a lot slower than I wanted to, although I was looking at a sub 30 trail race and that used to be something I couldn't pull off very often. Still, I was performing less than I felt like I could, and I was asking myself, what makes you think you can finish a race like Ouray?? Still not having much fun with a half marathon to go.
I was super grateful for some encouragement that came in on texts and on Facebook which I checked on the short .5 mile paced stretch we had leaving the aid station. I really needed the moral boost and a reminder of why I was out there. Hearing a special friend say Dexters name brought me to tears. I sucked it up and focused on moving forward.
Finally I hit the last loop, one to go, I hoped I could pull it in under 30 hrs. A girl from someones crew asked if I'd like a pacer for my last loop so I was like, sure, that'd be great. She was really nice, we didn't talk much, I just told her I wanted to keep a steady pace to finish under 30 hrs, and then I knuckled down and tried to keep up with her, she mostly power hiked and I was jogging a 15-18 min mile. Finally this loop I was just out of gas and ready to ralph so I walked a couple of the hills and had a couple dry heave moments. Every stretch of trail lasted forever and I knew every knob and rock and root after 19 loops, but finally we hit the mile 99 sign, I was sooo thrilled!
We jogged it in and I finished in 29:27, well under 30. I was so relieved! Everyone was super nice at the finish, offering to feed me and help me with anything, but I was too pukish to eat anything. The park had heated bathrooms with showers so I was able to take a quick hot shower before loading up the car to drive home. It was kinda surreal, like, okay, #64 is done, time to go home. No fan fare or anything.
The drive home was pretty brutal. I had to stop practically every hour. I drove as long as I could and as soon as I started to feel drowsy would find a rest stop or gas station, climb in the backseat and snooze until I woke up an hour or two later. It took me about 18 hrs to finish a 10 hr drive. Then I came home and pretty much slept for another 2 days. I was awake for awhile on Wednesday but hardly, I was like a zombie on the couch dozing off before I finally just went to bed at 5pm. I'm def better today though my calves are still sore. I'm finding one thing I really dislike about 100 milers isn't the pain I feel when running, it's the full 2-3 days or recovery after where I am just totally beaten down and wiped out and want to just sleep. Luckily I know it usually ends after about 3 days and I'm back to my normal energy levels, I just have to remember it's part of the experience I have to endure to be able to accomplish these races. I was really excited to find out I came in as 3rd place female, so I guess my performance wasn't too bad overall. :)
I've got a little over a week to rest up before I make a 12 hour drive to Missouri, which I'm expecting to be a chilly and possibly wet/snowy course. I'm sure I'll be back into race mode by then, but at the moment I just wanna curl up in front of the fire with a blanket and do nothing! I've started getting miles in and before lunch today I'll hop on the vert machine and get back to climbing.
Happy New Year to Dexter, Jacob, Jake, Taylor Morgan (&Nate & Jenn) in heaven. You are never forgotten. May your families find peace and assurance in this new year, that you are never far away.
Hi Rosie,
Sorry you had to solo this race. I can only imagine how hard that drive home is after running 100 miles in 29+ hours 😱. Congrats for gutting it out (and easily getting sub-30 finish, as 3rd female finisher!) Well, I guess the good news is you got another one knocked off the list and that's one less to the finish line of your Herculean goal! Congrats on #64!
It's too bad the tradition of New Year's Eve fireworks doesn't carry down to Alabama. I'll e-mail you a short video of what we saw from our lanai in Hawaii. It's a big tradition here, much bigger even than the 4th of July.
Good luck on your training for…