Vermont 100 miler: Comparison of 2008 and 2009 Results

Here is a summary of my VT100 miler splits. My husband (who is a sweetheart and an AWESOME SAS programmer) created some code that can use the splits provided on the VT100 website to calculate the time arrived at each of the main aid stations as well as the pace between major aid stations (if there are any others out there wanting the SAS code or a printout like this, drop me an e-mail).

Unfortunately due to rounding errors (the race management group truncated the seconds of our times), this loses about 10 minutes to the final race time.

Regardless, this gives a sense about what my two VT100 miler experiences were like.

This year I started off a bit faster. This was sort of done on purpose to get a big buffer in case I slowed down (apparently I needed this more that I realized). Also, I knew what the course was like and felt a bit more confidant about moving quickly on it at various points.

Considering these results, I LOST alot of time changing my shoes. I know this based on my 16 minute/mile split at Stage Road (shoe change #1) and my 25 minute/mile split at Margaritaville (shoe change #2, when I loitered a bit with Tristan and wandered around aimlessly).

After Margaritaville I lost a lot of momentum and was really bummed out about life in general. And after I lost my pacer almost immediately following Camp 10 Bear I also got depressed and started wallowing in self pity. Both locations you can see a dramatic drop in my pace. But then I really picked up the pace when I acquired both Shane and Dan at mile 77 and 88 respectively. They were GREAT pacers and I was so lucky to have them.

Speaking of getting bummed on the course, I had a bizarre experience at VT100. I will call it a "reverse hallucination". Somehow between when I started the race and I finished the race I ended up with a moderate sized gash (~1 inch) in my calf. I have no recollection of getting this battle wound. I showed it to some of my co-workers (who are medical doctors) and tried to see if they could identify where, what and how this happened. None could.

So my proposed reverse hallucination (when something occurs during a race but you have absolutely no recollection of it), is that I was attacked and bitten by a fox somewhere between mile 62 and 77. During this 15 mile interval I was essentially alone (no one passed me and I did not pass anyone). Thus I easily could have been kidnapped by aliens, approached by a serial killer or even attacked by a fox.

Tristan suggests I somehow got scratched by a branch or ran into a rock. However, since I do not buy into Tristans hypothesis "The simplest explanation is right" (or some crazy long winded quote), I think I had a "reverse hallucination" and I was attacked by a fox (or maybe a small bear or bobcat would also work).

In fact Shane suggested he paced a person (who DNF'd cause that what Shane does to his runners) who saw many chipmunks running amok on the course. It is unclear what these chipmunks were doing or if they were attacking the runner; however, clearly there was a wild band of critters going nuts on the course.

I sure I hope I survive this!