A Life on the Run

Western States 100 Mile: the River Crossing to Green Gate

2011-10-15T17:48:00.000-07:00

Little did I know there was the potential for aliens on the course. I had pepper spray for bears/cougars, I had snake proof gaiters for rattlesnakes, copperheads (do they have these in CA?) and a cape to make myself large for the puma's. But I had nothing for alien abduction...but in the future I will be prepared.

This was at the alien aid station which was filled with super nice and helpful volunteers (as with all the aid stations at Western States 100 miler). I am a little confused about what the alien was holding in it's hand but I believe it might have been the course marking ribbon. Or it could be a human probber. It's a tough call.

I do not believe I was abducted however, I think Iva and I might have seen a fox and/or a skunk. As I recall foxes do have a scent like a skunk and at the same time I smelled the skunk like odor is when I saw the fox like creature.

As we waited for the next runner to catch up for the ferry across the river I chatted with the volunteers. I re-thanked all the volunteers along the steep climb down yelling at the top of my lungs. Then I burst into song! It was time for “Row Row Your Boat!:” I may have changed the words a bit including the suggestion they should row row row the boat to Auburn! I was not above skipping the next 20 miles or so particularly since a lot was to be in the dark. And I love raft rides.

I may have made a spectacle of myself. But I was having so much fun and everyone was so WONDERFUL! And by this time I was no longer hearing the air horn creeping up behind me so I was starting to believe that I could make it to the finish assuming all went well.

As we waited patiently for the next runner his pacer joined us in the boat. It was my friend Jimmy Dean Freeman’s brother from the SoCal Coyotes. I knew Jimmy from JJ100 so it was cool to meet his brother. Finally his runner arrived. Sadly his runner did not appreciate the crossing as much as I did. And he looked a bit pukey. I tried to discretely move away because I think puking is contagious and on a boat you are kind of limited in how you can escape. In fact after finishing we learned he did puke pretty quickly after getting to the other side of the river.

The crossing went pretty quickly. Perhaps even faster as I started yelling, “Faster, Faster!” to encourage our rowers to get the lead out (or whatever the boating term for rushing is). They did row quickly and efficiently thus all too soon we were across and my brief stint at sitting was over. Because of potential puking guy, I scurried out pretty quickly. Somehow I was relieved of my life jacket (this I really have no recollection of) and I was being gently handed from the boat personnel to the land personal over a small jetty. And it was back to running/walking.

After a quick “Thank you” to the rafting volunteers and a really loud “THANK YOU” for the volunteers on the other side I was ready to head up the 1 + mile hill to Green Gate. What an AMAZING experience. In fact I would say it is the memory that may be a top 10 in my life.

As we passed the far Rucky Chucky aid station I grabbed a bite or two and a small glass of ginger ale to ward off sour stomach. Although I had a drop bag at this aid station, I did not make use of it but simply headed up to Green Gate which I was going to get a fresh pacer: Pacer Shane.

Hiking up to Green Gate I knew it was going to be a bit steep and long. But it was nothing compared to earlier in the day. And at the top I would get to see Shane and Tristan. This motivated me to keep moving forward with purpose. I was getting pretty excited and knew that I was feeling super strong and so happy. I had made it 78 miles and I was moving forward with purpose.

As Iva and I arrived at Green Gate I was impressed with the green gate decorated with christmas lights. It was really cool. But there was a problem. No Tristan or Shane. I ate and drank than moved along a bit alarmed. I told Iva I could keep running by myself because by this time she was fatigued and her legs were starting to bother her. She had committed to 25 miles and had made it that far so I was happy. I knew the sun would be rising moderately soon. And I have dropped pacers before and although a bit of a bummer I figured I could keep moving forward alone. This anxiety was soon lifted when we rounded the final hill and there was Tristan and Shane as well as other pacers and pacers. Unfortunately the volunteers were not letting them go to the aid station and the aid station volunteers were not communicating this information to runners, which was very disconcerting.

Western States 100 Mile: Foresthill to the River Crossing

2011-10-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

You are only allowed one pacer in this area so Iva and a very nice volunteer help me with my shoe change. During my shoe change, I am not the well-oiled machine I hoped to be. But I don’t screw up either, which is good. I take off everything on my feet and wipe up fastidiously. This gets some comments from the peanut gallery. But I am happy to be off my feet for a few minutes and ensuring my feet a clean, dry, well glided and do not have any issues that could become catastrophe’s are important to me. I then do the same for my other foot. This time I pay particular attention when putting on my zensah sleeves having experienced a bit of a fiasco earlier in the day.

After taking care of my feet it is time to wet wipe my hands and take out my contacts. Ahh! What a relief. Because my contacts are so thick (thanks to very bad astigmatism), my eyes bother me a lot when wearing contacts. Mix in lack of humidity and dust and my eyes were a disaster. In fact later at Dardenelles my eyes continue to bother me so much I ask a volunteer to put my eye drops in my eyes because I am not skilled at this (in fact I am not skilled at much and sometimes it just shocks me that I make it through any given day!). Finally I complete all my tasks, it is time to eat.

I grab a grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of soup and head off for the finish line. I am past mile 62 and for the first aid station since mile 20 I do not hear the air horn! I want to keep it this way.

Running out of Foresthill I am a little bummed that I seem to lose members of “Team Tammy”: Tristan, Shane and Bella pretty quickly although they could run about half a mile with me. Oh well, it’s probably because I am running too fast!

Once Iva and I get to the turnoff of Foresthill Road I warn Iva that we are going to hit a fairly steep section soon. We have a brief respite then somehow the steep section I make it down without any issues. It is kind of odd because I had made a mental note that we had a pretty challenging section immediately following Foresthill. Perhaps it was being so excited about not hearing the air horn, being well fed/hydrated or knowing for the remainder of the race I would be escorted to the finish!

After announcing how I spent my day: running, followed by more running, with a little more running for good measure I ask Iva about how everyone on “Team Tammy” spent their day. This includes what they did as well as what was eaten (in fact a good meal can entertain me for hours!).

Iva chats about their daily activities. After getting woken up by my cell phone (the SPOT people called that cell phone as well to assess my situation), Iva, Bella, Shane, Tristan and my dad packed the hotel room then headed to Donner Pass to see the museum. Each of my friends learned what a disaster it is to go to a museum with my dad who likes to read all the placards. After several hours they all bailed while my dad stayed at the museum until likely closing!

Iva mentioned that the highlight of this museum was seeing how deep the snow was. There was a schematic that indicated where 20 feet was which is how deep the snow was that winter. She also mentioned that the museum was a bit disappointing to Tristan and my dad who knew the truth of the Donner Party (eating each other is the unvarnished truth). In fact there was no mention of the cannibalism in the museum but it sounded like both Tristan and more so my dad tried to incite the docent into admitting to what happened. I think I would have asked even more pointed questions along the lines of “human, white or dark meat?” But alas I guess in this day and age history gets re-written all the time. In fact in war, whomever wins definitely gets to write the history of battles how they see fit. It does sound like they all enjoyed the museum particularly since it was free and on the way from Squaw to Auburn.

The course here goes up and down with undulating hills. Sometimes we are close to the river and other times we are moderately high up. We are running parallel to the river and I recall that during the Memorial Day Weekend training run this section is very pretty although at various points there are sheer dropoffs alongside the trail. Luckily I am feeling pretty strong and am not overly worried about tripping. I try to describe the scenery to Iva, but I do not think I do it justice.

As we get to one of the aid stations I am having significant eye issues. My eyes are watering and it is creating some issues in my vision. I have had similar issues before but this time I am prepared with eye drops. Unfortunately I am not prepared with how to use eye drops. At the aid station I ask if a volunteer can get them in my eyes. I feel like a cat because I am squirming away from getting drops in my eyes even though I know this will help!

After attending to my eyes I get a few treats to eat and drank a little. My stomach is turning sour but I am sure I have gotten enough calories in me over the day to get to the finish without any worries.

We continue moving along slowly but steadily. Iva has a Garmin and my goal is to keep ahead of 17 min/miles at a minimum. I would prefer to go faster but my legs may be a limiting factor. Iva gives me good news indicating that we are moving along at a modest clip of about 15 min/mile. This means I am slowly inching my way ahead of the DNF line. But I don’t want to make any mistakes. I pay attention to my footing and keep up a conversation with Iva. Most of the time we are alone but sporadically we pass a runner or two. I am feeling pretty good and am so happy that I am in a segment I have run before and know that relatively speaking is not too hard.

Pretty soon we see the lights of Rucky Chucky. I am super excited because it means I get to sit down for a few moments. And of course I get a raft trip. I tried really hard to convince my pacers/crew to go on a raft ride (my treat) on Saturday and yet no one took me up on this offer. I love rafting so I have been looking forward to this all day. In fact I have been looking forward to it since learning that it was a high water year and we would be going across on a raft. This is going to be so fun!!!

As we arrive at the aid station I take a drink of ginger ale and a coke then move along. I know there is another aid station on the other side. And have I mentioned I am excited about the raft ride??!!

Leaving the aid station we are guided to a steep climb down to the river. It is lit up with luminaries and Christmas lights. It is beautiful and surreal. I take a moment to absorb it. Then I start my walk down this sheer cliff like path. But Western States takes such GREAT care of it’s runner I have no problem maneuvering down. As I step down a super sweet volunteer will take my hand and point to a place I should put my feet. They then hand me off to the next volunteer and upon confirmation many of these volunteers would give me a pat on the back, rubbed my shoulder or patted my head upon handoff wishing me luck and strength to finish the race. It was so wonderful.

All of the volunteers were so helpful, encouraging and so sweet. I wanted to savor the moment because it gave me such a warm feeling inside. Then all too soon I was being outfitted with a life jacket and handed off to the volunteers in the boat. I climbed in and sat down quickly followed by pacer Iva.

Western States 100 Mile: Michigan Bluffs to Foresthill

2011-10-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

I take off my hydration pack and give it to Tristan. I put on my super bright headlamp (*thanks to Jamie Donaldson and Meredith Terranova for this suggestion) and put on a few layers and tie some others to my waist. After refilling my bottle and munching a little bit it is time to get moving.

As I get ready to leave I hear a voice asking if anyone has a spare headlamp. In fact I had my beta headlamp on since Devils Thumb but have switched it out for my super strong headlamp. I yell that I have a spare headlamp. A volunteer comes over and takes it. She asks my number. I give it to her “271” but have no expectations of seeing it again. I have gotten used to giving away headlamps and clothing and never seeing them again. But oddly enough when I arrive home and unpack my bags, there is my headlamp with a small piece of paper and my bib number in my next drop bag. It is really cool to get it back but I wish the runner had also left his bib number on it so I could check on his status. I hope he finished!

I am super excited about heading out of this aid station because the faster I get through Michigan Bluffs, the sooner I will get to Bath Road where everyone can pace me for about a mile.

Iva and I head off into the darkness. I know the course and describe it to Iva. We have a long up hill with a really sharp left hand turn we need to pay attention for. I fixate on this because I don’t want any bonus miles and I am pretty sure that the DNF line would pass me if I did end up off course. We pay particular attention and finally the turn occurs. We then start heading into Volcano Canyon. This decline is pretty steep but I am able to walk and jog slowly. I know we need to keep moving forward with purpose.

Our conversation flows easily and covers many topics. I ask what happened about my SPOT rescue beacon. She indicates the race staff did not contact anyone, but Tristan was contacted by the SPOT personnel. When they ask him if I am okay he is unsure and thus they do send a rescue helicopter to help the injured safety patrol runner. Based on conversations at the aid station it became apparent to them that this rescue was needed and that it really helped the young lady as she was in bad shape and ill prepared for waiting for help. When I left my rescue beacon I vaguely thought about giving some clothing however, I realized that I could potentially need my layers if anything happened to me. And I assumed that they would have some more layers in their bags (this might have been a bad assumption but considering I had just given up my lifeline I was not ready to give up additional items that could be critical if I had to self rescue).

As the jeep road turns into single track we hear water running. I warn Iva that we are about to cross a stream. My feet are already wet and I am not very stable on my feet so I will be simply walking across. But Iva prefers to go across via rock hopping. I offer to cross then come partway back to give her a hand on the upper side where she can rock hop. She accepts and is successful at keeping at least one foot dry.

We then head up the single track and pretty soon we are on the Jeep Road. I know we only have a short bit and we get to Bath Road where we rejoin Bella, and Shane. And next thing I know there they are!

We walk up the hill (as any respectable back of the pack ultrarunner does). We chat about various topics and everyone is so nice and encouraging to me. I indicate that I want to change my shoes at Foresthill. I know I am behind the suggested 30 hour pace but I am closing in on 1 hour ahead of the absolute cutoff. I know shoe changes take 20-30 minutes but I justify that this will help my feet and me in general in the long run.

Western States 100 Mile: Devils Thumb to Michigan Bluffs

2011-08-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

So happy to be crossing the bridge over El Dorado Canyon. I had been on this bridge before when Tristan and I had hiked during the Memorial Day Weekend Training run (which I highly recommend to everyone...it gave a sneak peak of the course, I met lots of other runners and it is a beautiful course much of which I covered in the darkness).

By this time I was starting to feel good about my race because I knew exactly what to expect for the remainder of the race. In my opinion knowledge is power. Especially when that knowledge allows you to know the course gets easier, not harder, as the miles increase.

As I get on the scale I am a little overweight. I believe I am about to get the talking to as well as possible sat out for a few minutes. But wait…I have my snake proof gaiters on. I know they weigh 2 lbs. I take them off and am back within specs. WAHOO! I ask the nice volunteers to put them in my drop bag since the sun is starting to get low on the horizon and I feel the rattlesnakes should be going to bed. I also grab my headlamp and put it on as well as a light shirt.

The volunteers as usual are really great and are super nice and helpful. But I want to get away from my air horn stalker. I grab some soup, get my hydration systems filled up and head off. As I exit I hear the single horn alerting runners to less than 10 minutes to the absolute cutoff. Yikes! Time to put some pep in my step.

Running out of the aid station I run with a gentleman for a bit of time. He is good company and suggests that the next section is runnable and the switchbacks to El Dorado Canyon are not too steep. This is comforting. At some point he pulls ahead because even with not too steep downhills I struggle.

The sun is starting to set slowly. But sporadically I end up in a place where there is still direct light. Although I have a long sleeve shirt on I realize that I should take it off so I don’t get overheated, sweat then get chilled. I am reminded of how many wardrobe changes I typically make in any race. I do spend a lot of time thermoregulating via wardrobe changes but I think this is sensible although it does waste a bit of time.

As I run I am getting a little worried. It is dusk and I am alone. This is when mountain lions eat. And they might like a moderately slow runner for dinner or a tasty snack. This is very alarming to me. But I have some defense but not all my defenses. I have pepper spray but I do not have my spot rescue beacon. Alas I have my super secret weapon: singing. I have done this before during other hikes. In fact Tristan and I were busting out with the Sponge Bob Square Pants theme song during a hike near Mt St Helens. And there we were a pair. Here I have to sing alone. I start with 99 bottles of bear on the wall. But I get a bit bored with this even with all the different versions I learned in girl scout and church camp (which in retrospect is kind of an odd place to learn this).

I then change my song to something more motivational. I start singing “Go the Distance” by Micheal Bolton. I think about how I wish I had hair as nice as he does. I also wish I knew the words. But I make do and mumble various words I do know and make up words I don’t know. But I know I can go the distance!

Starting to go down the switchbacks I am back to being content and happy. But not for long. As I jog I hear some rustling in the tree’s and bushes nearby. It is getting closer. I am very worried because that is when the majority of cougar attacks occur. I get out my pepper spray and unlock it for the second time that day. I am ready to start spraying and will ask questions later. Right before I let loose I realize it is another runner. I re-holster my pink pepper spray and tell the young lady she is lucky she did not get sprayed. I am not sure she appreciates how close she was to being the recipient of my hair trigger panic finger. In fact I was a little surprised that as she approached she did not at least mumble “passing”, “hello” or any other greeting. I always alert runners to my whereabouts because when you are in a zone it can be kind of alarming to have a runner next to you. And my strong fear of serial killers really makes this panicked feeling even worse!

She moves ahead of me slowly since we are on the downhill which is my weakness. But she might have been spooked by my statement about cougars (or maybe I picked up the pace for some company). As we get closer to the river I was getting really excited. We could hear the water and I knew as we got close to the base of El Dorado Canyon I knew the remainder of the course from the WS100 memorial training run. We turn a bend and I realize we are very close to where Tristan and I had a yummy picnic lunch. I take a picture and tell my friend about our meal of bread, fruit and cheese. It is a really nice memory. Then we get to the bridge.

On the bridge there are many volunteers. It is great to see people. This is my last aid station where I will be conceptually alone. It is after 8 already and that means when I get to Michigan Bluff I will be able to pick up my pacer Iva. The volunteers are super helpful and as usual attend to all my eating and hydration needs. I grab a few items, refill my bottle and very soon I am on my way. I want to get as far as I can in the light. I know there are a few segments that are a bit tricky and would prefer to get through them with as much light as possible.

Going up the mountain I pass my friend and wish her luck. Then I am moving swiftly power hiking. I am excited to be on trail which I am familiar with. I even jog a bit going up this hill. I am moving quickly because I know the DNF line is creeping up behind me. And I know each mile I move forward I have that much less distance alone. This makes me very excited. I know there are switchbacks then a segment we go down briefly, we cross a small stream then continue up for a bit on the single track. Then we get on a jeep road and pretty soon I will be at Michigan Bluffs. My excitement is building.

Pretty soon I run into folks indicating just a bit to the aid station, then I hear dogs barking, see some houses and make a sharp left turn. I am approaching Michigan Bluff. I am EXCITED. I get to the aid station, check in and immediately see Iva, Shane, Tristan and Bella. What a treat! Nearly my whole pacer/crew/family team is there.

Western States 100 Miler: Last Chance to Devils Thumb

2011-08-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

On Swinging Bridge on my way to Devils Thumb.

This bridge had a very alarming sign on it indicating maximum one horse or 6 humans. I was ready to start yelling at people if there started to be more than 4 others on this bridge with me...

Apparently many runners will take a dip in this river to cool off on an access path right after crossing the river. As you can see by this time in the race I had put my moeben sleeves on and was alternately putting them on and rolling them down to stay a bit cooler.

Last Chance AS a small disaster occurred. Luckily it did not adversely affect me as much as it could. As I got to the aid station I was weighed in. While being weighed in there was a lot of confusion as they told me to get on the scale while simultaneously telling me to take off my hydration pack and fanny pack. This is where I learn my ensemble weighs 15 lbs as I get on the scale and it reads nearly 150 lbs. Yikes! Then I get my items off nearly having to put them on the ground. I think the look of horror on my face got a volunteer to take it (since I was the only person in this area I could get this kind of service). While standing there I ask for my drop bag. After confirming that my real weight of ~135 is close to my original weight I can move forward to the aid station. At the aid station I eat, drink and be merry. Everyone is super helpful and nice. But a disaster occurs. I am told that my drop bag is not there. Luckily I have not real goals for seeing my drop bag except maybe to resupply my M&M stash. So I say it is fine and continue munching.

As I exit the aid station I see my drop bag. But by this time I don’t really care and simply plan to get to the next aid station where I have a drop bag. But I do take a picture. Also I know I am now less than 20 minutes ahead of the DNF line. The DNF guy with the air horn is now stalking me!!! I keep seeing him at all the aid stations. He is now my arch nemesis!!

The course continues to be fairly runnable. I am feeling pretty good and the scenery is very lovely. I am having a great race except for the DNF line encroaching on my personal space! I know that I have a lot of energy and am feeling strong. But on the other hand I am nearly 1.5 hours behind the recommended 30 hour pace. I am just about 30 minutes ahead of the absolute cutoff and these are not numbers that brings any confidence in my ability to finish. But I vow to keep on moving until told or forced to do otherwise by race staff or my body.

Leaving Last Chance we go down a slow gentle decline. I jog along happily pondering my thoughts. I know I am getting closer and closer to the part of the course I am familiar with. I just need to climb up to Devils Thumb then head to El Dorado Canyon. But this is a lot easier said then done.

As I get to the base of the first canyon I am excited to see swinging bridge. I am alarmed by the sign on it that states “limited to one horse and rider of 6 runners” Trust me if there were 6 runners near me I might have had to bust out the pepper spray to enforce this rule. Alas there is only one other runner nearby. I ask if he will take my picture and he kindly does. We both head up the sheer cliff that is Devils Thumb. I am pretty excited because I am moving smartly and uphills are my strength. This hill is really no worse than Maryland Heights near West Virginia where I have spent many hours, miles and verticle feet climbing. This makes me feel good because the final canyons I will climb, El Dorado and Volcano Canyon I have already seen during the WS100 memorial day training run.

As I climb up I pass 5-10 runners. Some I pass very quickly and am worried about because we are all very close to the DNF line. Others I pass but remain close to me. At some point we get to a bit of clearing where you can see into the canyon. It is a beautiful view but it is also very alarming to me. We are very exposed and just a step or two to the left is a sheer cliff about 1000 feet deep. I stop abruptly. I am paralyzed by fear. I really, really, really hate heights. I am even more worried because at mile ~45 I am not very stable on my feet. I give myself a pep talk saying I have to move forward. I cannot go back because the last aid station will be closed. And I need to finish WS100. I cannot disappoint my friends, family, pacers, crew, pets, etc. I give myself a pep talk. My usual “you are strong, you can do this” does not cut it. I have to harness my inner Puffi. Puffi is our youngest cat who is not afraid of anything. I tell myself she would not let this challenge stop her and I should not let it stop me. Finally I get my courage up and just do it. I am so thrilled with this accomplishment but am worried I will have more of these sheer drops I need to do. But I have faced down this challenge so I savor my victory!

As I climb I hear something I have heard before but the other times it has been after I leave the aid station. This time I hear the Air Horn warning signal of three beeps and I am not at the aid station! This means I am now less than 30 minutes away from the DNF line. But I am getting excited as each time I see brief glimpses of what appears to be the top. And pretty soon there are random folks who are clearly not runners. This means we have to be close to the top. Yippee!!! As I get to the top I am excited to see some horses. I even take a moment to pet one. I need a bit of animal loving.

Western States 100 Mile: Millers Defeat to Last Chance

2011-08-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

Along this segment there were several warning signs. Most were related to mining rights. I felt a little alarmed that there might be a person coming out with a shotgun...and my tiny bottle of pepper spray would likely not do much good.

Luckily I moved quickly through this section and did not try my hand at mining in this segment!

In fact I did try to read the various warning signs because I figured they could warn of hazardous animals, unspent munitions, nuclear (or other toxic) waste which I would need to be on the look out for!

I go through Millers Defeat pretty quickly. I know the DNF line is very close to me. My friend Melanie H had sent me a tiny printout of the aid stations and 30 hour suggested pace as well as the absolute cutoff. I am within 30 minutes of the cutoff. This is quite disturbing, but I am hopeful I will be able to pick up the pace now that I do not have to worry about any more snow.

Knowing the aid station cutoff is very soon, while at this aid station I ask if anyone is going home after volunteering. I am not sure my question was well understood because I was just trying to alert my husband to my status. That I was running along and doing fine but my SPOT was elsewhere. In fact I was really hoping my husband might have the sense to realize since I was moving but my SPOT wasn’t that he could give me his bulkier and older SPOT. Unfortunately it sounded like the volunteer I spoke with was not going anywhere with internet or phone service. This bummed me out a bit. I just hoped my family/crew had been informed of my status. In fact not having my SPOT did suck a bit of energy from me. I was worried about various disasters befalling me. And since I would not be able to help myself I imagined it could take hours (or maybe up to a day as in my husband’s case) before I got help if something tragic happened. Time for another self pep talk!

The next miles were spent trying to move quickly and efficiently. Here we were on a jeep road that was pretty nice in my opinion. I could move solidly forward without having to worry too much about my footing. And we were in the woods so it was not too hot when running with purpose. The one highlight of this section was the “Mining Claimed” area that indicated the land was claimed. I found this rather amusing and was curious what kind of stuff was being mined. I also was curious where the mine was but clearly had no time to explore.

Western States 100 Mile: Mosquito Ridge to Millers Defeat

2011-08-09T18:22:00.000-07:00

With one of my ultra-running hero's: Tim Twietmeyer.

Tim is really nice and so encouraging to all. I met him first at the California International Marathon in December. Then I met him a second time at the WS100 mile lottery the next day (where I may or may not have made a spectacle of myself). Then I saw him at the WS100 training runs and throughout the race weekend.

Although he has won the race numerous times, run it even more times he is really down to earth, friendly and a genuinely great person (as so many affiliated with the WS100 race are!)

I actually saw Tim an additional time later on the course (about mile 96 but at that point I was being hunted down/chased by the DNF line)

Very quickly I arrive at the next aid station. In fact for a bit I feel like every hour or so I am arriving in aid stations which is good, but also means they kind of blend together in my mind. The aid station volunteers take really great care of me. I resupply my beverages and refill my bandana ice burritos. I am feeling really good and my race continues to go very well.

This section we have a 4 mile out and back loop then we will be rejoining the original course. This is exciting to me because I am vaguely familiar with the original course through reading and studying blogs and course descriptions. In fact Craig Thornley is definitely a WS100 icon and I tried very hard to memorize his descriptions of each section. Sadly this was of limited use until Millers Defeat!

Heading out of the aid station I am alone again. This is okay until I run by a fairly new DEER CARCASS!!!! Seriously, I have read others blogs, race reports and course information and no one mentions this. I seriously nearly end up walking (actually running back) to the aid station I just left. But I give myself another pep talk. And by the time I realize it is a deer carcass I am pretty close to passing it. My contacts really do not work very well which is kind of a good thing when you are about to see something horrifying! As I pass I actually have the sense to take a picture but it is from behind and I am moving pretty quickly. In my other hand I have my pepper spray out and unlocked! I am ready to take on any beast that might be about to supplement it’s deer meal with a person dessert! But I was not going down without a fight…or without seasoning myself:-)

This section was more fire road so I was able to run with a bit of speed. I ran with Antoinnette for a little bit. She was very festive with her rabbit ears and was moving along solidly. Sadly as was the case throughout the day my pace did not match hers as I moved along.

At the end of this loop the RD suggested we would travel the “roughest” section of the race. This actually is too kind a definition of what we ran through. I was really glad for my snake proof gaiters as I scampered over tree’s and branches. I know the RD and the volunteers had to work really hard considering the issues with the course and they are to be commended! But I still struggled here. I was extra cautious because I did not want to fall. Then the final section of this “rough section” was a snow slope which I nearly took a header. Alas at the last second I was able to regain my balance as I slammed into the jeep road at the bottom.

The jeep road return to Millers Defeat kept having small snow sections of a few hundred meters followed by dirt. I was glad to be getting to the end of the snow pack but found this almost harder than the original snow because at each of the section breaks you had to cautiously get on or off the snow. Or at least I should say I had to…others seem to run recklessly through the snow but I tend to be very hesitant and really did not want to mangle myself.

Heading into Millers Defeat I was very excited. I was about to get back on the WS100 course. And reportedly there was no more snow. WAHOO!!!

Western States 100 Mile: Duncan Canyon to Mosquito Ridge

2011-07-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

Along the race course near the Lake we ran alongside for several miles. It was a very beautiful blue lake that had lovely snow capped mountains in the background.

We never got too close to the edge of the lake although at several points we had to cross over (through) streams.

The trail along the perimeter of the lake was very nice with very few roots or rocks so it was easy on the feet and there were not very many tripping hazards.

Just a few minutes later and one final switchback up the hill I make it to the Duncan Canyon Aid Station. The aid station is really active and lots of fun. The volunteers take great care of me helping me fill all my hydration pack with ice water and my bottle with sports drink as well as filling my bandana with ice so I can wrap it around my neck to keep cool. Everyone is so cheerful and helpful. I loiter a bit, chat with the volunteers and again get scolded to get out of the aid station.

Jogging out of the aid station I am feeling great. My WS100 experience is amazing so far. It is exceeding my expectations!

The current course continues its diversion on the “2011 snow route”. We go into Duncan Canyon then head up to Mosquito Ridge. As I am running into the canyon we have a small section on snow then abruptly get onto a road. I am thrilled to see road. I have had enough snow for many, many years to come and I actually do like running on road since it is fairly brainless (so far I have not fallen on road, trails I fall a lot!).

As I running down the hill, safety patrol catches up to me. They are very nice and even take my picture as I run along. We chat for a while. Their job is to make sure runners are doing well. Sadly I am doing well so after a bit they head off. I try to suggest that I am not coherent and that they kind of owe me an escort since I did give up my SPOT rescue beacon which was supposed to be my chaperone. Apparently this does not convince them to stick with me. Nor does my exciting conversation and company. As they head off, they remind me that the DNF line is approaching but suggest that I am moving solidly and just need to keep running strong.

In the canyon we run along a river for a bit. I love rivers and the sound of running water. I am in my happy place. The views continue to be very pretty and I am just having so much fun. I try not to stress about my lack of SPOT and try to remind myself that statistically I am unlikely to experience death and disaster.

Hiking up the hill I am bummed when we get off the road onto a fireroad. At least it is not single track. As I run along I am all alone. Along the road you could see about ½ mile ahead and behind at various points and there are no runners in my field of vision. But as I run on the dirt road I am surprised to catch up to my friend Don. Not surprisingly he passed me at the Aid Station. We catch up a bit and jog for a bit together. Again, my pace is slightly faster so we ultimately separate. A little bit later I catch up to my friend Jose SG. He really struggled in the snow (in fact at one point I asked him what shoes he was wearing…so I could NEVER buy them!). He is starting to struggle in the heat but is moving forward. He has a lot of experience in 100’s so I am optimistic for him.

As I continue running I am back to being alone. This is actually how the rest of my day seems to progress. Sporadically I see runners in the aid stations but overall I am alone. I did not know if headphones are allowed so I did not carry any. But regardless I would not have put them on because I want to make sure I can hear the rattlesnake, bear, cougar, marmot, lizard or whatever other animal might be about to attack me!

Western States 100 Mile: Poppy Aid Station to Duncan Canyon

2011-07-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

With my personal assistant: Vicki who took GREAT care of me during my visit to the Poppy Aid Station.

She was so sweet and helpful. She made sure to help me with my sock change (which is very labor intensive and kind of smelly) and attended to my every need.

After the race I was so lucky to run into Vicky again at the post race buffet where again she took excellent care of me.

She was an AMAZING volunteer and so kind!

After leaving the Poppy Aid Station we quickly ran along a beautiful mountain lake for about 5-7 miles.

The course was really lovely and the views spectacular. Around each bend you could see the blue/green lake flanked by the snowy mountains.

The views were just breathtaking and it was such a treat to be able to run alongside this picture perfect lake on such a beautiful day.

Pretty soon we arrive at the Poppy Aid station where our first drop bag is located. Here I make my first mistake of the day. But luckily it is a fairly small one and easily rectified. Because the race director during the pre-race briefing suggested we change our socks, I do so. In retrospect I would not have done this. But alas having a really good friend, Ethel (who was a GREAT pacer at the ICY-8 hour in 2010 helping me get my first 2^nd place female), who ended up with massive feet issues from her attempt at WS100, I do the conservative thing and change my shoes.

My personal assistant, Vicki (who is WONDERFUL) gets my bag, helps me in getting off my nasty wet socks and putting on a new pair as well as a new pair of gaiters (you might as well change everything is my philosophy). Changing my socks also involves cleaning my feet rather thoroughly with wet wipes. By the time I have wiped them off you can eat off my feet (not that I ever would, but I am a bit fastidious about my feet). After getting on my socks and gaiters, I also put on my pair of Zensah calf sleeves so I can put on my snake proof gaiters. When putting on one of my calf sleeves somehow it is upside down…or at least looks that way. In fact when I take it off, put it back on it then is really upside down. Then I have to take it off one last time to put it on rightside up. So for those of you keeping count this sleeve has now been on and off 3 times! Finally it is on right. I then hook up my snake proof gaiters (these I do know how to put on although it was only during a practice run I realize that there is definitely a right and left foot). After attending to my feet situation it is time to put on some sunscreen. This takes a bit of time because I know I need to apply at least a shot glass worths of sunscreen and I really do not want to miss any place. Although I had applied sunscreen before I started I do really try to take care of my dermatological needs. I also try to take care of my oral hygiene but as you will learn later from mid-afternoon until the finish I was fighting the DNF line rather than gingivitis!

Grabbing a grilled cheese sandwich, some brownies, a payday bar as well as resupplying both my fanny pack bottle and my hydration pack I am ready to leave the aid station. In fact the volunteers are starting to really encourage me to leave as they (and I) know the DNF line is starting to creep up on me! Alas attending to needs can be an important race strategy and I am sure that I will be able to make up time with my freshly clean/dry feet as well as with the confidence my snake proof gaiters will give me and finally with a full belly of food and drink!

The next section of course is by far the prettiest in my opinion. The course follows along a beautiful lake and it is a fairly runnable section. Don and I continue to run together chatting about ultra’s. the ultra community and life in general. He is good company and I am glad to have a person to run along with. Even when we are running in silence it is nice to have some company. We sporadically stop to appreciate the views and to take pictures. The lake is a beautiful green with snow capped mountains behind it. We are in a lush pine forest with lots of wildflowers. We sometimes are a few hundred feet from the lakeshore and other times we climb a bit higher. We have a few stream crossings including one very soon after we got out of the aid station, aargh! Alas I am glad I made sure my feet were in good condition and it was nice to chat with Vicki while she was taking excellent care of me!

After running along the lake, Don and I start separating. My pace is a bit too brisk for him. This is sad because he is such great company but we both know that it is also important to run your own race particularly in the 50 and 100 mile distance. I am super pleased to have spent so many miles with him and know the early miles will be some of my favorite because of his company.

Running along we head up a fairly steep hill. The sun is getting bright and warm. And there seems to be residual burn from I would guess the late 90’s or early 2000’s. The tree’s do not provide as much shade but luckily it is not too hot and is not predicted to get super hot. I would guess at the hottest it might have been 90 degree’s but there does seem to be a pleasant breeze now and again. We really lucked out with delightful weather!

Reaching the top of this long hill climb I see my friend Keith Blom. He took some super pictures of my lottery selection (when I basically blew a gasket and forgot to photodocument the whole experience). But luckily Keith snapped pictures as I realized my name had popped up on the screen. It was an amazing experience! We subsequently ran into each other at the Across the Years and then he was one of the “Media”/official photographers of WS100. It was great to see him and briefly say hello!

Western States 100 Miler: Talbot to Poppy Aid Station

2011-07-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

Picture: Me along the course between the Talbot Aid Station and Poppy Aid Station.

Notice that there are plenty of rocks, not very dense pine tree's and a dirt path. This is how the majority of this section looked. It was very beautiful but very different than the first ~15 miles which was snow covered.

This section had both up and downhills but no significant climbs or descents. Additionally, the footing was pretty good including a large portion of jeep road. My impression of the jeep roads is that there were bits of rocks but none seemed to be ankle twisters. And while the course might have been a bit dusty I believe my gaiters did the trick of keeping this out of my shoes and off my feet.

This is the first time I have seen people who might have contact with the outside world. I ask where the Ham Radio operators are. I am pointed to the exit. I go over and chat with them and confirm that my husband has been alerted that I am not sending out an SOS but have given my SPOT rescue beacon to others needing it.

I am assured my family has been contacted.

This is not the case but I do not find this out until Michigan Bluff. Luckily my friends and family can see that I am progressing along the course. This actually distresses me when I learn that a message was never conveyed to Tristan or my crew. I am sure glad they did not follow the helicopter to the hospital it went to because at that point I would have been a bit stranded and very puzzled as to where my people disappeared to. But then again from Tristan’s fall last year on Mt Theilsen they should have known not to immediately head to the hospital where one is medivacced but wait until the final destination is determined (when Tristan fell and was ultimately medivacced, I was told he was going to Portland Health Center. Luckily I hunkered down and waited and in fact he was only transported to St Charles Medical Center in Bend a few hundred miles away, I think I would have been horrified if I arrived at a hospital after a cross country flight only to learn I had another 3-5 hour drive to get to him). But I digress.

Don and I head out of the aid station together. We are pretty well matched for pace. And he is great company keeping a very easy conversation going. I learn his training has been really good. He broke 24 hours for a 100 miles at an event in the winter. I am still trying to do this, although I think without a bad knee issue at Umstead I might have broken it in April. Alas that was a learning experience when I learned my standard training of being conservative and not pushing to hard worked for me at least. For my first 6 years of ultra-running I never had an issue. Starting last fall when I started pushing really hard I have gotten shin splints and a bad knee tendonitis that took over 2 months to recover from including 1 month of intense physical therapy.

Running along I am thrilled that my knee is not acting up. I am feeling strong, enjoying the views and having a great time. It is so beautiful in the high country. How lucky are the runners to be able to do something we love so much on such a lovely day! We could not ask for more perfect weather. It is a beautiful blue sky and the scenery is spectacular!

Since I may be the better trail runner of the two of us, I end up being the pace setter for Don and I. This is fine with me because then I can go faster or slower as the terrain changes. Don is agreeable to this strategy. He is good company and lots of fun to run with. As we run along we both appreciate the beautiful views we are being given. Although I know I will be skirting the DNF line (based on other races and the fact that the snow has really slowed me down), I still take the time to stop occasionally to look around. We are so lucky to be so fortunate to run this race on such a beautiful day. There is no other place I would rather be! I will think this over and over throughout the race.

Western States 100 Mile Race Report: Interrupted for Vermont 100 miler

2011-07-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

I apologize that I am leaving you my readers hanging...but my kind of lame excuse is that I am getting prepared for my 4th Vermont 100 miler.

This is the second stage of my Grand Slam 100 miler attempt. The 4 hundred milers in the Grand Slam include:

Western States 100 miler, California

Vermont 100 miler, Vermont

Leadville 100 miler, Colorado

Wasatch 100 miler, Utah (CONDITIONAL assuming I finish the prior 3)

If you want to wish me some luck feel free to text me at:

(804) 310-8745

I will have my cell phone on me. Service will be sketchy but I know on a few ridges it actually is pretty good:-)

Western States 100 mile: Escarpment to Talbot Aid Station

2011-07-14T18:08:00.000-07:00

Running up Emigrant Pass I found a super nice lady who was willing to run alongside me snapping many pictures.

The course was really beautiful but snow covered for the vast majority of the first 15 miles or so.

It was challenging to run on and I know many runners including myself struggled to stay on their feet.

But the course was very lovely and we were so lucky to have perfect weather including a very sunny blue sky, and delightful temperatures.

What you will notice here is my full outfit including gloves, pants and of course sparkely my fanny pack, my flower hat as well as lots of random stuff.

Here is one of the many river crossings we had to do.

This picture includes my friend Don who ran many of the first sections with me. He was excellent company and a seasoned ultramarathoner with many 100 miler completions.

This river was one of the larger ones and in fact had a rope to assist runners in the crossing.

As you can see there is snow right along the side of the stream. I would guess the temperature of the water was just above freezing. By the end of the river crossing my feet and lower legs (from thigh below) were numb from the cold.

As you can see by this time I had taken off my long sleeve shirt and jacket so the day was warming up. So I did thaw out pretty quickly.

Climbing Escarpment (continued)

As we continue on, we are on a snow slope that is not too steep. Others seem out of breath but I am happy that alttitude or hills are not really impacting me greatly. I continuing moving at a modest clip. Along the slope I am able to get a very nice young lady to get my picture. She even gets a few action shots which is nice. The final climb to Emigrant Pass is a bit treacherous. But I make it. I am thrilled to be at the top of the pass. I will only be going downhill from here. But alas going downhills is my weakness. I go really slowly, get nervous and would actually go many, many, many extra miles to avoid downhill. Alas the WS100 course is a net downhill.

Near Watson Monument at the top of the pass I find another spectator to take my picture. I know I may be wasting valuable time but I rationalize that this is giving me a break, giving me some joy and I need to savor and document my experience. It is really beautiful with snow covered mountains all around.

After Emigrant Pass

The first few hundred meters down the mountain I am excited to see no snow. We are on a dirt/rock trail with stubby bushes and wildflowers. It is very pretty. Unfortunately after about a half mile or so we get onto the snow. We will not get off the snow for nearly 10 miles. (ten miserable miles in my world!). I am glad I invested in a pair of trail shoes when I visited my friend Jamie. My new pink trail shoes (which I have only run in 2 times for less than 25 miles!) are very comfortable and grip pretty well. It does seem that others are sliding quite a bit more than I. But I also am taking this section very, very slowly because I really do not want to fall! In fact every so often we get to a fairly steep area in which it is obvious others have fallen. I sit down and slide on my but. Finally my overdressing pays of!!! My pants protect my butt from the snow. Others are mentioning the burn and snow up their shorts. But I am having a blast each time I sit down and slide. Next time I think I might pack a bag but in all honesty the pants work out very well. My gloves also were a wise decision although with the bitten finger and the fact that they are not even remotely waterproof make them a little soggy. But the weather is very pleasant and it is not too bad the few moments they are wet and cold.

I run with a pack of runners during this segment. My friends from other races: Jose SG and Wilson L are really close to me. Chris (aka the guy who will be writing a book about a serial killer ultrarunner!) who I met at the WS100 memorial day training weekend is in this pack. Shannon FG from moeben is in this same group. And I get to meet several new runners. Don from Atlanta ends up being closest to my pace and we end up running very closely for the first ~30 miles. He is really good company and has done a bunch of ultra’s.

Pretty soon disaster occurs.

Running along in the snow, slipping and sliding I am really anxious about falling. I see others falling and I sort of stumble a bunch of times. As I round a bend there is a group of three runners with red shirts on. One is down obviously in a lot of pain. The other two are looking concerned. It is safety patrol. They do not seem to have any rescue equipment and I do not believe a cell phone. I realize I may be the only one who has any way to get help quick. And people mock me for my carrying of excessive stuff. I can say that I will not starve or be too thirsty for several days or even be very cold or wet if I ever go off course in an ultra. That 15 lbs I carry includes lots of useful stuff!

After determining that this lady’s ankle is in really bad shape and there is no way she is getting off the snow slope without assistance, I set off my SPOT rescue beacon. Now I am in a quandary. If I keep going the pinging will follow me (and will actually probably make it so they do not send help since clearly I would be mobile).

I now have to give up my lifeline. I am really hesistant. I really do not want to die on the course and I know there will be more snow slopes, lots of sheer cliffs and of course potentially rattlesnakes, cougars, bears and other animals ready to make me a happy meal! I hand off my rescue beacon, wish the lady luck and ask them to get this back to me ASAP. I am optimistic “SPOT” will catch up to me mid-afternoon. In fact they take down my number wrong and never alert my family that I am okay. But the SPOT rescue beacon folks do alert my family. This actually creates some confusion because when the SPOT folks call my husband (who is on my emergency call list) he is unsure about my whereabouts but suggests they should rescue me. He should have stated unequivocally, “GO GET MY WIFE SHE’S IN TROUBLE!!!” He has been reprimanded.

They apparently do send a helicopter to rescue the lady. In fact I think I heard it as we were running along a while later. I kept my fingers crossed she was okay and hoped that this gesture of goodwill gets me some good karma (both in not dying but also in finishing the race:-).

This episode takes about 10 minutes. Finally I bid farewell to the safety patrol and am back to running. This time I am running scared. One should never run scared. But it makes me really cautious.

I also realize my friends who are following my SPOT tracking will have no idea what has happened to me. All they will notice is that I was moving along, then I abruptly stopped and sent out an “SOS”. In fact in my gmail account after the race I get pinged with a bunch of SOS please send help. I am not sure why I put my gmail on my contact list. If I need help I don’t think I will be able to access gmail to see that I need help, duh!

Running along, I catch up to my friend Don. He and I seem to have a very similar pace (particularly on the snow). He is good company and helps makes the miles flow by. We chat about ultra’s, life in general and how tough the snow is. Sporadically we have to stop and look very hard for the yellow flags and ribbons. This actually becomes very challenging and we end up forming a cluster of about 8 runners as we all struggle to find the course. Jose, Wilson, Brian, Shannon, Don and several others end up in a pack for a while. We sort of randomly have runners lead or follow looking for the yellow trail markings. They are hard to spot since the glare of the snow and the yellow ribbons and flags seem to blend together. This gets to be very tedious and slow going. Unfortunately knowing how easy it is to get off course I refuse to follow footprints but only go where I can see yellow ribbons. I really do not want bonus miles. I already did that at the training run going straight up a hill I had to promptly go down when I realized I had missed my turn!

As we ran along there sporadically was chatter but a lot of energy was spent paying close attention to the course markings as well as our footings. I think most of us fell several times, stumbled and slipped around. And we had to be cautious of tree wells where you could see the snow was up to 20 feet deep. And occasionally you could hear a river of water under the snow so you had to be careful to not step in the wrong place and fall into tunnel of water. It was very disconcerting.

The course slowly descends but the snow does not seem to go away. During the pre-race briefing it was suggested with the recent heat wave the snow might be patchy in sections. I have not seen terra firma for many miles except for small few feet patches (which I get really excited about only to realize the brief respite is just that…very brief!).

As the trail descends our pack seems to disband and I am back to running with Don. We get to a stream crossing and see my friend Chris finish crossing it. It is actually a bit deep (thigh high) and moderately long (about 50 –75 feet). And the water is REALLY cold (although it does take me a few moments to gather my courage to get in to start crossing). Before spring 2011 I had never purposely gotten my feet wet crossing a stream or river. But upon realizing I was going to do WS100 with multiple stream crossings I started my stream crossing ways back in March while a trail sweep for the Seneca Greenway 50km race. I was pretty proud of myself because I have really matured as a runner and have refused to let perceived challenges stop me. Partway through the stream I get my camera and take a few pictures of Don and I. This is a bit tricky as we have a rope we are holding onto. I in fact am using a death grip on it holding on for dear life. This means during each picture I am standing thigh deep in freezing cold water. It takes my breath away! But alas it also chills my knees and ankles which are a bit bothersome from the snow running (actually each time I fell on the snow I also rationalized that I was pre-icing from any injury I might get!). Finally I get to the other side. I can barely feel my feet. The water was really cold!!!

Jogging along my feet and legs seem to thaw out. I wonder how many more stream crossings we will do. A few minutes later we have another stream but this one is only about 10 feet wide. But getting to the stream is a bit more treacherous with a very steep slope going into it. I am glad in my hydration pack I have a pair of pants and a jacket I can change into if my stream crossing goes horribly awry! But I do successfully get into the stream and cross it. I am feeling pretty happy that so far no obstacle has been insurmountable.

I know from my Garmin we have traveled well over 10 miles and should be getting close to the first aid station. I am excited just to have a moment or two off the snow. And of course I am looking forward to some treats. Because I have a 20 oz bottle and a 100 oz hydration pack I am very well set for beverages and I do have treats in my pockets. But aid stations have so much energy.

Soon we are entering the Talbot Aid Station, WAHOO! As with all the aid stations, the volunteers take great care of us making sure we are well hydrated and fed and ensure all our needs are met. I am getting excited because I know we have only a few more miles of snow to run along. I was definitely over snow-running after about 1 step!

Western States 100 mile: Start to Escarpment

2011-07-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

Tristan and I during the race just above "High Camp", the top of the Gondola (taken with my camera that traveled the full 100 miles).

Tristan hiked up starting at about 3:30 a.m. and cheered on the front runners all the way to the Back of the Pack. In face he suggested that he climbed up and over Escarpment and on the "civilian side" there was a fence which gave him a splinter...which may or may not still be in his hand nearly 2 weeks later!

You can see runners in the background continuing up to Escarpment (Also in the background)

Once the race started I wandered to and over the start line. I knew it was an uphill start from the Thursday hike up the mountain for the very touching memorial service led by race committee members: Mo L. and Tony. Also being an experience ultramarathoner I knew I needed to conserve energy by walking up the hill. I was near many friends including: Bill, Jeff (just briefly), Elaine, Don, Shannon, Jose, Wilson, and many others. It was going to be a grueling uphill climb for the first 4 miles! Luckily I eat hills for breakfast.

As I climbed the first hill I had the pleasure of meeting April who was doing her first WS100 in preparation for UTMB (an ultra around Mont Blanc that is on my “to do” list). We chatted and shared several very nice miles. Unfortunately once we got to the top my incompetence at downhill running ensured I dropped back considerably. While running with April, my friend Elaine caught up and passed me. I would not see her for the remainder of the race and am so thrilled she finished in a little over 27 hours!

At Escarpment I refilled my hydration pack. This took a lot more time then it should have as I identified a lady with enough water in her pitcher. As I opened my bladder she was dumping her water in other bottles and promptly left. I then had to find someone else who had a filled pitcher. This was a bit of a bummer because this also involved doubling back a bit. I told myself it was not a big deal but in fact when I was concerned about finishing 29:59:59 every second can start to count.

Heading out of Escarpment AS as I put my bladder back in my hydration pack my little string of bad luck continued as I bit through my smartwool gloves. Seriously I was using my teeth to pull of my glove and next thing I know the gloves are still on my hand and a bit of glove is in my mouth…pfft!

Continuing to climb I know we will start hitting patches of snow. This is not thrilling to me but at least I know this section. And I know I should be seeing Tristan pretty soon. As we get above High Camp, I do see Tristan. He is standing in a place I would not have picked but at least I see him. I stop give him a hug and chat briefly. I get a picture of us with my camera and then one with his iPhone. I tell him to post it to facebook so friends can see my progress. It is still not posted ~2 weeks later!

All to soon I realize I need to keep going forward. The next segment up Escarpment is a doozy. It is really steep single track some rocky section some covered in snow. I am not in my happy place as it is the stuff of my nightmares. Little do I realize that this is only the beginning of challenging sections. Going up is not so bad but every so often out of the corner of my eye I can see how precarious this trail is. I keep moving forward with purpose and hope it ends. At the top of escarpment I am thrilled. I hope the toughest part of the race is over. I like to live in delusionalworld…

Western States 100 Miler: Before the Start

2011-07-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

My 2011 Western States 100 Miler Experience…Living through it was all I was hoping for!

Tammy Massie Bib #217

29:42:12

"Team Tammy" (Except for Tristan who had climbed up to Escarpment Pass so he could cheer me on as I got to mile ~3 of the race and nearly 8,000 feet in Elevation)

Western States 100 miler, “The Big Dance”, “States”, “WS100” or “Western” (as I call it) is a race like no other. It is an amazing experience for new ultra-runners as well as seasoned veterans. Although WS100 was my 11^th hundred miler start it might have been the race I was least sure about finishing to date (later this summer I am running the Grand Slam which includes Vermont 100, Leadville 100 and I have a conditional acceptance to Wasatch 100).

While standing on the start line I realized that I was completely out of my league. I would label myself as a marginally incompetent ultramarathoner. And that is being kind. Lining up next to other runners I was dismayed to observe I probably had the most stuff on my person (~15 lbs of equipment including random stuff, treats and beverages in my hydration pack and in my fanny pack “sparkeley” and even a SPOT Rescue Beacon). I was all set if I went off trail and ended up in Mexico with some peso’s or Canadian money if I headed north. Of course I had my requisite spare ponches (yes that is plural), lip balms (again plural in fact 3 lip balms-one huckleberry flavored, one pink tinted and the lip balm that could also be used on hotspots in a pinch). I had lots of treats including several bags of different foods: smokehouse almonds, almond M&M’s, marathon bars, nutter butters and even some dates (because one should always have some fruit each day!).

My defense system consists of my SPOT rescue beacon (to be carried the entire race), a pink pepper spray (to be carried the entire race), and in my drop bags at various points: pink snake proof gaiters (for both Saturday and Sunday when we will be in the sun) and a hydration pack with a pink superhero “T” cape for the last section that has been a location in which a runner had been attacked many years ago and cougars have been spotted. I felt I was ready for any encounter I might have. And if I got too lost I was going to be well fed and hydrated for a bit of time and would have stuff to barter with if I was with others.

I also had little med packs including various over the counter medications for pain and upset stomach as well toilet paper and single use cottenelle wet wipes. In addition to having overpacked with spare layers even in my hydration pack ziplocked in case I took a spill in the water crossings or if I ended up getting wet in the snow, I noticed I was the only runner with pants on, several layers including thermal shirts/windbreaker and I was stressing about running in snow, getting my feet wet (and dirty), cougar attacks and rattlesnakes to name a few of my numerous fears.

I took a deep breath and try to give myself a pep talk in my mind. This was to be the first of many pep talks throughout the day. By the end I was actually verbalizing my pep talk which included “harness your inner puffi” alluding to our youngest but toughest cat who knows no fear and seems to live life with reckless abandon (which I guess you can do when you have 9 lives!)

But let me start at the very beginning of the day. At 3:00 a.m. the first of my alarms went off. But I was already up having been really anxious about missing the start. Pretty soon I was getting wake up calls from my friends on the East coast. Pacer Dan gave a quick call and wished me luck. Then a few minutes later my frequent hill running partner Tammy B gave me a second wake up call. We talked briefly and she indicated all our hill training should help me finish WS100. While I agreed that our hill training certainly would help, I had never experience a race quite like WS100 so I was nervous.

As I got ready Tristan got up and headed up the mountain to Escarpment. He was going to hike up in the dark to about 3 miles up the mountain to cheer me (and other runners) on. After Tristan left, Pacer Shane got up, then my dad got up shortly thereafter. As I completed getting dressed and ready pictures were taken and discussions were had. Crewette/Pacer Bella then got up and we all chatted briefly and plans for the day were reconfirmed. I was feeling pretty good and the weather seemed like it was going to be delightful. Just a bit cool and sunny. I was really excited.

Once I was ready it was time to head to check in. This involved a short elevator trip then about a 100 meter walk from our suite in the Squaw Valley Lodge. After about 30 seconds I was in the midst of many other runners ready to get my bib, chip and final weigh in. My weight continued to be 133.8. This is a little high for me but I might have been enjoying a few too many ice cream sandwiches, banana splits and caramel apples throughout the spring. Or it could be that I was well hydrated….

Wandering around the check in area I briefly hang out with several other grand slammers. They notice I am eating my breakfast of champions “Pink Snowballs”. It is also commented on that my outfit (pink) and my breakfast food match. I am to keep a monochromatic theme! Also I love snowballs. They probably are going to be banned sometime in my life but the gooey goodness of mashmallow and coconut on a crème filled cupcake makes me happy and tastes so good.

After getting my bib and chip it was time to put them on. I was all set. Time to chat, take a final bathroom break and make sure I was ready for what was going to be the toughest day of my life.

As I headed outside I was pleasantly surprised to see Pacer Iva. I now had a pretty complete entourage (less Tristan who was on the mountain). My Dad, my pacers: Iva and Shane and my crew/pacer: Bella. I am pretty happy that I had the sense to get a group shot of all of us while waiting for the countdown clock to get to “0”.

I was super excited but very nervous. I knew this was going to be the biggest challenge in my life. I knew I would face treacherous terrain, a course I was very unfamiliar with, lots of snow, stream crossings, single track and my biggest fear: getting my feet dirty! Seriously!! I really do not belong in the ultrarunning crowd and probably bring shame to all the other ultrarunners!

Rocky Raccoon 50 miler 2011: Lap 1

2011-02-28T16:27:00.001-08:00

Heading off from the first aid station..trying to look not too cold!

There are really awesome volunteers all along the course at three aid stations as well as the start/finish area. There is the first aid station (Nature Center) second/third aid station (DamNation Aid Station) and fourth aid station (Park Road) all well stocked with lots of random food and beverages!

Throughout the day the food was refreshed and starting mid afternoon they added sandwiches, soup and lots of other yummy treats.

This is the Dam that both 100 and 50 milers run along for several hundred feet. You can see some frost on the shrubs/bushes along the lake. This was really beautiful.

Unfortunately there also was ice/frost on the boardwalks making it very slippery and dangerous for the runners, many of whom did take spills including one young lady who broke her foot/leg.

The lake also was very beautiful through the morning with mist hovering over it.

Here I am running along the Lake near the start/finish (which is a different finger or even area than the dam we run along).

This section of the lake is the section I invariable fall down on. There are trees that have root balls (?) that stick up far away from the tree ready to trip up any runner.

The entire day was a beautiful day with a picture perfect blue sky. And over the course of the day, the temperature did climb to the 50's, which is pretty nice for running. I would have liked 70's but at least 50's is nice with a few layers on!

Here I am with Kim Sargeants mom. Kim's mom is a mainstay at this race and I have seen her every year (and of course I have seen Kim each year as well).

Kim's mom is so sweet and encouraging...my mom had met her and they had hung out for quite some time during my first Rocky Raccoon 50 miler.

It is so cool the Kim's mom is so encouraging and supportive of Kim. It reminds me of my mom who I do miss terribly, particularly during this race since this was the last time I saw & interacted with my mom.

The Race: Lap 1

Pretty soon there was an announcement that the race was starting within 5 minutes. Yikes, socializing sure does make time fly! I started as far back as I could then realized this might not help in my goal of 9:30. So I moved forward a bit. As I moved forward I heard my name “Tammy”. It was Tammy (the other one, not my split personality). We chatted for just a moment then gun went off. And that is when I saw Don Lister’s wife (her name escapes me now as it did then…and yet I have spent hours with her!) I got a picture then started moving forward. At that time I mentioned to my friend Tammy I need to get a pair of handwarmers. She had a spare pair and gave me hers. How sweet! I will need to add handwarmers to my packing list because it was nice to have the first few hours when it was really cold.

I realized I needed to move forward to get into the pace I wanted to run so I scampered pretty quickly. I knew the first few hundred meters the course was wide and had no hazards. Once I got onto the trail I had to be responsible and pass with care. I continued to be pretty far back (easily in the 75^th percentile). I know that I will fall in behind slower runners and just coast. But that is not going to get a quick time although it will get a finish. Today I had goals!

Running along the sun started coming up. I was being very cautious about roots and to run within my ability. The first boardwalk was super icy and I realized I could easily run alongside and get to the same place. Thus I chose alternate routes around boardwalks when I could. Sadly there were many boardwalks that were over streams, marshy area’s or over area’s of thick forest/shrubbery. When I did get forced to cross boardwalks, I crouched down, spread my hands out and waddled very slowly. But I did not fall! And that is all that is important.

As I ran along I was passing runners who might have gone off to quickly. It is easy to do with all the energy and excitement. In fact I was a little distressed about my speed but the runners were so bunched up that I wanted to find some clear space. I know that falling on this course is a fairly common occurrence so I figured I needed to get into a good sized gap where I would have 5-10 feet ahead of me and 5-10 feet behind me. It is easy for runners to take out other runners when to crowded. And if you are the faller you can easily get a kick in the face if you are tailgaiting.

Soon I was running past the first aid station. I love the aid stations at Rocky. They have such enthusiasm and energy. But I needed to keep moving. A quick cup of heed and soda and I was off. I did not grab any food as I had just finished a biscotti about 30 minutes before the race and I knew the next aid station was in just a few miles.

Heading out I was excited to recall that the next sections had fewer roots to trip me up. And some switchbacks which I like. This section I expected to see the front runners. In fact the front runners had passed by the time we got here. They were all haulin! But the runners we saw were a mixture of super speedy runners as well as some early starters. Regardless they were 15 or so miles into their race and were all looking strong.

Approaching the DamNation Aid Station I was thrilled to see my friend Mike Potter from Across the Years. After a quick hug, I headed to the aid station to grab a cup of heed and some soda. I was feeling really good and I wanted to stay that way with sufficient beverage and munchies. After just a few minutes, I headed back onto the course continuing to run 10-11 min/miles. This was a pace I found was challenging but manageable. I was feeling great and was happy.

The section from DamNation to DamNation is a pretty quick 2-3 mile segment. The majority of this segment is on very runnable jeep road followed by a bit of single track and even a wide earthen dam. I was running along with a group of other runners. They were a mix of experienced ultra-marathoners as well as new ultra runners. The conversation was flowing and the pace comfortable. In fact it was too comfortable, so I moved on ahead. Although this section did have a few fits and starts with moving ahead. There was one long bridge where I lost all the time I gained and then a long visit at the Damnation Aid Station had me back behind my friends. But alas they were running a steady 12 min/mile pace. I realized this was not the pace I was looking for considering I tend to loiter a lot at aid stations and am not the most efficient self crewer (even with lots of stuff in my fanny pack!). I was a bit bummed to move forward from this group of runners since it meant I was alone having to set my own pace. Sometimes I feel like the horses at VT100 where it is a lot easier to fall in behind slower runners and just enjoy life. But then I realize that I have a whole bunch of friends nudging me along in spirit so I pick up the pace when I find my pace slowing.

Along the dam, the 50 milers rejoin the 100 milers who are about 14 miles in their race. The 100 milers had a 1 hour start on us so we are all running a moderately similar pace. But the 100 milers are also fairly spread out by this time. While I can see a bunch of 100 milers well ahead and when I glance back there are other 100 milers but there seems to be a lull of runners.

In just a bit, my DamNation Aid station visit is pretty quick the second time around. I refill my bottle drink a bit more and eat more then continue on. I know half the battle of ultra’s from my perspective is keeping watered and fed. After a quick thanks I head off. The next segment I am not overly fond of but I don’t despise like the rooty section near the start/finish. This section is a significant amount of jeep road (which I like) but also has several fairly long hills (which I do not like). But it goes pretty quickly. This is where I ultimately lose my friends and actually remain pretty well alone for 15-20 miles. I do chat with a variety of runners but some are too fast and some are too slow. I feel like goldilocks because there is no one who is “just right”. And I know I need to run my own race since this is an ultra and I really want to finish in 9:30.

As I run along it is warming up nicely. But that just means I am starting to be comfortable in my two pairs of pants, and 6 tops and even pair of pink moeben sleeves as well as thick hat and gloves (yes I know I’m pathetic!). Seeing other runners on the course with singlets and shorts is shocking, I won’t even consider taking off my layers down to my skirt and tank until nearly 70 degrees (and I have not even done any heat training which changes this threshold to about 80 degrees!).

Running along I am feeling strong and happy. But my knee is a bit tender and my ankle is sort of throwing a fit. My knee is a chronic issue and I know I just have to run through it, but my ankle has been getting more painful since JFK50 and my shin splints as well as after my Boston Qualifying time at Arizona. This bums me out a bit but both problems are manageable so far by just ignoring them. I try to be extra cautious about where I put my feet so I land solidly each step but I am moving to quickly to pay too much attention and my contacts really are only about 80-90% effective. This means everything is a bit blurry/shadowy. I really should have picked my parents better because this issue is caused by a severe astigmatism, which both my parents have/had. My old strategy is to follow other runners and see where they place there feet and plant my feet exactly where they do, but alas I am running stag. Oh well, so far I am moving pretty effortlessly and I am happy.

Hearing lots of noise and seeing some folks in the distance I realize I am approaching the final aid station before the start/finish. This year they are Jimmy Buffett themed which is cool. They all have Hawaiian lei’s so it is like I am back with my people. They are all so nice and it is great to get a few hugs. But I am a girl with a mission so after a quick bottle refill and some food and drinks, I head off.

It’s back to my least favorite part of the course. The part where I always trip and fall. I love the views of the lake (not that I see them, but I get to see them after when I look at my pictures) but alas I am not able to appreciate these views as I am too busy try to detect a difference between shadows and root balls.

The boardwalks are still a bit icy so I run alongside each of the boardwalks. Earlier in the race I would “crabby-across” with my arms out, and feet apart going very slowly but here it is simply easier to avoid the boardwalks. One place I get a bit caught up in a vine but am able to dislodge myself. Since this area is less than 3 miles from the start/finish, the trail is getting crowded with runners heading back on the course for their second lap. I am delighted to see friends who are running both races. It is starting to be a beautiful day with bright sunshine, rising temps and the course (other than the boardwalks) are super fast. This year unlike last I do not have to scamper hundred of feet to keep my feet neat, tidy and dry! And since there was only a light dusting of snow, I do not expect the course to become muddy and sloppy.

I am excited when I veer away from the lake. So excited I almost take a wrong turn (or I should say go straight when I should take a correct turn). It is a sharp turn and once I re-right myself I head into the final stretch. We get close to the street and I know I should be getting to the start/finish within about 10 minutes. I am really excited. I will be setting a PR for my lap time. And I am feeling really strong. Maybe too strong.

In my mind I make a checklist of what I might need to do at the aid station. I need to eat and drink and refill my bottle but I also need to make some wardrobe adjustments. I have 2 pairs of pants but am thinking I can live with just one. I have 5 upper body layers but think it I can take off one layer and I can untie one of my layers from my waist. I also know I need to get my visor and my sunglasses. It is really bright out.

As I head into the aid station I am excited to see my first lap is under 3 hours!! I know a sub 9 hour 50 miler is unrealistic but I am really pleased with this time and feel it bodes well for my goal of sub 9:30. A few quick treats including some soda, M&M’s, pretzels and a handful of cookies I am happy. I see my friend Shannon Farar-Griefer who is running the 100 miler. I have met her several times and love her moeben sleeves! In fact my favorite pair is a pair of daisy themed arm warmers (and matching skirt) that I won at the Western States 100 miler lottery this past December. But since this is not a “big race” I am not wearing these (like my silver sparkeley fanny pack certain other items only show up for 100 milers). We chat briefly but then I have to self-crew and deal getting stuff in and out of my drop bag.

As I am debating what to do I actually decide I may not be the ideal decision maker. I am standing next to a gentleman who I ask, “should I take off my pants?” I am not sure this was an appropriate ice breaker but I was a little worried that I would get cold. After a brief discussion we decide my pants are coming off. He was very nice and helped steady me while I did this. Then I take off my upper layer, untie my layer around my waist and take out my sunglasses and visor. Now my flower-inesss is complete. It is time to start lap 2!

Rocky Raccoon 50 miler 2011: Before the race

2011-02-22T16:51:00.000-08:00

With my friends & ultramarathoners: Maryann and Deborah--a mini-reunion from Across the Years.

Deborah, like I was running the 50 miler while our friend Maryann was volunteering at the aid station.

I was lucky enough to see both Deborah and Maryann along the course several times. This time our weather ultimately was a lot better than Across they Years (although I believe both Deborah and Maryann were second day starters so did not have to deal with the EPIC Phoenix weather).

BEFORE the Race

The weekend of Feb 5, 2011 I ran the Rocky Raccoon 50 miler in Huntsville Texas north of Houston Texas. It was my third time running this race and as usual was a great deal of fun! I have developed so many friendships over the past years with the volunteers, runners and do enjoy running the trails in Huntsville State Park.

The last time I interacted with my mom was at this race my first time in 2009. I have a feeling I will be returning to this race for many years because during the race I feel a strong connection with her. My laps tend to be very emotional since I know my mom would be thrilled about how greatly I have improved in running since she saw me. But at the same time it is sad she is not here to share these great moments with me. I know she would be so proud and excited.

Recently it seems like getting to races has been harder than the race itself because of awful weather. At Across the Years, my departure city near Washington DC was the problem but this time the race site: Houston was the issue. My Friday morning flight was cancelled Thursday afternoon. Ugh! But being aware of this issue I was quickly able to get an evening flight. And then I even upgraded to an mid-morning flight so I only arrived 5 hours after my original arrival time.

After picking up my rental car I headed up to Huntsville. Because the roads were icy I took my time and luckily my friend Tammy had agreed to pick up my packet. She even graciously dropped this off at the hotel room (which she would be using Saturday night). Oddly enough while we were chatting we saw our friend Peter from Virginia as well who was planning his first attempt at the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler. At some point our conversation brought up essential equipment and it came up that he had left his gaiters at home. It was his lucky day as I had a spare pair of gaiters. Granted they were pink leopard print, but they were gaiters! Since Tammy had to eat dinner and Peter needed to shop for items (including Velcro for his new pink gaiters), they both headed off. I made use of this by getting ready for bed and going to sleep early.

I got up about 5 a.m., but it felt like 6 a.m. (oh yeah it was for me, yippee Central Time Zone). I put in my contacts, got dressed and ensured my fanny pack was properly supplied. I was bundled up in 7 layers on top, 3 on the bottom with hat, glove and neck gaiter. It was bitterly cold! I grudgingly headed to my rental car and drove to the race start. My race does not start until 7 a.m. but I want to see the start of the 100 mile. I end up with a moderately bad parking spot, which is a bumer. But alas I have time to walk to the start and my legs will be okay after the finish is my personal pep talk.

I see the runners congregating and chat with a few folks. Then I head out on the course so I can see the runners as they cross the first street (about 200 meters into the race). Once the race starts, I cheer for folks. “Wahoo”, “Way to go!” and “Looking Strong” are cheers I use. I consider only 99.99 miles to go but that is just taunting. As the runners go by I see my friend Peter. Sadly he did not make the early start. I also see and wave to several other friends. It is dark so it is kind of hard to spot folks but I feel my civic duty of cheering is complete. After the final runners pass by, I go to the race start to check in. I see a few friends and chat briefly but I need to go to my car to drop off a few layers. And I want to use the real restroom for one last potty break in a real bathroom. Oh, the simple pleasures.

A Quick Summary of My Rocky Raccoon 50 miler

2011-02-07T18:04:00.000-08:00

Here I am before the start of Rocky Raccoon 50 miler in Huntsville Texas. This is a super well organized 50 and 100 miler about 60 miles north of Houston, TX in Huntsville State Park.

This past weekend I ran my third Rocky Raccoon 50 miler. It was great fun and a huge success for me. Although this was after an auspicious start in which the second time in 3 trips that my flight was cancelled. Luckily I did make it to Houston only a few hours after my original flight time.

A few highlights of my race include:

1) I finished the race in a new 50 miler PR time of 9:30!! This was 20 minutes faster than my previous 50 miler (Rocky Raccoon 50 last year)

2) My camera DNF-ed twice on the course. But luckily I carry multiple batteries (and memory sticks) just in case I go nuts taking pictures during a race. I think my camera's DNF was caused by the cold since the battery needed replacing twice.

3) I have a mystery injury on my right hand. I hit my photographing hand on something about mile 20 in the race but I don't remember what. I definitely remember some incident and being really surprised that a hand injury occurred during the race. But I cannot remember what it was, Yikes!

Even worse photography hand is the same hand and movement that is involved in taking off caps off bottles. Volunteering overnight I did alot of this. I was in pain but tried to be tough!

Because it was still swollen and painful today (3 days after the race) I went to an orthopedist. It is just bruised.

4) I should not eavesdrop! I was at an aid station refueling and two young ladies were talking about a race. They mentioned something along the lines of "only seen a mountain lion 2 or 3 times". My jaw dropped and apparently the look of horror on my face was priceless. I was ready to rip off my bib and hand it in (if only my right hand was working!).

Luckily upon making eye contact they realized I thought they were talking about Rocky Raccoon. Quickly they said there were no mountain lions on the course. Then they joked that they needed to correct that statement as they had heard there was a cougar relocation program at Huntsville State Park. They had released a few cougars to make the runners go faster. It cracked me up!

I will write more of my experience.

A Brief Recap of my Cloud Snapple Half Marathon

2011-01-31T15:59:00.000-08:00

Running along the snow covered C&O Canal towpath going downriver along the Cloud Snapple Half Marathon, 2011.

This is the second year this race has involved snow...last year the race started out super cold (teens as I recall), then significant snow accumulated as the day progressed. Unfortunately the weather in 2010 was predicted to be a light dusting to 1-2". By the time the 2010 storm finished there was nearly 6 inches of snow!

Although plagued with snow, this race is very well organized, very cute and located within about 10 miles of my home.

Being awarded my finishers medal.

I love events in which you get a finishers medal, even if I have only run for a few hours!!

The volunteers were super at this event at all the aid stations as well as the start/registration as well as the finish line.

I thought it was really cool that they placed the medal on each finisher.

In this picture notice my new glasses..I am not sure I like them as they transition to sunglasses even without much (any!) sunlight. This created a moderate issue under the bridges.
Here is my friend Rosy H who I met last year at this event.

We have kept up with each other and I was thrilled to be able to run with her for a bit.

This was her second half marathon, her first being last years Cloud Snapple Half. One day this race has to not involve significant snow, right?

She is really enthusiastic, has been improving as a runner and is even getting ready for her first marathon this coming March.

I am so proud of her and I know she will do GREAT!!!

Here is my new friend Liz S who I met alog the course.

Liz was great company to help me build more miles as I tried to get to run >15 miles for the day (I ultimately ran about 17 miles by retracing my steps from the finish line to find runners/friends).

Liz has run other marathons but she suggested this was one of the toughest (which I strongly agree!).

She is thinking of running a 50 mile ultra and I know she has the determination and strength to do this. Perhaps we will share the course at an upcoming JFK50 miler:-)
My friend Laurie drove up from Philly to participate in this race. Several years ago Laurie ran 100+ events in a year with nearly all of these marathon or greater distances.

This year to raise $$ for Ovarian Cancer, Laurie is running predominantly half marathons.

It was great to see Laurie and to catch up...sadly recently I have missed Laurie at events, but she has seen my husband and even stolen a few hugs and kisses!!

CLOUD SNAPPLE HALF MARATHON

This past weekend I ran a very snowy but very fun Cloud Snapple Half Marathon. I ran the inaugural half last year and let's just say in my world I am going to refer to this race as the race that must involve snow. Last year snow occurred during the event with ultimately those of us who did not leave until ~4 hours after the start digging our cars out of about 5-6 inches of snow. The drive home was interesting and I considered myself lucky that my entire drive involved me facing in the direction I was supposed to. This was more a matter of luck and 4 wheel drive then any skill in winter driving that I might have (although my dad did teach my sister and I to drive in parking lots and since my birthday is in winter quite a few of my lessons involved ice/snow...with a stick shift!).

The Cloud Snapple Half Marathon starts at the Carderock Recreation Area. The course is an out and back course that goes downstream along the Potomac River on the C&O Canal towpath towards the Chain Bridge/DC. After 6.55 miles the runners turn around and head back to the finish line.

I was supposed to try for a 1:55 time. I am not sure my legs could make this time even on a perfect weather day. But with 5-6 inches of snow that was partially melted with divets of footprints, crusty snow mixed with fluffy snow made for difficult footing. Last year under better conditions I finished in 2:22 and less then 2 inches of snow had fallen by the time I finished. This year I was very pleased with my time of ~2:18. And I even had a negative split with my first half in 1:10 and the uphill return was in 1:18. Some of this was because I had figured out where the good footing was and partly because I did want to push myself.

Throughout the race my mantra each time I wanted to give up, slow down or leisurely walk was "this could be the first 20 miles of Western States....I NEED TO TOUGHEN UP". This kept me going although quite a few times I felt like Bambi and my legs were going every direction except forward.

Getting to the race I knew I had a few friends running. My friend Laurie from many, many marathons including the Disney Marathon, B&A Trail, George Washington Birthday, Bob Potts and other events was running this half marathon. And my friend Rosy who I met last year at this event was running it for the second time as her second marathon. Tristan drove me to the race, stayed for a bit then headed off to Difficult Run in VA for a hike. He could not make it to the starting line because of significant ice. I almost did not but decided to walk very slowly stooped over to ensure I did not fall.

After getting to the start, after just a few moments, the star spangled banner played. Then it was time to start. I ran pretty hard both directions taking only a few pictures. Most of my attention was spent trying to focus on not falling. As with every event there were a variety of paces and limited guidance on where to line up. My first 1-2 miles was spent trying to pass runners which was quite challenging since there was very limited decent surface to run on. And in some area's there was no good surface to run on. I really feel bad for the front runners because clearly they were trail blazing at some points. I grabbed sports drink at each aid station and profusely thanked the volunteers. They were so awesome!!

At the halfway point there were a few tough spectators with DUNKIN DONUTS, YUM! It was great. I took a chocolate frosted chocolate donut and munched my way for a few miles. It was so tasty and what a nice unexpected treat.

Heading back to the start I simply kept repeating to myself, "this could be WS100!" and kept trying to run as fast as I could. I wasn't exactly out of breath but I definitely was pushing hard. Pretty soon I was under the I-495 Bridge. This was good because it meant less than 1 mile to the finish. But it was bad because I recently got new glasses that transition to sunglasses. They do not change back very quickly so I had to choose between seeing clearly or seeing at all. I sort of pulled my glasses down and pretended I was wearing spectacles. It was not very satisfactory but luckily the bridge is short.

The finish line was slight off the C&O Canal so it was only when we were pretty close did it register that the race was nearly over. I was thrilled when I saw my time was under 2:20 since I thought I had slowed down since the half and thus had figured my time would be close to 2:30!

Once I finished I headed back out on the course to go find my friends and pace them to the finish. After about 1.5 miles I came upon my friend Rosy who had taken a fall along the course. She was running strong and seemed in good spirits. We chatted about life, running and how different but no better this years race was...hopefully 2012 will be better (I can't imagine how it could be much worse). I learned Rosy is running her first marathon, the Virginia Creeper. I know she will do great and have lots of fun. With all this catching up, pretty soon we arrived at the finish.

I then headed out on the course for more runners. I went out about 1 mile and my ankle was getting bothersome. I decided at that point I would run with the next runner if they wanted company. I was REALLY lucky to meet Liz S who was running her first Cloud Snapple Half. I was able to tell her this race should be easier! Liz was good company and an experienced marathoner. She is considering running a 50 mile ultra so I was able to give her some pointers and thoughts to consider. Hopefully Liz and I will both be at the JFK50 miler or other ultra in the future! Our time together just flew by and soon enough we were at the finish where she had a friend waiting.

Although this is a moderate sized race (300 participants). I find it has a small race feel. The race directors, volunteers and others associated with the race take really good care of the runners. During this "intermission" one of the kind volunteers brought my drop bag from the post race tent to the finish line. All of the volunteers were so nice, helpful and cheerful even though this race was very cold!

Finally, I headed back out on the course one last time for my friend Laurie. She was back a bit and walking. By this time I also was walking. By going back and forth on the course I successfully had a nice warm down in which I slowly decreased my speed! Laurie and I caught up and chatted about recent events. She saw Tristan more times than I did at the Disney Goofy Marathon...for a hug and a kiss, no less! It was pretty amusing that Tristan misses me at races even though I am dressed in pink, have sparkeley my fanny pack, lots of flowers, and even have my name on my shirt and yet Tristan spotted Laurie in a race of 20,000+ participants.

After crossing the finish line for a third time, it was time to head back to meet up with Tristan, my chauffer. Overall, while a very tough race, it was lots of fun and I will be back!

Challenges in Running: Observations from some recent running events

2011-01-30T14:59:00.000-08:00

I try to remain positive, happy and polite in all of my races (and training runs). I am sure I fail numerous times so please do not think I am pointing the finger at any person or any group of runners. As an amateur runner I know that races are supposed to be fun. But sometimes this is hampered by others actions. I assume this is because others are unaware. So this post is primarily to vent and call attention to issues that have occurred more frequently than would be if simple random chance.

My first observation actually started at Marine Corps Marathon last year but then occurred again at Rock and Roll Arizona. Runners lining up in an inappropriate corral. Unfortunately this gets the "slower" run/walkers (which I consider myself) a bad name. Both of these races had honor system for entering the corrals except I assume for the elite runners.

Unfortunately because of slower runners lining up at the front of the corrals bottlenecks in the early miles occur. This creates challenges (and even hostility) to occur for everyone. Even worse is when 3 or 4 competitors will abruptly stop and start walking in a pack rather than single file. I completely support every runner whose goal it is to run a marathon; however, it is unfortunate when common courtesies are not implemented. I admire and respect race directors who remind runners to place themselves in corrals that are appropriate for a reasonable guess of predicted finish time, pay attention to other runners, walk on the right (same side as where slow cars should go) and give a heads up when runners plan to walk.

My second observation has to do with passing particularly in single track events. I have run numerous trail ultras and have not had any issues (and hope I have always been respectful). I indicate if I will be passing on the left or right and ask those passing me which side I should move towards. If I hear a pack of runners I tend to move off and standstill particularly when their approach is quick and imminent.

Unfortunately I recently was in an event in which many times when I came up behind runners and tried to pass, the other runner would speed up. All this would mean is I was on a nasty surface for a longer time period. I understand keeping a steady speed but actively speeding up (particularly when the passing terrain is treacherous) seems unsportsmanlike. If you realize that you have been slowing down, fall in behind the runner, draft a bit and re-pass. But speeding up, especially if you slow down once you have been passed doesn't seem productive.

My final observation is the assertion that runners with headsets can/do hear others. I have numerous times indicated, "on your right", "excuse me" or otherwise made a statement or asked a question that deserves a response (verbal or through movement). Numerous times I have not been heard or acknowledged. This actually caused a medical response to be delayed in front of me at the Disney Marathon. Even with the "sirens" on the EMT bicycles runners with headphones on appeared unaware, oblivious and unresponsive when bicyclists were going to assist an injured runner. This happened for a significant distance as the bicyclists worked their way forward.

This is unacceptable.

I would not want to have a medical issue in which every second mattered and because of runners not responding to clear warning signals permanent damage occurred, nor do I imagine would any runner want this for themselves or a loved one.

My most shocking race to date: Rock and Roll Arizona

2011-01-25T18:37:00.001-08:00

With my friend Elaine S. along the Rock and Roll Arizona Course during the first few miles.

I know Elaine from several ultra marathons we have run together including:

Rocky Raccoon 50/100 miler

Javelina Jundred 100 mile/100 km

We have run these races over the past several years so have met several different times.

Elaine has run many 100 miles and other ultra's and I will see Elaine several times throughout the year including Western States 100 as well as Vermont 100.
I am so thrilled to be awarded my marathon finishers medal.

This was a very challenging marathon by the end.

I finished the marathon in 3:52:17 which is a Marathon PR of over 10 minutes for me!

The first miles flew by as I chatted with my friend Elaine. But during the later miles I started struggling with fatigue, pain and all of my recent running I think caught up to me as my legs started feeling like jelly.

It is a fast course because it is so flat, but this also leads to some challenges as you are running using the same exact muscles the entire time.

This year the weather was perfect starting in the low 50's then getting to the mid 60's by the time I finished. I think later finishers did mention it got hot but compared to a few years ago it was not too bad.
My friend John Bingham is an announcer at many Rock and Roll Marathons.

Sadly because of my finish time, he was not at the finish line when I crossed but many other races he does cheer out to me.

I believe our next shared event is the Mardi Gras Marathon in just a few weeks.

John "The Penguin" Bingham has written many books that I think are excellent regardless of your running ability. He believes in every person and really encourages everyone to run to the best of their ability. What a class act!!
After I finish the Rock and Roll Marathon my most important stop is Yogurtini on the corner of Rural Road and University.

It has super yummy yogurt with lots of different toppings.

And of course the interior is decorated in my favorite color mint green!!! I know others might think my favorite color is pink but in reality I am a mint green/turqouise green girl. It is just that there is very few running cloth that is in mint green so I have to go to my second favorite color and embrace it with GUSTO.

You can see our frozen yogurts in the foreground (mine is the big one) and Tristan trying to look like he is hugging me while simultaneously avoiding touching my stenchy/sweatiness!
After a brief rest and a treat at Yogurtini, it was time to attempt to summit Hayden Butte.

This is how I always end my Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon race day. At the top you can get a view of downtown Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe and thus see the majority of the race course.

It is cool to see the entire race course and nearly all 26.2 miles I have traveled.

And for the first time in a while Tristan was definitely walking a lot faster than I. Although in my defense I had PR-ed in the marathon with a sub 4 hour, 3:52 marathon!!!

A SUMMARY OF MY RACE

I have been running marathons since 2004. My first year I ran only one marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon, in a time of 5:15. The next year I ran MCM in 4:50 followed by the JFK50 miler in 12:25. In 2006 I started running a marathon a month (or greater). In 2006 my average time was 5:30. The next year I improved slightly with times in the low 5 hours. In 2008 I continued to run many marathons with a modest improvement in my time. Finally in 2009 I started seeing improvement in my time with an average marathon finish time of just under 5 hours. 2010 was a great year with PR’s in nearly every distance I ran starting with the Disney half marathon in 2:02. In nearly every other race I PR-ed for the course or the distance including 100 miler, 100 km, 50 miler, 40 miler, 50 km and the marathon distance. Some of these improvements were significant including a 2+ hour improvement at both the Umstead 100 miler and Vermont 100 miler.

The Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon is a flat fast course. The marathon includes about 5,000 runners which is not too large but not too small, thus can be optimal for a PR. Prior to the race it was suggested that I finish the race between 4 hours and 4:15. This seemed manageable, a good time goal and would boost my confidence for my upcoming goal of a sub-24 hour Umstead 100 miler (as well as my quest to finish WS100 and the Grand Slam). I felt 4:00-4:15 was a reasonable and manageable goal if I focused on the finish line and ran strong throughout the marathon.

Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon is a point to point marathon. Runners can park by the finish line and take a shuttle to the start or can park by the starting line in downtown Phoenix and take the metro/light rail back after finishing. Of course one can also choose a hotel near the finish line and walk to the shuttle. This is what I have chosen each year, although this year I was lucky enough to hop a ride with my husband Tristan who was heading to Sedona for the day. Other years I have had a bit of shuttle irregularity but this year the shuttle driver quickly and efficiently got us to the start area.

Upon arriving at the start, I wandered around aimlessly. I had many layers on and was trying to stay warm and out of trouble. I had eaten my usual breakfast of snowballs and diet mountain dew so I did not need to partake in any of the pre-race treats, although I did cap off my water bottle. About 30 minutes before the race start I meandered to the Private Brooks Race Potties. I had purchased way too much race stuff (which I need no more than a hole in the head, but still get—and this time it was so worth it!).

The Brooks potties had running water, perfume spritzers, lotions and were clean, warm and had no line! I was in heaven. I made use of the potty since my 3^rd diet mountain dew was hitting my bladder. I also used this time lurking in the bathroom wisely to rearrange my outfit. The predicted high was to be the upper 60’s or low 70’s. But it was about 50 degree’s at the time. I decided the appropriate outfit to wear was simply my tank, running skirt, sneakers and of course seamless bra, seamless underpants and drymax socks. Because of the chill in the air I elected to keep my moeben sleeves. Of course sparkeley my fanny pack was going to join me with all the proper accoutrements including: cell phone, camera, back up batteries and memory stick, lip balms (yes plural!), sunscreen stick, single pack wet wipes, poncho, meds including tums, pepto and two ibuprofen. Somehow in my recent running I had inadvertently not replaced my medpack (and while I haven’t been taking meds recently I share them with others depleting my supply).

Once I decided on my outfit it was time to drop my bag in the UPS truck. I put this off as long as I could particularly since I was still happily loitering in the potty. One last bathroom break and I was ready to head back out to the cold. With just about 10 minutes to race start, I arrived in my corral. I placed myself near the 4:00 pace group. I was delighted to see my friend Larry M. and chat briefly. Pretty soon the Star Spangled Banner played and it was time for the starting gun. Hearing the Star Spangled Banner gets me prepared and psyched up for any race. I know the importance of the freedom associated with our national anthem and how lucky I am to have the freedom to do something I love. After the starting gun goes off there is a small bit of movement. But then we abruptly stop. I am near the 4 hour pace group but realize my shoes are not properly tied. What I do not realize is that this is going to cause me some confusion later. Tying my shoes takes a bit of time, but then I reassimilate into the runners.

Crossing the start line I take a quick picture. This will end up being one of my 10 pictures taken along the course. My lack of pictures is one of my few disappointments in this race.

My first mile I try to take it easy and get warmed up. My friend Dan R. suggested this is a good race strategy back when we ran Richmond Marathon together. It seems to work and ensures the beginning of the race is not run too fast (Thanks Dan!).

Approaching mile 1 I see the timer suggests my time is about 11 minutes. I am not sure how long it took me to get over the starting mat or if the mile marker is accurate but I feel I am running a comfortable pace. As I had approached mile 1 I had heard my name being called by a female voice. It is always an odd and surreal experience to hear my name during a race far away from home. Sometimes I am a bit oblivious and assume it is some other Tammy. This time it was for me and was my friend Elaine from Rocky Raccoon and Javelina Jundred 100 over the past few years. Elaine is a little faster than I and has finished (and started) more 100 milers than I. She had caught up to me and I figured I would run a bit with her then let her go on ahead. Oddly enough we ran together until about miler 10.

These miles with Elaine just flew by. We chatted about 100 milers, 50 milers and upcoming races. We both were selected for WS100 although I was actually at the lottery when my name popped up (which was so cool!). Elaine and I have run several different events on the same course including Rocky Raccoon (although she did the 100 mile when I have run the 50) and Javelina Jundred (again she did the 100 mile while I took the wuss out option and ran the 100 km). Elaine is running her first VT100 so she also asked me about the race. I was able to provide an excrutiatingly detailed description of the race (hey we had 26.2 miles of course to cover!). I also provided my insight about pacers in particular about that race. I sadly have had a moderate amount of challenges with my pacer pairing. But I also have had some GREAT luck with inheriting pacers at that race including Pacer Shane who is in my short list of pacers for my Grand Slam (Pacer Iva, Pacer Dan, Pacer Shane and Pacer Ethel are my “go to pacers” but I am still filling up my Grand Slam schedule with pacers, of course Dan, Iva, Shane, and Ethel are known entities and are all considerable faster and have more endurance than I).

In addition to Vermont 100 miler we also talked about other ultra’s including Javelina Jundred (a super 100 miler/100 km race along the Pemberton Trail just north of Phoenix) Rocky Raccoon, where Elaine and I met 2 years ago. In fact Elaine had met my mom at RR100 in 2009 which was really cool. Unfortunately that was the last race my mom was at my race before becoming hospitalized and passing away. It is nice to meet up with runners who knew my mom because she was really special and super supportive of everyone. I miss her lots and through seeing or meeting people she knew I feel close again.

Our conversation made the miles fly by. Pretty soon in the distance ahead of us was the 3:50 marathon pace group! This was shocking to me. I was feeling really strong and happy but I did not realize how fast we were going. At this point Elaine was starting to have some issues and slowed down. Since I was feeling good and knew my Boston Marathon qualifying time is now 3:50 I decided to catch up to the group.

As I caught up I introduced myself to Mark, who I knew was the pace leader (my friend Pati Coury had given me some insight about all of the pacers). He suggested he was going to run until mile 14 then switch out with a lady Monique because of a health issue. I tried to figure out when they started and what their pacing goal was but was a bit confused. It was suggested they were going to speed up in the second half but it was not clear by how much. I think each pacer has a different strategy and negative splits certainly is a good one except if you worry you will lose speed towards the end.

I jog with the group for a bit but after the first water/gatorade station I realize being in this swarm of runners is not ideal. A few hundred meters ahead of the pace group there appears to be a gap. I decide I will push myself to get into this pocket so I don’t have to stress when grabbing Gatorade. As I move forward I pick up a runner friend Chuck who has run several marathons and has a goal of running a 3:45 or 3:50 marathon. We chat for a while and I learn that he is a bartender in Tempe, had lived in Phoenix right off the course previously and is going to be competing in the Ironman AZ in next fall. We pass the halfway point in ~1:55 and know we should be on target for a sub-3:50 marathon. I am excited but know there is 13.1 more miles to go. We talk about a variety of subjects but after a few aid stations it ends up that he goes through quickly while I take my time. It is not intentional but I do want to make sure I am well hydrated. And every so often I have to get 2-3 cups of Gatorade to get more than a few swallows. Sometimes I wish tables/volunteers would indicate if you are getting just a swallow of beverage or a full cup. It is a bit distressing when you hope for lots of beverage and get less than 1 inch of beverage. One time I ended up going back because I knew I needed to get calories and hydration. In addition to ensuring I get enough to drink I also need to walk with my beverages. I am why sippy cups were invented! I cannot run and drink without spilling all over myself. So basically I grab my cups of beverage, get out of the main flow of traffic then walk and drink. This is not efficient but I figure that the time is well spent since I do not want to get dehydrated or run low on calories.

The miles continue to fly by. When I look at my Garmin 305 it suggests my pace is tending to be around 8:30 min/mile or so. Other than aid stations my pace appears to be under 9 min/mile. This means I am maintaining a pace that should qualify me for Boston. I get excited but know there are still many miles until I finish.

About mile 18 or 19 there is a super nice spectator with fresh Krispy Kreme donuts in a box. Although there are probably 50 or 100 runners within a fairly close proximity to me only 2 other runners partake in this treat. The donut is super yummy and I am pretty sure almost warm and definitely soft and gooey. The only bummer is that it is REALLY gooey and sticky. I am right near one of the other donut eaters and state, “too bad they did not give us a paper towel with our donut”. Then I realize I have a wet wipe in my bag. Ha! Pacer Dan, Jamie and others who challenge my need for multiple lip balms, ponchos, camera, cell phone, medications, sunscreen and wet wipes! And people say I don’t need these items!

Unfortunately I end up with donut glaze over both hands and then forget to take a picture of me eating my tasty treat. But trust me it was YUMMY!

After finishing my donut I realize my knee is really, really angry at me. I run about a mile and it is not going away. This is my right knee that was mangled in a car accident in 1995 (I was hit as a pedestrian). It is pretty excruciating and I don’t have any painkiller left. I decide it might be wise to take a painkiller because my gait is changing because of this. I head to the medical tent. Sadly this takes me about 30 seconds while they have a discussion about where the Tylenol is. When they figure this out I am asked about why I need it and if I have taken Tylenol previously. No I haven’t taken any, yes I am happy if they mark up my bib and finally pointing to my 5 inch scar I indicate my surgical site is a bit painful. It tends to be a bit discomfortable 100% of the time but it has morphed into excruciating. They pour a glass of water which I humor them and drink up. Having worked at the FDA I know I want to minimize the challenge to my kidneys (ibuprofen) and liver (Tylenol) by taking plenty of liquids I would have drank a significant amount of water from my fanny pack bottle.

I then head back onto the course. This long pit stop is a bit of a bummer but I hope it is time well spent. By this time I know that I am back to being about 200-300 meters ahead of the 3:50 pace group. I had a little extra lead before my med break but I know I need to keep moving solidly to ensure I get in and out of the aid station before the pack of 3:50 runners make it. Although I note the pack is quite a bit smaller, I still want to be clear of the aid station when they arrive. It is challenging to move through aid stations when there are lots of runners acting randomly. I don’t know if there is a code of conduct but it seems some runners stop abruptly when they get a beverage, others dart away from the cups and others seem to move seamlessly. I am a “seamless mover” which works until a darter or stopper gets in front of me. Even though my pack is a bit ahead of the 3:50 there still are a moderate amount of runners, but it is thinning out. I realize that if I go to the “far” aid station it is less crowded. I end up taking more steps but the ease in which I can get beverages is well worth it. I think about my friend Dan who observed during the Richmond Marathon that I do not run the tangents. In fact I run some crazy line along the marathon including specifically going out of my way to give high 5’s! This race I continue to do this. I LOVE high 5’s, particularly from little kids and students from schools that have spirit groups along the course. The cheerleaders are so enthusiastic, track and cross country teams know just what say and at the various pep squads are so motivating. I am really having a great race and continue to move along at a fast clip.

At mile 23 my wheels fall off, my tank is empty and I decide I need to take up a different sport! What started out as a great run takes a turn for the worse (maybe I crash my donut sugar high). I am miserable. My legs feel like lead, my knee is still killing me but now a whole bunch of other joints decide to voice their displeasure. My back is bothering me, my arms are tired of moving and don’t get me started on my legs which want to be anywhere but attached to me.

There’s a choice here I can move to the finish or I can hope the finish line moves to me. Sadly without violating laws of physics the second choice seems unlikely to happen!

At this point I am moving as quickly as I can but realize I am really slowing down. A quick glance at my Garmin puts my time at 9+ min/mile. I know I have a bit of a buffer but I am struggling to do this. The 3:50 pace group surrounds me moving swiftly. This is a bit of a bummer but I try to stay positive and keep up with them. Unfortunately approaching mile 24 we get to an incline on a bridge over the Salt River. Heading up the hill I decide I am going to embrace my ultra-running roots and walk this. Actually this is how I justify my walking but realistically there was no way I was going to run up this hill. My hill legs were left on Camelback Mountain the day before. I hope I can catch up with the group on the downhill using gravity to my advantage. Unfortunately the pace group uses gravity as well and stays ahead of me. This is a bit of a bummer. Then they move further and further ahead of me. I look at my Garmin and it says my pace is 10 min/mile. But I am running super fast!!! Stupid Garmin!

As the 3:50 pace group disappears in the horizon I try to think positive. As long as I keep moving I will have a significant PR. I know that I did have a bit of a buffer since I started after the 4:00 pace group so I might still be able to eek out a Boston Qualifier. But it will be close.

I pass mile 25. My Garmin continues to give me bad news. I continue to run a consistent 10 min/mile pace. This is fine for any other marathon but I now really want Boston. I have traveled so far so fast. But then I start thinking. I have so many excuses I come up with during this mile. Camelback the day before (which by the way I would not recommend as a pre-race warm up). My Disney Half Marathon PR of 1:52 surely took something out of me. Then I come up with the best excuse…I just ran 113.4 miles only 2.5 weeks before this race. But I still push as hard as I can because I did push so hard for so long during the marathon. I need to put it all out there and see what happens.

I make the turn onto Rural Road passing Yogurtini. My friend Nick Coury said they would not serve me if I finished in greater than 4 hours. I will be served, wahoo!!!

As I rounded this bend I also was excited to see the 3:50 pace group at the next turn ahead. My best guess is that I am 300-400 meters behind this group, which I guess converts to a deficit of about 2 minutes. This will be close.

I keep putting one foot in front of the other. I think about how this easily could be my finish at Umstead 100, Western States 100, Vermont 100, Leadville 100 or even Wasatch 100 (optimistically) in which I need to dig deep to finish in my personal time goal or the race time limit. I keep moving forward as fast as I can. I have nothing left but upon rounding the final bend I see the time 3:52:XX. I will be getting a PR! I am super excited.

I give a few kids high fives as I round the bend. I don’t have the energy to head to the other side but try to wave to the crowd. I hear a male voice cheering my name. I later learned this was likely my friend Dane R. I was so excited on the inside but I am struggling to finish. This is tough!!

Finally, when the clock gets to 3:52:17 I cross the finish line. For the first time since my first Umstead 100 miler I am barely able to move after finishing. I hunch over and nearly burst into tears. I am so excited, thrilled and proud of myself. I have pushed as hard as I could and finished with a PR. But the big question is: what was my final time?

When I finally get a little bit of energy back I move along. I get my medal and am so happy with my finish. I send a text to Tristan indicating that I finished and my gun time was 3:52. It is a PR. I find the 3:50 pacer and ask if she knows what their chip time was. She suggests they crossed the finish line a few seconds after 3:50. This does not bode well for me as my best guess is that I was 30-40 seconds behind their start time. But I do not know.

I text my friend Nick Coury telling him my gun time and indicate I WILL be going to Yogurtini because I have finished in under 4 hours!!

He responds in just a few moments that my chip time is 3:50:45!

3:50 IS MY BOSTON QUALIFYING TIME FOR 2012!!!

I have never been more excited about celebrating a birthday and getting older. Let the party begin!!! I am so happy!! I am so thrilled to learn about my qualification from a friend. And the tense few minutes when I had no idea of my chip time made me appreciate this victory even more.

It is now time to celebrate by traveling along the course backwards. I have many friends still out there and I want to cheer them in. And of course now I can share my great news! I am so excited! This race was one of my toughest races (particularly the last few miles) but I made it through.

Heading back along the course I am delighted to see my friend Tammy B who I have run GTR50, VT100 and many other ultra’s and marathons. Not too far behind her I see my friend Jackie O who I ran most of the Bob Potts Marathon with. When I get close to mile 24, I then see my friend Larry M. I walk/jog Larry to the finish line and we catch up. Larry is so sweet and such an accomplished athlete having finished well over 100 marathons last year! Nearly at the finish line I head off to the spectator area. I see my friend John Bingham and get a great big hug. John is such a great person and so encouraging to everyone. I am thrilled to tell him I have just qualified for Boston.

I walk the course backwards again and see my friend Maricar as well as Yolanda. After a quick picture I try to keep up but realize my legs are no longer running. But of course I am pleased to share my excuse for being so slow and they are so excited for me. I’m going to Boston!

I head back out onto the course. But my legs are getting tired. So I position myself about mile 26 so I can hear Vertical Horizon playing. It is cool to be able to cheer the runners while appreciating the concert.

Pretty soon it is over 7 hours since the finish. I head to the finish line area and cheer on runners. I call my friend Karen to tell her about my Boston Qualifying time and John Bingham announces my feat over the loudspeaker. I get it on video. It is so cool!

Runners are still coming in. These are the runners who are digging deep to finish. I am so happy for these runners. They are limping, struggling and obviously doing what it takes to get to the finish line. I cheer as loud as I can. Finally the race vehicles comes into sight and the race is over.

After the race finishes, Tristan arrives back from Sedona. We decide to have Yogurtini followed by a climb up Hayden Butte to celebrate my victory. This is how I always complete my Rock and Roll Arizona Marathone. I see a few others runners on the butte, but based on their medal ribbon, they are half marathoners. I am pleased that I am able to make it up the butte. But I am even more pleased that I am, more importantly, able to make it back down the butte!

Dinner is Chompies then it is time for bed. What a great day!

A summary of recent activities

2011-01-21T15:57:00.000-08:00

Celebrating my birthday!!

For my "big" present Tristan treated my friends to dinner then for Cupcake Decorating at Lilly Magilly's (a new cupcake place).

We each decorated one cupcake to eat there and one to bring home for later (if it made it home outside of our stomach). When I learned about the party at Lilly Magilly's I was excited to learn they provide Shirley Temples as the house drink!

And of course it was so wonderful to celebrate with so many great friends and family (the blue person right in front of me on the far right side is my sister who traveled from VA to celebrate with me)

I know I am incredible fortunate to have so many great friends both locally as well as all over the country (and even the world).

The Disney half marathon is always so much fun and I love all the characters along the course.

The only issue I have is that I get super distracted by the characters along the course even though I worked at Disney World for 3 years when I was getting my M.S. in Statistics at the University of Central Florida. This does not help my finishing time.

But alas it is cool to hang with characters all along the 13.1 mile and 26.2 mile courses of the Disney Goofy Marathon!

After every Disney Marathon I like to hang out and savor my finish.

There is a DJ in the finish line festival and there always seem to be hula hoops. Each year I spend a long time hula hooping. This year in fact I started my Disney Marathon experience hula hooping at the EXPO.

Going into my post race festivities my stomach already was feeling the burn from my ~1 hour of hula hooping prior to the race (in fact during the race my stomach was a bit tender). But on a positive note I had burned through my birthday cupcake calories:-)
Prior to the Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon I was incredibly lucky to be able to share a lovely meal with the entire Coury family.

From left to right: Tristan, Me, Nick, Nathan, Peter, Jamil, Melia and Pati. We apparently all did get the memo that the uniform was to be a blue or black shirt! In fact nearly everyone was wearing an Across the Years or Javalina Jundred Shirt (which is one of the numerous races Jamil/Nick Coury and their family are RD's/volunteers)

A Summary of the past few weeks--until the Phoenix Rock and Roll Marathon

The past few weeks have been pretty hectic for me. I completed Across the Years in Arizona, flew back to MD had a few days there (including a VERY important birthday) then headed to Florida for the Disney Goofy Marathon, came back to MD for a few days and flew to Phoenix for the Rock and Roll Marathon. In this time period I took off only a few work days and still had to keep up with a bunch of deadlines. With this hectic schedule both professionally and personally I had little expectation for any of my runs being too successful.

But my year did start off well with a PR at the Disney Half marathon with a new half PR of 1:52:51! This cut off nearly 6 minutes from my previous half marathon PR (this Septembers Parks Half Marathon) and even involved a few pictures with characters and feeling great the entire race. The marathon was a different story but I did have a great time during my nearly 7 hours on the course. Of course this involved several rides, lots of pit stops to eat and drink and lots of socializing!

Then this past weekend Tristan and I headed to the Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon for my third running of this race. I really enjoy the race and now have a bunch of friends in Arizona and knew several friends who were going to be running the race (after I finished I learned I had even more friends on the course then even I knew about).

I went to the EXPO on Friday and enjoyed seeing and experiencing the EXPO including attending a presentation by John Bingham as well as seeing my friend Dane Rauschenberg (an author of the book See Dane Run). I also was fortunate enough to see my pacer from JJ100 in 2010, Elizabeth "e" as well as a runner she was going to pace through the race.

Friday evening Tristan and I met up with the Coury's (the Race Director & Family of such races as Javalina Jundred, Across the Years, Pemberton Trail Races and other Aravaipa races). We had a great meal and shared running, hiking, and life stories.

It was such a pleasure to hang out with Pati, Peter (the parents), Melia, Nick, Nathan and Jamil (the children). They are a wonderful family and so much fun to be around. And since Nick and Jamil have run a few of my upcoming ultra's I was able to get some good advice for training and preparing for various ultramarathon courses like Western States and Leadville. I get to see Nick and Jamil in just about 2 months at the Umstead 100 miler where I know they will do great...perhaps great enough to finish then pace me for a lap:-).

Both Pati and Peter were going to run the half marathon together on Sunday which I thought was so sweet! Pati and Peter ended up finishing with a time of 2:32. This was just Pati's second half marathon and it was a massive PR by nearly half an hour, way to go!!!

After our delightful meal Tristan and I headed back to our hotel to prepare for what ended up being a very long day of hiking. With the Coury's advice and directions we decided to go to Camelback Mtn just north of Pheonix. It is a beautiful mountain but in retrospect not necessarily the best pre-race hike. There is a section in which you must hold a hand rail to climb up 50 or so verticle feet. Then another half mile or so you are climbing and scrambling up rocks that make the Weverton Cliffs section of the AT/JFK50 miler look like childs play!

The hike was beautiful and the views from the top impressive but by the end my knee's and quads were a little angry about the whole hike. In fact towards the end although Tristan was struggling a bit because of his mountaineering accident, I was struggling because I am pretty incompetent at hiking and basically I am a big sissy!

After finishing this hike the least we deserved was a big meal, so we headed to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. I am pretty sure if that restuarant goes bankrupt it is our fault as we went back numerous times for salads, breads, soups and of course desserts! Chocolate Lava cake=yum!! This was a good way to carbo-load for the Phoenix Rock and Roll Marathon.

Across the Years, a bit of background

2011-01-02T11:38:00.000-08:00

Here is the start line of the Across the Years on Dec 29th. This was the first day of the event. There were 3 races going off at this time: the 24 hour race of Dec 29th, the 48 hour race of Dec 30th and the 72 hour race (which had only one start).

There were about 50 runners who seemed to be lurking by the start line but very few runners seemed to be in a hurry to start (so there might have been other runners just loitering).

The day started out fairly nice. A bit chilly but we did not start in the rain which was good.

Here is a picture of the runner status. This screen indicated who had just crossed the start/finish line and their overall status.

The status included:

runner name

lap number

time/split of last lap

bib number

There was a color coding scheme with runners in the 48 hour listed in blue.

It was kind of neat to cross the mat run a few feet then see the screen listing who was coming up from behind.

This was my top standing on the leader board. You can see I was 5th place overall and 3rd female at this point.

I did not belong in this group as I am a mediocre runner at best but apparently I was a bit speedy early on. This was somewhat purposely done as I hate running in the rain. I figured I wanted to get as many miles before the rain came...then maybe I could hang up my sneakers and quit:-)

In face the runners on this board in 8, 9 and 10th place ended up finishing quite well and far ahead of me.

Of course I believe I may have won in the longest lap competition with one lap nearly 6.5 hours over the first night when the weather was really bad. I had gotten up about 2 a.m. but when my friend Jamie D indicated it was lightening out I decided to go back to bed and wait out the storm.

I am really glad I made this decision because a few minutes later there was a massive rain storm with significant wind. Even with two tents, an operational generator and a earplug in I could hear (and feel) the wind. I was glad I was not out in the worst of it!
Here are some of the WONDERFUL race volunteers.

This includes Nick Coury (in black/red jacket) and Sue Norwood (in blue jacket) as well as another volunteer I did not catch his name.

Nick in addition to volunteering at the aid station, helping clear the course of the HUGE puddles by creating little canals and doing other tasks also ran many laps during the race. He is SUPER sweet and so funny! (although he did suggest when he had the shovel creating trenches for water runnoff and I asked if it was to bury runners who complained too much that yes it was to dispatch runners...yikes!!:-)

Here I am on the first night trying to run through the rain awaiting mail. There were no notes so I was bummed:-(

In fact there were some issues in the first day because of electricity issues. The backstretch had no lights because of a short and it was obvious that printing out messages was quite challenging considering everything was damp.

Letters were greatly appreciated and so much fun to receive. I will admit this picture was taken about 10 p.m. AZ time which means most of my East Coast friends and family were probably asleep. But next year you all need to be less slackers!!!

You also will notice that we also recieved a pair of moeben sleeves in our mailbox and for a while I used the mailbox to store my keys as well as a headlamp which once the backstretch was illluminated with Christmas lights I no longer needed.

THE RACE: A description

The weather for across the years was predicted to be pretty bad. Rain followed by wind and finally a cold front would come through with freezing temperatures. And all of this within the first 24 hours.

Luckily I had altered my running goals back in Nov when I developed shin splints after JFK50 miler. I no longer was attempting to run 100 miles in the first 24 hours. In fact by the time I started my goal became to run 100 miles and I figured any additional miles would be icing on the cake.

The start was fairly low key. There might have been 50 people congregating at the start and most of us headed off with a slow jog or walk. We were going to be on the course for a long time so no sense in rushing! Because I was busy taking pictures and chatting I may have been one of the last runners across the start line. This was fine with me.

The course was a 500 meter (0.5 km) track at Nardini Manor. Every 2 hours the direction would change. The first direction we headed started off through a small forest with a cute gazebo. Many of the runners had tents set up in this section. As the rains came this area became quite wet with large puddles a few inches deep! The next segment took us by Nardini Manor a historic manor house. There was a large lawn that on day 2 during the wind storm some volunteers were kiting on. Here was our first turn to the left.

After passing the manor, we went by a stand of fruit tree's including oranges and grapefruits. After the fruit tree's there was a cute fountain area. We then would turn left again and would pass by the maze. I never went in but heard from several kids it was fun! This backstretch was the worst section after the rain as it became extremely muddy. But before the rain started, this is the section I saw a rabbit and met a dog (through the fence). The backstretch was the longest straight away and most exposed as there were only tree's on the manor side (left) while the right had beautiful views of the mountains above Phoenix. A left turn put us by several porta potties on the right and the cars in the parking area on the right. I tried to visit my car infrequently but I would guess I had at least 20 or 30 visits to my car. Sometimes laps in succession!

The final left turn on the course headed us back to the start line by the aid station. This was the most exciting part of the course because this was where the action was. After the aid station on the right was the big tent as well as the warming tents within the big tent. I spent alot of time in the warming tent, particularly on the first night.

Near the start finish there was the "mailbox". This was the highlight of my race. I received many messages from friends near and far. These really perked me up and meant alot to me. It was nice to be cheered on virtually. And some of my messages were quite funny! Many runners would talk about and share their messages. My biggest disappointment was that my cats did not send me a message. I know of several runners whose pets did not let their lack of opposable thumb stop them from sending warm wishes!

The volunteers throughout the race were super. They attended to runners every need. Basically you could go into the aid station request something and they would have it ready when you got back a few minutes later. Or of course you could loiter and hang out.

In the middle of the course there also was a real bathroom that was heated and set up really great. There were nice smelling soaps, gum, scope, floss, seating and HEAT!! I have no idea the set up for the men's room but I will admit I spent alot of time in the bathroom hanging out.

At the start finish there were two TV screens with update race information. Typically approaching the finish there was a listing of the current racer standings. And after you crossed the start/finish line you could see what lap you were on as well as the split. You also could see who was just ahead and frequently who was right behind you as the list included about 15 runners information. It was kind of cool to know who was about to pass you before they did. Along the course you could only tell who was passing you if they were talking (and you recognized their voice) or after they passed you, you could see their name on the bib (if it was exposed). During the storms and at night many of us did not have our bibs out as effectively...and it was hard to read in the dark.

1, 2, 2, 3, ....5? (or perhaps even 6?): The start of my Across the Years Race Report

2011-01-01T21:12:00.000-08:00

The sequence 1, 2, 2, 3 (and hopefully 5 or 6) is not a fibinocci sequence. But it does have special meaning to me. It is the number of 100 milers I have run each year since my first 100, Umstead 100 in 2007.

This past week I ran the Across the Years 48 hours race completing 113.4 miles with just over 1 minute to spare. My last mile split was under 10 min/mi and my last lap was in an 8:31 min/mile pace. I had so much energy building during the last hour and so many runners and spectators were cheering me on, I just had to eek out every last bit of this experience.

In fact about 7:30 a.m. (1.5 hours before my finish). I had my last bathroom break, put on blue sparkeley (my fanny pack) and started jogging at a faster clip. Early in the day after my final rest/nap I had been averaging 6-10 minute laps but I knew I had a bit of energy left. I decided I wanted to break 110 miles so I needed to stay focussed and be consistent. Little did I know I would exceed my goal and expectations.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

After nearly being unable to participate in the race, I was able to use my back up plan including a pretty expensive business class ticket bought within a few days of the flight. Luckily this flight went off without any issues. After picking up my rental car, I headed to Chompies and Yogurtini in Phoenix, my two favorite eateries. I picked up a bagel sandwich and then headed up Hayden Butte for a small walk to stretch my legs. I then went to Yogurtini for the meal of champions...a bunch of flavors of yogurt and lots of toppings. It was yummy and I was set for my race.

After checking in at the Host Hotel, the Best Western I was lucky enough to meet Jamie Honeycut who is super sweet and an awesome runner. I knew of her from facebook and observed she had an Arkansas traveler 100 miler shirt. After setting up my stuff, I headed to the race site, Nardini Manor for my volunteer shift. I was working the registration desk with Jim O'Neill and Sue Norwood. Jim and Sue are so nice and I have been really lucky to cross paths numerous times at many races. And this time I got to spend some quality time catching up. Registration was lots of fun and I was able to put my mathematical skills/education to use re-arranging bags in numerical order. It was lots of fun. But all to soon it was time to go head to the hotel to sleep.

A bunch of alarms woke me up about 6:30 so I could get ready. Once I was dressed I headed to the breakfast buffet and was lucky enough to sit with Jamie H. We chatted about the upcoming race as well as about running in general. Jamie H was doing the 48 hour race that started the next day but was going to come out to the race to watch and cheer on runners. Our table was next to Deborah Horne who was also running the 48 hour. Sadly the topic of conversation was dominated by the weather. It was not looking good particularly for the first day.

Across the years is a set of several races run simultaneously or concurrently. There is a 72 hour race that starts on Dec 29, two 48 hour races: one starting on Dec. 29 and one starting on Dec 30 and finally three 24 hour races starting on Dec 29, Dec 30 or Dec 31rst. Those of us who ran on Dec 29th ended up running in "Phoenix's WORST WEATHER IN 10 YEARS!!". It was epic. There was rain, wind and over the night a severe thunderstorm.

After finishing my meal, I checked out and went to the race site. Getting out of my car I saw my friends Jamie & David Donaldson who were running the 24 hour race starting the 29th. Jamie ended up coming in 1rst overall and David ran nearly 80 miles. We chatted very briefly but they still had to check in.

Pretty soon it was time for the race to start. My car was parked about 50 feet from the course ready to serve as my home base and of course there was a well stocked aid station runners saw every 500 meters! Every 2 hours the course would turn around and you would get to see other runners. It was odd to see runners head on after following them for many hours. And since we had our names on our bibs on our back sometimes the only way to recognize someone was through their gaiters or outfit. And because of the terrible weather outfits were changing faster than an awards show host!

My outfit did change a bit but my base layers remained the same throughout the race. My lucky pink Tammy tank, a maroon Tammy long sleeve, my pink marathon girl skirt and a pair of black pants. My shoes & gaiters were changed at mile 100 but they stayed pink themed. And my hat varied from a visor with flowers, a thermal hat with hawaiian flowers and finally my cat hat (which ultimately caused quite a stir).

The competitor list was posted well before the race, so I knew I would be running with many friends over the course of my 48 hours. On the first day I would be running with: Karsten S., Phil R., the Donaldson's, Lynn N., Deb H., and so many other from various ultra's including VT100, JJ100, Umstead 100, the race around the lake, Rocky Raccoon 50. On the second day I would be joined by Maryann R., Phil M., and many others I knew from many ultra's. It was going to be a massive reunion and of course I was going to meet lots of new friends!!

My final 2010 Race: Across the Years 48 hour Race

2010-12-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

After a bit of a travel snafu (my flight was cancelled even though the Gaithersburg and Baltimore area did not get much snow) I am about to head off to Across the Years.

Luckily as in every aspect of my life (including drop bags, my fanny pack and personal necessities) I had a back up plan. Although my back up plan involved a flight that is my second most expensive flight this year (the most expensive was my flight to Portland Oregon to get Tristan after his fall off the mountain). Alas it will be worth it to see so many friends and make many new ones during my epic adventure of the 48 hour race at Across the Years.

My goal before my "Italian Flu" and shin splints was a sub 24 hour 100 mile, then to see how much further I could go perhaps with a sub goal of 135 miles because it is the same distance as Badwater. But considering my training has been a bit sparse lately and I sure don't want to start 2010 with an injury I might try to run 120-130 miles over the course of the 48 hours. My friend Karen, who ran the 24 hour Race around the lake with me suggested I should aim for 200 km. This coming from a person who ran her first 5 km in June and tripled her distance one month later makes me think I should step up to the plate and go for 124 miles at a minimum!

During this race, runners can receive messages through the website:

http://www.acrosstheyears.com/

My race starts at 9 a.m. Mountain time on Dec. 29th and finishes on Dec 31rst at 9 a.m. Feel free to send me messages!!

Fear

2010-12-23T16:38:00.000-08:00

Any of you reading my blog for a while know I have a bunch of fears. Sometimes I control my fears but all too often, I let my fears control me. This coming summer when I face the biggest challenge of my life (at least that I have chosen to face) I will have to overcome many fears and will need to toughen up on many levels.

My biggest fears in life are

1) Serial Killers-this fear strikes me in ultras where I end up running alone in the dark extensively. Let me just say from experience reading the “Zodiac Killer” is not ideal pre-race reading.

I have no solution for this fear but considering I carry lots of lip balm, emergency poncho and salt/pepper maybe I can McGuyver something up if ever attacked. Actually I keep telling my husband Tristan that my pepper packets if I opened and tossed at someone is the poor/lazymans pepper spray.

2) Rattlesnakes-actually I fear all snakes but I am particularly worried about rattlesnakes. Maybe I have watched too much “Venom ER” and I have seen altogether too many rattlesnakes along trails. I just finished a book about the Grand Slam in which a paragraph talks about a rattlesnake crossing the course near an aid station. Yikes!!

I have no solution for this fear but I am thinking my “Pepper Spray” might come in handy.

3) Cougars-pumas, mountain lions, panthers are on my list because they are the same animal and if my cat roughs me up pretty badly at only 10 lbs I can only imagine what an animal 10X their size can do.

I have no solution for this but I think this is a job for my “Pepper Spray”

4) Falling-since gravity is a law, not a guidance falling is a big fear. I tend to be unstable on my feet and fall with moderate frequency.

I have no solution for falling but my previous strategy for runs in which falling is likely I tend to sit on my butt and work my way down (for big steps) and at times when courses are slippery I slam into tree’s or other immobile objects. This means after some races, I look like I have been in a WWF match (losing obviously) rather than a race.

5) Dirty Feet-I am fastidious about my feet in particular but actually hate being dirty at all. I may be in the wrong sport! I have been nearly in tears during a few races when the grim line to my foot is a dark brown and I have to touch all the dirt to get to my feet. Even worse is when this dirt has gotten through my gaiters, sneakers and socks and there are dirt gobs between my toes. Eww!!

I have no solution for avoiding dirt. Maybe I need to pick a new sport. I think I could really embrace ping pong except I think I might lack depth perception (although that might be why I fall a lot!).

6) Stream Crossings-my feet can get dirty, I could fall and I’ve seen a coral snake in a river in Florida and a rattlesnake along a river at Shenandoah Nat’l Park, so this is the triumvariate of my fears!

I have no solution for this fear. Even worse I just realized there are a bunch of stream crossings in Western States (and maybe Leadville & Wasatch 100 but please don’t burst this bubble quite yet if this is true, I can cross that river when I get to it). Speaking of my fear of stream crossings, I could pack a raft, a pair of galoshes or stilts, so I guess I do have a solution, although it probably is not optimal.

In all honesty and seriousness, I actually do get quite distressed at all of these issues. I try not to be paralyzed by them but there have been a few times where I nearly panic and have to repeat to myself “Go to your Happy Place” over and over. If anyone has suggestions I am happy to hear what you have done that has worked. Thanks!

Western States 100 Mile Lottery Selection-in pictures

2010-12-10T17:22:00.000-08:00

I had heard the Western States Lottery selection at the gym was an event not to be missed so decided I needed to attend. I am SUPER happy that I was in the audience when my name was selected. Being in the gym and seeing your name pop up is better than any surprise that I have experienced. It was unexpected, exciting and an incredible experience. I will remember it fondly for the rest of my life.

This is the moment I realized that my name had popped up on the screen. When I first started reading and saw: “Tammy” I did not want to get too excited since I knew a friend Tammy who had also applied. Then when I read “Massie” it took one more moment to realize Tammy + Massie was ME!!!

Perhaps I should have used my maiden name because I think Tammy Parliment would have registered a nanosecond faster since it has been a name I have seen for 39 years while Tammy Massie is only 10 years old (and I don’t write/see my full name often…mostly I go by Tammy).

When I saw my name called I remember feeling so thrilled. My husband, who was on my right repeated my name and said “that’s you”. Yes, yes it was!

This deserved a “WAHOO!!!”.

In fact this deserved a really long WAHOO with a bunch following it!!!

Continuing my leaping and “wahoo’s”! I pass by the screen of my selection to Western States 100 miler. Although a bit blurry you can see a brief biographical sketch.

“Tammy Massie, Female, 38, Gaithersburg, Maryland”. It shows I had 2 tickets in this years lottery (last year I was not selected) and I believe the races listed include JFK50 miler, Javalina Jundred 100, New River Trails 50 km, Tails for Trails, and several other events.

I remember suggesting that this was better than a 100 miler finish because I could appreciate it. I am always so excited and emotional at the end of 100 milers. But I am also so exhausted that perhaps my reaction is a bit muted.

I can only imagine what a 100 miler finish would be like if I had as much energy as I did during the lottery drawing. I imagine neighboring states would know of my victory!

As I made it across the gym I knew the gentleman who selected my name deserved a great big hug!

He had picked MY NAME, WAHOO!!!

Although I suspect the selection is based on a random number generator if I was programming this lottery I would base the “Seed” on the precise time the button was pressed. Thus I believe it was because my selector pressed the button about 10 a.m. PST that my name appeared on the screen.

I was so excited to see my name and it was such an amazing moment

Of course after hugging my selector, I needed to hug the race director.

I know that directing a race is hard work (I have not been an RD but based on my experience as a statistical conference organizer I imagine it is a challenging job with lots of subtle challenges the runners are ideally oblivious to).

And of course I was still so excited that I had been selected. What an honor!

I had met the Race Director briefly before the race because I was being introduced as the “girl from Maryland” and he had come up to me to introduce himself. I met him again when I was called up for being the runner who had traveled the furthest to get to the lottery and finally I was called up when my name was drawn for the 2011 Western States 100 miler.

I was so thrilled and so appreciative of being selected. It was a dream come true

After I calmed down a bit (just a bit), I realized I was being handed a booklet. I had seen a bunch of runners being handed the booklet but I had forgotten in my excitement. The booklet includes lots of Western States 100 miler running information.

It was an amazing experience!

A few more hoots and wahoo’s later and it was time for me to return to my seat.

Being selected was everything I expected and hoped for and more!

Of course I will be forever indebted to Keith Blom who was able to capture my selection in a bunch of pictures. I clearly need to bring Keith along on my WS100 race because he captured the essence of how I felt from the moment I realized I was going to Western States 100 miler in 2011!

WOW!!! My 2010 Western States Lottery experience

2010-12-05T04:34:00.000-08:00

With Western States Race Director: Greg Soderland before the drawing. Because I had come to California primarily for the race drawing and indicated this to the various super sweet volunteers and greeters, Greg came over and introduced himself. I was so thrilled to be known as the girl from MD. And even more so after my name was drawn just a little past mid-way through the drawing!!!

Western States is a very famous ultramarathon (100 miler) in which many of my hero's compete for top slots. All I am hoping/training for is a sub 30 hour finish. With a bit of luck, good health and hopefully no family disasters this year, I *really* hope to do this!!

MY LOTTERY EXPERIENCE

I have been interested in running Western States for many years. My first JFK50 miler I heard about it from my running friends (and heros!) Ed C., Dave Y and Bill T. These Reston Runners are LEGENDS. They have run nearly every 100 miler in America and are super tough!

While on my radar, early in my ultra-running career, I did not believe I could finish Western States 100 because is is quite tough, challenging and does not have a great success rate. And of course I am slow! Since I did not believe in myself I did not sign up for the lottery in 2006, 2007, and 2009. By the time I had the confidence, experience and felt if selected I would not be "wasting" a coveted slot, the odds dwindled from guaranteed sucesss ultimately with the two time loser rule to 20% last year. This year my chances even with two tickets was a dismal 14%. I was not optimistic.

But I still decided to fly to California to experience the lottery. Let me just say it did not disappoint. The energy was amazing, everyone was so friendly and I knew about 20 folks in the 200+ person audience.

As the names were selected there was a nervous energy in the air. I had told my husband earlier in the day that the optimal time to be selected (from my perspective) was about halfway through. There would be lots of anticipation but at some point after your name was called you could appreciate the experience.

Arriving at the gym, Tristan and I were fairly early. I got a good seat and put my lucky bear hydration pack on one and my sparkely fanny pack on the other to ensure Tristan and I could sit together. I needed all my lucky animals and items with me. Because we were going to be in the 100 miler for the long haul!

I chatted with lots of super nice runners and family and caught up with my friends while waiting. Folks would ask where you were from and I was happy to indicate I had traveled from Maryland. And yes, my trip here was primarily for the WS100. Visiting Tristan's family and the California International Marathon were ancilliary. I ultimately was introduced to the Race Director, Greg Soderland as the girl who came from Maryland. I also got to see Tim Twietmeyer, who I had met the day before at the CIM EXPO. It was really neat. Just meeting all these amazing running legends was incredible!

Then it was time for the lottery. Announcements were made then it was asked who traveled the furthest? I was next to a gentleman from Cleveland Ohio. But Gaithersburg MD won! I was excited to be called up and received my first bit of goodies: Moeben arm sleeves (my favorite!), a Western States coffee mug and a hat. My day was off to a great start!

As names were selected, the audience would erupt into huge cheers when it was a local. I saw a few names of running friends but quite a few names from MD/VA/DC were not names I knew. And I thought I knew most of the crazy 100 milers in the Capitol area because of belonging to the Reston Runners, Virginia Happy Trails and Montgomery County Road Runners. Alas none of these names were mine.

Each minute I became more nervous and anxious. The energy was electric. I had my fingers, toes and everything else crossed willing my name to the screen. 5, 10, 15, 20 runners were selected. Every time a two ticket person was selected I was excited. My odds improved. But alas odds do not get your name picked specifically. At the halfway point I for a moment lost hope. But I gave a pat to my lucky bears and squeezed my eyes shut wishing super hard. Next thing I know on the board it says:

TAMMY MASSIE

Gaithersburg, MD

It lists some races: JJ100, VT100, JFK50, Tails for Trails 40, New River Trails 50 km.

These are the races that have gotten me here.

It takes a moment to process, that is MY NAME!!! I start hooting and hollering and jump up in excitement. It is AMAZING. The next few minutes are a blur. I hug the guy who had drawn my name. I hug the race director. I savor the moment. It is AWESOME!!!

Getting your name selected while being in the gym is an experience that is incredible. The crowd cheers for me and is so nice. I am thrilled to recieve my race brochure and a bag. In fact it is only a few minutes later that I look in the bag and realize it is a Moeben Set including a running skirt and a pair of arm warmers in the daisy pattern. This is my FAVORITE pattern. My lucky day keeps getting better.

After my name is selected, I can appreciate the lottery. It is wonderful when folks from the audience are selected. I notice no one seems to match my energy and enthusiasm. I may never be able to show my face in Auburn. But after the drawing is complete super nice people come up to me and say that my antics and excitement getting selected were appreciated. That is neat. I always like to show my enthusiasm and LOVE ultrarunning. I know I am really fortunate to be able to run and and so thrilled that in 2011 my journey of ultrarunning will include Western States and hopefully even the Grand Slam: Vermont 100, Leadville 100, and Wasatch!

My motivation & upcoming schedule: Running Marathons, Ultra's and Training

2010-12-01T16:34:00.000-08:00

The JFK50 miler led to a small running injury. It is my first injury since I fell pretty hard and twisted my ankle in my first JFK50 miler. Perhaps this race brings me bad luck:-(

I am still working on my race report but also am trying to keep up with my professional and personal life. And of course in my rehab (which involves nothing except stretching and ice) I have been getting ready for 2011. I am excited about my race calendar and of course that I will be sharing a bunch of races with a bunch of friends. And of course I know I will run into friends at most if not all of my races. Some of my running companions are seasoned marathoners/ultramarathoner and several are my friends who I have coerced into running with my enthusiasm and statements like "Running is FUN!".

Training, while not "fun" in the strictest sense of the word, I do enjoy. It gives me time to think, reflect and just enjoy being in the moment. I do frequently listen to an Ipod Shuffle but frequently I just listen to sounds of nature (if I am on a trail), chat on the phone (sometimes the only time I can squeeze out of a day is on my run) and sometimes I am fortunate enough to run with others frequently these are fun runs at my local running store: Fleet Feet Gaithersburg.

My husband and I are fortunate to have the funds to allow for frequent traveling around the country. And I am always delighted to share a rental car, hotel or carpool with friends. This of course makes my running "slush fund" go farther.

Running marathons, ultra's and even shorter distances which I can extend by running the course backward (if I finish early enough), make runs go even faster. Time flies when you are having fun and in my world chatting, learning about others and experiencing new places keep running fresh and interesting.

And of course my events do have purpose. In the next few weeks I hope to run the California International Marathon and the Rehobeth Marathon. These will be my final train up runs for the Across the Years 48 hour (ATY 48) race in Arizona Dec. 29-31! This will be my first 48 hour race. I had hoped to come into the ATY 48 in better shape but perhaps all my training throughout the summer and fall will help me. My goal is to run 100 miles in the first 24 hours then run an additional 35 miles in the next 24 hours. I am not sure what I can accomplish but I figure I might as well set a pretty lofty goal!

And of course I plan to have FUN!!

JFK50 miler 2010: Leading up to the Race

2010-11-29T14:24:00.000-08:00

Running a 50 miler is both a physical and a mental challenge. Little did I know by the end of my 2010 JFK50 miler I would be living out this adage. But alas it is the challenging times, situations and events that frequently make us stronger (at least that is what I said to myself throughout the race). And it also makes a greater appreciation for those times when success is easy and painfree.

Leading up to the Race

My running and professional calendar has been jam packed since 2006 when I ran my second JFK50 miler. But this past fall has been exceptionally packed. I started running what was to be 13 marathon or greater events each weekend back in mid-Sept with my favorite 40 miler, the “Tails for Trails 40 miler” hosted by Faye and Kev Hawn in Hanover, PA. This year I PR-ed in this distance by an hour and yet still was the last place female and last place overall. But I had a great time at the race and it was a lovely day for a 40 miler. My biggest disappointment was the lack of my husband Tristan and dog Gilligan. Tristan was in the midst of rehabbing from his mountaineering accident and Gilligan had passed away just a month before this event.

My next event was the Adirondack Marathon during a Father/Daughter Weekend in upstate NY. Again this was a beautiful day for running and I set a PR on the course. The weekend involved lots of eating, lots of hiking and good times. The Adirondack Marathon is one event you end up weighing more after the race weekend then you did coming in.

The Freedom’s Run Marathon was run with my friend Tammy B who I had jogged a considerable amount of the VT100 miler. I also nearly became her ex-friend by suggesting the Grand Tetons 50 mile Race would be "Great Fun". She was good company during the Freedom Run Marathon until she turned on me at mile ~20. Granted I went for a bathroom break but stayed for the visitor center/store. I would have made my dad proud as I read a few placards, enjoyed the air conditioning in the movie theater/displays and even put on some civil war outfits they were selling at the gift shop. This is all critical stuff for a marathon. But apparently Tammy B has different standards!

In 2009 I ran the New River Trails 50 km in 6:06. I knew I could do better and would tell anyone who would listen I wanted to break 5 hours. I realistically thought I could break 5:30 or maybe 5:15, but I figured I might as well set a really high goal for once in my life. Annette Bednosky puts on a GREAT race and the volunteers, course and overall race experience is excellent. The food along the course is amazing (and I nearly deraile my stated goal by eating perhaps one too many home made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches), the scenery along the rails to trails along the New River and easy/non-technical terrain make for a fast course. I achieved my goal with many minutes to spare and PR-ed with a 4:48!!! I was shocked, amazed and super-proud.

The next weekend Tristan and I met up with my friend Dana from the JFK50 miler to run the Breakers Marathon in Newport Rhode Island. This is a beautiful marathon (on a nice weather day) that goes along rocky shores, sand beaches and multi-million (billion?) dollar houses, estates and even compounds. Running with Dana added to the experience as we were able to catch up since our last time running a significant amount of time together: JFK50 in 2006. Oddly enough my streak of PR’s for race courses continued with the Breakers Marathon.

Mid-October I flew to Phoenix to run my second Javalina Jundred 100 km. Last year I had run this race and had my first and most public meltdown (and in fact the whole meltdown was captured on video and a small snippet of it was played on a PBS television special). This year was a completely opposite experience. After meeting up with my friend Jamie at the airport we slowly headed to the race site for packet pick up. Of course on our way we had to stop at Chompie’s and Yogurtini for a huge bagel sandwich and a frozen yogurt treat. Let’s just say no visit to Phoenix is complete without a stop at Chompies and Yogurtini! During this trip an observation was made about my packing style. Apparently I pack heavily. This is both for my traveling and my ultra’s. In fact this topic has come up repeatedly and leads to endless mocking. But I can handle it as I have all my stuff to console me! When setting up my fanny pack it was noted that I had a lot (maybe 5 or 6) lip balms and 2 emergency ponchos. Apparently this caused a bit of controversy including texts to pretty much every ultra runner in America! Pacer Dan, Jamie and Tony tried to have an intervention. It was suggested I did not need a poncho in a desert and 15 lip balms might be excessive. I grudgingly jettisoned a few items. But then I had to text mid-race when I realized I had inadvertently not confessed about a lip balm in my handheld which was used during the race. Apparently texting during the race causes even more controversy! But I believe I win. Oh yeah and I did set a PR for the 100 km distance of 13:45 even with my 5 lb sparkeley fanny pack.

At JJ100 I was so thrilled to see so many friends and make so many new friends. And of course it was great fun volunteering overnight with everyone including the Race Director’s mom: Patty, who is so sweet and kept trying to get me to sit down and relax. At least I was not running the 100 miler, relatively speaking volunteering is easy. In the morning as I swept the course, I headed backwards along the final loop and was fortunate enough to run with my friends: Susan, Rob and Janette who was running her 2nd 100 miler and 3rd ultramarathon ever. The only bummer of this trip was seeing a pair of rattlesnakes right near the women’s shower/bathroom. I nearly refused to come out, but alas I was part of a carpool and had a business trip to go on.

Immediately following JJ100, I flew to Italy. It took 3 legs to get there and nearly 24 hours of flying. I seriously think my employer (the gov’t) is trying to kill me! Even worse on my way back (on Thursday) I ended up missing a connection at Rome. Ultimately I did get home but at one point a British Airlines Agent (the airline of the connection I missed) suggested he could get me a flight from Heathrow to Baltimore on Saturday!!! Seriously! Am I the only one seeing several issues with this “solution”? And I was quite jet-lagged!

Finally getting home on Friday evening I had to make a quick recovery for my 7th Marine Corps Marathon. I was super lucky my neighbor, friend and fellow competitor from the 24 hour race around the lake: Karen had picked up my race packet. So I could rest on Saturday. Sunday I woke up, headed to the race, saw lots of friends who I would say “I just want to finish so I can lie down at the finish line”. My plan was just that and to hope the Marines would pick me up and carry me. Alas even after setting a new PR for the marathon, 4:02, I was able to wander along the course cheering on runners. Ultimately Karen who had run the 10 km joined me in cheering runners and then we walked to meet up with Tristan who had parked the car at Roosevelt Island.

After nearly a week of being sick, Tristan and I flew to Manchester NH for the marathon. We did hike a bit in the White Mountains including going to the top of Mt Pemigawassett. Apparently that trail is pretty tough when you are sick/injured as we both struggled to the top. Luckily I was able to bounce back quickly and had a fairly successful Manchester City Marathon.

I was supposed to run the Richmond Marathon with my friend/FDA/Industry Statistics Workshop Co-chair Carmen. Unfortunately family obligations led to her deciding to postpone her inaugural marathon. My friend and former pacer, Pacer Dan had a similar experience with his first time runner. So we both entered the race runnerless. We decided to run the marathon together. After establishing, no I do not run 7 minute miles we decided a 4:15-4:30 marathon was a reasonable goal considering my upcoming JFK50 miler.

We had a great time running this race together. Although at points “running” might have been stretching the definition of running a little. Alas with lots of fun along the way meeting dogs, proving beyond a reasonable doubt my husband needs to be fired as my crew and that I can eat a cupcake (or pretty much anything else for that matter) during a race with no issues we both had a great marathon experience. Also, since I was unaware that Pacer Dan would be running with me I had not jettisoned anything from my fanny pack and still was able to run pretty quickly. And Pacer Dan in solidarity with me carried a lip balm. He will be pacing me at Umstead 100 and hopefully I can convince Pacer Iva to as well which combined with firing Tristan from my crew should enable me to run a sub-24 hour Umstead 100 miler with a bit of good luck and good training.

All of these races were training for JFK50 miler, but more importantly they are training races for my big 2010 event: Across the Years 48 hour Race in Phoenix Arizona!

Excuses, Excuses...my delinquency in not blogging justified

2010-11-23T16:34:00.000-08:00

I am very sorry I have been remiss in not posting for so long. It has been a tough summer.

Life has proven it is like an ultramarathon. Sometimes everything is going great and other times you are puking along the course perhaps even in the fetal position. This has been my life since Tristan’s accident in late June. I have moved forward but it has at times been a struggle. The proverbial second shoe dropped with Gilligan our beloved dog passing away from bloat in mid-August. Gilligan was in perfect health then deteriorated quickly over the course of the evening. In the end his family including Tristan and I and his doggie friend Simba and Simba’s mom Karen were with him. Like I said, it was a rough summer.

I shall try to be better but I can offer no promises. One of the issues of having a sudden and unexpected emergency is that suddenly less important tasks get put to the back burner. Currently my backburner feels like it is larger than many named forest fires! And of course suddenly new tasks crop up. I did not fall into a wormhole that extends the hours per day so I barely muddled through my life and did the best I could to keep a semblance of “normal”.

It took Tristan 10 weeks until his cast was removed and he did not start walking until labor day. And the word “walk” is used very loosely here. Tristan has improved dramatically but the hours, days, and weeks lost this summer are gone. Time is a precious commodity. But so is health(*).

(*)As many know, I was hit by a car (while I was a pedestrian) many years ago (1995). This led to several surgeries each one more invasive and complex than the last. A complete knee replacement was on the list of potential steps in my road to recovery but I was very lucky that my final surgery involving breaking my leg, leveling my leg and attaching wayward ligaments with several screws did the trick. After nearly a year of physical therapy I was definitely not as good as new. But at least I no longer had the oddest gait ever. After about 8 years I finally was able run again. And starting with my second Marine Corps Marathon I have never stopped or looked back. I don’t ever take running for granted. It is something I love to do and know I am lucky am able to do. I hope that my husband has a similar experience in that at least he is able to one day return to the sport he loves. Maybe it will be with some pain (yes, I still have pain) but hopefully it is manageable.

Hanging in..just barely

2010-07-04T17:34:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I was on target to have my best VT100 miler yet (although considering my previous times were 29:06 then nearly 30 hours last year, there was little worse I could do without a DNF). Because of my training including a GREAT race at the ICY-8 (coming in 2nd place female with my friend Ethel's help), several marathons under 4:20 and a great pacing experience at VT City marathon. This was capped off by my final long distance run at the Niagara Ultra starting super early with my friend Diane.

Well last Friday I got the call no one wants. My husband called me to tell me he had fallen from a mountain and was injured. A good samaritan hiker (who happened to be a former guide) found him and called 911. After a nearly 24 hour ordeal, he finally was airlifted to St Charles Hospital in Bend OR.

The play by play of his ordeal can be found here:

http://www.nrtoday.com/article/20100627/NEWS/100629833/1051&parentprofile=1055

(notice he was supposed to be at Portland...if any of you are in the same unfortunate position as I, wait until the rescue has been accomplished and the person is settled in a hospital, had I left immediately on Sat, I would have been waiting about 4-5 hours away from Tristan ended up)

http://www.nrtoday.com/article/20100629/NEWS/100629777/1063/NEWS&ParentProfile=1055

Here you can see a bit more details about his rescue and ordeal.

I flew to Oregon Sunday night and spent a few days in the hospital with him. He was surprised I was able to stay in his room but with a thermarest mattress in my backpack I was ready for anything. Finally on Wednesday he was released and Thursday we flew home. Since then I have been busy making our townhouse as handicapped accessible as possible, renting a wheelchair and in general ensuring Tristan is able to be safe and comfortable.

This has not helped my VT100 training. While Tristan was on his guided climb the week of June 21 I had an 90 mile week. This week was less than 10 miles. I am not sure this is how to train for a 100 but I guess I will just have to dig that much deeper. Last year at VT100 when I was ~5 minutes from DNFing at an Aid Station I promised that I would avenge my dismal performance in 09 (when it was just over a month from my mom passing). This does not seem likely but hopefully I can eek out a finish with my friend Iva who had signed on as my pacer but now will be my crew, chauffer and pacer.

Updates since Umstead

2010-05-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

In the past month+ since Umstead I have been busy training for VT100 miler.

I have run a marathon in which I was the second place female in my age gender category (the Maryland Mountain Marathon on April 17th).

I have come in 2nd place female overall at the ICY-8 hour race (which was not ICY--unless it was the ICY-HOT race) this past weekend. I ran 35 miles and had 33 seconds to spare in completing my 7th lap. Had I not completed this lap, I would have been given credit for 30 miles and would have come in 6/7/8th (Because I had been running with my 2 friends Mary and Tammy).

Then on Sunday this past weekend I ran a local marathon the Potomac River Run Marathon and finished in 4:44. This is a PR for my marathon the day after an endurance event by over an hour and has built my confidence for my first pacing experience that is coming up at the Vermont City Marathon (I am co-pacing the 4:45 pace group with my friend Glenda from the Tails for Trails/Bull Run Run/Seneca Greenway and other events--we did not sign up together but happened to volunteer for the same group which is really cool).

I am having a great spring and know I am going to have so much fun at VT100!

I will create some posts for these races but wanted to give a quick update.

This coming Friday my work (the FDA) hosts a 5 km fun run. I have not figured out if I have a time goal but last year I did finish 3rd female in my age category (notice how I conveniently do not advertise my age but sadly you can google it:-( This year I am not sure how my legs will be after my 60+ mile weekend.

2010 Umstead miler: Lap 4

2010-04-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of my Umstead 100 miler each year is running into horses along the course. I like horses.

Unlike VT100, the horses at Umstead are enjoying a nice Saturday or Sunday stroll so are willing to take a moment for a picture or to be pet.

This horse was very sweet (and as you can see from just above me) was hanging out with another horse.

I pet (and took pictures of both) but this was the best picture.

My friend Jason from the Reston Runners was running his first 100 miler.

At this point along the course he had run longer than he had ever done before. In fact he is REALLY speedy so had finished the JFK50 miler in about 9 hours.

This picture was taken about 10 hours into the race. Unfortunately by this time, he had not run 50 miles, but on a positive note this was because he was pacing himself for a 100 miler finish.

Sadly Jason had to pull himself from the course overnight when he started having health issues. But luckily they were just temporary and he was fully recovered by Monday (although I am not sure how long he was sore for).

Jason and I met via another friend (Jim Ashworth one the the two Reston Runner organizers for the JFK50 miler--Jim ran the VT100 last year and this year is signed up and knew I had run Umstead so could provide specific tips and advice)

Gilligan would sporadically show up on the course.

It was nice to see Gilligan and Tristan on occasion throughout the day. In the middle of the day, Tristan went rock climbing and I believe Gilligan entertained himself at the hotel. And by entertained I mean "slept".

In fact during this meet and greet I was a little worried that Gilligan would decide to protest and refuse to return to the car (they were at the T intersection near Gravlyn).

But alas Gilligan I guess knew if he returned to the car he could return to the hotel for some more sleep...

With my friend Frank, who I saw several times on the out and back along the course.

Frank is really nice, a super fast runner and was trying to complete his first Umstead 100 miler. He has run numerous other 100 milers but alas each year at Umstead some health crisis occurs before or during the race.

This year he finished with an amazing time of about 22 hours...way to go Frank!

I know Frank from several different ultra's including the 24 hour race around the lake, Umstead 100, VT100 and several marathons in the MD/VA/DC area.

As I approached 50 miles, I was surprised and delighted to see my friend Annette (who was waiting to pace the women's leader Jill Perry).

Annette in addition to being an accomplished athlete (she has placed first female at Western States), she is a race director of one of my favorite 50 km races...the New River Trails 50 km in southwestern Virginia in Oct.

The race is very flat, has aid stations every 5 miles (with the best home made cookies), yummy finisher soup and very nice hand crafted mugs as a race premium. I really enjoy this race and was the first person to sign up this year...I am still unsure what my award for this is but suggested she provide me a pacer to get me a sub 5 hour 50 km!

LAP 4

Starting my 4th lap I am feeling really good. I remembered my visor so should stop getting comments about how pink my face is (although after applying sunscreen at the second aid station in lap 3 I do not realize I have mitigated this issue by slathering on so much and not rubbing it in that I look like a pink tinted ghost). What I do not realize is that this lap is going to become my worst nightmare. Well not completely worst nightmare because that involves serial killers. But I get ahead of myself.

As I run along the jeep road I feel really strong. I have completed 37.5 miles and have no issues or problems. I have no blisters or hot spots, my stomach is doing well, my legs while a bit tender and tired are no more than what I would expect after they carried me 37.5 miles.

I see my friend Ann as run up the Jeep road. She is looking good. I also see my friend Monica who is finishing her 25th mile and looks happy. I am in between runners but happily chat and cheer on runners heading into the aid station.

Once I arrive on the airport spur I can see a few runners well ahead of me. One shirt in particular pops out, a bright neon yellow/green shirt which I know belongs to my friend Jason from the Reston Runners. I have been significantly behind him throughout the race but am now creeping up on him. I am not sure if he is struggling, I am speeding up or how our paths might be about to cross. Jason ran JFK50 miler in ~9 hours so is considerably faster than I. But it is his first 100 miler so I figure he might be running conservatively.

I jog along and wonder if I will catch up and how long this might take. Unfortunately my aid station breaks are always long, I tend to loiter at the unmanned aid station and I anticipate that I might start needing to find LaTree’s to stop at. It is getting later in the day and I am making sure I am well hydrated but this means sometimes I am hard pressed to make the 4 miles between porta potties.

I also notice ahead of me is my friend Vinnie. Vinnie and I ran a significant amount of several laps during the rainy year (2008) and only separated when he took a nap at the aid station before his last lap. Last year Vinnie was on fire and ran a sub-24 hour Umstead 100 miler but this year chatting at the pre-race dinner, I learned Vinnie was coming off a pretty bad infection he acquired in Thailand in the winter. Vinnie looks good and I am looking forward to catching up with him as well.

Approaching the airport spur turnaround, I see both Vinnie and Jason are just a few hundred meters ahead of me. I figure by the time I pass by the airport I should be caught up.

I am right. As I approach Jason, I am happy to have caught up with someone. For a while I have continued my trend of being between runners. I figure I had to work a bit to catch up but I figure he is probably going a good solid pace that I can maintain for a bit. I know Jason because my friend Jim A the former president and men’s JFK50 miler contact person from the Reston Runners asked Bill T (Luanne’s husband) and I if we would mind giving Jason some advice about 100 milers as well as about Umstead in particular. Both Bill and I communicated with Jason. I tried to give him general as well as specific advice about the 100 miler and tried very hard to answer all of his e-questions quickly and with as much information as possible.

I asked him how he was doing and he seemed to be in good spirits, having no major issues and was doing very well. Granted we were less than 50% into the race (in fact many folks will divide a 100 miler into two “equal” parts of the first 70 miles and last 30 miles, which I might concur with). He reports that he is eating and drinking regularly which is good. He has a handheld which he drinks from sporadically in front of me. I feel good that he is heeding the advice about “drinking before you’re thirsty”. We also walk the hills so I feel sure he is paying attention to the advice “walk before you’re tired” and at the aid station I see him eat, giving me confidence he is following the third important rule: “eat before you’re hungry”.

As we run we discuss his triathlons. He has competed and done well at Lake Placid Ironman. He has competed in it several years including the “rainy year” of 2008. I recall this year vividly because at the same time I was competing in the VT100 dealing with the same rains (and we even had death defying thunderstorms). Typically the Lake Placid Ironman and VT100 occur on the same day, which prevents me from ever thinking about volunteering or competing. But then again I am not sure if I could even do an ironman because of my aversion to swimming and biking…and dirt. Also my 20 minute T1 PR is not very good and would actually mean I had to exert myself in the bike to ensure I beat the time limit.
As we chat, I learn more about Jason. He has a 2 year old who is at home in VA and his wife is supporting and crewing for him at Umstead 100. I am impressed by his ability to raise a child and train for/compete in endurance events.

Approaching the T-intersection aid station, we both step in and grab a beverage. I am getting tired of the yellow/pee colored Gatorade but it is all that is being offered. I drink 3 cups and leave my cup for the next time I pass the aid station. There are pretzels, cookies, trail mix and other treats so I also grab a few pretzels primarily for the salt. I am doing my best to keep my stomach happy and well fed.

As we chat our ages come up and he mentions he did not realize my age. Apparently he thought I was a bit younger. This is very nice to hear. Because athletic competitions post our finish time, place, hometown and age many people know my age. In fact googling my name automatically gets a bunch of hits with my age. I am just glad races don’t post my weight (and in one races case, they do know my weight and could easily post it: Vermont 100 miler).

I point out that I am glad that Umstead 100 is not VT100 because I am running the 100 miler a bit heavier than usual (5 lbs). My defense is lack of consistent training because of all the snowstorms. In fact the truth is I enjoy my desserts and have not been as careful with my diet as I should be. Even worse about 2-3 weeks before Umstead, Tristan flew to New Hampshire for an ice climbing expedition and picked up a dozen gingerbread construction muffins which I ate over the course of several days. This actually followed a week in which a friendly neighbor brought some “Crumbs” cupcakes back from a business trip in NY.

As we continue jogging, we are approaching mile 42. This is not historic; however, we are 10+ hours into our race. Jason points out this is the longest (in time) he has ever run. I capture this moment with a quick picture. I ask him how he is feeling and he remains feeling good and in good spirits. I mention that for me, even at my first Umstead 100 miler, it was not until I was over 12 ½ hours into it that I was in “new” territory in time (and in fact by that time I was in a distance I had not completed either). It is going to be a bunch of “firsts” for Jason and I am happy to celebrate this small victory with him.

Jason and I continue to talk about various subjects and the miles just fly by. Pretty soon we are heading into the second aid station. Jason is a lot more efficient at aid stations then I. He goes in, grabs stuff he needs then moves along. I on the other hand loiter, chat, graze, and waste lots of time. My pacer from VT100 suggests I should waste less time at aid stations I could go a lot faster. Others point out if I took less pictures I could cut off a significant amount of time, but I figure I am having fun and maybe my loitering helps with my relatively high success finish rate. Alas I lose Jason.

After a few more cups of Gatorade, some ginger ale, cola, cheese, pretzels, salty potatoes and a handful of M&M’s and a half banana for the road I am off like a herd of turtles!

Oh yes, I need a potty break so I ask the timing table volunteers if I can put my pile of food on there table temporarily. They are very nice and say it is okay. After a brief potty break I come back, scoop up my stuff and move along. I feel like a chipmunk or squirrel because I shove a vast amount of this food in my mouth and puff up my cheeks. I figure it is easier to hold in my mouth than my hand. And supposedly what goes on at Umstead stays in Umstead, right?

Heading out of the aid station into the sawtooths I am alone again. I am bored so I start making phone calls and texting. I am pretty sure I am well between runners. I know Jason and others left the aid station well ahead of me and there were no runners visible as I left the aid station. I talk with my dad who had a nice hike in NY while I was busily running 45+ miles. He mentions that he hiked 5 miles or so and was tired. In fact he suggests I would not understand how tiring 5 miles is. Hmm…

I then get a text from my friend Jamie. She suggests I am the 3rd place female. This is when my lap and race take a turn for the worse. I do not handle pressure well. I also know I am not third place female. My friends: Jill, Shannon, Emmy and a bunch of other females I know are well ahead of me. I have no idea of my placement; however third place is wrong. Oh yes, Jamie suggests I finished 50 miles in 8 hours! This is crazy-talk. I text her that I am completing mile 45 and it is about 10+ hours into the race. The race timing system must be having a glitch.

In fact as I was heading by the T-intersection someone had made an odd statement to me about “way to go Tammy—great run”. I assumed they were being nice but it was an elite and they specifically seemed to be suggesting I was having the best race of my life. This is too much pressure.

Luckily before I can stew too much over this I am surprised to see my friend Ed walking along. Last I saw him we were not to far apart and I assume he is on the same lap as I and has passed me while I was ineffectively moving through aid stations (seriously I take a lot of time in aid stations). He is not moving very quickly so I start thinking he might be struggling.

I catch up and we chat briefly. I am lapping him. This is very sad. I know Ed has struggled in ultra’s before but I was hoping this one would be the one he could finish. After the race, I learn he has been having some asthma issues. And with all the pollen it has really acted up. We chat briefly then I move forward. I sense he could use some encouragement so decide, what better time to call my friend Jamie (who happens to be his coach). I call her and she picks up on the first ring. We chat briefly and she is able to give him some encouraging words. After a quick goodbye, I resume jogging and continue chatting with Jamie.

I need to figure out if I am hallucinating and am having the best race of my life. Jamie is pretty certain my name has popped up for the 3rd place female and is confident I finished 50 miles in 8 hours. I assure her that I have not been holding back that much and explain even at my PR at Rocky Raccoon 50 miler my time was a respectable (but not super duper) time of 9 hours 50 minutes. I suggest there must be a glitch. Jamie is shopping but can chat while doing so thus we chat for a while. We catch up about life, I ask her about her dog Morrison (who was taken for a long walk earlier in the day) and I tell her about Gilligan who keeps popping up on the course. In fact unbeknownst to me I am about to have another Gilligan encounter in just a few minutes. At some point Jamie decides I need to start focusing on running. So we hang up.

Just a few minutes later I get a call. It is Tristan. He asks me where I am. I am running the sawtooths, I know I am behind Vinnie and Jason. I am a bit puzzled by the question, but make sure he knows I am not the 3rd place female because that would be crazy!!! He ensures I have not made it to the T-intersection at Gravlyn. I say I am not there but have about half a mile to get there and 2 major hills. He says he is getting close to the intersection and has a surprise for me. For a few moments I think it might be my father in law who had expressed some interest in heading to Raleigh since he had gone to Duke many years ago for his B.S.

Oddly enough, after I hang up from Tristan, my father-in-law calls. I then become convinced he is the surprise at the T-intersection and they are just trying to cover for it. My father in law is calling to say they have picked up a celebration cake from Ukrops (a store that baked 2 of Tristan and my wedding cakes—we had a 3 tier cake as well as 2 smaller Ukrops cakes at our wedding so we could share lots of leftovers with our graduate statistics department back in 2000) for me. But I figure he simply asked a neighbor to do so. We chatted about the weather (which was beautiful), Tristan’s and my drive to Raleigh and how I was doing in the race. After a bit we hung up and I continued running along.

As I got to the T-intersection I was somewhat expecting to see Tristan and some mysterious companion or thing. I had conjectured it could be his dad, some yummy cake, the dog, my supervisors daughter (who he had rock climbed with…maybe she was ready to pace me a lap:-). There was an extensive list. Alas my surprise was Gilligan. He was a good surprise. I gave him a big hug and a kiss. It was good to see him. I took a self portrait with him. Then we found a regular jogger who was willing to take a family portrait. Gilligan even jogged with me a bit; however, I cautioned Tristan that Gilligan might not be as thrilled about heading back to the car which was about half a mile away. So they headed off to get some dinner and do whatever they do when I run 100 milers.

In fact I have no idea what they do. I assume they wander around aimlessly a bit, perhaps watch some TV (at least during Umstead March Madness is going on so I assume they watch the games) and perhaps drive around exploring the city or park. But like I said, I have no idea. And Tristan does not really talk about the specifics. As long as we do not get tickets or he does not disappear for days after the event I guess it will just remain a curiosity to me.

As I jogged along the Gravlyn, I continue to feel really good. I am having a perfect race, I am super happy (well except for the alleged 3rd place female) and am just thrilled to be doing I love so much. I catch up with the young lady who took my picture and we chat briefly. She asks a bit about the race and I tell her about Umstead 100. She is really impressed and wishes me luck. Once we get to the bottom of the hill passing mile marker 10, she turns around and heads back to her car which apparently is near Tristan’s.

By this time I am closing in on Jason and Vinnie. I power-walk up the massive hill before the T-intersection aid station and catch up to Jason and Vinnie. But have no fear, I lose them at the little aid station. This is the story of my race. I get into a rhythm and start to chat with other runners and then suddenly we arrive at an aid station. I “aid station” like it’s a full time job while others go in and out quickly. In fact a bunch of people before, during and after the race comment that if I either sped up my aid station visits and/or took less pictures I could cut off a significant amount of time in races. But alas I do not want to set the bar too high. Also I don’t handle pressure well which brings me to the continued speculation I am the 3rd place female.

Getting on the out and back I end up having a few friends comment about my status as 3rd place female. I try to explain in the span of about 15-20 seconds as runners pass by that I am not third. There is a computer glitch. Every time someone congratulates me for being third I feel like crying. I know I am PRing and that I am proud of but being third is too much pressure and clearly is not a accomplishment that I can claim nor do I want to. I like being mediocre at best and while I do not relish being last place in events it is a place I am comfortable with.

This gets me to thinking about the B&A trail marathon I ran a few weeks before Umstead 100 miler. This race was an unmitigated disaster in my opinion (well except for the fact I got 35 miles in over the course of the day). I started early, as I have at the race since my second time (the first time I did not know about the early start). With the early start I have up to 7 hours to finish but realistically I tend to finish in 5:30 or 5:45, so I am right in the heart of runners finishing between 4:30 and 5 hours.

Starting early with about 30 other runners I jog with my friend Amanda and several others. Amanda was recovering from a cold so planned to take it easy but her first few miles were pretty quick. After a bit Amanda needed more walk breaks than I, so I scurried on ahead since I wanted to build some mileage after I finished. As I was jogging along, the runner ahead of me angered me. He took a cup from an aid station then jogged with it for a while then tossed it aside. This made me so mad (this did motivate me—littering is one of my hot button issues). At that point I picked up the pace and decided to set about doing my own interpretation of karma. I decided I would beat this gentleman no matter what. I figured we all were early starters so I was not going to have to break a world record. I passed the runner. For a bit he was near me, particularly when I would loiter at the aid station (because I want to make sure I toss my trash in a garbage can, not along the course, thus I must drink while at the aid station). About 10 miles into the race I successfully got ahead so I was not getting caught at the aid stations.

Moving along I expected to be passed by the leaders including my friends Serge and Karsten. Typically the leaders pass me about mile 8 or 9 at the latest. I made it past the turn off for the half marathons and was still in the lead. Spectators could see I was an early starter (as we had an extra bib indicating this) and I mentioned it since I was not liking the pressure of being first. In my mind I was cheering on the faster athletes to go faster so they would pass me. I was not passed until about mile 17. I was very conflicted until I was passed because I wanted the extra mileage and to beat “litterbug-dude” but I really did not want to be first.

As I got to the second turnaround at the B&A trail marathon about mile 19.5, I was able to see where other runners were behind me. I had a good lead on my mortal enemy, litter guy (and my husband alledged that I only have friends, because apparently I refer to nearly everyone as my friend) and the first place women is about 1 mile behind me. I feel optimistic that she will be passing me about mile 24 or 25. As I continue jogging and chatting with runners who are passing me I am now cheering in my mind for the first place female. I want her to pass me so people stop informing me I am first place female (then I have to correct them, aargh). As I pass mile marker 24 I start hoping first place female is coming up from behind. Then at mile 25 I start getting worried. I am plugging along running 10+ minute miles because I want some time to run back along the course to pace in friends and the faster I finish, the more friends I can pace in).

Getting close to the turn off to get to the finish I know I have less than 0.2 miles to go and glancing behind me, the first place female is nowhere to be seen. In fact I finish (seriously nearly in tears indicating no, no, no I am not first female) and about 3-4 minutes later, the first place female arrives. On a positive note, with all this extra time I am able to run out 2 miles, cheering on runners until I catch up to my friend Amanda who I pace to the finish. I then head out on the course again to retrieve my good friend Jean and walk/jog with her in her final 2 miles. In addition to pacing my friends in I also get 2 slices of pizza and a yummy cookie with peanut butter (perhaps not the healthiest sandwich ever but oh so yummy!). This makes up for the stress I felt from about mile 13 on. The point of this digression is that I really really hate pressure that I would never be able to do in my wildest dreams. Whether in athletics, academics or any other area of my life if I am not able to do it I know my limitations. I might be able to break 24 hours for Umstead 100, but coming in first, second or third place in 16 or 17 hours is not even in the realm of possibilities.

Back to Umstead lap 4. I need to get this 3rd place female monkey off my back because it is weighing me down. If I had a stuffed monkey, I would have pulled it out and prominently displayed it. In fact the desire to alert the timing table to this glitch motivates me to put some pep in my step.

But before I get to the start/finish, I see my friend Frank and Emmy. Both are looking really great and I am pleased to get a hug and a picture with each of them.

I am thrilled to be finishing 50 miles. It is approaching 5 p.m. (11 hours on the course) and I am all set for a new Umstead 50 mile PR. Passing by the Umstead 100 miler sign I take a moment to take a picture. I need to document my progress and hope I look happy. Since I do not look at my pictures until a day or two after an event, it is always a bit of a surprise if I am in the picture, if I look happy and if the picture is in focus (although a picture being in focus is not readily apparent until I see it on a larger screen than my camera).

As I start the downhill through the parking lot I am delighted to see a friendly face. It is my friend Annette, the RD from one of my favorite ultra’s, the New River Trails 50 km. I also know Annette from the VT100 miler in 2009 when she not so surprisingly beat me significantly. Annette is so fun and really energetic. I get a big hug and a picture then continue on my way. I figure I will be able to see her a little more as I return to the course in a few moments.

Running up the hill, I am cheered on by many spectators. Because there are lots of runners on the course (even many of the 50 milers are still running) it is a noisy run up the hill. This makes me happy as it gives me lots of energy. Arriving at the top of the hill my first priority is to alert the timekeepers that somehow they have me a lap ahead of where I am supposed to be (with a 50 miler completion time of 8 hours!). They are now aware and assure me they will resolve this issue which makes me happy. No more pressure, wahoo!

My friend Chito is standing outside of the lodge waiting for me to arrive. He is going to be my pacer during my 5th lap. I don’t need to do anything major so I suggest that within a few minutes we will be off. He elects to make a final potty break while I eat and drink. As he heads over to the real restrooms, I indicate that after I finish my “dinner” I will head out on the course.

It is in fact dinner time, so I decide to supplement my usual food with a cup (and ultimately a second cup) of potato soup. I also ask the nice volunteers to make me a chicken breast sandwich including ketchup. Apparently I may be one of the few who likes my grilled chicken sandwich with catsup, but that’s okay. My stomach is feeling fine so I eat and drink quite a bit while at the aid station. Finally I decide I have had enough and get ready for my 5th lap.

2010 Umstead 100 miler: Lap 3

2010-04-13T16:18:00.000-07:00

With my friend from LI, James R. along the course who was running his first 100 miler.

He was super sweet and had an amazing support crew! His whole family came out to cheer on everyone including himself and a bunch of others (I think a dad and a brother in law also were competing).

Their crew were so much fun and so encouraging, they would cheer wildly for every runner and were so sweet and helpful to everyone.

I ran a few miles with James, and Jeff who ran together and essentially finished together.
With my friend Ben Dillon.

Ben was taking pictures of runners by the airport spur mid-day. These pictures were developed quickly and were put in the runners finishers packet.

Thus a few days after the race, I got my finishers certificate as well as a picture of me running in this area.

I think this really thoughtful gesture by the race organizers makes this race really special. It is not often that races provide pictures for free. And these pictures are really professional!
My friend Jill is so cute. She places first at so many events but also has a moment to ham it up for the camera.

I have run a few races with Jill.

We both ran Umstead last year as well as VT100. Jill is so cute and is so enthusiastic throughout the race.

I have to say ultra-running is so much fun because you do get to meet and interact with the elite runners and they are all so nice and encouraging. I think that ultra running is a event in which everyone supports everyone else which makes it such a great sport!
I have run a bunch of ultramarathons with my friend Ann.

Most recently we both ran Rocky Raccoon although Ann competed in the 100 miler, while I completed the 50 miler.

At Umstead, we swapped our roles as Ann ran the 50 miler while I ran the 100 miler.

Sadly between Rocky and Umstead, Ann ended up with a bad case of the flu a cold that slowed her training and led to her choosing wisely to run the 50 miler.

Here I am at the second aid station timing table.

This is right before I applied some sunscreen and then looked like a ghost for the remainder of the day.

The timing station volunteers are so nice and enthusiastic. I know their task is really tough because they have to make sure they capture the number of every runner. I have done this task at Bull Run Run and it can get to be challenging when runners come in clusters and you have to have eagle eyes to be able to see the bib numbers of runners.

Thank you volunteers for keeping track of me and my time!!!

LAP 3

As I head out for my 3rd lap I am feeling really good. It is a great day, I am feeling strong and the weather is perfect. I am excited because I believe I am now on a PR pace and am following my goal pace splits. Sadly somehow I put in my wrong split sheet in my fanny pack and have my goal splits for Vermont 100 miler. The horses should be passing me and it should be mid-morning. But alas I am not at VT100!

Running along I am really happy. I am still able to perform simple mathematics and calculate that I should be on target to complete 50 miles at about 5 p.m. This bodes well for my goal of a sub 27 hour finish.

As I jog along the jeep road I am excited to see my friend Jimbo. Last year I watched as Jim finished his first 50 miler. This year I am able to see Jim complete his second 100 miler. He looks really strong and after a quick hug we head in our respective directions.

On the airport spur I am excited to see my friend Ben Dillon. Last year he was a runner and all the other years I have run Umstead 100 he has popped up along the course as a photographer and a super encouraging volunteer. He is really nice and it is such a treat to see him along the course. One of the reasons I love this race so much is the personalized attention to all the runners. I must say this is true of most ultra’s, but Umstead 100 really takes it to the next level. I take a picture of us then continue on knowing I will see him a few moments after I get to the turn around.

I am settled into a comfortable rhythm in this section. I continue to be between runners but I am content to ponder my thoughts and enjoy the day. I consider putting in my headset but decide I would much rather be able to interact with other runners. The jeep road, airport spur and out and back section all have lots of runners now. It is really neat to see so many runners who are looking so strong and are working on achieving their goals. I chat with a few briefly, wish others good luck and try to give lots of encouragement to everyone.

Approaching the T-intersection aid station, I am thrilled to be lapped by my friend Jill. She is looking really strong and is having a great day! Because she calls out for me from behind (I knew she was going to pass me soon because I saw her on the out and back), I am prepared with my camera. I take a picture of us then she speeds along leaving me in her dust.

Jogging along I am back to running alone. I am content to do this and don’t mind thinking about how happy I am to be running Umstead and reminiscing about how I got here. I think about my previous 100 milers including both Umstead and Vermont 100. I have had such great experiences at both. I think about the final miles of last year’s VT100 when I ultimately had 3 pacers by the finish. At that time I felt like a rockstar with an entourage. All Dan, Shane and Tristan needed to do was put on sun glasses and a trench coat. My many miles with Shane were so much fun, and he was so sweet. Then when we acquired Dan as my pacer was cool. Initially Shane was going to bail, but thankfully Dan convinced him to continue on with “Team Tammy”. Both were so much fun and so encouraging. And apparently in ultra’s I think about other ultra’s which might be a paradox:-)

I also think about other runners and volunteers who have been so sweet to me. Rhonda, the co-RD was so helpful in my first Umstead 100. We ran quite a bit of the first lap together, she telling me to pace myself and giving me the belief and confidence I could finish the race. Blake of course is an amazing RD who always is so helpful and encouraging to all the runners. He gives so much of himself to the race and all the runners and really provides all the support to ensure runners success.

Of course the volunteers take such great care of the runners at every aid station. They refill waterbottles, check on runners spirits and health and attend to every need. It is so much fun in the aid stations that frequently I find myself loitering regardless of my time goal. Myra Norwood the RD’s wife is always so thoughtful and kind and has a positive word for all the runners. And of course Sally’s Asylum captain: Sally is always so helpful. She has run ultra’s and knows just what every competitor might need before the runner!

As I jog along I am approaching a handful of runners in front of me. They are about 300 meters ahead but I feel like I can catch up. It is several of my friends who are looking strong and moving along. I decide to put some pep in my step and slowly get closer. Occasionally they are out of my sight as we round various bends but I am steadily progressing and the gap is shortening. As I do this I hope I am not creating issues for later in the day when I may be struggling to put one foot in front of the other, but have decided to throw caution to the wind.

I finally catch up to my friends. I am about to have my most embarrassing moment during the race. I ask my friend, we’ll call her Anita because that’s what I called her (and had been doing throughout the day!). Her name is Ann. Oops! I apologize profusely for this mistake and make a mental note not to call her Anita again.

Sadly incorrectly naming friends is a chronic condition I face. I have my name on most of my clothing (in case I need to be rescusitating and because I can never remember my race number which spectators occasionally use when cheering).

Alas, on occasion I remember friends names slightly incorrectly. Usually I get the first letter right but then I get the rest of the name: Dave’s are Dan’s, Anita’s are Ann’s, Jennifers are Jessica’s (and vice versa) etc. I try to convince Ann that her parents were going to name her Anita, but alas this is just a wild guess on my part.

Approaching the second aid station, we chat and catch up. The last time I saw Ann was at Rocky Raccoon when she looked really strong. She has been training really solidly but recently had a cold or flu so was planning only to run the 50 miler. She finished in a very respectable sub-11 hour finish.

In the second aid station, I lose Ann. I am busily eating, drinking and ensuring I am well prepared for my entire 100 mile journey. Up to this point I am feeling really great and very strong. I am happy, my legs are still very fresh, I have no stomach issues and am really excited to be well ahead of my target pace to finish under 27 hours. Continuing my diet of eating banana’s, pretzel’s, M&M’s, salty potatoes as well as cheese, and Chex mix, as well as several cups of Gatorade, Ginger ale and coke. A handful of pretzels and I head out on to the course.

As I announce my number to the check point, a nice volunteers suggests I look a bit pink. She offers me some sunscreen. Since my face does feel a bit burned I happily accept this kind offer. I slather it on my face. What no one tells me is that I do not rub it in effectively. For the remainder of the day, I have a white face covering my pink face. I look like a ghost!

The sawtooths are a bit challenging because for the most part you are either running up or down a hill. Some of these hills are pretty steep and I make use of the adage “walk the hills”. I try to walk the hills pretty quickly and with purpose, but a few times I find myself loitering a bit. This is particularly noticeable when faster runners lap me. Inspired by these runners, I try to put some pep in my step up the hills. I also continue jogging for a bit of the incline of several of the less steep hills. I am moving along and feeling so great!

I am sorely missing my “cheat sheet” for my estimated/goal pace but I know I am ahead of my predicted time. I start becoming a bit anxious about this for multiple reasons. I should not be running as fast as I am and secondly, I may be having issues when I acquire pacers and crew. After the finish of my 4^th lap (mile 50), I am supposed to get my friend Chito as a pacer. I told him to be there by 5, but may be arriving right at 5 or just a little before. And at mile 57, I am supposed to meet up with Tristan to trade off my Garmin, my camera (which needs a change of batteries) and to give my cell phone so it can be charged overnight. I try not to get to worried and figure I will adapt if I end up being too fast.

Umstead State Park is a beautiful park in Raleigh, NC. The current 12.5 mile course follows a jeep road as well as several different bridle paths. On these roads and trails over the course of the day, you get to see joggers, hikers, families, folks walking dogs and occasionally horses. In this section I am excited to see my first horse. It is a pair of very nice horses. After getting permission from the riders, I pet the horses and take a few pictures. I really like running races in which you get to see animals and I love interacting with friendly creatures. One of the horses licks me, which I find a bit horrifying. But I try not to react and start shrieking about horse slobber. I am glad I carry cottonelle wet wipes and make a mental count of how many I have; plenty, so I am not too worried.

Along the sawtooths I am amused by several signs a family has put up for the runners. They have inspirational sayings, encouragement and a few joking suggestions. I think this is awesome and wish I knew who put up the signs so I could thank them! I slow down to read the signs and chuckle at the jokes.

Running along I chat with a few runners who pass me. And I chat with a few runners as I pass them. Since my new burst of speed going up the hills, I do pass a few folks. Essentially these were runners who passed me during my long aid station break. I know I should be more efficient in the aid stations, but they are so much fun and the volunteers are so chatty. It is nice to have a conversation with a person from the “real world”. While running ultra’s I feel a bit sensory deprived. I know a day is progressing but I have no idea of what is going on. Major current events could be occurring both those of us running are oblivious to it. The same thing happens when Tristan and I go on hiking vacation because we will not listen to the radio, see any TV, read the newpaper, etc. This is quite liberating and since most news is bad it actually is quite uplifting to be unaware of the days events. But I do find it a bit disconcerting at the same time.

Pretty soon the bulk of the sawtooths are over and I just have the final hill to get to the small aid station with treats and gatorade. I like this little aid station because I can look forward to a few treats after making it through the mountains along the backstretch.

On the out and back section I am excited to see other runners again. Everyone is looking really great and so strong. I am delighted to see my friend Emmy. She is able to report that our mutual friends Tony and Frank are ahead of her and are doing great! After a quick picture we head in our respective directions.

I am excited about approaching mile 37.5. I am nearly finished 3 laps and it is not even 3 p.m. yet. I am going super fast and the miles are just flying by. I continue to jog all the flats and run the downhills and I walk the uphills with purpose.

Heading along the jeep road I am very excited to be getting closer to the start/finish. And of course I am thrilled to see other runners. It is such a beautiful day. It is warming up, it is sunny and is just perfect running weather. Running down the hill, I take a pit stop at the potty. Then I continue on. I can see the sign at the start finish. I jog up the hill and announce my arrival. “Runner 179, Tammy Massie here”.

I have been wanting my visor for quite some time. This time I am in a place where I can act on this need. I walk into the lodge to my drop bag and right on top is my flowering visor. I put it on and head out to the aid station to eat, drink and be merry.

Super nice volunteers refill my water bottle. Others offer all sorts of food. I grab my staple of pretzels and cheese. I also grab part of a chicken sandwich. For beverages, I drink some Gatorade, coke, gingerale and some mountain dew. I am keeping well fed and hydrated and continue to have no issues. After a final beverage refill, I head out for my 4th lap.

2010 Umstead 100 miler: Lap 2

2010-04-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

With Blake along the course.

Blake is an amazing race director who puts on a GREAT race. He also is a super nice person who believes in all of the runners and does everything he can to help everyone succeed.

I always look forward to my yearly visit to Umstead because of Blake, his wife Myra, the wonderful volunteers, really nice runners, awesome crew (of others...mine not always so much) and the infectious atmosphere of energy and enthusiasm.

This sign has been put up since I started doing Umstead 100 four years ago.

Each time I read this sign, I wonder what kinds of people have hills as their friends. In my world hills are my enemies and arch nemesis.

Although I do spend alot of time on hills training for Umstead 100 and even more time training for Vermont 100 (where the sign should read: "Mountains are my friend")

I think the general consensus is that this sign is a bit of false advertising but it does facilitate conversations:-)

I have known my friend Emmy for many years. We first met at the 24 hour race around the Lake in Massachusetts many years ago.

Subsequently we have run VT100, Umstead 100, JFK50 miler and the 24 hour race around the lake together.

Emmy is really nice and is super fast. This year her Umstead 100 time was well below 24 hours...GO EMMY!!!

Here I am with my friends Luanne and Monica.

Luanne has walked several 50 milers including Umstead, Rocky Raccoon but also really supports runners. Luanne is really sweet and very encouraging to all. She bakes the best cookies which she brings to many ultra events.

Her husband Bill has run numerous 100 milers including: Umstead, Vermont, Western States, and so many others...he is really fast and really nice.

I have known Monica for many years. We have run many marathons and a few ultra's together. Monica typically is quite a bit faster than me and is quite an accomplished runner. She is super enthusiastic and lots of fun.

Approaching the main aid station, I take a moment to document my progress. I was very happy to be finishing 25 miles and to be 1/4th of the way through the race.

Of course I was looking forward to lots of eating and drinking as well as lots of cheering, enthuisiasm and energy from the aid station because there were lots of volunteers, crew and others ready to cheer on each runner as they climbed up the hill.

I do really enjoy this race and am thrilled that I can participate in something I enjoy so much with so many great friends!

LAP 2

Heading out of the aid station I was surprised and delighted to see my friend Steve. Steve and I have run a few events together and in fact he was my ride to the Self Transcendence Marathon, a marathon that occurs within about 4 miles of my dad’s house in August. Steve and I also survived the Epic conditions at the VT50 this past September when it rained the entire time on the course. If I am not mistaken he was second to last overall and I was last place. Thus in my opinion we both were in the right place. My friend Ed also caught up to me while I was at the aid station and was just a little ahead of us.

Steve and I chatted briefly about what a nice day it was. It was completely different than the epic VT50 in Sept 2009 in which it rained the entire time and the course was so muddy you would take one step forward and 3 steps back. And on that course you had to be super cautious because there were several places in which if you were to take one step to the right or left you would fall 20, 30 or 40 feet into a gulley. I ended up finishing that race with bruises on my chest because I was using tree’s to stop my falls.

After a little bit I realized Steve and my pace were slightly different (and I had to go to the bathroom and ~2 miles to get to the nearest one), so I picked up the pace a little. In fact many times I hurriedly sped off from runners it was because I was running towards a latrine. This year the race was really nice because there were porta potties or bathrooms about every 3-4 miles. This meant throughout the day I was more likely to be able to make it from one to the next without too much difficulty. Overnight I cannot say the same is true, but at night if you turn of your light and no one see’s you, did you really pee?

I was moving pretty quickly, accomplishing my goal pace of about 12 minute miles. This meant the miles just floated by. I was always surprised when I would see mile 1 approaching the airport turn around, mile 2 heading to the jeep road turn off, mile 3 just before the aid station at the T intersection, mile 4 heading down the hill near the lake, mile 5 on the long but very gradual incline by the meadow and 6 in the zig zags approaching the second aid station.

While running along in this section, I caught up to Jerry, Maria, Tom who were all moving along with purpose. I knew Jerry from last year’s Umstead so we chatted and caught up. Also Jerry mentioned a bunch of races in the New Orleans area where he is from. I suggested a 50 km in New Orleans would be really cool since the Mardi Gras marathon is now too big and impersonal for me. He suggested they are thinking of having a race from Baton Rouge to New Orleans which might be something to consider. Unfortunately it sounds like it will conflict with JFK50, but perhaps one year.

Blake was standing along the course taking pictures. He had passed on his bike right before I joined up with Jerry, Tom and others, so it was not unexpected that he was taking pictures. It was nice to catch up with him briefly and to say how much I was enjoying the race and the weather! It was such a gorgeous day and was only getting better.

Continuing on, I was excited to see the “caution bicycles congestion ahead” sign. This meant the aid station was just around the bend and down the hill. I was very excited to arrive there and to announce: “Runner 179”, then to get down to the business of eating and drinking.

Everyone in the aid stations are so nice and helpful. They immediately grabbed my waterbottle and refilled it and asked what I wanted. Since I had no idea I went to get a beverage (Gatorade) while I thought about it. Then wandered over to the food table and sample a bit. Then I refilled my cup of Gatorade and ate more. I remember eating my typical ultra fare of: banana’s M&M’s, pretzels, cheese, chex mix (yummy!) and some other treats. I was feeling really good. I refilled my cup with more Gatorade, grabbed a big handful of pretzels and was on my way.

Walking out of the aid station I was delighted to see my friend Ed just ahead of me. Again we ran/walked together. He was looking good but was feeling fatigued. I asked if he was eating and drinking plenty and he suggested he was. We chatted about stuff this time entirely about running. At some point I got behind him. I had been texting and call friends from the beginning of lap 2 and at this point it got out of hand. I could not go a few feet without a text or a call. It was pretty cool! I decided to return a call to one of my texting friends Jamie. Jamie is Ed’s coach so once I caught up to Ed she was able to offer him some words of encouragement.

Because I am the youngest in my family, I had very small legs when I was a kid. My entire family being older than me, had long legs. But they did not care about this difference. When we hiked we had to keep up with our parents. I am still not convinced my parents would not have abandoned us. This means I can hike very quickly and I can hike up hills super fast. Alas this means during the sawtooths I do end up losing folks. This time I lost Ed.

As I was jogging along, I realized the sun was very bright. Luckily after the first lap I had put on sunglasses. But I had forgotten to put on a hat. In fact I did not think it was necessary. I was wrong. Because I was feeling a bit toasty I decided to see if Tristan could drop off a hat I had inadvertently not put in either drop bag (well it wasn’t inadvertent I decided if it was cold, it was not necessary to have a hat—not sure where this idea came from but it is my list of bizarre rules). Tristan texted me back that he could drop off my hat if I could describe where it was and what it looked like. My description was: it has flowers on it and it is in my backpack. I got a clarifying text about the hat being white and confirmed this, but suggested mostly it was flowered. I was pretty sure we were talking about the same hat but was not 100 percent positive.

The sawtooths are very hilly with many different types of hills. Some are short and steep, others long and gradual and some are long and steep (like my least favorite hill I call stumpy’s hill after my husband’s cat which I despised). This section is tough on fresh legs but as the miles go by it gets harder. I still conjecture that each lap the race personnel call in some work crews to throw on some extra dirt just to spite the runners! I’m not sure what we did to deserve this, but I am sure it is true.

Running along I end up being between runners. Actually for a good portion of this race I am between runners. Sometimes I can see runners well ahead of me and I am aware of runners well behind me, but for the most part I am all alone. This is okay because I just think about all the time I spent training and preparing for the race.

I have so many wonderful memories of races I have run over the past several years: Imelda at Marine Corps Marathon, Dave at Delaware then Harrisburg, Joleen at Las Vegas, Jennifer and Cheryl at New Orleans then Phoenix, my friend John and Jenn who every year drive me to the National Marathon (or half depending on when Umstead is) and of course my friends who have run so many marathons with me either they or I are stalkers: Amanda, Jean, Laurie, Tammy, Then of course there are my ultra-running friends: Jamie, who has been so supportive of me in running but also has fed and hiked with Tristan and I, Julie from Rocky Raccoon last year, my friend Mary who ran her first 100 last year at VT and is signed up again this year (and of course Tammy who we have now coerced into it). Of course I have so many work friends who have been incredible supportive: Germaine who I used to hike with back in my FDA-CVM days, my mentor and running buddy (I believe I am the mentor in this relationship): Flo, my friend Angela who guided me through my first marathon, my frequent traveling companion and co-worker: Ann who has accompanied me to VT Ctiy Marathon and New Orleans and may be signed up for the 2010 VT City Half, my supervisor Dale who allows me to take many long weekend so I can get training runs in warmer places who even shared her daughter a UNC grad student: Jill so that Tristan could go climbing while I was busily running on Saturday and so many others.

On the out and back I cheered on other runners and they cheered me. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this race! It is so pretty, has great volunteers, is so energizing and just great fun! The other runners were so enthusiastic and so much fun to see. I was happy to see my friend Emmy and Frank during this section. And of course I got a picture and a hug from both. They looked super strong and were both running a very solid race.

Jogging along I was able to appreciate what a great day we were blessed with. It was sunny, warm with a picture perfect blue sky. Unfortunately this sort of caused me a small issue. I had a pair of sunglasses on, but was feeling the sun on my face, arms and legs. For some reason when it is not hot, I refuse to accept the sun is still bright and powerful. So I applied a bit of sunscreen I did not go overboard and slather it all over. At this point I was starting to get comments my slight pinkness. Since my husband was not around, no one called me “Lobster face” but I could tell that was the implication. Because of my inability to associate a cooler day with the sun I had not packed a hat in both my bags. I had a hat but could not remember which aid station bag it was in. Luckily Tristan had agreed to bring me my flowery visor and texted me that he had dropped it off at the main headquarters.

As I turned onto the Jeep Road I wondered if I would run into Tristan. It was a bit before noon and I knew Tristan had an appointment with my supervisor’s daughter at noon to do some rock climbing so I thought he might have to leave quickly. As I approached the road leading to the aid station, I was delighted to see Tristan. He gave me a big hug and asked how I was doing. I was happy to report that I was having a great race and was feeling super strong. I was on target for my sub 26:40 finish goal and was thrilled about seeing so many great friends.

Heading to the main aid station, I had a brief potty break a few hundred meters before the aid station. It is hard to decide if you should go before or after the aid station/timing table. If you do it before your previous lap time is a little longer or after, the next lap time is longer. I tried to be consistent and always use the potty heading in as I have done in other years. After a brief break it was time to continue on.

Once I arrived at the aid station I completely forgot about the flowery hat/visor Tristan had dropped off (for some reason in my mind he dropped it off at the second aid station. Once I decide something, it is hard for me to accept something else. So I skip going inside the lodge and simply focus on eating and drinking at the aid station.

I give a big hug to Sally, the captain of the aid station and take a picture. Someone takes my water bottle and refills it while I grab some Gatorade. I then start eating. Pretzels, banana’s, M&M’s, cheese, are all food that seems to work for me. I munch a bit then at some point grab a handful of food a cup of Gatorade and hit the trails.

Umstead 100 mile 2010: Lap 1

2010-04-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

Gilligan likes to participate in races...the only problem is that he believes 100 m races really means 100 meters with a car trip to get from point to point.

Here you see Gilligan at about mile 2, after I had gone to the airport spur turnaround.

In fact intially Gilligan was not willing to walk all the way to the airport spur T-intersection, it was only with me begging him to make it there that he grudgingly decided to step it up a notch.

Okay, I didn't have to beg, he was so excited about all the people and potential folks to pet him, he did scamper along for a bit.
At the second aid station, Gilligan beat me.

In my defense I ran the ~7 miles while Gilligan hopped a ride with Tristan.

Gilligan was happy to hang out near either of the aid stations because alot of runners (including myself) will discard food when we realize things are not going down the hatch. Or alternatively if we end up realizing we are full enough.

Gilligan scored a partially eaten egg that I ended up spitting out. He and I are really close:-)

Or else he is a dog and has absolutely no standards for his food.

Gilligan loves being pet by anyone.

Here Gilligan is getting some loving from my friend Ed.

I have run a bunch of races with Ed including Rocky Raccoon 50 miler in 2009 as well as the Self Transcendence marathon in NY in August.

Ed is very pet friendly and in fact has a Ragdoll cat (which Gilligan has 3 ragdoll cat siblings: Zaboo, Sagwa and Powderpuff). In fact, Gilligan may think he is a ragdoll cat as he was raised by our oldest ragdoll Zaboo. I am not sure Zaboo did a high quality job of raising Gilligan as Gilligan is quite lazy and can become beligerant when he doesn't want to go forward.
Here I am with my friends Loiuse, Jerry and some other runners in the Sawtooths along the back half of the course.

I have run several events with these runners including Umstead 100 miler with Jerry last year.

Jerry (yellow shirt) is from New Orleans, has run that marathon numerous times as well as many other 50 and 100 milers.

You can see from this picture that it is still a bit chilly, the weather was perfect for the race with just enough chill in the air to make running very pleasant (although that meant wearing a hat and gloves).
As I approached the start/finish line, I asked a very nice person to take my picture.

Sadly this was about the 3rd picture take (lots of fingers and the camera strap was in the others), but alas it gave me a moment to think about what I wanted from the aid station and what I needed to do.

It was starting to get sunny and warmer so I did end up going into the lodge to take off a shirt and put on my sunglasses.

Of course while I did this, some nice volunteers refilled my waterbottles and made sure I was ready for the next lap.

LAP 1
The first lap started in the dark. I tried to ensure I was in the proper group of runners so I could achieve my goal of 26:40. I wanted to be with runners who would jog at a moderate pace but walk the hills. I saw many friends (or should I say heard), while heading out along the jeep road. Nearing the T-intersection I heard a big dog barking and knew it was Gilligan.

Gilligan did not get to the intersection with Tristan because apparently Gilligan refused to go further. But when I stumbled on them in the middle of a Garmin crisis (my watch somehow was not charged), Gilligan was showing me up by running super fast. After alerting Tristan to this issue and asking he get my other Garmin out I continued running. Just getting onto the airport spur the top runners were heading back. They were moving.

Pretty soon I made it to the airport spur and headed back. I was excited to see Gilligan and Tristan. They are good cheerleaders (well they are when they make it places). After grabbing my back up Garmin (that has a 10-12 hour battery) a quick photo, and a hug it was time to move on.

Running along the day was a bit chilly, but I was bundled up with a bunch of layers (both shirts and pants), gloves and a headband. And by moving I was warm enough. Slowly it started to get lighter out and the mile marker signs seemed to be popping up very frequently.

The unmanned aid station soon was off on the left. I grabbed cup of Gatorade and drank, I refilled drank some more then placed my empty cup in between the coolers for later. In fact throughout the race I would do this because this aid station you see 16 times during the race. I feel bad about wasting so as best I could I tried to be green. I would say most of my cups got at least 3 or 4 uses before they disappeared (well at least I assume it was my cup-so far I have not dropped dead of some unknown disease).

The lake about mile 3.5 looked spooky but pretty with fog all over. Of course I took a picture. Little did I know that by the end of the day I would take well over 1500 pictures! Many in which I stopped completely and a few in which I (and others) posed or hammed it up for the camera.

Jogging along I was with my friends Seth and Fran. I ran a bit of the earlier miles from VT100 with Seth (which he completed well ahead of me) and Fran did her first 100 miler at Boulder in Oct. This was their first 100 miler together as a couple and they wanted to see how they got along. Not only did they get along super well, they both set 100 miler PR’s running Umstead in under 24 hours…way to go!

Seth and Fran moved ahead and I was alone just for a bit. But pretty soon I joined a bunch of friends from other races. I would chat briefly then either they would speed up or I would speed up so these conversations were not too long. I believe I chatted with Rosie from Kentucky for a bit, Ray and few others.

As we approached the aid station I was excited to see Tristan and Gilligan waiting for me. I said hello, gave a quick hug then moved to the business of “aid stationing”. At the second aid station I decided to waste some time. Well, not exactly waste time, but I sure did not move through quickly and efficiently like others. I wanted to drop off some of my layers into my drop bag. Then I ate and drank like a champion. Gatorade, banana’s, M&M’s and pretzels were item’s on my “to eat/drink” list.

As I was eating I saw my friend Ed C from Rocky Raccoon 50 and the self transcendence marathon last year. He was looking strong and was moving quickly. While in the aid station I decided I needed breakfast so took an egg and lots of pretzels for the road. Walking out of the aid station I chatted with Tristan. I was feeling really good and very strong. So far I was on target for my 26:40 finish.

As I ate my breakfast, Tristan mocked me for my large handful of pretzels and egg. Apparently I looked like a glutton. But I did not care. As I munched on my egg, I decided I could not swallow the final bite without having a “reversal of fortune” (puking), so I ended up spitting it out on the side of the course. As per Tristan as he and Gilligan headed back to the car, Gilligan got my ABC egg (already been chewed). Oh well at least it was fresh and he knew where it came from.

As we approached the mile 7 marker, my friend Ed caught up to me. I took a few pictures of us then soon enough Tristan realized he would have to get Gilligan back to the car (which apparently was not as big a struggle as he expected probably because of the ABC egg Gilligan had his eye on).

For many miles here, I ran with my friend Ed. He was planning to run his first 100 miler and seemed to be doing well. He was concerned he was going too fast but seemed to have a strong rhythm going on. We talked about how running was going. In my case I had run so many marathons and ultra’s during the winter, while Ed did a bunch of training runs near his house in NJ. I was very impressed by this because I really struggled in the winter because of all the snow. For a few weeks there just really weren’t places to run and I REALLY hate treadmill running. Luckily a few of my marathons were destination events in warmer area’s where I could get some good running in.

We also talked about our respective pets. Ed has a ragdoll (Tristan/Gilligan and I have 3), so we chatted about their health. I told Ed about Gilligan’s bout with cancer and how Gilligan is now cancer free for 8+ months! Ed’s cat sadly is having some urinary issues. It sounds like the cat is at the end of an ultra and spends a lot of time peeing. It has had some bloodwork. I suggested because of having personal experience that it could be diabetes. My cat Pepsi had diabetes and simply needed an IV saline drip. My mom’s cat also had diabetes and needed insulin. The insulin was easy to administer and relatively speaking was not too expensive (a 2-3 month supply of insulin was less than $60 and the syringes were about $5 for a 30 pack). The biggest challenge was that about every 10 administrations I would give myself some insulin.

As we ran along, Ed would insist I should run ahead because he did not want to slow me down. I was a bit puzzled by this because I was running a very comfortable pace. I would rather run a bit slow and conservatively during the first few laps rather than run to fast and crash and burn. So we kept on chatting. At the unmanned water stop at the top of one of the numerous hills in the “sawtooths” we parted ways since I had plenty of water and he needed a fill up.

Moving along with purpose I was feeling really good. I had no pain, was feeling refreshed and energized and was just having a great time! The rest of this lap went by super fast. I chatted with so many runners, watched the sun slowly rise and just appreciated running on such a gorgeous day. I know I am incredible lucky to be able to do what I love and the icing on the cake is that this race is my favorite.

Pretty soon I was jog/walking up the big hill approaching the small aid station at the hill. My Gatorade cup was still there so I filled it up and drank down a few cups of Gatorade. No need to get hyponeutremia or dehydration! I also grabbed a few pretzels for the road then headed back onto the course.

Near the start finish of the race, there are several miles of out and back sections. This means you get to see runners that are well ahead of you (before the jeep road turnoff to the main aid station) and runners within about 600 meters of you (at the jeep road or along the airport spur). I really like this section because you can cheer on runners and many will cheer on you. There is lots of energy and encouragement all around. I also like this section because you know you are getting close to the main aid station which means food, beverages, crew, spectators and lots of activity and excitement.

After passing the small aid station, there are three moderate sized hills until you get to the right hand turn onto the Jeep Road. I was feeling good so even ran a bit of these hills. There were so many runners heading towards us and it was so great to see everyone doing so well. I was able to see so many of my friends who are considerable faster than I and was excited to see everyone moving so quickly. It was going to be a day with many PR’s and course records broken!

Turning right onto the Jeep road I was excited but a bit anxious. This is the most challenging section of the course because it is a bit rickety, has some roots and rocks and the final climb to the start/finish area even has some railroad ties for good measure. But I made it through this section easily. The crowds were just amazing and the cheering nearly deafening. Everyone was so encouraging and enthusiastic and made running seem effortless. Unfortunately as I approached the main aid station I needed an intermission. There is a bathroom about 300 meters prior to the start/finish and I wanted to use it. Then I would have more stomach space for Gatorade and treats.

After my brief break it was time to resume running and finish off lap 1. As I crested the hill I asked a spectator to take my picture, then I headed into the lodge to my drop bag. Time to lose some layers, grab my sunglasses and then finally to eat, drink and be merry!

After my visit with my drop bag I came outside to the aid station and got down to the main business of the day: eating and drinking. Nice volunteers refilled my waterbottle. Others asked what I might need. Sadly I had tried to come up with a list of tasks I needed to do,food I must eat and beverages I must drink, but it ended up that I loitered drinking a few cups of Gatorade, followed by some coke. And of course I had my pretzels, banana’s, M&M’s, some cheese and some cookies. Then it was time to split this popcorn joint. A brief “THANKS” to all the volunteers and I was off.

My pacers Video of the race

2010-04-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a video from Umstead

Thanks to Chito from RuninDC I can share a video of my Umstead experience. It shows a variety of scenes and runners along the course.

Umstead 100 miler: Before the Race

2010-04-02T01:42:00.000-07:00

With the Race Director's wife: Myra Norwood before the race.

Myra is so sweet and always so encouraging throughout the race. She watches out for all the runners taking really good care of everyone.

It is always a real treat to see Myra and she always seems to be at the main headquarters day and night throughout the race, ready to offer words of encouragement, food, beverages or whatever else a runner might need.

Thanks Myra!!!

With Jill Perry, the female winner from 2009 (and 2010, but we didn't know it at the time).

Jill is super friendly and super fast (you can see my priorities...friendly first:-).

Jill and I have run several ultra's together; however, she always beats me significantly. But at the rate I am improving (1 or 2 hours per ultra, I will be her competition in about 8 years!)

Each lap that I saw Jill I was able to get a picture of her and a few I was able to get a self portrait picture of us together. I believe with a count of 4 pictures she can easily subtract 2 or 3 minutes from her time...

With my friend Tony before the race.

Tony is a running machine. He recently ran the Brazil 135, has run Badwater (and will be running Badwater again this coming July) and has run a bunch of other 100 and 50 mile ultra's including Javalina and Umstead.

Tony took really good care of me last year at VT100 just a few days after Badwater. He helped me clean my feet at mile ~40 walking around getting me all the necessary feet cleaning stuff.

Then he helped me again at mile 70 when he was waiting for his runner Bob (who my husband happened to have taken back to their hotel room after DNFing at Margaritaville at mile 62).

Tony is super sweet and ended up shattering his 100 mile record this year, go Tony!

With my friends Emmy and Frank.

Emmy and Frank have run so many ultra's with me including the 24 hour race around the lake (where I met them), Umstead 100, Vermont 100 and JFK50.

Both Emmy and Frank are accomplished runners who finish 100 milers within 24 hours and then recover super fast and then run marathons/50 kms or other long distances within a week or so of completing a 100. They are running machines.

And yet both are so nice and friendly. And they have a super nice family. I always look forward to seeing Frank's family including his wife Pat and daughter Katie who are always so encouraging and take good care of Frank and all his friends.

With my friend Jenny before the race.

This year Jenny finished the 50 miler then started volunteering at the main aid station. Jenny is so nice and friendly.

Jenny and I ran a few miles of Rocky Raccoon about a month and a half ago. During this time she really lifted my spirits. She learned about my mom passing away and was so kind and supportive. She had met my mom at Rocky in 2009 (who became quite well known because she had a cat on a leash). As Jenny and I were running we discussed how I felt that my mom was there supporting all the runners from heaven and she concurred.

Jenny has been running many 50 and 100 milers recently and always runs so fast and consistently. She tends to finish in the top 3 of females and is so down to earth and encouraging (like so many other super fast runners!)

BEFORE THE START
4 a.m. is very early. It is dark and cold. But luckily this year it was not wet.

After the multiple alarms went off I got down to the business of getting ready. I spent lots of time gliding before putting on my lucky outfit. While getting ready I drank my first diet Mountain Dew in 2 weeks. The caffeine hit me hard. But in a good way (well until my heart was racing in the car ride over after my 3^rd diet dew and I thought I might need a trip to a hospital instead a trip to the start). Finally I was all ready and it was time for Tristan, Gilligan and I to drive to the race headquarters at the start/finish line.

Upon arriving at the park, Tristan parked the car then brought my drop bag to the main aid station so it could be driven to the second aid station. He then returned to the car just as I was finishing my last minute tasks (including attaching my bib to my fanny pack…how I forgot to do this on Friday night is beyond me. Perhaps I am becoming complacent).

We then walked to the main headquarters. I put my drop bag at the back of the lodge on a stack of benches. I get a little worried about putting stuff on tables because it is so easy to spill cups of soda, Gatorade or water and even though all my stuff is packed in Ziplocs I don’t want to risk anything getting wet or dirty.

Walking around the headquarters I was able to see my friends: Tony, Frank, Emmy, Monica, Luanne, Bill and many others. When refilling my water bottle I was able to chat with Myra, the race director’s wife for a bit. She is so sweet!

The next person I met was Jill. She was looking really good and was so enthusiastic and energetic. Each time I saw her on the course it would be like a breath of fresh air. I got a pre-race picture of us and wished her luck.

With a few minutes to go, I headed to the bathroom for a last second potty break. Now I was all set. After a quick picture with Blake who was starting to corral the runners, I headed back towards the Lodge to get in line at an appropriate place. I wanted to go out medium fast…I would define it as walk/running “with purpose”.

Umstead 100 miler: Getting to the Race Friday

2010-04-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

With Tristan at the main race headquarters. Tristan is my chauffer. Pretty much every other task related to ultramarathoning I have had to outsource from him: pacing, crewing, cheerleading etc. But he is a good chauffer.

Tristan is really sweet though. At most of my recent ultra's he has asked my friends for e-mail messages to cheer me on. These give me lots of energy and are definitely a highlight of my race.

I think Tristan is also starting to like the pre-race dinners because he is starting to know more and more of my ultra running friends...if you ever meet him please introduce yourself.

And if you are a mountaineer or a climber, please feel free to talk at length with him. He is quite an accomplished mountaineer including summitting Mt Rainier, Mt Hood, Mt Whitney, Mt Shasta, Mt Baker, Mt. St Helens, Mt Washington, among others.
With my ultra running friend JoJoJogger. She came up to me while I was volunteering and introduced herself. Umstead was her first 50 miler and she did GREAT finishing in 11:17.

Way to go Jan!

It was really nice to meet a fellow blogger. I really love to meet others who are reading my blog and be introduced in person. It is really fun to meet others who have commented so I can put a name with a face. Of course make sure you know I take lots of pictures and might just snap one with you!

With my friend Emmy.

Emmy and I have run many, many ultra's together. We first met about 4 or 5 years ago at the 24 hour race around the lake in MA. Since then we have met up at a bunch of ultra's including: the 24 hour race around the lake in Massachussetts, VT100 and Umstead 100 as well as JFK50 miler.

Emmy is always so sweet and is really fast. She consistently runs 100 milers in about 24 hours which I find amazing.

With my friend Steve T. Steve has run many marathons and a handful of ultra's.

Both Steve and I ran the VT50, 50 km race this past Sept and if I am not mistaken he was the final male and I was the final female. It was in EPIC conditions!

Steve also drove me to the Self Transcendence Marathon around Rockland Lake NY this past August (and hopefully will drive me this Aug:-). He lives a few towns over from where my dad lives (who I was staying with during that race) and did not have to go too far out of his way to pick me up.

Steve has run several 50 milers, a bunch of 50 kms and many marathons. This was his second attempt at the 100 miler distance, although he did not finish the 100 mile, he did complete 100 km and finished the first 50 miles in a PR...go STEVE!
Here I am with my friend Vinnie. Two years ago (during the rainy year), Vinnie and I ran many miles overnight together. Vinnie is really nice, has many stories and has run 100's of ultra's including many different 100 milers.

Last year Vinnie ran Umstead in under 24 hours; however due to a trip to Cambodia in the winter including acquiring some third world issues, he had less training and was still a bit weak.

But maybe next year both Vinnie and I will have a strong day and he can show me how to run a sub 24 hour Umstead.

Getting to the Umstead 100 miler endurance run my husband and I continued our ritual of staying at his father’s house in Richmond Virginia. I also got my haircut and styled which is my pre-race ritual. Any extra bit of weight which I can eliminate is great. And who needs split ends?!

After a pleasant visit with Tristan's dad Thursday night including a nice dinner at Carraba's carbo loading, we continued our southerly drive to Raleigh Friday morning. It was quite stormy and rainy so our trip took a bit longer than expected but we finally arrived at the race headquarters. As I have done for the past 2 years, I volunteered for a few hours. This year I was lucky enough to work with Elizabeth A, Barbara and Linda D. I have worked with Elizabeth and Linda before and it was a real treat to work with both again. They both are so sweet!

While volunteering I was lucky enough to see and briefly catch up with lots of friends: Emmy, Tony, Steve, Monica, Jenny, Nathan,… and so many others.

After volunteering it was time for the pre-race briefing and dinner. Each year Umstead seems to get bigger and bigger (I think folks bring bigger crew’s) so it was very crowded in the lodge. But this was good in my opinion because I was cold so a crowded room typically is warmer. Tristan and I ultimately headed to the car so I could get a jacket. This worked out perfectly because my friends Bill and Luanne T and my friend Chito arrived right while we were walking to get an extra layer. After getting my jacket we headed back and had a very nice dinner. Then Tristan and I headed to the hotel for my last nights sleep for a day or two