Silverheels 100 #52 Fairplay, Colorado

This was a long 5 week break between races, I enjoyed the extra training time and was able to get caught up on various chores around the house & farm, but after 3 weeks was definitely feeling antsy to get back at it. With Froggy Mountain and its 100 loops w. 50k elevation gain coming up in mid July, I've focused most of my time strengthening my climbs with weighted packs and vert training at least 4x a week, doing hill repeats. Kinda fun carrying a rock each trip to the top of a nearby hill at Cool Springs Battlefield, then down the hill the next time out.

I don't know if it's been enough vert to pull out a finish for Froggy, but it was definitely great training for Silverheels. This race is held in beautiful (and high altitude!) F airplay Colorado, and the entire race is pretty much run over 10-11k, topping out a couple times over 12k. I tried to get in some solid heat days of breathing hot humid air hoping it would help with acclimating to altitude. I was planning to make the drive from VA to CO alone but Jason decided to come with me the last minute, which was incredibly generous of him considering we already have a cross country trip scheduled in August ha-ha. I just needed another race this early part of summer and couldn't get excited about doing any hot loops which is about all that's available on the east coast at the moment

I celebrated my 50th b day June 16 and was reminded that back in January I'd made a goal to finish 50 100s before then, I'd forgotten, so it was fun to know I accomplished it anyway. Also celebrated Fathers Day, & that weekend is always a rough one, missing my Dad and not having Dexter here to be a father to his little girl. :-( But, managed to get through the month and felt ready to race. A week out I pulled a muscle in my foot that made it hurt to walk, especially at night, so I was concerned. We had an amazing opportunity to meet via zoom with the executive director of Wear Blue, and together plan for a 100 miler in conjunction with the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC in October. Wear Blue wants to sponsor a 100 and support it, and hopefully together we will bring in some corporate sponsorships and make it a successful fundraiser. I was so humbled and excited that they want to share in mine and Dexter's story, just a cool run to look forward to! Because we met right before July 4th, Lisa Hallett offered us tickets to attend the White House July 4th concert, so it was pretty neat to wear blue on Independence Day, this time not in a run but just the long hot humid walk from Metro to the White House, lol. Not gonna express my feelings either way about the politics involved but I respect the office of President and the honor to be on the White house lawn for July 4th, a really special opportunity that never would have happened if I hadnt been running for veteran suicide awareness, so I said the names of my Marines there @ the White House and hoped they knew it was because of them, and gave a little free ice cream toast to Dexter, Taylor, Jake and Jacob.

Just walking around DC I had a limp so was pretty concerned how this upcoming race would play out. I spent the last week on the elliptical to avoid any pounding to hopefully let everything heal up. Fortunately it completely disappeared once I actually started the race and gave me no trouble during or afterwards.

Jason and I had a good time driving out to Colorado, he drove most of the way and I tried to nap as much as possible. We listened to Andy Serkis narrating the Hobbit on Audible, so that made the 26 hr drive a little more entertaining. We had a little snafu with our cabin accommodations once we arrived in Fairplay so Jason thought he'd end up sleeping in the car all weekend, luckily a little hotel in town had a room so we avoided that! There's not much going on in Fairplay. We found a little bar where Jason could get a burger and I had a double plate of tater-tots, picked up a few things at the tiny little grocery store, took a nap before the pre-race meeting that was held at the high school track which was the start/finish for the race. Kindof annoyed at a 7pm mandatory meeting with a 4am start, but we managed to grab some food after and get to bed by 9, still, less than 6 hrs of sleep which is not the best pre race rest. Had a sub and donuts for a late dinner after 8pm which I absolutely need to never eat that late again. Sat in my stomach like a rock for the first 15-20 miles of the race.

Luckily I slept deeply because I was up at 2:45 am to get ready! Super early! It takes time to tape up niggles and places prone to blister, apply lube &arthritis cream, throw on toe socks which take a little bit longer to find toe holes, lol, get my hair done so it won't get all fly-away during a run, put a little makeup on that I'll sweat off in the first hour, haha, plus getting dressed, pinning on a bib, doublechecking pack, taking vitamins etc. Takes a good solid hour for me to be ready to head out the door. The weather was breezy cool mountain air, perfect jacket temps, Every time I've run in the Rockies there's been rain and/or hail so I was prepared for cold wet weather conditions, but we ended up having just about as clear and perfect weather as you could ask for.

The first couple miles of paved and smooth dirt road I was feeling pretty good, but as soon as the elevation kicked in for the long climb to the summit I really felt the thin air. I had a nice chat with a local girl named Sarah who was super nice, running with her for a bit kept my mind off how hard I was having to breath at just a power hike pace. I knew the thin air and high altitude was going to be the big challenge, so even though I was near the the last runner I just eventually wished her good luck and had to slow things down to keep my heart rate in check. Kept a steady forward jog/power hike. There's a steady inclined rugged ATV road up to the summit, kindof heavy chonky boulder gravel. Some of it was easy terrain to cover but some places it got really steep with large loose rocks so you had to watch your footing climbing upwards. My headlamp wasn't as bright as it should have been so I had to really watch my footing till sunrise. There was a really beautiful cool ethereal fog covering the mountains and pine trees, thin enough to see through but it gave everything a magical appearance.

The first Aid station is just above the treeline. It had a top gun theme and I left a big kiss lipstick print on their framed pic of Tom Cruise, (lol I don't actually even like Tom Cruise)... then its a 5 mile out and back to Silverheels mine sitting above 12,000ft. The views were spectacular, most of the snow was melted but there was still a little we had to slosh through. With the out & back it was over an hour at that altitude, and with the cold air on the mountain as early as 20 miles in I started feeling it in my lungs.

Coming down off the pass the skies were a brilliant blue and I loved going up and down climbs through the pines. Well trained for the climbs, and minus the altitude they would have been fairly easy for me for the first half. I found a huge footprint in the middle of the trail, probably a bear but for fun I decided it had to be a bigfoot print. :-D

Didn't see any other big animals except for a few deer though I heard some runners had come face to face with a moose! Even though temps were probably only in the low 70s, the sun was glaring and I could feel my neck getting burned and was starting to get ice at aid stations as the day went on. The aid stations were serving up delicious food and I ate a bunch of cheese-bacon-avocado wraps. It was nice to meet Jason at mile 25 and have him get me stocked up on ice and liquid calories, & an extra bottle of water to pour onto my sleeves to cool off. Seeing him was a good mood lifter.

I was loving the beautiful weather, the changes in color in the rocks and dirt from tan to purple to red, and just amazed at all the beautiful wildflowers. The Purple iris's were my favorite because my mom loved those. It felt like she was enjoying them with me. After the cool morning though and probably not getting enough hydration, my lungs were aching and wheezing and I felt them getting congested. I called Jason and asked him if he could meet me with a mask later. I thought breathing in some humid air by wearing a mask might help. It was so bothersome that I switched to trying to breath in through my nose and out my mouth to soften the air going into my lungs. It was effective but I realized how much I absolutely HATE HATE HATE nose breathing! Hyeah, its supposed to be good for your lung capacity and whatever but I find it just demoralizes me. I had to keep it up for hrs until I met Jason again around mile 40-ish.

The volunteers at all the aid stations were excellent, so friendly and helpful and I hardly dug into my drop bags because my stomach was feeling good and the food was sooo good. Lemon sandwhich cookies were another aid station favorite and I especially loved the monkey bread a cute little girl in a monkey suit helped her mom make for the “jungle” aid station. There was a lot of beautiful singletrack soft pine trail through the woods, but we also ran on a lot of dirt mountain roads that were very exposed with little shade.

I knew I wasn't hydrating as well as I should but I didn't want to carry more fluid and so I tried to make up for it by drinking some extra electrolytes at the aid station. For the most part that worked out well but I did end up paying for it the last few miles of the race.

Met Jason late afternoon/early evening and with much relief I sucked up some oxygen out of a can of oxygen we'd brought along, and got a mask on, along with my headlamps and headed back up the next climb. I wouldn't see Jason till wee hours of the morning. He'd found a little gaming shop in Fairplay and they had a one shot D&D night, so I told him he should totally go play a round and meet me after. The mask really helped a TON. It took the edge off the sharpness of the air going into my lungs. I had to really try not to cough because it would rattle my lungs and felt something like bronchitis, but as long as I breathed easy my lungs didn't get worse, and I was just happy to be done nose breathing. Blah so stupid. I know a few people who swear by it, but to me its draining and sucks away my enjoyment of a hard workout! Had a big big climb then long easy descent with some beautiful views after that aid station. (Tarryall) There was a couple loops/out and backs, so you'd hit that aid station 3x so saw quite a few runners who were ahead of me, I'd been in the back of the pack all day, but slowly passed a couple people who ended up dropping out. I still had a pretty good time buffer even though I was taking things easy to keep my heart rate and breathing at a comfortable rate. Jason also lent me his inhaler which I used every hour or two through the duration of the event to keep my lungs open, they felt like they had developed a bit of fluid in them.

I was glad to have the mask as it got dark and cold, but I was moving well enough I really didn't need a jacket or coat. When I met Jason again it was pretty freezing out so I got my thick winter coat, but was soon too hot so I wasted time taking it off and on depending on if I was climbing or descending. It was quite annoying. Finally I gave up on it and just stuffed some hot hands down my shirt and into my mittens and it did well enough to keep a regulated temperature. Sometime in the night Jason met me, which was where Id picked up my coat and hot hands and I think I remember he got me to eat a cup of noodles. I was exhausted and falling asleep on my feet. He timed a 10 minute nap for me in the car and I was dead asleep for 8 minutes, lol. It helped alot!

Running through a big open alpine meadow in the middle of the night, I shut off my lamps and just took a few minutes to check out the stars and the milky way and send my love to Dexter. I was prob up around 11k and they were sooo brilliant, so many stars, the milky way so vibrant! I thought of how much more amazing view of the universe our loved ones on the other side must have and thought how I looked forward to the day when we'd explore the universe together. <3

For all the discomfort, I was so grateful for the chance to be out on a mountain all alone at night. I never felt nervous because I always, always feel I have unseen companions with me.

The best aid station ever was in the middle of nowhere, Trout Creek, 2 or 3 am. One of the volunteers had brought out her pizza oven and I had a couple thick crispy crust slices of fresh hot pizza! To die for! I felt 100% revived from my wee hour of the morning slump. After this I started running past all the 50 milers who began their race at midnight, I believe. It was nice to see people but I kinda missed the solitary run under the stars.

In the predawn dark I was saying a prayer for my friend Sally who I knew had been having surgery and was maybe having a rough time of things. A song came on my playlist that made me think of her and her angel brother Nate. As I was listening & thinking I should send her this song, all of a sudden along the dirt trail I was running I started spotting gold eyes close to the ground. As I got close, I saw they were small little owns just sitting on the trail. Once they got into my lamplight, they would fly off, but for the duration of the song I ran past like 10 of them....just random owls! I think maybe they were burrowing owls? But I didn't see them before or after, just along that one stretch of trail during that one song. I felt like that was something special for Sally. <3 So, if you read this, girl, it's for you. https://youtu.be/wmmdRNKB0BM

By this time I was getting pretty drowsy again. I'd taken some altitude sickness meds but thought maybe they were contributing to feeling sleepy so only took half, so I kind of felt worse. I probably should have gone full dose and upped my caffeine, but I was tiredly troubleshooting and making some little mistakes. Unfortunately, that led me to taking the wrong direction at a fork in the road. Luckily I ran into other runners coming the opposite direction and caught my mistake. After we looked over the course map, figured out where I'd missed the turn. I ended up backtracking an extra 2-3 miles but if I had continued the way I was going it would have been closer to 8-10 miles. It ate away at my 90 min time buffer at this point, but could have been so much worse! I stumbled into the aid station as the last guy Miguel, who'd I'd run with for a little while and had been behind me, was dropping out. He got ahead of me when I was lost. So, I was dead last out there but I was still pushing! I'd been hoping to finish several hours earlier and avoid the heat of the afternoon but the course ended up being more difficult than expected, so it turned into a push to finish at all!

I was able to meet up with Jason mid morning and get refreshed with extra water & ice. I ate like half a watermelon at that aid station lol.

I was still feeling pretty strong until it started warming up, then breathing got to be difficult and I was getting fatigued with every climb. I'd hike 100 steps, pause and catch my breath, then hike 100 more. I did this for hours, basically every climb the entire day, except when I was making the last push to the Silverheels mine, it turned into a break every 50 steps! So so hard! Feeling dizzy and nauseous, lightheaded and completely out of energy, just kept trying to get one foot in front of the other. Wierd because my quads and calves peft perfectly fine, hardly taxing them, it was just like the altitude sucked away every ounce of energy I had. I was sooo elated when I finally reached the aid station at the summit, even though I had another hour and a half at 12k altitude, for the out and back to the mine.

There was a lot of 50 mile runners out at this time along this stretch so I chatted with quite a few of them, everyone was struggling. I was the last 100 leaving the summit, had a few 50 milers behind me but they overtook me the last 4-5 miles. Except for a small climb or two, the last 10-ish miles were all downhill, though in the sun and going over a couple long stretches of steep loose bouldery road.

I just made my way the best I could. By that last aid station Id tried to suck down some juice of tangerines but my stomach wouldn't take anything else. I had about 8 oz of electrolytes and that was all I could manage to drink with 10 mi left to go in the heat. I knew it wasn't good, was just gonna get more dehydrated and calorie deficient but I couldn't stomach anything. Luckily going downhill wasn't going to burn too many calories. That stretch went on for-ever. At least a mile longer than it is on paper. I thought I'd never find Jason at the 3 mile water stop to the finish. I had to stop and sit down to throw up some undigested food from hours before. I felt a little better and thought I was still making okay time, but Jason called and that's when we realized I had an extra mile thrown in. I was getting sooo overheated from the sun, no water to cool off with. I sucked on some ginger candies at a prompted thought and later read hard candy, a mask and hydration is good for High Altitude Pulmonary Edema which I'm pretty sure I was dealing with.

Finally Jason had run out like half a mile to meet me from the car at the water station and started cracking the whip, telling me to go faster. He wasn't yelling at me, but he wasn't being nice, either, lol. Just a little drill sergeant in him coming out, and I was stumbling and falling forward dizzy and nauseous trying to just move. I finally had to just stop and do a second round of puking. That managed to get the rest of the undigested food out of my stomach so I actually felt a little better. We got to the car/water station and he filled my hat with ice, poured some down my back, filled my water bottle so I could douse my sleeves and I was able to actually pick up the pace for most of the last 3 miles to the finish.

As soon as I knew I had a mile left I lightened my pace knowing Id make it but going slow enough to not re-induce vomiting, lol.

Jogged onto the final stretch on the high school track with a couple 50 miler guys, one was a Navy veteran and he wanted to finish with me, so that was really cool. :-) Barely pulled off a finish around 37:45, 15 min shy of the final 38 hr cutoff. Collapsed into a chair, and was presented with a fun DFL award for being “dead f-ing last” my buckle, and a bottle of wine to drown my sorrows for being last haha, even though we don't drink! Man, it was a tough and beautiful adventure. I was 1/5 women who finished.

I definitely felt deep down anxiety for my next 2 high altitude races coming up and even my dream race of Hard Rock, wondering if I got in, if I could actually finish it, lol. Got a hot bath and crashed right away at the hotel and slept 9 hrs, like a log. We got an early start home from Fairplay. By the time we reached Denver I was finally ready to eat and had a double large serving of Wendys breakfast potatoes, so delicious!! I counted 18 ketchup packets and who knows how much salt, haha.

My legs were feeling pretty good because overall physically, I was more than well trained for the course, but my lungs were still really congested and I was coughing up a bunch of phlegm. We planned to trade off driving the 26-ish hrs back home, but poor Jason, I crashed so hard and ended up sleeping for 90% of the drive and only managed to drive about an hour. As soon as we got home, I crashed on the couch and slept for another 24 hrs, waking up occasionally to a hacking painful cough. Finally 4 days later I feel like the cough has finally subsided and my lungs feel mostly better, & legs feel great. I've got a week to rest up and get mentally prepared to attempt that 50k worth of elevation gain in 100 miles @ Froggy Mountain in Southern Virginia heat and humidity. We'll see how that plays out! At least I should be able to breath! I'm going to plan out my Leadville and Ute runs a but more carefully so I'll be prepared for the high altitude when we go back west in August. I definitely owe this finish to Jason who got me out and back from Colorado safely and had the critical supplies I hadn't prepared for, (mask, oxygen, ice, inhaler!) so that I was able to push through. Definitely not my best performance out there but still, finished #52 /100 and I;m super happy to be underway on the second half of this journey with my son Dexter, my friend Nate and my Marine Angels, Taylor, Jacob & Jake <3 It was kindof fun yet very sad to come across this memory of when I first decided to run 100/100s. I'm glad I'm well ahead of my initial goals. <3 :(

Just as a closing thought, our family was so very blessed to welcome Mason James Morris to the family on June 29, new son of Isaac, Dexter's little brother in the AirForce. I had to smile with joy that Dexter would probably tease Isaac that he's a "man, now" with his new little man. <3