Squaw Peak 2008

What a great run! I had some stomach trouble and very difficult weather conditions, plus I missed a turn and ended up adding some distance to my run, so I didn't make my time goal, but I finished the race and had an absolutely wonderful time.

The day before the race, my father drove me to Provo and dropped me off with my sister-in-law, Laurie. We hung out some and Laurie drove me to the pre-race meeting at Hampton Inn where I checked in and got my number and such. My good friends, Stef and Rob Bailey, picked me up from there, and we went and met Laurie and her boyfriend, Dave Madsen. We had an excellent meal at a new Thai place near BYU and then it was off to drop off Stef, run some errands, go to Rob's sister's house and get to sleep. We didn't get to bed as early as we should have, but ain't that always the way it goes?

Next morning at 3:30 AM (2:30 my time) the alarm very rudely woke me up. I went in to the bathroom to get ready and got my first inkling of the trouble that lay ahead. I'll try not to be graphic, but I had a very unsatisfactory bowel movement and began to worry that this may bode ill. The extra time I spent here also didn't help us get out the door, and as we drove up Provo Canyon, I was definitely stressed out about time.

It started to rain pretty heavily on our drive up, and I said to Rob, "Well, I wanted an adventure, didn't I?"

When we got to the starting line, it was pretty rushed trying to get me ready for rain and trying to get the drop bags where they needed to be. Luckily, this is a very well organized race, and I was able to get all of the little stuff done and make it to the starting line just as the gun was going off.

It was cold, wet, and dark. The first mile or so was along a paved path and everyone was just trying to warm up. After that we turned up a very steep and very muddy trail. This mud was crazy. Several of us were joking that they should give us credit for a 100k with all of the slipping back we were doing. Here's two pictures, one of the mud and one of a pretty meadow where I stopped to pee.




We continued up this trail to the first aid station (oddly named Aid Station 2; I think there was supposed to be one earlier, but it wasn't set up), after which we continued our climb for a little while, followed by a very slick descent. I should point out that although there was a fair bit of snow on later sections of the course, these early muddy sections were easily the most slippery part of the run. I fell several times as did those around me. It's a very odd thing to be running along wishing for more roots and rocks, but they were the only places where you felt like you could get some traction. Also along here we got high enough that the rain turned to heavy wet snow.

During the descent, I said to the guy next to me, "My wife says that I'm crazy. I'm beginning to think there's something to that." He looked at me incredulously and replied, "You must be married to my wife."



Our descent took us to a climb up a dirt road which led to AS#3 (about mile 10.5). Here I had a drop bag and I changed out of my Injinji socks and put on my Smartwools. That helped a lot. I love Injinjis, but in the cold and wet, wool is a lot nicer than Coolmax. I left AS#3 right at 3 hours into the race and was feeling pretty good, but the mountain had plenty of tricks left up its sleeve.



As we climbed up this road, the snow got heavier and began to stick to the ground. It wasn't long before we turned back onto a singletrack trail and began a long hard slog up to AS#4. This was also where I started feeling the stomach distress I had known was coming. Still it was very pretty, so that was nice.



At AS#4 (mile 14-ish), I asked if there was a toilet, but no such luck. Just as I got to the aid station the snow was starting to clear, but I decided not to stay long when I looked behind me and saw a wall of snow coming toward us. I thought about taking a picture of that but decided to just run away instead.

The section between AS#4 and AS#5 was frustrating for me. Other than my stomach, I was feeling pretty good and passing people, but I stopped two or three times here to duck into the woods and defecate. Despite the urgency of nature's calls, the production was unimpressive, and I remained in some distress. I also missed a turn here and lost about 15-20 minutes. It wasn't much in the context of the race, but it took the wind out of my sails a bit.

When I finally reached AS#5 (~20 miles), I used the port-a-potty they had available, but it didn't help much. I changed into my Brooks Cascadia shoes which I had put in my drop bag here. Between those two things, it took me a while to get out of this aid station. From here I ran down a dirt road for a couple of miles and met up with a paved road that I ran for a while. Rob met me on the road and ran with me to AS#6 (~25-26 miles). He had to make some adjustments here, so I took a bit longer at this station than I had planned as well.

AS#6 was the end of the pavement, and we started up a pretty gentle climb up a dirt road. My stomach was bothering me quite a bit through here, so I stopped again and got some out. This one seemed to make a little more of a difference, and I started to feel a bit better. I think I made OK time through here. Rob turned around about 3 miles or so past AS6. It was sure great to have him along and really gave me a boost at a rough time of the race for me.

A couple of miles after Rob left I arrived at AS7 (~30 miles) I ate quickly here and chose to take the high route rather than running up the stream. This was followed by some more steady gentle climbing up single and double track. I ran pretty well on this section, and it seemed like my stomach was finally calming down. There was a short downhill on a 4WD road and I found myself at the Little Valley Aid Station (AS8 ~mile 33). I stopped a while here and got ready for the next section. This would likely be my longest stretch as measured by time between aid stations, so I had put a hand held water bottle in my drop bag at this station to supplement my fanny pack.

I left here running pretty well, and I passed several people. This section was fairly rugged and mostly uphill. It was followed by some fun downhill single track, but the terror that loomed ahead became clearly visible. The climb up Windy Pass was visible to our right. This is a doozy of a hill ascending over 1300 ft. in 1.25 miles in the snow. It's quite a thing to encounter at mile 39 of the race. I stopped and had my last effort at a bowel movement before I started up this hill.


This hill was a monster, but I did pretty well on it. I managed to maintain a solid power hike with no stopping. At the top, there's no trail for a while, and you just follow the flags and stone cairns down to some singletrack that leads you to AS9 (mile 40.5).

After this you follow some very steep technical downhill singletrack with a lot of snow on it. I fell at one point and slid about 15 feet down the hill before managing to catch a tree branch and stop myself. I scrambled back up the tree and continued on my way. This was a fun run through the woods---all downhill until I reached the road and AS10 (mile 46.6).

I didn't bother to stop here. I was too close to the finish I ran the road all the way, but not at a terribly brisk pace, and finished in 14 hours 17 minutes. I ate a Creamie at the end and enjoyed chatting with other racers, some of whom I had met before, most of whom I met that day on the race. Dee McLaughlin (who I ran with at Zion Train) won the women's masters division in 12:02. I wasn't running with her that day. My sister, Robyn, showed up and helped me gather up my stuff. Then Laurie and Dave showed up, and Robyn took a swell picture of me with the two of them. Robyn was then kind enough to drive me to Rob's sister's house to pick up my stuff and back to my father's place in Salt Lake, despite the fact that she was stressed out about moving and work.



Final Thoughts : Although I would have liked to go faster, I'm very happy with this race. I struggled through hard conditions and some physical difficulties, and still managed to gut it out. It's now four days after the race, and I'm feeling pretty good and planning to go for a run tomorrow, so my recovery has vastly improved since Moab. I've embarked on a journey to become a solid ultrarunner and these learning experiences are of tremendous value, even if I'm a bit behind where I'd like to be. Most importantly, I had a wonderful time and enjoyed my fellow racers. I'm thankful to Rob, Stef, my father, Linda, Robyn, Laurie, Dave, and everyone else who helped support me on this run.

Here's a picture of a very macho looking Bennett wearing my finisher's medal.

Zion Train 2008

The Zion Train is an annual run done by a group of trail ultra runners based out of Salt Lake City who sometimes go by the name "Wasatch Alpine Striders". Before I ever heard of these guys, I had looked at a map of Zion and thought I should one day try to run the route. I called it my "All of Zion Fantasy Run", but the backcountry nature of the run made me nervous about trying it alone. Then one day on accident I stumbled across the Wasatch Alpine Striders' website and saw the report for the Zion Train. I looked up one of the runners, John, in the phone book and told him that I wanted to come along. He was very nice and told me I was welcome, so in 2007 I attempted the Zion Train.

My first attempt was going very well until I twisted my ankle and had to be driven out by Duane and Sam (thanks guys), so this year I was looking for redemption.

The course for the run begins at Lee Pass in the Kolob Section of the park, it follows the La Verkin Creek Trail to Hop Valley and the Hop Valley Trail to the Hop Valley Trailhead, then it takes the Connector Trail (I know it's not much of a name) to the Wildcat Canyon Trail which is followed to Lava Point. The West Rim Trail is then followed to the Grotto which is the finish line. This is one of the most wildly scenic trips you could imagine. Zion can be roughly split into three major regions: the Kolob Section, the Kolob Terrace and Zion Canyon. This route takes you through all three. Using the official estimates, the route is ~36 miles long, but I guess most GPS measurements put it more in the 38-39 mile range. The trail is mostly good quality, but definitely qualifies as backcountry hiking trail and has a lot of elevation change.

I rode to the trailhead with John, his wife and son, Joan and Greg, and a guy I met that day named Terry. Everyone got going at about 6:00 AM, just as dawn was breaking, and I ran a while with Terry and Greg. Dee caught up to us and we all eventually caught Cathy and Duane on the first section. We continued along, but people kept dropping off until I was running with Dee in the front. The pace felt good, but I was a bit concerned I might be going too fast. I decided to stick with it and keep eating and drinking, and if I had to slow down later I would, but I was enjoying running with Dee.

I learned that she was a personal fitness trainer and had quite a few impressive ultramarathons under her belt including the Wasatch 100 and the Zane Grey 50 just three weeks earlier. The temperature was nice on this section, maybe a little on the cool side, and we ran along at a good pace. I told Dee I probably wouldn't be able to maintain this pace for the whole run, but I felt good then, so I was going to stick with her as long as I could. I'd forgotten my camera and Dee's batteries were dead in hers, so unfortunately we have no pictures of La Verkin Creek trail or Hop Valley. This first leg of the run starts with a substantial downhill and then has a lot of up and down along La Verkin Creek; we were going upstream, however, so I guess there's more up than down. There's a pretty big climb to get into Hop Valley and the leg ends on a big climb up to the trailhead where Brent's car was waiting with the first aid station. We saw Brent hiking down the trail as we were getting close to finishing this section, and he told us we were making great time.

We finished the first leg to Hop Valley Trailhead in ~3 hours and stopped briefly to eat some food, use the restrooms, refill our water and pick up Dee's iPhone, which is responsible for all of the pictures we have. We then started up the Connector Trail. This section is almost all uphill, mostly at a fairly gentle grade with a few steep spots and a few short downhill sections. This is the least used trail on the run and had a lot of fairly rough and rocky sections. This is where I sprained my ankle last year. We continued to push a nice steady pace up this, power hiking the steepest bits, but for the most part, running. It was starting to get warmer, and we knew that it was going to be hot coming down into the canyon, still we felt good and got to Lava Point in a little under 6 hours. This is usually the point in a run where I start to fade away, but on this day, I was feeling great. I figured I must be doing something right with my fueling and hydration and was immensely pleased. The road to Lava Point was closed due to snow, but Sam, Barbara, Irv, Joan and Brent had all contributed to hiking in some water and watermelon, so we had another aid station here. Brent was at the aid station when we got to it and seemed very impressed. We figured if we kept up the same pace, we could do the West Rim in 4 hours and finish right around 4:00, making 10 hours for the whole trip.

We started down the West Rim Trail at a pretty good clip. The West rim starts with a lot of up and down but really doesn't lose or gain much altitude until the approach to Potato Bottom. Here it drops substantially, but everything you go down has to be made back up as you climb out of Potato Bottom. Once the trail's back on top, it resumes its up and down ways until you reach Cabin Spring after which it drops steep and fast down into Zion Canyon. The trail loses about 3000 feet in ~5.5 miles, and that's with one substantial climb in the middle, so the downhill is steep. It's also a mix of slickrock and cement, so it's a hard, pounding way to finish. We enjoyed being on top where the temperature was still probably in the upper 70's, and we ran pretty fast on a lot of these sections. We stopped at Potato Bottom to eat, and I took a few Ibuprofen, because my knee was aching and I didn't want it slowing me down at the end. At around 8 hours when I was still feeling good, I told Dee that I must be doing something right to be running this well so late in the run. I also figured it must just be that I needed a good trainer. She laughed and said she should be charging me. We stopped at Cabin Spring so I could fill up my CamelBak (I was drinking a ton), and I used my iodine tablets finally, so I could justify carrying them with me all the time. Then came the downhill. We shuffled down this keeping up our running form throughout. We'd really seen very few people all day, but that ended fast when we got on to Angel's Landing. That trail feels like Disneyland, it's so crowded. We got to the grotto at 3:24 PM. We hadn't timed our run precisely, but figured we'd call it 9 hours and 24 minutes, assuming we started right at 6:00 AM.

The bus ride back to the Visitor Center was actually pretty fun and educational, I think we got the best bus driver in the park, and Brent was waiting when we got there. We were pampered and praised after a great run and Brent gave me a ride back to Angie's parents' house.

I would have to say that this was the best I have ever run and the whole experience was a huge confidence booster for Squaw Peak on June 7. Thanks to Dee for coaching me through it and to Brent, Joan, Sam, Barbara and Irv for the aid stations. Also thanks to this great group of runners for letting a complete stranger who just called up on the phone one day tag along. I'll see a lot of you at Squaw Peak, and I hope to see you guys next year for the 2009 Zion Train.

Here are the pictures :

Starting to blog

Well. I've had this blog for a while, but have only now begun using it, because my wife got ambitious and created a family blog for us. She then linked to this blog, and it's a little bit embarrassing to have it sitting empty in case anyone's looking at it. I've added two old race reports from my old website, and I'll add a little general stuff about my running to my personal profile when I get the chance. I'll be doing a big group run in Zion National Park on May 17, 2008, so I'll write about that. I'll also be running the Squaw Peak 50 mile race on June 7. Those will probably be my next two posts.

2007 MAS 50

On September 22, 2007, I ran my first 50-mile race, the Moab Alpine to Slickrock 50 miler. The website for the race is www.mas50.com. This was
physically the hardest thing I’ve ever done. A lot of experienced
ultrarunners told me that this was one of the hardest 50 milers they’d ever
done, so it was an interesting choice for my rookie outing. I wasn’t the
only rookie 50-mile runner present however.

The race started at 6:00 AM in the dark. I had a headlamp sitting in a drop
bag at mile 36, but that did me very little good at the start. Luckily
there were a lot of runners smarter than I was, so I tucked in with the pack
for the initial climb. The starting altitude is 6,400 ft. and by 9.34 miles
in we were at 10,400 ft. Oddly enough, it wasn’t 100 % uphill, but the
uphill sections were very steep. The downhill through here was a lot of fun
with fallen aspens crossing the trail and a nice soft loamy surface. I felt
great through this section and maybe went a bit harder than I should have.
We finished this section by coming on to the La Sal Pass 4x4 road and
turning on to a very rocky downhill section.

After the downhill we ran a mix of single and double track. This was all
pretty runnable and was a lot of fun. It was during this section that I
started running with Ray. He was a guy from Denver who was running his
third 50-miler. Ray was better at the technical downhill stuff than I was,
but I found that if I got behind him and watched where his feet went I could
keep up, so it was a beneficial strategy for me. At about 17 miles, we came
to the third aid station. Here I made an error by just blowing by the aid
station. I’d had a drop bag at the second aid station and had stopped for a
bit there, so I didn’t think I needed anything here. Immediately after the
aid station, we started a monster climb up to Geyser Pass. This climb was
very steep and the altitude began to get to me. I also hit the wall here
pretty hard. I’d read enough about ultrarunning to know I had to eat
regularly, but my brain doesn’t work well during a race, and I hadn’t been
bothering to eat anything. I think at this point I was beginning to drop
way behind in terms of readily available calories, but honestly it didn’t
really occur to me that this was my problem until after the race.

Anyway, I got into my first deep funk climbing to Geyser Pass. Ray was also
struggling here, so we continued on together. His girlfriend, who got him
into ultrarunning, passed us and gave both of us some encouragement, but we
were both struggling just to keep moving. We both stopped a while and sat
down and ate at the aid station at the top and took off together when we
were feeling better. There was about a half mile to a mile of downhill here
before we started up to Burro Pass, the highest point on the run at 11,200
ft. above sea level. This was a tough climb, but I felt OK on it and made
pretty good time to the top power hiking. The trip down the other side was
very steep and technical and my legs were pretty tired, so I had a rough
time coming down, but in ended on a nice smooth run into the Warner Lake Aid
Station.

This was mile 26, and I’d taken nearly 8 hours to get here (I took 3:27 to
run my last marathon), but I was told that I was pretty well on schedule
for a 14 hour finish due to the first half of the run having so much more
uphill than the second half. I stopped a while at this aid station and
snacked on what they had available as well as some dried fruit from my
second drop bag. Ray caught me again while Iwas here, but he stopped a
while at this aid station as well, so I left ahead of him to start the
final big climb of the race. I’ll just quote the official course description
to describe this climb.

“Three miles may not seem too far, but this is a killer segment. You will
ascend quickly on a single track from Warner Lake to Miners Pass (10,800').
A 1,500 foot climb in a mile and a half! The trail is in very good condition
and easy to follow. From Miners Pass you descend sharply for a half-mile on
a single track and then another mile on old dirt mining roads. The descent
from Miners Pass to Miners Basin is a drop of 1,200 feet, so watch your
knees once again.”

I again power hiked the climb and did OK, but the downhill was starting to
really take its toll on my legs. Here I caught up to Paul Hart who I’d met
on my ill-fated attempt at the Zion Train run in May (I sprained my ankle
and had to hike out), and we ran together to the Miner’s Basin aid station.
We were nine hours into the run and had finally finished the big climbs.

Again Ray showed up as I was leaving the aid station, and Paul had left ahead
of me, so I ran the next section alone. It was a steep and rocky dirt road
and my legs just didn’t have enough left to allow me to do a lot of running.
Ray caught and passed me near the bottom, but then we hit the paved road
with a moderate uphill grade, and I was able to pull away from him. The next
section was the Kokopelli trail along Porcupine Rim. The views of Castle
Valley here were spectacular. It was a fairly abrupt transition from the
alpine environment of the La Sals to the red rock desert that I more readily
associate with Moab. This was also the section where I hit my deepest funk.
I think I lost a lot of time here being unable to run on a section that was
really very runnable. When I finally got to Sand Flats road at mile 36, I
thought I’d missed the cut off and was going to be pulled, and honestly at
that point, I probably would have been happy if they had pulled me, but they
told me that the information I’d gotten at the last aid station was wrong
and the cut off was 5:45 not 5:00, so I was OK to continue. I can’t claim I
was really happy to hear that at that point. I stayed a while at that aid
station, and Ray came in and left a little ahead of me.

I walked out of that aid station with a guy named Greg from Park City, and we
walked together a while, but he started to pull away from me. I was feeling
pretty toasted and kind of figured I wouldn’t manage to run again and that I'd
eventually get pulled if I didn’t just collapse from exhaustion first,
but as I watched Greg pulling away, I started to feel a bit better and was
able to begin running again. As I passed Greg, he said, “Hey! Now you’re
hauling ass! I mean, relatively speaking.”

I responded, “Yeah. I think I’m making 12 minute miles here.” I was able
to continue mostly running down to the final aid station at about mile 43.
Ray was there with one other guy when I arrived. The other guy left shortly
after I got there, but not before he mentioned that this was way harder than
the Ironman Triathlon he’d recently done. Ray took off about 2 minutes
ahead of me, and I gave chase. We all had our headlamps on now as the sun
was beginning to set.

I was able to keep Ray in sight, and Ray and I were gaining on the other
guy. With about four miles to go, Ray passed him, and I decided that if I
had anything left, now was the time to lay it all out. I sped up and quickly
passed Ray and the triathlete. I was running pretty well and thought I’d be
able to hold it to the end, but I was wrong. With a mile to go, I hit the
wall yet again and was reduced to a survival slog. Ray passed me back, but
I managed to hold off the other guy and come in at 13 hours 55 minutes.

I talked a little while to Ray, his girlfriend, and Paul Hart who had hung
around, then I headed back to the Motel Room where Dad and Linda met me with
oranges, Hummus and Tabbouli.

So, lessons learned. First, I need a timer to remind me to eat. I thought
I’d be able to just remember, but it appears that while doing these things I
need a brain substitute. After all, anyone who would do such a thing is
clearly not abundantly blessed with brainpower. Second, I need to train
more long steep technical downhill, so my legs don’t get so thrashed that I'm
unable to run the downs. Third, and this is the positive, I can do this.
I did it, and I already want to do it again. Apparently, I’m not too bright,
but this was a wonderful experience. The course was beautiful, the pain was
exquisite and the sense of accomplishment is indescribable. I’ll be looking
forward to doing more of these and hopefully will get to the point where I
manage to make the cut off time with more than 5 minutes to spare. Who
knows? Maybe some day, I’ll manage to knock out 100 miles.

My First Ultramarathon

On January 6, 2007, I ran my first ultramarathon, the Red Rock Fat Ass 50k. The “Fat Ass” series of races is a series of low key ultramarathons. They're usually put on by local ultrarunners who want to be able to race, but don't want to go through the hassle of organizing a big race. Generally speaking, they have no advertising, little or no aid, no entrance fee and no prizes. In this race we kept track of our own time, there were two aid stations which we passed 3 and 4 times and it was run in the Red Rock National Recreational Area. One advantage of these races is they can often be run in areas where it would be impossible to get permits for an official race. There were 18 runners this year. The race's website is found at http://www.ultrarunner.net/redrockfa50k.html.

The course is a sort of out and back with a bit of a twist that allowed us to pass the two aid stations as often as we did. The course can be divided into three parts.

1. The run from the fee station parking area to the White Rock Trailhead. This is about 6.5 miles and is substantially uphill although it contains ups and downs. The earliest part of this leg is the rockiest and most technical portion of the trail. This goes along what's called the calico hills trail. It's a very popular area for rock climbers as it traverses the base of a set of sandstone cliffs. There were rock cairns along this portion of the run to help keep us on the right track as there are many trails cutting through here going to various climbing walls. The first aid station was at the White Rock trailhead.

2. The run from White Rock to the Willow Springs Trailhead on Rocky Gap Road. This is the lower half of the White Rock Willow Springs Loop. This leg is about 3 miles long and starts with a fairly substantial downhill portion that was a wonderfully pleasant break after the first leg. This is followed by a short uphill and another short downhill into the Willow Springs Picnic Area. After about a quarter mile of flat pleasant running through the picnic area, there's about ¾ of a mile of steady climbing up Rocky Gap Road to get to the Willow Springs trailhead and second aid station. This leg is around 3 miles long.

3. The upper portion of the White Rock Willow Springs Loop from Willow Springs back to White Rock. This was the most grueling climb of the run taking us to the highest altitudes we would reach during the race. The gut busting climb was followed by a steep and rapid descent back to the White Rock aid station. This leg is about 3.5 miles long.

The order of running these legs is as follows, an “R” following the leg number indicates the leg is run in reverse. 1-2-3-2-2R-3R-2R-1R. By my estimated mileages above, this adds up to 32 miles. The online race desription puts the course at 31.1 or 50 kilometers with 5400 vertical feet of both climbing and descent, so I figure my estimates are pretty close. You can see that we run everything in reverse after having run it once, making the course an out and back, but the loop which is run two full times with two extra runs along the lower portion allows us to pass the White Rock Aid Station four times and the Willow Springs station thrice.

I started out a bit faster than I should have and for the first two miles or so kept the leader, Ian Torrance, in sight. Ian is a world class ultrarunner who's won this race every year he's run it and who at one point held the record for the Grand Slam of ultrarunning. Luckily, after about two miles, I realized I was working too hard and should back off that pace in order to finish the race. I felt great and ran through the first aid station. I still had plenty of drink in my bottles and didn't need any food, so I didn't bother to stop. I was feeling a bit warm, but I'd sent my drop bag to Willow Springs, so there was nothing to be done at that point. At Willow Springs, I stopped and dropped off my gloves and my hat (which I hadn't been wearing for a while) and changed out of my polartec shirt into a long sleeved thin polyester shirt. I also ate a few pretzels and refilled my bottles and went on my way. The first time up the grueling climb of leg 3, I felt good and ran the whole way, but questioned the wisdom of leaving my gloves as my hands were getting cold at the higher altitudes. I dropped down to White Rock feeling good. I didn't need any water, but ate a few tortilla chips to just keep taking on calories. By the time i made the picnic area again, I was starting to feel the need to use the restroom, but I figured I'd be coming back through here shortly as the turn around was at the Willow Springs aid station. On my way up Rocky Gap Road, I noticed a fellow runner catching up to me. I tried to hold him off, but realized that I wasn't really gaining any ground on him, despite the fact that I was running up the hill and he was just hiking it. I slowed to a hike and he and I chatted until we reached the aid station, after which he lost me. I hit the Willow Springs station and stayed a little while nibbling on cookies and refilling my water bottles. I decided that on the loop with both aid stations, there was no need to carry both bottles, so I left on at Willow Springs. I added a Nuun electrolyte tablet to both bottles and headed out carrying one bottle and leaving the other to pick up later. Having one hand free encouraged me to reach for my honey flask more often, which I felt was a good way to keep taking on calories. I stopped in the picninc area and used the outhouses. I felt a little better after that, but didn't feel like I'd really gotten everything out. My second time around the loop, I was definitely more tired and I walked more often on the big uphills, but I still felt like my energy levels were good. I had a lot of gas and my stomach hurt, but I was keeping my food down, so I figured I was doing OK. According to the aid station volunterr, there were runners having problems with vomiting. I had a banana and an Oreo cookie at White Rock. I finished my second loop and picked up my second bottle glad to be on the way back. I ate some pumpkin cookies at the aid station and then stopped again at the picnic area toilets to see if I could solve my bowel troubles. Again, I felt a bit better, but knew I was going to continue to have problems. I was pretty slow back to White Rock, where I ate some peanut butter filled pretzels and a plantain pocket one of the ladies at the aid station had cooked. The plantain pocket was really good and I left feeling tired but pretty good. I only had 6.5 miles to go when I left White Rock the last time and I intended to speed up for a good finish, but I was finding it difficult to motivate myself until about four miles from the finish when I noticed another runner catching me. I sped up and managed to hold him off until the trails got more confusing. The Rock Cairns had been easier to follow on the way out than on the way back. Luckily it turned out the runner catching me was Ed Furtaw, the former race director and designer of the course. Ed and I ran together for a while. He showed me the correct route and we chatted about running. I told him that this was my first ultramarathon and that two years ago I had weighed nearly 300 pounds, but had gotten things on track and was able to do this sort of thing now. He seemed genuinely impressed with what I'd done and told me I'd saved my own life. After we got past the most confusing portion of the trail and were about 2 miles from the finish I told Ed I'd had fun running with him, but I was going to try to beat him now. He wished me luck and I went on my way. A couple of times I nearly got off the trail, but Ed was close enough to shout directions and I made it in in 6 hours and 54 minutes.

Ian Torrance had won the race with 4:53, his slowest time on the course. I told him that was pretty pathetic and he looked ashamed. Ed came in right behind me at 6:55. I had a wonderful time and hope to return next year. I definitely think that trail ultrarunning is something I enjoy and I hope to try a 50 miler within the next year or two. The people I met were all very pleasant, and I was very impressed with the aid station volunteers and the work of the current race director, Jim Rapp. I think it's very kind of all of them to put on such a nice race for us.

As we were sitting around chatting after the race, Ian Torrance delivered what I thought was the quote of the day. I won't get it exactly right, but it went something like this and I'll end with this thought.

“When ever I'm having issues, I'm out there and I'm not having a good time, I think, well what else would I be doing, sitting home watching TV? Then I feel better and I keep on going.”