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| Mid-afternoon at the end of loop 3 - 48 miles |
It was a sunny warm 90F afternoon
when Amy and I arrived with all our camping gear at the start line and campsite
of the Javelina Jundred. I felt well
prepared for this race having put in many training miles on trails similar to
the ones out here, and I was not hampered by any injuries. There was nothing at
all to foreshadow the long grueling night that I had ahead of me. The Javelina
Jundred is a 100 mile trail race in McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain
Hills, AZ which is just to the northeast of the Phoenix metropolitan region http://aravaiparunning.com/network/javelinajundred/the-course/
. Our plan was to set up our tent, stow
all the camping and race gear inside and then head down to the race
headquarters to pick up my number and get something to eat. It was a bit warm, but fortunately a cooling
trend was forecast for the next day when the race was to start with a high in
the low 70’s which was a huge relief to all the runners who had been
anticipating and preparing for a very hot and dry race. Last February I ran some of the other
regional parks in the desert hills that surround the Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale
area with my sister Dawn and her husband Marcel. We had a great time running the gentle slopes
though the desert past all the giant saguaros which is what promoted me to sign
up for this race. Marcel was also flying
in that afternoon and I was greatly looking forward to seeing him and have him
pace me though the second half of the race.
That afternoon the campsite seemed
like a buzzing beehive of activity as all the runners and their crews were
setting up and getting ready. As the tents popped up, the site even started to
take on the appearance of a honeycombed beehive. It was almost impossible to drive a stake
into the desert floor which felt like concrete but we were able to borrow a
hammer from a neighbor and get the job done.
We had a big comfortable tent that we could stand up in and had brought
along a lounge chair and umbrella for my crew, Amy, to relax in and get some
magazine reading done as I made my loops around the course the following
day. Each loop was 16 miles in length and
we would have to complete 6 ½ of them which made 100 miles. Hal Koerner holds the course record finishing
in 13 hours 47 min. and 46 sec in 2011 http://runitfast.com/2011/11/12/hal-koerner-crushes-javelina-jundred-100-miler-course-record-results/
. I would be nowhere near that time but maybe a 24 hour finish was possible and
I could get myself one of those under 24 hour finisher buckles. The start/finish line at 1800 ft. was at the
low point of the course which made its way gently up 8 miles of sand and rock
desert trails with little to no shade to 2,480 ft. At the top of the course was an aid station
with a medical tent that I would be spending part of the night in. In addition,
there was one more aid station on each side of the loop. Those three aid stations along with the main
one at the start/finish line where Amy was waiting to help crew me, refilling
my bottles and getting me everything I needed for each loop were plenty for the
16 mile loop. Each aid station was extremely well organized and I am very
thankful to the all volunteers whose energy and enthusiasm never diminished
though the following day and night and gave us all a huge boast each time we ran
though.
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| Posing with one of the Talamahara runners who would be competing the next day. |
We got the campsite setup, number
picked up, ate at Subway, picked up a few last minute supplies from the grocery
store for the next day and night and were back at camp by 8 PM and ready to
settle in for the night. The night air
was calm and comfortable and I was able to get some good sleep before the race
6:00am race start the next morning. That
evening I heated up some premade whole wheat noodles I had brought along and in
the morning I made myself some breakfast cereal from a 7 grain mix I buy in
bulk from our grocery store. It was
still dark when the starting gun set us off and I said good-bye to Amy as she
cheered me on; 290 of us would finish the 100 mile challenge while 221 would
not. http://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=27560
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| 6:00AM - 0 miles |
The beginning of any ultra is a
festive affair as everyone is pacing themselves at a relaxed, very comfortable
and conservative pace that they hope they will be able to sustain until the
end. It is a good time to talk to other
runners and joke around a bit. One
runner from Penticton, B.C., Canada who was running draped in a Canadian flag
commented on the gloves I was wearing. I
told him that I wear those fingerless cycling gloves to protect my hands during
falls that I was so susceptible too on these trails. He replied that he seldom fell and could
probably count the number of times he tripped during a run on three fingers. Just 5 minutes later he did actually take a
tumbler over a smooth patch of trail after the sun had already come up for no
apparent reason. He looked very shocked as
he got up right away and continued on and we all had a good laugh over the
timing of this spill.
The first three loops sailed by
uneventfully and I hoped that I hadn’t started out too fast as I was making
very good time. However, I didn’t feel
that I working too hard and although I wasn’t wearing a heart rate monitor I
felt that I was keeping everything in check.
I was fueling primarily with dehydrated bananas and figs and hydrating
with water and EFS electrolyte. I chose
EFS because of the calcium in its ingredients which helps me prevent cramping
for which I also carry Tums. Amy didn’t
expect to see me so soon on the first loop which I completed in 2 hr. 45
min. I wasn’t wasting any time in the
aid stations either enjoying thinking
about what I needed before I came in and preparing for it so I could fly in and
out as fast as possible. Amy already had
2 bottles of EFS prepared for me so I grabbed those and a couple more bags of
bananas and figs dropped off my headlamp that I wouldn’t be needing until the
evening and just kept rolling. I ran
right past several aid stations that day when I didn’t need anything.
The next two loops were repeats of
the first although I was gradually slowing down as is to be expected. I finished the second loop in 3 hr. 15 min
and the third in 3 hr. and 35 min. By
the end of the third loop it was 3:30 PM and I had already completed 48 miles most
of it under the daytime sun with no shade except my cap and I was looking
forward to nightfall. I was still moving
along smoothly, enjoying the race and wasn’t suffering any substantial aches or
pains yet. I did notice that I wasn’t
consuming all of my food that I had divided out for each loop. I was trying to take in about 300 calories
per hour and I was probably doing about half of that. I just couldn’t seem to put down anymore and
although I wasn’t having and stomach distress yet, in retrospect this should
have alerted me that it would have been good to slow down a bit. Slowing down
would have allowed more blood to go to my digestive system and would have
helped me out later in the run.
As I made my way towards my drop
bag on loop three I first saw Amy but no Marcel so I asked her where he
was. She pointed behind her to the right
and I saw him coming towards me all dressed and ready to go. I checked with a race official and he
informed me that Marcel could join me at this point as it would be dark before
we finished the next loop. We took off
together and Marcel told me of a very unfortunate incident that occurred. Just minutes before I came in a dog belonging
to one of the spectators had attacked and knocked down a runner. Marcel helped to get the dog off but the
runner could not continue and was taken to the hospital. How anyone could be so ignorant to bring a
dog like this to such an event is beyond us.
With this sad news behind us the
next loop went by pretty much as the first three except I had someone to talk
to this time. It was fun running with
Marcel and we quickly finished the third loop in about 4 hours as day turned
into night. Things were still looking good
for an under 24 hour finish; I had finished 62 miles or 100k in 12 hours and 50
minutes which was a personal record for me.
However, this was all to change before too long.
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| Coming in on loop 6 with Marcel |
We were a little over two miles
away from the aid station at the top of the course and not talking much
anymore, heading uphill at a conservative run/walk pace when I called out to
Marcel that I needed to stop for a bit. I
felt that I needed to throw up and I did.
I hoped that this would only be a short set back and that I would start
feeling better now so we continued on. However,
four minutes later I needed to stop again and this time I also throw up a full
stomach load of liquid. Apparently my
stomach wasn’t even absorbing water anymore.
Marcel indicated that if I needed to I could lay down a bit to rest
which I did for about 10 minutes. I got
up and we started moving again but this pattern of stop, throw-up, lie down and
rest continued all the way up the hill until we reached the aid station. It took me a little over 2 hours to cover
this section of the course and if it hadn’t been for Marcel staying with me I
would have been surely pulled out.
Runners passing by asked if I was OK and Marcel explained what was
happening as he waited shivering in his shorts in the cold night air. He had not expected that we would be stopping
so much didn’t dress for the cold. I
felt bad and grateful for what he was doing for me especially when I had to
stop the last time. We could see the
lights of the aid station and here the noise of the music they were playing
just over a hill less than 200 yards away but I couldn’t even make that without
stopping one more time.
I finally made it into the medical
tent at that aid station and crawled up into a cot and pulled a blanket over
myself. The only thing I could do now
was get some rest and hope that my body would recover enough to finish the race. We were 70 miles into it with a little more
than marathon to go. I was still way
under the cut-off times but things were not looking very good as I still could
not eat or drink anything. I was just
lying there feeling miserable as I heard other runners speak about their
stories as they moved in and out of the tent.
Most of the stories were about blisters or exhaustion like mine. We were there almost 2 hours and we were
informed that there would be another shuttle to take runners who dropped out
leaving in 5 minutes and I had resigned myself to get on that one. It just didn’t look like it was going to happen. Then I overheard Marcel talking to a runner
about my plight and he suggested that I try some Coke-cola. He explained that I needed to first get some
glucose into my stomach and brain and then the rest of my digestive system
would respond. I asked Marcel to get me
some and immediately after taking it I started to feel better. I asked for some chicken soup that they had
and I was able to eat that too. At this
point I felt that I was back in this thing and I told Marcel that I was going
to try to run back down to the start.
After hydrating a bit more we headed out and I felt like a brand new man
with almost as much energy as I started with in the morning; I was excited
now.
We bounded down that hill passing
runner after run though the midnight hours averaging a very brisk 10 min/mi
pace - fast for me anyways at that
point. When we finally finished the
fifth loop, I knew that I would be able to finish the entire run. I was still incredulously holding on to the
belief that I could finish in less than 24 hours but I obviously wasn’t
thinking very clearly yet. Luckily I had
Marcel with me who cautioned me to slow down and pace myself as we still had 20
plus miles to run. I followed Marcel’s
lead as we ran/walked into the morning.
Morning came as we made our way
down the backside of the sixth loop.
This section was downhill with quite a few rocky sections and although
these rocks posed no difficulty in the early parts of the race they were really
starting to take the joy out of things right now. And so began what Marcel and I would call the
“Death March.” I couldn’t easily pick my
feet up over these rocks anymore and I had resorted to walking through this
section rather than risking a fall. The
sun had just risen on the horizon and we were filled with hope as we could see
the next aid station in the distance. We
kept plodding toward it, both of our feet seriously hurting with each footfall,
but somehow that aid station did not appear to get any closer. Have you heard the expression that “a watch
pot never boils?” This was like that
except our feet were boiling and our spirits were dropping. Marcel remarked that it actually hurt more to
walk then to run. I gave him a very
strange look but decided to try it and indeed my feet did hurt less. I kept on running risking tripping over some
rocks which did not happen. When we got
to that aid station we lingered a bit and then finished the last two miles of
loop 6 slowly, ever so slowly jogging or should I say hobbling along at a 13 to
15 min per mile pace.
Amy was there at the end of the
sixth loop and she thought that we might be finished. She had slept (or at least tried to as there
was a lot of noise throughout the night coming from the start/finish area)
though the night and missed all the news of our misfortune. It was sure good to see her there again. Marcel
and I rested a few minutes this time, I changed my shoes and he changed some
socks before we took off for the last half loop. The last eight miles went by about the same
as the previous eight. I tried to run as
much as I could and walked when I needed to and endured the pain all the
way. Two miles from the finish I told
Marcel that I didn’t think I would experience any of that finisher’s euphoria
this time and would probably just limp across the line. Then we were only one mile away and I saw a
couple of runners ahead. I told Marcel
that we were going to catch those guys and I took off again. I did pass both of them and kept on running
at that point to the finish line. I saw
Amy waiting and I grabbed her hand as we crossed the line and rejoiced.
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| 9:30 am the next morning - rounding the final bend to the finish |
I finished in 27:17:27 so I didn’t
break the 24 hour mark. Yet I am still
very satisfied with finishing this run and overcoming the urge to quite during
that rough spell in the middle of the night.
The aid workers at the medical tent were phenomenal and very
encouraging. They didn’t want me to
quite either and I could hear it in their voices. I also need to thank Marcel one more time for
pacing me through the night – it wouldn’t have happened without him and he says
that we are blood brothers now by the “Death March.” And thanks again to Amy for not only supporting
me as my crew at the aid station but also supporting me and keeping an eye on
me as I headed out for all those long training runs.
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| Celebrating the finish with Amy and Marcel |
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