onepinkfuzzy

Doing my best Scott Jurek imitation...My goals for this race: to be the last person to cross the finish line before the 8-hour cutoff time. I was aiming for about 7:40, but would be happy with 7:59:59!

After the crazy week I've had, finding out that someone stole Johnny's atm card information and managed to withdraw $600 from our account on Thursday really didn't faze me much. I was a little worried - they left $26 in our account. That wouldn't be enough for gas/food money to get us home! Johnny's mom was awesome, she immediately got to work figuring out how to transfer money into our account, so we have grocery/gas food for the next two weeks while the bank investigates our claim. I'm positive they will reimburse us the money and bank fees. Geez louise, what's next?!

We woke up at 4:30 Saturday morning, and begin getting ready. Ash usually wakes us up every morning by about 5, but he wouldn't wake up that morning! Totally figures :). We found the Starbucks - it was open that early, yay! - and proceded to drive out to the trailhead. We got there at about 5:35, and not many people were there yet. Even though the race started at 7, I thought the letter I received said they would hand out bibs/shirts starting at 5. I figured getting there about 1/2 after they started would be good. Oops, I misread the paper. They wouldn't start handing out everything till 5:30, which meant I was the first person there! It was freezing cold. I got my stuff, then we all headed back to the car to get warm.

By about 6:15, I was ready to head back out and begin getting ready - sunscreened up, race bib pinned on, water in my water bottles, etc. It was a great low-key affair, with everyone just mingling around. The Tucson contingent showed up, which was fun. They were all so supportive! I was so excited, I was bouncing up and down.

The RD went over the aid station and rules, and then brought out a slice of birthday cake, since it was the birthday of one of the runners. Then we lined up behind the line, and waited for "GO!"

I made sure I was in the back, so I wouldn't get trampled. Ian Torrence and Hal Koerner were there, along with a few other fast people, and I didn't want to get in their way! As I headed up the trail, I heard Johnny yelling, "Good luck Angie!"

The loop was 15.4 miles, divided into 5ish mile segments. Two aid stations were out on the loop. The first third was 5.3 miles, going down a wash at first, then up a gentle, rocky ridge, to an uphill roller-coaster (up 50 feet, down 20, up 50, down 20, etc.). The second third continued the uphill roller-coaster for about 4 miles, then hit a flat-to-down BORING section on a dirt service road. The last third continued the boring gentle downhill dirt service road for about 2ish miles, then hit some fun, single-track downhill trail. There was a little bit of uphill, but not much. We did the loop twice.

The first third on the first loop was great. It was really cold, the sun was rising and I could see the runners stretching out along the trail in front of me. I knew this would be the only place I wouldn't feel lonely, so I made sure to soak in the feeling of having people around me. I was able to run a decent amount of the gentle uphill - which I wasn't planning on. I found that I had to keep telling myself to slow down, drop the pace. I wanted to "press the accelerator" so to say, but tried to ease up. I didn't want to burn out on the first loop! It was hard to be patient, but I kept telling myself that I had eight hours to adjust, readjust and make it through.

At the first aid station, I caught up to a woman who had been about .25 in front of me for the first section. She promptly decided to dog my steps for the next four miles. When I ran, she ran. When I walked, she walked. I kept moving to the side to let her pass, but she wouldn't. I was frustrated, but tried to run my own race. I didn't feel like talking, and decided that since she was the one who apparantly wanted to stay with me, she could be the first one to open the conversation - which she never did. She finally passed, thank goodness, and I was left to run alone. Whew.

The second aid station seemed to take forever to reach, even though it was only about 4.8 miles. I hated the dirt service road. It was wide, hard-packed dirt, without much twisting and turning. The desert had been burned a few years ago, so it wasn't very lush. It was getting really hot. Thankfully, they had signage out about 50 yards before each aid station, so I knew when it was coming. I took BadBen's advice, and unscrewed the tops off my water bottles beforehand, to make it through quickly. The volunteers were so helpful and nice! Well, except for the fake rattlesnake in the middle of the trail before the second aid station. Oh, and telling me, "only 20 more miles to go!" Yikes! That's scary sounding! I think the woman who told me that was the RD for the Javalina Jundred, held on this course in October, so she's used to 100 milers - only 20 more to go for them is a good thing!

I left the second aid station with the promise of seeing them in four hours. It got really hot on this section, so I started pouring water on my head. It was numbing. Hot, bright, boring, tough - even though it was downhill! I just kept going, because I wanted to get it over with. In retrospect, I think I pushed it a little too much through this section on the first loop. By the time I came in to the start/finish/middle aid station, I felt pretty out of it. I had been repeating the mantra, "visor, gels, tylenol" for about an hour to help me remember what I needed.

Ash was sleeping, and Johnny crewed for me. Apparently, I was pretty frantic and out of it. Johnny wanted me to calm down, but he was taking too long! I also was unable to screw the tops off my water bottles before this one, because the guys at the last aid station had screwed them on too tight! I took off, after resupplying with more crank e-gels (I love the electrolytes they have in them!) and tylenol. I made it across the parking lot before I realized I forgot to switch my cap to my visor, so I had to run back across, darn it!

Time for the second loop - what a relief! I didn't have to hold back anymore! (Not that I did on the final third of the first loop...) I found it was very very hard to run, even the downhills. Oops. Pushed it to hard on the downhill. I just kept going. Kept my eyes no more than two feet in front of me and made myself jog. I knew it was gentle uphill; I didn't want to see how much uphill or how much farther I had to go to begin the roller-coaster section.

It seemed to take much longer the second time. I managed to eat a gel about 20 minutes before the first aid station, at about the time I realized I had just run farther than I had ever run before. When I made it to the first aid station, I was excited! Smiling, happy. The guy who filled my water bottles told me I had a beautiful smile! I drenched myself in water to stay cool. At that aid station, a woman was sitting down, totally exhausted. It looked like she must have bonked. The woman who dogged me earlier was also there, in addition to an older guy, who I had been following for awhile. We all left about the same time, with me in the back. I love the middle third of this trail anyway, and to be able to do it with a few people in front of me felt good. I walked all the ups in this roller-coaster part, and tried to run the downs - I noticed that my left leg was starting to feel a little funny. Almost numb. Very strange. It was worse on the downhills, but I figured I just needed to stretch it a little. I watched the woman who dogged me earlier catch up to the older guy, and they ran together, talking, for a few miles. Suddenly, I heard pounding behind me - the woman who bonked got herself back together and was running to catch her friend (the woman who dogged me)! She caught up to the two of them ahead, and eventually, the two women pushed on, leaving the older guy behind.

I had been keeping an eye on the time. I managed to memorize the mileage between each trail junction (there were a lot of them), and I also memorized the times I wanted to get into and out of each aid station. By this time, I wasn't so concerned with my actual splits as much as I was with time between trail junction. I set mini-goals: if I could make it to the next trail junction by 11:55, I would be on/ahead of schedule, etc. Most of the trail junctions were between 1.2 - 2.3 miles apart, which made great mini-goals.

We snaked around two grassy knolls, down through a wash, and finally hit the dirt service road. My left leg was really bothering me now. I knew I had about 1.5 L O N G boring miles to the next aid station. I caught up to the older guy. He could walk as fast I jogged, and we pretty much stayed together. I kept feeling the need to push down on the accelerator, but found that I couldn't keep it up with how my leg was beginning to seize up on me. I would pull ahead a little, and then he would. We talked about the races he had done - the 38.5-mile Journey from Here to There (on all roads!) a three weeks earlier, the 50k he was planning to do in two weeks (he says, "you know, I've found that if you do alot close together, there's not much in between training you have to do!") - and we talked about how this was my first. I told him about how a year ago, I weighed 60 lbs more and couldn't even run a half-mile.

We made it to the second aid station at 1:15 p.m., with a surprising amount of time left for the last five miles - 1 hour, 45 minutes. I doused myself in water - and I mean DOUSED myself. I was soaking wet! I joked about limping to the finish, but was able to jog for about a mile. Then the leg shut down. I was able to keep up a decent walked pace, alongside the older guy. He was great - we were both keeping an eye on the time, I knew once we hit a trail junction that we only had 3.3 miles to go. He liked knowing that. He looked at his watch and realized that we might break 7:30! His PR for 50k was 7:30 on the flat, cool course at Sunmart this past winter, so he was excited to do it on this slightly hillier and much hotter course.

We shuffled along, excited at our time, and just kept going. His shins were hurting, but he would try to run when I would try. Mostly we just walked as fast as possible. We made it to the 1.5-mile point - so excited! Then we only had .9 to go. We could see the sun glinting off the windshields of the cars. I wanted to run so bad, but he held me back, knowing I couldn't keep it up for long and we wanted to finish strong. Finally, he said, "okay, let's go!" and we ran to the finish. We tied for last place, in 7:22:24!!!!!

I LOVED it. I so want to do another one. I had decided beforehand that I didn't want to do another one until Zane Grey 2007, because I wanted to get stronger, and it's tough to have two ultrarunners in one busy family. But now I want to do one in the fall!!!

I loved the support - the volunteers cheered, "Yay Angie!" as I came into the aid stations, everyone was smiling. I loved being told I did a great job, even when I came in last. I finally found out the name of the older guy right before he left - Clint. I got two blisters, yikes! Because I kept dousing myself in water, I got lots of chafing - my arm pits, my entire sports bra line (especially in the back, it's all welted up), my feet, etc.

My mom's new hot tub was not heated yet, so I took an ice dip! It was so cold, I was crying as I got in. But it felt good.

I am very sore today. I can barely move. Ibuprofen is helping. I feel great, though, it's so exciting! I am an ultrarunner! I am an athlete! And most of all,

"I AM"