With my breakfast of "champions??" before the race. As usual you will notice a Diet Mountain Dew, but I also branched out with a chocolate covered rice krispy treat....yum!!!
With Gilligan at the hotel before the race. You will notice Tristan is lurking in the background (Mt Rainier shirt) instead of taking this picture...not sure why he objects to picture taking but I had 1000 pictures available on my camera and I was ready to use them all!
With Tristan befire the start. You can see all the runners lurking about getting ready for this 100 (or 50) mile journey. While there is alot of nervous energy, I think it is also strangely relaxed. And of course there is lots of joking around!
With my friend Angela...she has messed up priorities, eating only a muffin. Or is it I who have messed up priorities/strategies?? Oh well, apparently both our strategies worked as we both finished:-) Good job Angela!
With Jenny C (from RR100), Wayne B, Anthony and Emmy. We all know each other through various races. Although I think Wayne, Emmy, Jenny, and Anthony may train together on occasion up in NY/NJ/Conn where they all are from. Everyone in this picture had tremendous sucess with PR's all around. Congrats to you all!Saturday morning I woke up refreshed and happy. It was going to be a beautiful day for a run, then jog, then walk, then shuffle… I got ready for the race as quietly as possible in the hotel bathroom. Getting dressed was fairly easy. I just had to make sure I glided all chafable area’s including several spots that consistently challenge me. Under my arms I tend to have issues and after VT100 I had a nice chaffed hot spot at the base of my sports bra so I paid particular attention to these areas. Since using drymax socks, my biggest challenge in getting ready is now getting in my contacts. This time was no different. After about 20 minutes and a lot of cursing I finally got both contacts in (because of astigmatism, my contacts are huge, have some “body” like a bra and really don’t seem to want to be in my eyes). This means they pop out, get ahold of and take eyelashes into my eyes and basically throw a tantrum about being put in. But alas I finally came out victorious.
Finally it was time to put on my gaiters, socks and shoes. This time I was able to remember this ordering matters. But sadly in putting on my shoes I tied my shoes too loose. My battle with my shoes continued throughout the race and I probably retied my shoes 5-10 times. After the shoe incident, I finally was ready and it was time to head off to the race. Tristan drove Gilligan and I to Umstead (which is good because with my contacts I sometimes can barely see if they have scooted upside down or are a bit askew—stupid astigmatism!). Soon enough we were walking to the main aid station to put my drop bag #2 on the porch for it’s joyride to Aid Station 2 (AS#2). Inside the main aid station I met up with Emmy, Wayne, Anthony, Bob and a bunch of other runners. I was drinking my usual diet mountain dew and had branched out into a new pre-race meal: chocolate covered rice krispy treats, yum! We took several pictures and joked around which kept our mind off the slightly insane journey we were about to make. At the end of our picture taking marathon Anthony was heard to suggest “I think I need an energy drink now”, which completely cracked my husband up.
Soon enough it was time for my final bathroom break. At this time, I sent Tristan on ahead to get Gilligan from the car to go to the Airport spur (the first time runners would be slightly separated). I took full advantage of the bathroom with running water as this would be an infrequent occurrence during the 100 miler. In there I met and chatted with a few runners including Susan D., the girlfriend of my friend Rob Apple from VT100 (who I attribute my VT100 finish—because during the horrible thunderstorm I was ready to die of fright or quit). Everyone, as usual, was nice, friendly and encouraging. A few more pictures in front of the headquarters as well as a bit of chatting with other runners and then suddenly the fireworks went off and my journey was about to begin. At that time I had no idea how long it would take me. And of course since anything can happen during a 100 miler I was not even assured of success, but alas I was to complete my journey in less than 28 hours for a PR of over 1 hour!!!
Finally it was time to put on my gaiters, socks and shoes. This time I was able to remember this ordering matters. But sadly in putting on my shoes I tied my shoes too loose. My battle with my shoes continued throughout the race and I probably retied my shoes 5-10 times. After the shoe incident, I finally was ready and it was time to head off to the race. Tristan drove Gilligan and I to Umstead (which is good because with my contacts I sometimes can barely see if they have scooted upside down or are a bit askew—stupid astigmatism!). Soon enough we were walking to the main aid station to put my drop bag #2 on the porch for it’s joyride to Aid Station 2 (AS#2). Inside the main aid station I met up with Emmy, Wayne, Anthony, Bob and a bunch of other runners. I was drinking my usual diet mountain dew and had branched out into a new pre-race meal: chocolate covered rice krispy treats, yum! We took several pictures and joked around which kept our mind off the slightly insane journey we were about to make. At the end of our picture taking marathon Anthony was heard to suggest “I think I need an energy drink now”, which completely cracked my husband up.
Soon enough it was time for my final bathroom break. At this time, I sent Tristan on ahead to get Gilligan from the car to go to the Airport spur (the first time runners would be slightly separated). I took full advantage of the bathroom with running water as this would be an infrequent occurrence during the 100 miler. In there I met and chatted with a few runners including Susan D., the girlfriend of my friend Rob Apple from VT100 (who I attribute my VT100 finish—because during the horrible thunderstorm I was ready to die of fright or quit). Everyone, as usual, was nice, friendly and encouraging. A few more pictures in front of the headquarters as well as a bit of chatting with other runners and then suddenly the fireworks went off and my journey was about to begin. At that time I had no idea how long it would take me. And of course since anything can happen during a 100 miler I was not even assured of success, but alas I was to complete my journey in less than 28 hours for a PR of over 1 hour!!!
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