Please don't tell Coach P, but I sort of ran an Ultra...
To get this out of the way, I fully buy into the "No fall Marathon Philosophy". Especially this yr, since I am really trying to break through with my IM run performance so I have been following the new "Run Durability Training Plan". But sometimes there are bigger forces at work that just thinking of yourself and your own goals.
My friend Gab Szerda who works for me, and who is also on the Board of Directors of ReserveAid, did IMLou in 2011 in 11:10:xx as his one and done in triathlon. He hated the bike and got into ultra running afterwards and has completed two of the "Racing the Planet" 155 mile stage races in the desert, the last of which was in Jordan in 2012 and he came in 4th place overall out of ~200 racers. His big race for this yr was going to be his first 100 miler and he picked the hardest one he could find which was the Mogollon Monster 100 http://www.mogollonmonster100.com/ which is 106 miles in Arizona on treacherous terrain with over 23,000' of ascent and descent. He had the commitment of one of his really fast ultra buddies to pace him for the last 55 miles in his attempt at a podium finish in this race. (To foreshadow, this yr's race had 51 competitors at the start line, but saw 39 DNF's due to the severity of the course and cut-off times)
A little over a month ago, his pacer got injured training and had to back out. Gab asked the RD to help him find a local pacer to no avail. So 1.5 weeks before the race, I agreed to go and help if I could. I honestly didn't want to go because I didn't think I was fast enough or in nearly good enough shape to help. My biggest fear was that I would slow him down in his race. It was Jess that finally bullied me into going as she had more faith in me than I had in myself. She also knew that Gab REALLY needed somebody there and I was his only hope. Fast or not, he was stuck with me as the "better than nothing" alternative to a "real" pacer... Gab convinced another of our friends (who is also a 4x IM finisher) to also come and try to help with a few of the sections. Stacey (this other pacer) is fast on the roads but clumsy on trails. I'm pretty good on trails, but not a true "runner" (yet).
I took a couple weeks completely off after IM Lake Placid on July 28th. Then, my only training had been the 4-5 short-ish "durability" runs a week for the last 3-4 weeks and a couple of trail runs I went on with Gab where I would do say one ~10 mile loop with him when he was doing 3 of them, accompanied by other people for the other loops.
Here's the small report I wrote up for some of Gabs friends to hold them over until he could do his "proper" race report from the event. I titled it "View from a Mogollon Monster Pacer" but I could have titled it "Jess made me do it...":
Well... I had an AWESOME time!!! I did ~37.5 miles in total and actually don't feel bad at all today.
I’m going to fast forward to mile 51 to where Gab’s race started from a “pacer’s perspective”. Let’s just pretend that the multiple rim climbs and 51 miles with about ~10,000’ of climbing before that point were simply his “warmup”...
My friend Stacey (a.k.a. Terminator) paced Gab from miles 51-64. This was supposedly one of the harder sections of the course with chest high grass and difficult terrain. Navigation was tough and it went from daylight to pitch black during these miles and the temperature dropped almost 25 degrees (it was low 30's for the most of my running which was actually pretty nice). He dropped her on the Rim Climb at around mile 61, but she ran as hard as she could on the ~3 mile dirt road section above the rim to catch back up to him just before the mile 64 Aid Station. Stacey is fast and strong so this is a testament to how freakin’ strong Gab is on the hills (already 60 miles into his day). He passed ~6 people in that section and was in ~7th overall when I joined him at mile 64. (Side note, it took me almost 2 hours to drive from the 51 mile A/S to the 64 mile A/S on the windy dirt Control Road and Rim Road.) When Stacey arrived at the mile 64 A/S her right eye was swelled almost completely shut from something getting stuck in there during the run. I should add that the whole place was cold, dry, and dusty and I am still coughing up the dust that got stuck deep in my lungs and in my sinuses.
As I waited for them at mile 64, another pacer told me that about a quarter to a half a mile up the road we would see a red flag, followed by two yellow flags, then another red flag and that we were supposed to turn onto the single track between the two yellow flags. I told Gab this as we started out up the dirt road but neither of us saw any of these flags, and yes I was definitely looking for it. The yellow flags were used to tell you that you were on the correct “course” or trail. A little up ahead there was a fork in the road and another runner was coming down from the one side complaining that he was lost for almost an hour and that was the wrong way. So the 3 of us took the other route. Not far ahead we saw a yellow flag like all of the other “confidence markers”. We continued to see these every 1/3 of a mile or so and eventually ran into another Aussie guy named Martin coming towards us. He was also lost and said that the yellow flags continued up ahead but it just didn't seem “right”. The four of us decided to continue up ahead for a while and I ran up ahead to see if I could figure it out. The road eventually dumped into a cattle pasture and ended ad a fence that you could not cross after there were no markers in sight for a while. I ran back to them and we decided to turn back. I got my map out and it sure didn't look like we were supposed to be on a road very long. Since I was fresh (and not racing) I ran up ahead to go back to the aid station to ask for help. On my way back I passed two other runners coming at us and I turned them around. When I got about 50 feet from the A/S, I saw the red and yellow flags back in the woods off to my left. They were back in the woods several feet and none of them was reflective. There was nothing near the dirt road indicating a turn. I turned around and went back to tell everyone. When we all got back to the turn, one of the runners from our “lost” group left for the A/S and may have DNF’d right there. This cost us ~3 miles and ~45 mins and were still only ~50 feet from the Aid Station I had waited at for so long to start. I really felt horrible that I had added so much distance to such an already long race.
This was a very low point for Gab and he voiced as much. Mentally, this was crushing, but we were now on the single track and had to keep moving forward. After ~8 miles of rocky single track, we got to the aid station at 72 and it looked like a camp site with a ton of other racers sitting around the campfire, puking, or simply recovering from the last brutal 8 (or 11+ miles). Nobody really had enough nutrition or water for the extra ~45 mins at that point. When we checked out of that A/S, I asked the radio guy and there were only 3 people ahead of him to leave that A/S. We leap frogged with and chatted with the other Aussie guy, Martin, from 65 (where we found him lost) until around 79. We learned at the 79mi A/S that one of the guys was 3+ hours ahead but the other 2 were only 15 mins ahead. Just before we dropped down over the treacherous rim, we were told that the other 2 were running together about 20 mins ahead. The rocks we had to climb down were somewhat comical. It was impossible to run, barely possible to climb down this nearly 45 degree, 1 mile section. It was solid rocks that were anywhere from 8 inches to 2 feet big, but most about a foot or so. They would slide or roll under your feet as you stepped on them. At the 86 mi A/S, one of the guys was leaving just as we got there but the other was supposedly ~10 mins ahead of us. I changed shoes here from my Brooks Cascadia's to my Hoka's and was glad I did, but because Gab was in such a hurry to leave the A/S, I made a BIG mistake here. I didn't have time to fill my CamelBak up (I thought it was still over half full). It ran out of water within a half mile of leaving the A/S. So at this point I was over 22 miles (and 6+ hours in) and I had to do the next ~2.5 hours with no water and no fuel (since I didn't want to take a gu or shot block with no water). I thought about asking Gab for some of his, but he needed it way more than I did. Thank God I had done so many "fasted" workouts last winter as it gave me the confidence to keep at it...
Gab had several low points after this and I was essentially his brains from mile ~75-95. I told him when to take nutrition, handed him his salt pills when I thought he needed them, etc. We talked a bit to keep his mind occupied, but not all that much. I did 98% of the navigating which was no small task given how poorly the trails were marked. There were several times I thought I had lost the trail, but I didn't tell him. I was relieved every time when I somehow stumbled across a marker. The markers were only every quarter mile or so apart and only some of them had reflective tape on them. Not so easy to follow a seldom traveled trail in the pitch black with several washouts or crossing offshoots and often tall sharp cactus-like grass outcroppings covering it. There was like an imaginary bungee cord between us that I kept trying to stretch and he always seemed to catch back up. I would pay attention to his breathing, and always keep pushing ahead without saying much. I would walk all noticeable uphills as fast as I could or any points where there were too many rocks (which was often) but we ran anytime the terrain would allow. Around mile ~90 or so we were up on a rim and could see 2 headlamps down below off in the distance. It looked like they were coming towards us and I thought we might have gotten turned around and were heading the wrong way on a trail. It turns out they were just in a section of switchbacks down below and happened to be on the section coming towards us in the labyrinth. Gab said he didn't care what place he was in, but it was now my mission to reel them in. But, it was a delicate game to keep moving faster without blowing Gab up.
He was tripping and falling more as the miles added up, but I never helped him up... I simply kept moving forward and "stretched the bungee cord" a bit and he would pick himself up (after swearing a few times) and keep moving. Even at this point of the race and in his condition, he would still ascend any big hills faster than me. I just don’t know how he can climb so fast. I always let him pass me on the big uphills (as I think it was also a big mental boost for him to know he could still climb). He hit a really “low” low around mile 91 or 92. I stopped and had to open his gu for him. I gave him Advil, and a calcium, magnesium, and more salt. He told me in a raspy voice that he had never worked so hard in his life and that he didn't care what place he was in, he just wanted to finish. It was around here that he accidentally kicked a rock very hard and went down into a screaming heap. A few minutes later, he almost tripped and then had to jump over a ~5 foot mini ravine. I think this actually woke him back up. He said something to the effect of “If I would have fallen down there, this whole thing would have been over”. I certainly couldn't have carried him 3 miles from there in the condition I was also in at this point.
He just kept saying that he has never worked so hard in his whole life just to take each step. He told me he didn't know what he was going to do at the mile 99 rim climb. I reminded him that he had been thinking about that climb for the last 9 months and now was his chance to do what he told everyone he would do on that hill. I also told him that was still a few hours away and to only care about the next 5 mins. Almost every time he hit a low it was because he was late on his nutrition. I kept reminding him to take it, but to be honest it was hard for me to keep track at that point as well.
About 5 mins after this latest round of sugar hit his veins, he started to pep up. He kept mentioning that he couldn't wait to finally get to a trail that we could run instead of these stupid rocks that you had to delicately walk over or around. It’s one of those things though that you should watch what you wish for because you might actually get it and then what?
We kept moving forward and finally got to a "run-able" trail. It was almost 2 miles of a section with a "real" trail. It was like a dark reddish brown crushed rock/dirt trail. Gab “sounded” good at this point so I picked up the pace and the cord stretched and he caught up so I picked it up some more. Before I knew it we were at a full run pace as the sun was starting to come up. Many times after mile 70 I kept reminding him about our Ben Lloyd’s 100 (where Gab was his pacer and walked the last 30 miles with him) and how all of his friends following him on the day wanted him to keep running after mile 70. It was one of our mantra’s that I kept saying over and over throughout the night, “I’m going to tell Ben Lloyd you were still running at mile X”.
We climbed a small hill and I let him pass again, but this time I let him stay in front but stayed close on his heels. The last mile was almost all downhill and we were in a full on run down it and after a while I told him to look up ahead as there were the guys in 2nd and 3rd place... He accelerated even more. They looked back and saw the 2 car freight train coming down the hill (we're both ~190 lbs) at full speed. They stopped running and stepped out of the way and let us pass. As we did, Gab accelerated even more... I think he really wanted to crush their spirits... Once we got out of earshot, I gave Gab a little pep talk about how he had crushed their spirits and that those guys were planning to walk hand-in-hand across the finish line so they could share 3rd place. I also reminded Gab that the final Rim climb was going be where he wins this. He is a freakishly strong climber and I wanted to make sure that he was reminded that he was a stronger climber than those guys by a lot. If he could get to the climb before them, he would win it!
They took off running behind us and came into the mile 95 A/S just after we did (which was only about a quarter mile after we passed them). I was severely dehydrated and way low on calories since I had just gone the previous ~2.5 hours without either. I was mentally prepared to run the next 11 miles with him even though I knew I would be dropped on the rim climb. Stacey had gotten something in her eye on her first go and her eye had swelled completely shut. I frantically tried to fill my Camelbak and grab some calories after Gab refilled his bottles. It seemed like Gab spent no more than 30 seconds in that A/S. Filled his water, grabbed some gu and was off. His wife “JZ” was there and I asked her if Stacey was planning to run this section. It’s hard to wait in the freezing cold for over an hour to then need to leave on a moment’s notice as your “racer” just shows up with no warning. Especially when said racer is Gab, who just moments ago had his “racing” fire rekindled and was fully planning on continuing to stoke that fire. As Gab ran off down the trail, I was chasing after him trying to throw on my CamelBak as “one-eyed” Stacey was running from the other direction putting on her pack. She had just finished dropping something off at her car. I made sure she was okay to run and she said definitely was as she took off down the trail to try and catch up to Gab who had gotten about a 50yd lead at that point. One of the other two guys sat down at the aid station to rest, but the other one grabbed his stuff and took off after Stacey at a full sprint.
The 3 of them actually ran shoulder and shoulder from miles 95-99 with a bit of a chess match before the final rim climb where I had told Gab over and over to make his move. And this was not a simple flat section. They were running up and down the windy treacherous terrain much too fast for this point of the race. At mile 99, the Race Director thought it would be fun to add a final rim climb of more than 1,000' of vertical in about 1 mile, only to come straight back down on the other side. On this uphill section, Gab dropped the hammer and ditched the other guy running with them. Stacey was dropped on the climb by just a little bit and barely caught up to Gab at the 100 mile A/S just after the top. Somehow, he found yet another gear on the way down and then he dropped Stacey on the technical descent (she’s very fast, but technical trails are definitely not her specialty and considering she was doing this with one eye and no depth perception, forget about it).
I had driven up ahead since there's a final “water only” stop at mile 104, the whole time eating and drinking everything in my car! After talking to the single volunteer there he pointed me to the "wrong" trailhead that he "thought" they would be coming down to finish the race. He said if I went up it and saw the yellow markers that it was surely the right path. I figured Gab might be alone at this point so I would run the course backwards and be able to do the last 3-4 miles with him. I went almost a mile up that “wrong” trail before I had a mini panic attack that I would miss him and ran full speed back down the trail (skipping the switchbacks of the trail and just running straight down over the hill like Bigfoot himself) to that water station where I decided to wait for him to come out. He actually came from the “other” direction and looked absolutely destroyed. I "ran" him in from there, but it was more like me walking quickly beside him as he tried to "run". I have never seen anybody so hollow and devastated as he was at this point. I kept looking behind us as we were now on the streets that would take us to the finish. You could see behind for at least 100yds at all times, so I always knew he was safely in 2nd. He kept mumbling that he had left his soul on that climb and that he was sure he had put at least 15 mins into the guy. Nobody appeared behind us and he eventually made it through town and to the finish line in 2nd place. He immediately bent over at the waist and started crying uncontrollably and then his wife JZ started crying, and then I did as well. The person he passed on the last hill finished 45 mins later (in 5th place). The guy in 3rd finished a full 30 mins behind Gab. (The winner was something like ~5 hours ahead of Gab). Gab had posted the 3rd fastest time ever on that course!
We shared a quick beer and a little bit of crappy food but I had to rush back to the hotel for a quick shower to be on a flight ~100 miles away about 5 hours later. I slept like crap last night. But shockingly, I feel pretty good today. I'm nowhere near as sore as after an Ironman. My knees (lateral area), hamstrings, hip flexors and some of my stabilizers are sore, but not really that bad at all (weird, but my quads don't hurt at all...). The bottoms of my feet and all the little muscles in my feet are sore, but also not nearly as bad as expected. I did a good job of taping my feet beforehand (thanks to Gab’s advice) and really didn't get any blisters. I have to imagine that Gab feels like he was run over by a Mack truck, then backed up and run over again.
I must say that I really did enjoy myself. But, I don't really feel any need to do my "own" ultra someday (even though I just did well over 50k of continuous running on the hardest terrain you could possibly imagine), but I'm pretty sure I'll be his pacer for his next one. And I will have a whole lot more confidence in my own abilities when that day comes.
Comments
Loved the way you coached and encouraged Gab on. Must feel good to have gotten him into 2nd place.
Got me all teary-eyed too.....
Great read! Congrats on your first Ultra Pacing, you did awesome!
That distance, over that terrain, and in the dark, sounds just crazy in a good way.
The poorly marked course seems like a disgrace. It that typical for ultras? Hard enough helping someone else and running without having to add a lot of anxiety.
WoW John that is a great story and report. Too bad I didnt know you were out here! I only live about 45' minutes from the race ( Flagstaff ) , and have done lots of running, and camping on the rim road. NEXT time, give me call and let me know I'll come pace with you!!!!
I just wish I had been there to experience it along with you guys! Gab is an ANIMAL (JW forgot to add the part where Gab's wife called him the day after the race, expecting to hear that he was in his hotel room recovering, but he was out on the 11th hole golfing with a colleague.. ).
John, I am SO glad that you were there for him, and I'm so impressed with what YOU did. To think there was a time when you didn't think you could possibly run SIX miles!!! You are an amazing athlete AND an amazing friend!
@John- it was crazy (in a good way)
@Robin- I think poor trail marking is the norm, not the exception. Imagine how hard it would be to get volunteers to mark a course that they probably know pretty well for 106 miles. It would take them many days of marking during the daylight not knowing exactly how it would look at night. And something that would seem obvious to them since they' eh been on the trail many times may not be so obvious if it's your first time on the trail in the middle of the night in an exhausted state.
@Rian- I'm sure we could have used you! I wish I had thought about that but this all happened so quickly in the last minute.
@Al- this seems like it might be right up your alley...
@Tim- you're way fitter and faster than I am. Re: the training... I think I carried a lot of fitness over from IMLP. And even though I haven't been doing long runs or trail specific stuff, I have at least done several weeks of higher frequency stuff. I enjoy trails so it's easier in many ways than monotonous pounding on a road. It's a different 'technique' that I'm actually better at than road running. And finally, even though my friend came in 2nd, we weren't moving all that fast. A lot of it was a fast hike or slow run over that terrain. I think we averaged around 13 min per mile for most of it including aid station stops.
As I sit here 3 days later, I feel like I'm mostly recovered and plan to do an easy spin tomorrow, then an easy run on Friday to be back at it hard this weekend. My hip flexors are still a tiny bit sore as are my hamstrings. Weird that my quads aren't the least bit sore as that is what kills me after an IM. The thing I notice the most is the little muscles/ligaments on the bottom of my feet, particularly the arch are 'sore' but not in a bad way. It's as if that trail work was 'strengthening' my feet in a way that road running does not.
Awesome job.
@Al T - sounds like the last leg of Ragnar CO x 12!! Seems very much, your thing