I have certainly been taking my time in writing this race race report. Partly because I have started a new job and am working in a new state, but also because I have been trying to decipher my true feelings about this race. After not being drawn for Western States this year, I decided that I wanted to run a more difficult 100 as my goal race for the year and that race was Bear 100. I put in more training miles during my primary training block than I have for any of my other races and so I had high expectations of performing well at this race and ideally, finishing in under 24 hours. I knew the goal was lofty, but I have also not pushed my body and mind to the point of failure yet. The last couple of weeks prior to the race, I found myself to be pretty tired and fatigued, but injury and pain free. I decided to dial back the training/maintenance miles and just rest up. The mental and emotional effort of preparing to leave and start a new job, move and also the pressure I had put on myself for Bear was enough on me without the physical strain of my usual weekly mileage.
Christy and I flew into Boise on the Wednesday before the race to have dinner with my parents for my Dad's birthday and headed down to Logan the next morning. After packet pickup and a nice dinner with the Boise Trail Runner contingent of Ryan and Michelle Anderson, Emily and John Berriochoa, Sam Collier, and Christine Kollar we headed back to the hotel to try and get some sleep before the race. Surprisingly, I slept pretty well. At the race start, I managed to link up with Ryan and we started the race together. We lined up reasonably close to the start line and held a relatively quick pace through the neighborhood and up to the start of the trail where we would fall into a single file line of the first big climb of the race. I took point, and kept a steady hike up the climb. My intent was to keep my effort level low, but make sure that I was working so that I could not only make good progress, but also keep my body temp up. The weather was around 30 degrees and there were intermittent flurries of snow and rain throughout the first 10 miles or so and when I left Fort Worth a few days prior, the temp was 94 degrees. A pretty big swing for me, which effectively made my heat training over the summer precisely worthless. Ryan and I started the descent and switched places and we really cruised down through some pretty awesome trail. This was my second favorite section of the race. There were a couple of times here that I thought I might be working too hard here, but I just stuck with Ryan until the first major aid station. I quickly reloaded with gels and headed out after Ryan and after one mile, I decided that I needed to back off and let Ryan do his own thing. I also started to have some cramping in my right hamstring that I just couldn't seem to beat. At the next aid, I checked for pickle juice, but no luck. Miles 25 to 45 were really pretty uneventful. I just kept moving, keeping an easy effort and trying to be as consistent as possible with my usual strategy - Hike the ups, run the downs and be disciplined with a run walk on the flats. At Temple Fork, Derek Call joined me to run the next 6 miles into Tony Grove. This section is more or less all uphill and it was quite muddy and slick. We shared some pretty good conversation just catching up and enjoying the course. At this point in the race, I was still feeling pretty good, but I was noticing that I had less and less strength to manage the climbs. Fortunately, I was doing really well on the descents. Derek and I came into Tony Grove after a pretty good downhill section. I would be on my own for the next 10 mile section so I wanted to get some food and try to get warmed up before heading out. I was freezing and having a hard time managing it. I sat in the aid for quite a bit eating and keeping covered with blankets and jackets until finally I just needed to get going. The next section was probably my best section of the race. I managed to pass 17 people and I just felt like I was getting that second (or third) wind. I came into Franklin Trailhead ready to pick up Derek and get to work. We took off strong, but about 2 miles into the climb I realized that I was having a very difficult time breathing. I tried to remain positive, but it only got worse. It seemed like it took forever to make it to Logan River. Coming into the aid station, I was very cold and in rough shape. I ended up laying down in a heated tent to try and stretch out my torso and warm up hoping I might be able to restore my lung capacity. Many people were dropping who were sitting near me, and I finally just got up and got moving. The next section was probably my absolute worst, taking an eternity to cover the 7 miles to Beaver Lodge. Derek and I arrived at about 5am. Coming into the Lodge, I could see that my family had been pretty worried about me, which was warranted considering I was probably 6 hours behind schedule. I sat down and I so mentally broken that I nearly dropped. I found myself looking at the clock and thinking about my goal for the race and how I should be on the final descent at this point but still had 24 miles to go. I didn't even want to say a word. Instead, Derek did the talking for me and I laid down and rested for a full hour. Christy sat with me and I pissed and moaned trying to find a reason for why I was even in the race. I thought for a bit and ended up deciding that I had 12 hours to cover the remaining 24 miles and I would rather walk it in than DNF. So, I put on my bravest face stood up and got my gear together. As soon as I stepped outside, I completely broke down. Derek helped console me like the good friend that he is while I had my little meltdown. I then shook that off and reset the rules for the rest of the run. What could I do? I couldn't run uphill, hell - I couldn't do that all day. I couldn't run downhill, my quads were shot. On the flats I might be able run/walk. Here is what I settled on: 1)Hike all uphills as hard as I possibly could until I passed out 2)At least try to run the downhills 3)Run/walk as much as possible on the flats 4)Check in and out of the aid stations; no more sitting. Derek agreed, and we got moving. I'm a bit hazy on the rest of the run, but I remember the following:
1) I was in and out of the next aid station, only waiting long enough to get a cup of hot chocolate. It was ridiculously cold here.
2) I broke the rules and sat down at Beaver Creek Campground in hopes that my sister would be able to use a roller on my quads. Unfortunately, we got there before she did. There was fantastic sausage and pancakes at this aid station
3) I broke the rules again at Ranger Dip, but it was again for my sister to roll out my quads. It probably did more harm than good. I had a really hard time getting moving again. The climb out was miserable and the descent was brutal.
I ended up running an acceptable amount during the last 3 or 4 miles. I think I passed 3 or 4 runners during this stretch. It was good to finish the race, and it really meant a lot to have so much of my family there to see the finish. My time ended up being 33:35:33. Thinking back on the race, I still feel some disappointment about the result. Considering how my body feels and how quickly I was feeling mobile after the race, I have to believe that my training was pretty good, all things considered. I think I ran a very smart race for the first 61 miles and felt good doing it. My body just didn't manage the altitude when it really mattered. The only real success of the race is that I set a new PR for longest time running by almost 10 hours. Sometimes you just have to look on the bright side of things.
