Date: 06/17/2005
Here we are in the hotel room in Loudonville, OH, the night before the race. Left to right: me, Ieva, Mom (Sally) and Dad (Craig).
Date: 06/18/2005
4:30am. Check-in and breakfast. It was nice to finally eat something other than carbs, since I had been carbo-loading for the past three days. Eggs, pancakes, and hash browns.
Date: 06/18/2005
Listening to my mix on Ieva's MP3 player and getting mentally ready right before the start.
Date: 06/18/2005
It was really hard to hold a slow pace in the beginning. It seemed like everyone was going out really fast. It was also really hard to tell who was running the 50-miler, and who was running the 100-miler, which made pacing even more difficult.
Date: 06/18/2005
Everyone seemed to be doing pretty well at this point. This was at the fire tower, at about 19 miles. Good weather conditions -- partly cloudy and 70 degrees.
Date: 06/18/2005
Here I am reacting to my pace so far. Way too fast (11:15 minutes/mile), even though I tried to go slower through the previous section.
Date: 06/18/2005
I was also participanting in a study that Slippery Rock University was doing on ultramarathon runners. They did a bunch of strenth, flexibility, hydration, and mental tests before, during and after the race.
Date: 06/18/2005
Here's the grip strength test. It actually didn't change at all throughout the race. 45 measly pounds, for those who are wondering...
Date: 06/18/2005
Mom and Dad relaxing at mile 37. You gotta keep the crew comfortable -- they're going to be sitting around for a long time in between taking care of the runner!
Date: 06/18/2005
Time to swap socks. Lots of Vaseline on the feet first helps me keep blisters away.
Date: 06/18/2005
Here's a runner coming down the last stairs on the steep section around the first orange loop (mile 37).
Date: 06/18/2005
Coming into the aid station. At this point, I had made a number of mistakes in terms of food, water, salt intake, and pace. My weight was down 3 pounds when I came in, and I was definitely feeling the effects of my mistakes.
Date: 06/18/2005
Time to refuel and get that weight back up! I hadn't realized that it would be so long between the times when I would see my crew, and I hadn't quite been able to carry enough food and water between stations. As a result I wasted away a little in the first half.
Date: 06/18/2005
Bargaining with Jeff Lynn from Slippery Rock to postpone the blood sample for the study a little while longer!
Date: 06/18/2005
So at this point, Paul Schmidt, who had been running with a bad achilles tendon, said that he'd keep going if we paired up for the rest of the race. Paul has run 56 100-milers! He knows his stuff cold. I was a bit apprehensive about being able to keep up with him, and abandoning some of my strategy for his advice, but I couldn't turn down the opportunity to gain this kind of experience. Plus, he's just a super-cool guy. He has a great personality to do something like this with. Man, if he ever became an alpinist...
Date: 06/18/2005
So here we are back at the fire tower at mile 62. Man I feel better! Paul's pushing the whole way, fixing my pace, food, water, and salt problems on the fly. We passed a half a dozen people since the last checkpoint, and I feel better than I did at half this distance. Yahoo!
Date: 06/18/2005
Food, food, food. In the cooler is 15 pounds of dry ice and 2 boxes of ice cream sandwiches. They stayed frozen for the entire 3 days plus the trip home. They were a HUGE hit with all the runners. We're definitely doing this next time.
Date: 06/18/2005
Hanging out while Paul checks on another runner who's not doing so hot (hyponatremic?).
Date: 06/18/2005
Back to following Sensei. He speaks, I obey. Works for me.
Paul says that 63 miles (100km) is where the race truly begins.
Paul says that 63 miles (100km) is where the race truly begins.
Date: 06/18/2005
Ieva going over the clipboard that has all of the race information that I prepared -- pace, maps, checkpoints.
Date: 06/19/2005
Middle of the night. Ran into some supply issues again, where we weren't really able to get quite enough food or water to hold us during the long stretches. I took about a 15 minute break while Paul figured out whether he should continue with his bad tendon. He told me and Alex to go ahead without him. Once we figured out that we weren't going to break 24 hours, we didn't care as much about time any more. Just finish.
Date: 06/19/2005
Alex and I pushed through the rest of the night together. You definitely get a big energy boost when the sun comes back up. We hit mile 90 together in the morning, and I took off ahead to see if I could pick up a little extra time at the end. Here's Mom waiting at mile 95.
Date: 06/19/2005
Ugh! The pavement on the last 10 miles is torture. The bottoms of my feet are screaming, the heat of the day is starting to pick up again, and I'm getting ready to be done. With no one else to run with, there's not a lot left to think about, either.
Date: 06/19/2005
Just hanging on for the last 5 miles. It's hard to dissociate at this point, since you know that you're so close. This section of the course was the least fun.
Date: 06/19/2005
My final time was 28 hours, 39 minutes, 40 seconds. That got me 20th place in the championships (bottom 1/4?) and 62nd place overall (top 1/2?). They only listed the finishers, so I'm not totally sure about the percentiles.
Date: 06/19/2005
So glad to be done! There's so much effort invested in your first 100-miler, there's an awful lot of pressure to finish.
Date: 06/19/2005
It's great to hang out at the end and watch the rest of the runners come in. Plus there's food and beer (never mind that it's 9am)!
Date: 06/19/2005
So Paul hangs out at mile 75 for a while at 2am. Takes a 45-minute nap, too. Gets up, decides to finish, and then makes up the whole gap, finishing only 6 minutes behind me. The man's a freakin' animal. Did I mention that he's pacing at Western States the following weekend? "Good exercise," he said about this race.
Date: 06/19/2005
Here's Shannon Johnson, who I bumped into constantly during the race, and his great family. That's one happy man!
Date: 06/19/2005
Alex is one way-tough cookie. He ran this whole race with a seriously tweaked knee that really messed up his stride. I can't begin to describe what kind of determination it takes to push through that all night. Very inspiring.
Date: 06/19/2005
OK, this guy was really something else. 18 years old. He took a bus and a taxi to get to the start, with no plans on how to get home. I think that he got through the whole race just on pure determination. Big brass cajones. Finished with time to spare.
Date: 06/19/2005
Another really cool guy that I ran one section of the race with. I never caught his name! Hey, if you're reading this, drop me a line!
Date: 06/19/2005
Alex's heel. Apparently, this was one of the better sections of his feet. Ieva refused to get the bad parts. I got off lucky without so much as a hot spot.
