What an incredible adventure! The Weymouth Woods 100K trail race was my A-list race for the start of the 2013 season. I had been specifically training for this race for the last 4 months. My diet, weekly mileage plans, specific training run courses, cross training, etc, etc, were all geared to this event. My goal? – To finish this 100K/62 mile event in under 15 hours and earn a ticket in the Western States 100 Mile lottery!
This goal was a super stretch for me. I’ve only been running for 2
years. I’m a 45 year old
turtle. A turtle with a good bit
of endurance, but a turtle. The
longest distance I’ve ever run in one continuous go? – 34.5 miles at The Promise Land (and that took me over
9 hours). Yes, I covered 52+ miles
at the Hinson Lake 24 hour event, but that was with a 4 hour volunteer shift, a
nap and a shower thrown in during the event to break things up.
I had traveled down to Weymouth 3 separate times in the
weeks leading up to the race. I
had run the 4.5 mile long loop course a total of 11 times, including a lap in
the dark. I knew what sections I
intended to run, what I would walk, what my landmarks were, where the mile
points were, and how the dark would alter my pace. With all of this “data”, I mapped out a race strategy that
basically broke the event up into 3 distinct sections.
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| Typical trail - photo courtesy Mark Long |
The first 5 loops (22.5 miles) were to be my warmup. I had run 5 continuous loops at
Weymouth during one of my training runs.
I knew I could average 56-58 minutes/loop (roughly 12:30 min/mile pace)
without overtaxing myself.
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| "The Swamp Bridge" - photo courtesy of Ray K. |
The second 5 loops (22.5 to 45 miles) were where my work was
going to be done. I needed to stay
on track, keep myself moving at a steady pace and complete lap 10 (45 miles) by
6 pm when night would come.
My last 4 laps (miles 45-62) were to be my “hang on for dear
life” laps. These would be run in
the dark. If I could complete the
first 10 laps by 6 pm, then I had 5 hours for the last 4 laps. I could slow down a good bit (one hour
and 15 minutes per loop, averaging 16:40 min/mile pace in the dark with some
technical trails thrown in to keep you on your toes). Doable, certainly, but after already having run 45 miles,
certainly not “easy” or anything to be taken lightly.
My other secret weapon to give me the best chance possible? -
The use of a crew and pacers. My
chances of a sub 15 hour finish were so slim, that every minute was going to
count. If I could have crew to
help me between laps (changing batteries in headlamps, handing me food,
refilling water bottles, helping me change socks, etc), that could literally
save me 20-30 minutes right there.
My husband, Paul, and dear friend, Deborah, both signed up for the
challenge. Each of them traveled
to Weymouth with me to preview the course. We’d had a couple of “meetings” before hand to discuss the
details of what I needed and expected.
The two of them developed and fine tuned their task lists, pulled
together a “pacer’s vest” that would hold all the gear they would have
available for me during the final loops, and basically ran my race like a
NASCAR pit crew.
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| The last rooty climb to the visitor's center. - photo courtesy of Tim Preble |
Paul and I traveled down to Southern Pines the night before
the event. We had a great time
chowing on pizza with a dozen fellow runners and talking about the upcoming
event.
We got reports from a few runners
who had been out on the course earlier in the day that the trails were in great
condition, despite a snow/rain storm that had hit the area just 24 hours
ago. As all good runners should,
by 10 pm we had settled down for the night in the RV. I was surprisingly calm that night. (Way better shape than I’d been a few
days ago.)
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| Carb loading with fellow runners, family and friends. |
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| My base camp and personal aid station |
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| Walking down to the start. |
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| Staying warm up until the last minute. |
Laps 1-5 were fun.
That’s all there is to it.
Feeling fresh, cold morning temps making your breath billow out in front
of you, the low lying sun slanting through the pine barrens, still feeling
strong enough to easily pick up your feet and avoid all the roots. I just cruised along keeping a watchful
eye on my pace, reminding myself to hydrate, trying to eat at least 100-150
calories per loop. I’d done this
before and just put myself on auto pilot enjoying the company of other runners,
great conversations, new trail friends, and the beauty of the nature preserve
we were running through under crystal clear blue skies.
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| Happy Runner Girl completes Lap 1 (this smile didn't last forever) - photo courtesy Lee Watson |
My splits for the first 5 laps:
Lap 1 55:37 12:27/mile 52nd place
Lap 2
56:56 12:44/mile 51st place
Lap 3
56:33 12:39/mile 50th place
Lap 4
57:21 12:50/mile 47th place
Lap 5
58:10 13:01/mile 44th place
PERFECT!!
By lap 6, I was taking on a different demeanor. I had been able to bank a little time
over the first 5 laps. My strategy
of running the loops in 55-58 min, had given me a 15 minute buffer that I could
spread out over the next 5 loops and still get myself through 45 miles by 6pm. I tried to slow things down a bit. I knew I needed to conserve energy
‘cause I wasn’t even half way there.
I wanted to slowly and gradually eat into my buffer, perhaps slowing my
pace down by about a minute per mile.
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| Visiting Jimmy Ballard and Doug Dawkins at Aid Station 2 |
My stomach was starting to get a little “touchy”. I was walking a fine line, and I knew
it. Every time I came into the aid
station, Paul would try to get me to eat, eat, eat, but I knew my stomach
couldn’t handle it. I could hear
and feel the water sloshing around in my gut. Obviously, things weren’t being absorbed as quickly as I was
putting them in, so I needed to be careful.
By lap 7, my spirits and my energy were flagging. I was keeping on track time wise, but
it was becoming oh so hard to keep doing so. I knew I needed help.
As I completed lap 7, I let Paul know I was changing the game plan and I
desperately needed him and Deb to start pacing me ASAP. Unfortunately, Paul had forgotten his
running shoes (can you believe it!) but Deb was going to swing by our home on
her way down and retrieve them.
She hadn’t arrived yet, but we were expecting her any minute. All during lap 8 I was desperately
hoping Deb would get there so Paul could jump in with me on Lap 9.
With just a few minutes to spare, Deb made it just before I
completed Lap 8! Paul donned his running shoes and we trotted out of the aid
station together. He had grabbed
me a huge cup of chicken noodle soup.
I slowed down to a walk long enough to try and consume at least half the
mug. That seemed to help
tremendously. Between that and
Paul’s company, we knocked out Lap 9 still on schedule.
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| "Determined Runner Girl" - photo courtesy of Ray K |
Lap 10 – Darkness was coming with this lap. Quick change back into long sleeves,
grabbed some lights and Deb hopped into the game to trot along beside me. Company was helping tremendously. The first few loops of the race, lots
of runners were grouped together and it was easy to find someone to hang with
and help pass the miles. By lap 5,
I was mostly alone and had resorted to my iPod for some tunes, but that only
helped for about 3 laps. Having a
person right there, especially somebody as upbeat and positive as Deb, was a
life saver. I finished this one in
twilight darkness with my handheld turned on. Once again, just about on schedule. We crossed the timing mat just 3
minutes after 6pm.
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| "Tired Runner Girl" meets "Uber Perky Pacer" - photo courtesy of Ray K. |
Splits for laps 6-10
Lap 6
1:02:17
13:56/mile 44th
place (completed a marathon with
this lap)
Lap 7
1:03:14
14:09/mile 40th
place (completed a 50K with this lap, we’re half way done!)
Lap 8
1:03:01
14:06/mile 37th
place
Lap 9
1:02:25
13:58/mile 37th
place (Paul paced me)
Lap 10
1:07:23
15:04/mile 35th
place (Deb paced me)
The nighttime laps are the hardest. Psychologically and physically. You’re already exhausted (heck I’ve run
45 miles!) and the roots seem to come alive and grow up out of the trail to
grab at you. I had tried to plan
for this though and allow myself a lot of extra time on each loop to factor all
this in. Crew recalculated what I
needed to average to cross the finish line at 10:55pm and then updated my
Garmin so I could track how I was doing against that pace. All I had to do was average
16:40min/mile for the next 18 miles and I’d have it! Surely I could do it.
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| These roots seemed to come alive after dark. |
Stay focused, stay on track, keep pushing, don’t give
up. These thoughts were constantly
filling my head. It was so
tempting to ease off, but I knew that if I let up just the least little bit, I
could lose it all so easily and undo all the extra time I had worked so hard to
put in the bank.
They say the 100K/62M distance is just a small peek into the
world of the 100 miler. 100K/62
miles is just barely long enough for you to truly test your will power, to
experience the lows of the ultra world’s “cave pain” and to have to fight hard
to climb back up out of those lows.
These next 4 laps I ricocheted back and forth between optimism and confidence
(“I’m gonna make it, I’m really going to do it!”) and despair (“There’s no way
I can keep this up for 12 more miles.
I can’t make it. I just
need to walk.”)
Lap 12 was definitely my lowest. I was drained.
Absolutely spent. I felt
like I had nothing more in me and was so tired of pushing my body. Deb tells me I was really, really quiet
at the start of this lap so she knew things were not going well. Food. I needed to take in more food. It was about the only thing I could think of that might
help. Even though my stomach was
still rather unhappy, I forced myself to chew down an entire Snickers bar and
just hoped that the influx of calories might work its magic.
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| Spirits and will are flagging. Lap 11 complete. |
On all our previous laps, my pacers had stayed behind me and
I had dictated the pace, where we would walk, where we would run. At this point, I was falling off the
pace pretty badly and just couldn’t bring myself to pick things up. Deb jumped into the lead and got me
running again. A very slow paced,
stumbling, shuffling run, but I was at least still moving. 20 minutes after my candy bar scarf
down, my spirits were picking back up, my energy levels were rising again and
my optimism was back as we finally, finally crossed the mat to complete lap
12. Just 2 more laps to go (and in
my constant mind game thought process, I told myself I really only had 1 more
lap to go because Lap 14 was going to be a “victory lap”!)
Lap 13 with Paul.
Excitement is building. Just do nothing stupid. Watch for those roots. Keep picking the feet up high. Stay on pace. Stay on pace.
We actually made up a little time on this one. As we crossed the mat, the clock read 13:37 and change. I had a whole hour and 23 minutes to
complete the last 4.5 mile loop!
Dropped Paul off at the aid station, picked up Deb, and
called out to her “Let’s finish this thing!!” We trotted off into the dark for the final loop. I know I was smiling big once again. I was tired, my legs were hurting, my
feet were aching, my shoulders were killing me from holding lights and water
bottles…none of it mattered! I
felt super confident…then the cramps hit.
It started in the meaty part of my left inner thigh. Every time I would break into a run, no
matter how slow, the muscle fibers would clench up and send a shot of pain through
me that had me grabbing my thigh and exclaiming in pain. I tried again and again to just slow
down the run, but my legs weren’t having it. I could also feel my right calf starting to cramp as
well. Ok, ok, I can deal with
this. All I’ve got to do is power
walk the heck out of this thing and I can still make it. I’ve worked too hard to give up
now. I’m so close! I tried to set a really good steady
power walk pace. I thought I was
setting a good pace as Deb would have to trot every once in a while to keep up
with me, but I wasn’t sure. I
asked Deb if she could get a reading on her Garmin as to how fast I was
actually walking. She started
calling out numbers as I kept trying to up the pace bit by bit – 18
min/mile…17:30 min/mile…17 min/mile… Bam!
That’s the one! If I can
stay right here at this pace, that’s all I have to do. I can walk this entire lap and still make
it with a few minutes to spare. So
I changed gears to power walk mode and forged on.
As we passed the half way aid station I called out my thanks
to Doug Dawkins and Jimmy Ballard and let them know I’d not be seeing them
again. As we continued on the last
couple of miles, I bid farewell to all my familiar landmarks. The quonset hut maintenance building,
the moguls, the special trees that marked my walk break point, ... It was right
around here with just over a mile to go that I spotted a very well lit up
individual coming from the opposite direction headed towards us on the
trail. It was Paul!! When he realized that my pace was
dropping way off and I hadn’t appeared yet, he headed out on the trail to come
and find me. We all let out a
mutual cheer and with Paul and Deb chattering away excitedly behind me, we
pushed on.
The end of the swamp bridge marked one mile to go! I asked Paul and Deb to get me a clock
time so I knew exactly how much time I had left to make my goal. It was something like 22 minutes to
complete the last mile. Onward! I could smell the barn. A couple of little uphills, a few more
roots to navigate, and finally, finally, that last little hellacious climb to
the visitors’ center came into view in our headlamps. I was so happy to see that nasty little bridge, those steps,
and that final set of gnarly roots that you had to climb at the end of each
lap.
We started hooting and hollering as we made the final
ascent. I could hear answering
shouts and cheers from the hardy volunteers, family and friends who were
braving the cold night temps to cheer on their runners. (Tim Preble, was that you calling out
my name???) We crested the hill,
came around the corner of the visitors’ center and there it was, the finish
line chute! My eyes focused on the
neon time clock numbers as I ran those last few steps to the finish –
14:55:22!!!! Sub 15 hours by 4 minutes
and change!
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| Mission Accomplished!!! Me and my crew! |
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| My post race reward - a massage right on site at the race courtesy of the phenomenal Denise Dilley Martin! |
Final stats:
Lap 11
1:12:07 16:08
min/mile 33rd
place
Lap 12
1:11:42 16:02
min/mile 32nd place
Lap 13
1:10:49 15:51
min/mile 32nd
place
Lap 14
1:17:41 17:23
min/mile 32nd
place
Race statistics:
77 starters, 52 finishers
I placed 3rd
female overall!
My sub 15 hour finish, qualifies me for a lottery ticket to
the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Race (the world’s oldest and one of the
most prestigious hundred mile trail races in the world)
The last 48 hours have allowed me some time to let it all
soak in. Nobody is more surprised
than me at what I accomplished. I
am absolutely certain that I could not have accomplished what I did without the
help of my husband, Paul, and my dear friend, Deb. Every minute counted out there and you two made the
difference. The race director,
park staff, aid station volunteers and my fellow runners were amazing in their
support and dedication. My parents
once again came to my rescue and offered to take care of our daughters so Paul
and I could disappear for our “romantic weekend” at Weymouth (not to mention
all the times they babysat for me so I could get in “just one more long
run”).
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| Honest, she's not pregnant. That's all my crap (food, water bottles, gear) that she's got strapped around her middle. She was ready for anything! |
What would I do different next time? Not much. Maybe try not to snap at my crew, who were so unselfishly
giving of themselves only to be badgered and snapped at by a slightly deranged
45 year old psycho ultra runner because her PBandJ didn’t have the crusts cut
off or her Vitamin Water drink was the wrong color or my pacer was wearing the
wrong vest. Paul and Deb, I love
you both so very much. You saw me
at my best and my worst out there and never batted an eye at offering me your
unflagging support no matter how grumpy I was. Honestly, I guess most of this is mostly directed at Paul
‘cause my deep seated need for decent manners kept me from lighting into Deb
much at all. Poor Paul bore the
brunt of my “moodiness” with stoicism and grace and for this I am forever
grateful.
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| My incredible crew chief. |
What did I do right? – The planning was key for me. Planning and discipline about staying
on schedule early on and not trying to go out too fast. We used walkie talkies out there. Sounds super geeky, but it allowed me
to communicate to my crew just when I was coming in to the aid station and what
exactly I needed on each loop. That
was awesome!
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| My greeting upon arriving home. |
