Miles 60 - 78.....
Wow - I can't believe 12 days have passed since my last blog! As I was preparing for Leadville, the "Big Goal", blogging seemed to be part of my daily routine. I've been busy with a number of other things - good things - but it has resulted in me being away from the blog. I have some unfinished business though - logging the experience of the remaining 40 miles of the race.
Picking up where we left off....felt really good leaving Twin Lakes. Once we started the climb out of Twin Lakes (about 2.5 miles of incline) it was clear that Rick's climbing superiority would reign again. I was happy for him and encouraged him to go as fast as he could. I told him I'd catch up later. My breathing troubles kicked in again and it remained my biggest nemesis. My pacer, John Lawler, was amazing! I didn't realize it at the time but he was strategically thinking with me the entire time we were together. John made great conversation and kept reminding me to continue taking deep breaths to get oxygen in my lungs. He had me drink more than I wanted with his objective being to get me to stop to go to the bathroom many times. It took a little while but before I knew it I was stopping every 5 minutes or so. This is what I needed as it was a sign that I was beginning to hydrate. The more we climbed the further Rick and Melissa distanced themselves between us. Jeff Friedman also passed us early on in this segment and we caught up with him once we reached the top.
The next 9 miles went quite well, mostly because it was downward and flat. The breathing was still difficult but it was starting to get better. We had stretches where we we were moving really well and my spirits improved. There were still times I needed to walk to catch my breath. Our most common pattern was to run counting 100 paces with the right foot and then walk. Sometimes we'd pick a landmark ahead or find a point that started going uphill again. John did everything I asked and knew when to encourage me to push even further. At one point we wondered whether we were still on the trail since we had not seen a green glowstick for sometime but soon thereafter we learned that we were on track. As we continued the decline my speed was picking up to the point where I felt like we had to be making up some of the gap between Rick and I. Rick is a good downhill runner but this is my strength in downhill running. Maybe I take more risks than I should when going downhill but it feels right to me and given the difficulties I had been experiencing in other parts of the race, these were my opportunities to make up some time.
I'm not exactly sure where we caught up with Rick and Melissa but I think it was around mile 68. Given the pace I was moving I thought I would have caught up with them sooner but I was glad they were making such good time. We ran the next couple miles together into the Half Pipe aid station. I learned at this point how much Rick's feet were hurting him. He had successfully trained for a year with these shoes but in retrospect they probably weren't the correct ones to have running trails in the mountains. I was fortunate enough to not have hurting feet. As a result, the running was hurting him quite a bit. Melissa was awesome with Rick - she had him on a program of run 15 paces with the right foot, walk 15 paces with the right foot. I'm sure the walking hurt too but probably not as much as the pounding of the running. I think I could have kept going faster but it was great to meet up with Rick again, we enjoyed the company of him and Melissa, I wanted to try to keep him motivated, and honestly it was nice to let up on the pedal a bit. My breathing was still very difficult.
Another milestone - hitting the 71 mile mark - only 29 miles to go! This was a relatively quick stop - ate/drank a cup of soup and drank a coke or two. The four of us left the aid station together. This was a flat segment and I was feeling pretty good so John and I ran off ahead and figured I would probably see Rick again on the climb back up Powerline. We cruised into an area about 1.5 miles further up the road referred to as Treeline. It is named Treeline because this is the altitude above which markedly fewer trees grow. At this station I traded out for a new shirt and bundled up more for the night. I was finally beginning to feel colder - the night sweats had finally left my body. I also traded in my friend John Lawler for my niece Katelin Gannon.
The breathing wasn't easy but my spirits were uplifted. I felt like I was getting back into my stride again a bit and I only had one giant incline to go - the dreaded Powerline. I could do one more big incline - no problem. I was also watching the time and wondering if 24 hours was still possible. I thought I would just run for awhile and see how I was doing later - then I could make the decision how hard I should push. Katelin and I took off out of the aid station and all was going well. As we turned right out of the aid station we followed a gravel road. Up ahead we could see the paved road and cars driving on it. I knew we would eventually be running on this road so we kept running toward it. About 1/4 - 1/2 mile further something seemed a little strange - we couldn't see any green glowsticks, no people in front of us and it felt like we were running away from our destination - DARN IT! We looked back and couldn't really see anyone else either. What a horrible feeling - I had this same feeling in 2005 at about mile 37 when I wasn't sure if I was still on course. We stopped and tried looking for some sign to see where we needed to go. I walked ahead a bit further to look for a marker - no luck. Katelin ran back to look for a marker - nothing! We were pondering what to do. I did not want to back track only to have to run a part of this course twice - once was long enough! On the other hand, it would have been disastrous to continue going in the wrong direction. It was one of those moments where you are feeling helpless and scrambling to figure out what to do. We probably only spent 2-3 minutes figuring it out but it seemed like 5-10 minutes.
When we looked back where we came from again, we could see a few headlamps heading diagonally across the field - that was where we needed to go. You might wonder why we couldn't see these headlights before - good question. Part of why we didn't see them was because we weren't sure where to look and part of it was that it this point in the race there aren't a whole lot of people in any one stretch - we're sort of out there by ourselves. So we backtracked to get back on the trail and when we did come up on the next group, it was Rick and my sister Debi! They were doing well and we stayed with them for a very short time. Soon thereafter Katelin and decided to go ahead again. My race was a combination of going fast and slow - Rick's race was steady throughout. He was a great measuring stick for me. Whenever I fell behind, I set my sights on trying to catch up with him again and knew that when I did, I was doing well.
Much of Katelin and my run was along a paved road that ran north and then 90 degrees west into the Fish Hatchery. It was run/walk the entire way. A few times I tried extending the run further to some telephone poles or to the end of a downward slope. We did a good job of passing people. Sometimes on our walk stretches we would get passed up but we overtook these people when we started running again. It was at this point in the race where I was wondering where I would finish in terms of time. My 'off the course' detour discouraged me a bit and made me think, "If I miss my goal by 5 minutes I'm going to be really disappointed", and I was beginning to doubt if I would be able to hit my sub 24 hour goal. I wasn't ready to give up on it but I just truly didn't know. There were so many variables - how would I perform going up Powerline? At what point does fatigue seriously impact my performance? Would my breathing get better? stay the same? get worse? If I couldn't achieve the 24 hour goal, could I still get sub 25 hours which would earn me a 'big belt buckle'? The big buckle is a badge of honor that separates those with an extraordinary finish from those who have an admirable finish. It still had some appeal to me even though it wasn't my original goal. Katelin kept me grounded and said that I should just keep doing the best I could and make the decision later based on where I was at later in the race. I still thought about it but agreed she was right and tried to put it out of my mind for awhile.
I had fun with all my pacers. Katelin was a great conversationalist and she, like the others, was very sneaky and manipulative in getting me to drink and eat more than I wanted. I'm grateful to her and all my pacers for taking care of me. We reach the Fish Hatchery and I feel like I'm doing fairly well - only 27 miles left! I grab some soup and coke at the aid station, stop to use the restroom and get ready for my tackling the last big climb, Powerline!
Doug Himmelman is my pacer for this stretch. Jay Gates joins us as well since he will be pacing me up Powerline. I was hoping to run quite a bit of this mile leading up to Powerline since I would be hiking for over an hour once we started our descent. However I was also trying to eat and drink along the way and did not want to upset my stomach further so we actually walked most of it. My breathing was still a struggle so I thought that walking could help me regain some oxygen. I'm not sure if it made a difference but it seemed right at the time. This mile to the base of Powerline seemed longer than it should have been but that was becoming a common theme throughout the entire race - everything seemed to be farther away than it was supposed to be!
I can't believe how long it is taking to write about this race but I guess it is a long race. Next time I will try to finish it up!
Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!
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| Thomas and I at Notre Dame vs. Michigan football game 9/22/12 - Irish victory 13-6! |
Wow - I can't believe 12 days have passed since my last blog! As I was preparing for Leadville, the "Big Goal", blogging seemed to be part of my daily routine. I've been busy with a number of other things - good things - but it has resulted in me being away from the blog. I have some unfinished business though - logging the experience of the remaining 40 miles of the race.
Picking up where we left off....felt really good leaving Twin Lakes. Once we started the climb out of Twin Lakes (about 2.5 miles of incline) it was clear that Rick's climbing superiority would reign again. I was happy for him and encouraged him to go as fast as he could. I told him I'd catch up later. My breathing troubles kicked in again and it remained my biggest nemesis. My pacer, John Lawler, was amazing! I didn't realize it at the time but he was strategically thinking with me the entire time we were together. John made great conversation and kept reminding me to continue taking deep breaths to get oxygen in my lungs. He had me drink more than I wanted with his objective being to get me to stop to go to the bathroom many times. It took a little while but before I knew it I was stopping every 5 minutes or so. This is what I needed as it was a sign that I was beginning to hydrate. The more we climbed the further Rick and Melissa distanced themselves between us. Jeff Friedman also passed us early on in this segment and we caught up with him once we reached the top.
The next 9 miles went quite well, mostly because it was downward and flat. The breathing was still difficult but it was starting to get better. We had stretches where we we were moving really well and my spirits improved. There were still times I needed to walk to catch my breath. Our most common pattern was to run counting 100 paces with the right foot and then walk. Sometimes we'd pick a landmark ahead or find a point that started going uphill again. John did everything I asked and knew when to encourage me to push even further. At one point we wondered whether we were still on the trail since we had not seen a green glowstick for sometime but soon thereafter we learned that we were on track. As we continued the decline my speed was picking up to the point where I felt like we had to be making up some of the gap between Rick and I. Rick is a good downhill runner but this is my strength in downhill running. Maybe I take more risks than I should when going downhill but it feels right to me and given the difficulties I had been experiencing in other parts of the race, these were my opportunities to make up some time.
I'm not exactly sure where we caught up with Rick and Melissa but I think it was around mile 68. Given the pace I was moving I thought I would have caught up with them sooner but I was glad they were making such good time. We ran the next couple miles together into the Half Pipe aid station. I learned at this point how much Rick's feet were hurting him. He had successfully trained for a year with these shoes but in retrospect they probably weren't the correct ones to have running trails in the mountains. I was fortunate enough to not have hurting feet. As a result, the running was hurting him quite a bit. Melissa was awesome with Rick - she had him on a program of run 15 paces with the right foot, walk 15 paces with the right foot. I'm sure the walking hurt too but probably not as much as the pounding of the running. I think I could have kept going faster but it was great to meet up with Rick again, we enjoyed the company of him and Melissa, I wanted to try to keep him motivated, and honestly it was nice to let up on the pedal a bit. My breathing was still very difficult.
Another milestone - hitting the 71 mile mark - only 29 miles to go! This was a relatively quick stop - ate/drank a cup of soup and drank a coke or two. The four of us left the aid station together. This was a flat segment and I was feeling pretty good so John and I ran off ahead and figured I would probably see Rick again on the climb back up Powerline. We cruised into an area about 1.5 miles further up the road referred to as Treeline. It is named Treeline because this is the altitude above which markedly fewer trees grow. At this station I traded out for a new shirt and bundled up more for the night. I was finally beginning to feel colder - the night sweats had finally left my body. I also traded in my friend John Lawler for my niece Katelin Gannon.
The breathing wasn't easy but my spirits were uplifted. I felt like I was getting back into my stride again a bit and I only had one giant incline to go - the dreaded Powerline. I could do one more big incline - no problem. I was also watching the time and wondering if 24 hours was still possible. I thought I would just run for awhile and see how I was doing later - then I could make the decision how hard I should push. Katelin and I took off out of the aid station and all was going well. As we turned right out of the aid station we followed a gravel road. Up ahead we could see the paved road and cars driving on it. I knew we would eventually be running on this road so we kept running toward it. About 1/4 - 1/2 mile further something seemed a little strange - we couldn't see any green glowsticks, no people in front of us and it felt like we were running away from our destination - DARN IT! We looked back and couldn't really see anyone else either. What a horrible feeling - I had this same feeling in 2005 at about mile 37 when I wasn't sure if I was still on course. We stopped and tried looking for some sign to see where we needed to go. I walked ahead a bit further to look for a marker - no luck. Katelin ran back to look for a marker - nothing! We were pondering what to do. I did not want to back track only to have to run a part of this course twice - once was long enough! On the other hand, it would have been disastrous to continue going in the wrong direction. It was one of those moments where you are feeling helpless and scrambling to figure out what to do. We probably only spent 2-3 minutes figuring it out but it seemed like 5-10 minutes.
When we looked back where we came from again, we could see a few headlamps heading diagonally across the field - that was where we needed to go. You might wonder why we couldn't see these headlights before - good question. Part of why we didn't see them was because we weren't sure where to look and part of it was that it this point in the race there aren't a whole lot of people in any one stretch - we're sort of out there by ourselves. So we backtracked to get back on the trail and when we did come up on the next group, it was Rick and my sister Debi! They were doing well and we stayed with them for a very short time. Soon thereafter Katelin and decided to go ahead again. My race was a combination of going fast and slow - Rick's race was steady throughout. He was a great measuring stick for me. Whenever I fell behind, I set my sights on trying to catch up with him again and knew that when I did, I was doing well.
Much of Katelin and my run was along a paved road that ran north and then 90 degrees west into the Fish Hatchery. It was run/walk the entire way. A few times I tried extending the run further to some telephone poles or to the end of a downward slope. We did a good job of passing people. Sometimes on our walk stretches we would get passed up but we overtook these people when we started running again. It was at this point in the race where I was wondering where I would finish in terms of time. My 'off the course' detour discouraged me a bit and made me think, "If I miss my goal by 5 minutes I'm going to be really disappointed", and I was beginning to doubt if I would be able to hit my sub 24 hour goal. I wasn't ready to give up on it but I just truly didn't know. There were so many variables - how would I perform going up Powerline? At what point does fatigue seriously impact my performance? Would my breathing get better? stay the same? get worse? If I couldn't achieve the 24 hour goal, could I still get sub 25 hours which would earn me a 'big belt buckle'? The big buckle is a badge of honor that separates those with an extraordinary finish from those who have an admirable finish. It still had some appeal to me even though it wasn't my original goal. Katelin kept me grounded and said that I should just keep doing the best I could and make the decision later based on where I was at later in the race. I still thought about it but agreed she was right and tried to put it out of my mind for awhile.
I had fun with all my pacers. Katelin was a great conversationalist and she, like the others, was very sneaky and manipulative in getting me to drink and eat more than I wanted. I'm grateful to her and all my pacers for taking care of me. We reach the Fish Hatchery and I feel like I'm doing fairly well - only 27 miles left! I grab some soup and coke at the aid station, stop to use the restroom and get ready for my tackling the last big climb, Powerline!
Doug Himmelman is my pacer for this stretch. Jay Gates joins us as well since he will be pacing me up Powerline. I was hoping to run quite a bit of this mile leading up to Powerline since I would be hiking for over an hour once we started our descent. However I was also trying to eat and drink along the way and did not want to upset my stomach further so we actually walked most of it. My breathing was still a struggle so I thought that walking could help me regain some oxygen. I'm not sure if it made a difference but it seemed right at the time. This mile to the base of Powerline seemed longer than it should have been but that was becoming a common theme throughout the entire race - everything seemed to be farther away than it was supposed to be!
I can't believe how long it is taking to write about this race but I guess it is a long race. Next time I will try to finish it up!
Until my next post, have a great day! DIG DEEP!
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