Diary of a WBF part 3 (climax to the trilogy)

Part three of a three part series


SEGMENT THREE: THRILL?!! THAT AIN'T NO BLUEBERRY HILL

We were now finished with the middle segment of the race walking back to the sturgeon at Kamas High. I think that we were all feeling the affects of the lack of sleep. I personally was in that loopy state where you kind of feel silly and everything becomes funny to you. That is when we saw the wolf man. As we were pulling out of the parking lot to head on down the road, there was this guy without a shirt on that had to be the most hairy creature that I have ever seen. Probably for the next 30 minutes we were making the most silly jokes and comments about this guy. It was maybe not a nice thing to be doing, but it sure was a nice distraction from having to think about my most dreaded segment that was still ahead of me: Guardsman Pass.

By the time we drove by Heidi, she was well into the last leg of her race. We all...well mainly me, was complaining that van #1 was going to be done with their race pretty quick, and most of their last legs were 2.5 to 3.5 miles long. At this point, those legs sounded really good too; like a stroll in the park on a nice cool summer's day.

We pointed the sturgeon towards Heber City to go and get some breakfast. Funny thing about food, at about this time in a race, everything begins to become community property. Not because that is the way anyone planned it, but I think that you get too tired to figure out if you are eating anyone else's treat before you gobble it down. I unfortunately, drank Lisa's gatorade when I mistook it for one that I had in the other cooler. Darin was chowing down on a bag of licorice and so I joined in with him. After a while I got a little nervous when I remembered Darin's eating habits and asked him whose licorice it was. Darin said that he thought it was George's. Whoops, all I can say is sorry Lisa and George.

A couple of things struck my interest as we drove to Heber. First was that we passed a man in a wheel chair in the race that was climbing a huge hill before you get to Heber. You could see how difficult it was to push the wheels up the incline. It was so steep that if you stopped for a split second you'd start rolling backwards down the hill. He was an inspiration to me. If he could do it, then I could make it through my last leg as well. The other thing that struck me was that no matter how many people we passed, that there seemed to be a never ending supply of people running and plodding down the road. Were we all crazy? What was it that kept us all going? I thought to myself, there really is something spectacular about accomplishing something hard. I like a quote that I heard by a parent of a contestant at the national spelling bee competition, in a documentary called Spellbound, "The only things that we truly value in life are those things that are difficult to achieve." or something close to that.

Food choice was difficult to make in Heber. It was still morning and we wanted some breakfast, but we didn't have a lot of time. We finally settled on MacDonald's, I think mainly by default. Lisa didn't eat anything because it was getting too close to her run time, and the Mickey D's grub, I don't think would clear her system in time. Good decision, Lisa. Jon bought food but hardly ate anything. I think his digestive track was starting to cause him problems. As for me I would have eaten a horse if they served it. I think the same goes for Darin. I don't know, he might have had a horse packed away in the sturgeon. By any means we wanted to get to our last major exchange point as quickly as we could so that we could try and get some sleep.

We arrived at the exchange point with about 1 1/2 hours before Lisa's leg would start. All morning the clouds had been building and there had been some small showers even back to the end of Jon's leg earlier in the morning. Darin and I had a good view of the mountains and Guardsman Pass at this time. The clouds were laying heavy on the mountains as storm squall after squall was passing over the pass. Great, this meant that not only would we have the pain of the climb, but we would probably end up doing it in the rain as well as on muddy dirt roads. Also, we were a little concerned about lightning. The more I thought about it, maybe a well placed lightning strike near the start of my run would end all of the misery for me quickly. I had to keep morbid thoughts like that out of my head.

I quickly whipped out my sleeping bag and set an alarm so I wouldn't over sleep, and looked for a place to sack out. The grass was all wet from a recent rain shower that had just passed through, so I settled on a concrete sidewalk. I was so tired, it really didn't matter. I was just blissfully drifting off to sleep when I started to feel the rain drops on my head. I wasn't about to let it deter me. Jon and Darin who had sacked out next to me on the sidewalk gave up and headed for shelter. I tried to stick it out until, the drops became a pretty heavy drizzle. That's when I became resigned to the fact that I wasn't going to get any sleep during this race. I toughed out the rest of the time semi-reclined in the sturgeon.

The time we had predicted that Lisa would start had come and gone. We drove the sturgeon out onto the road and parked a ways from the start so that we could make a clean get away. Lisa, we left on her own to make the exchange. When almost 10 minutes had passed from when we thought Lisa would run by, I started having thoughts that maybe she had passed us before we got out on the road and that she was going to be done with her leg wondering where we went. So Jon got out and started walking back to the start. It wasn't long after this that Lisa came flying by. Once again, she was flying down the road, making it look easy. While a large majority of the runners were really looking beat by this time, she was looking as strong as ever. As a curious side note, We noticed that most of the people running during this leg were women. We couldn't decide if it just was that more women ran this leg or if there were actually more women in the race. By any means, no one passed Lisa and she passed maybe close to a dozen. The rain started coming down pretty good on George on his leg. His leg was over 6 miles long and had a steady climb up into the town of Midway to the base of Guardsman pass. It really wasn't that easy of a leg. George was a trooper, though, and hung in there.

With about a mile and a half to go for George's leg we drove up to my exchange point. I was really getting nervous. Though, I had never run this segment before, I had tried to simulate it in my training by running Snowbasin and Trappers Loop. Darin and I ran Trapper's the week before, to give us a final taste of what we were in store for. I started wondering if there was a connection between adrenaline and having to take a pee. It seemed that one always followed after the other. I then started wondering if I was peeing out all of my adrenaline. I needed to keep it right in side of me where it could do some good. Better judgment finally prevailed and I decided I better go before I had an accident on the course. I was afraid that I wouldn't get back to the start in time for the exchange so I ran as quickly as I could over to the port-a-potties. I was in such a hurry that I forgot to lock the door, and yes, as you would expect at times like this, a lady came right in on me with my pants down. I didn't have time to be embarrassed. I managed to get an "I'm sorry" out as she lectured me about locking the door behind me. Not locking the door to a port-a-potty may be common practice to some of you, but I can't think of a worse thing than to have yourself exposed to the world in such a humble circumstance. So, I thought that the lecture was a little overboard.

I got back to the start before George arrived. Unfortunately, someone just ahead of George arrived with no one there to make the exchange. We had seen this done a few times along the race. I would have been totally upset by this, but it appeared that all of these people took it in stride, maybe just happy to be done with misery of their race legs. My leg started out on a little bit of level before it started into a steep climb. My plan was to run this as quickly as I could and then when I hit the steep stuff to shift it down into low gear and just methodically grind it out. I had been finding that I wasn't getting enough oxygen to my limbs when I had been practicing hills. I found that if I changed my breathing to a hyper ventilating state, that amazingly, my legs seemed to respond better. This is a little bit dangerous, though, because if I were doing this while not running, I would probably pass out from being light headed. This also is a hard thing to maintain. It is actually hard work and takes a lot of focus and energy.

George came and made the pass off. He was looking like he was glad the race was done for him. I started off with a guy right ahead of me and one right behind me. When I felt how my legs were responding, I quickly decided that the mad dash to the base of the hill plan was going out the door. I instead settled into a moderate pace. I caught and passed the guy ahead of me and the guy behind me, whose name was Mark, passed me. Mark and I would get real acquainted on this leg. Mark made some comment to us as he passed about how much fun we were going to have on this climb. I made some flippant comment back that I was going to break out my bungee cord and strap it onto him to pull me along.

We left the third guy behind, as I shadowed Mark up the hill, maybe 50-100 behind. By the mile mark we were well into the climb and I knew that I was in trouble. Another one of my plans was to keep running for as long as possible. I knew that there might be a possibility that eventually I would be reduced to walking. I knew that once you walk, it is always hard to get back into a rhythm of running. If you just keep running, that eventually you might be able to maintain a meager pace. The climb between mile one and two was brutal. Much harder than the climbs up Trapper's and Snowbasin. Similar to one I would do up the old Trapper's Loop road, but then it was only about 1/2 mile long. Mark and I had been closing in on a couple of women ahead of us. I was so focused on what was going on up ahead of me, I forgot to maintain my breathing technique. The pain was pretty intense. I recognized the symptoms that I had suffered once on a hike with Darin and Jon on Mount Nebo, which is just shy of 12,000 feet. On that hike I had experience the effects of pulmonary edema (high-altitude sickness). That is where your lungs start filling up with water and you are not able to supply your body with enough oxygen. I remembered how my legs felt. It was like my brain would give the commands to the legs but they were not able to respond. Though, in this case my lungs were not filling up with water, but I recognized the signs of my limbs not getting enough oxygen to work effectively.

And then it happened, I saw Mark ahead of me go into a walk. My body instantly reacted and went into a walk as well. Dang, I was mad at myself. I was going to have a hard time, establishing a run rhythm again. I immediately revised my plans to accommodate the new situation. I knew that the walking needed to only be a short rest to get my wind, but I still needed to push it hard in a power walk. I then started a 3:1 system, where I would walk for 20 paces and then run for 60. I passed the sturgeon a few times during this part of the climb. It just so happened that I was always in a walk at these times. I felt like I was letting my team down. The method was not entirely unsuccessful. I was able to pass a couple of people. I caught up with Mark, and for a time, I would go ahead of him, and then he would go ahead of me. Sometimes we would be walking or running along side of each other. There is nothing more bonding than doing that. During this time, a little kid, maybe 12 years old, passed me. This really bugged me because I didn't want to be passed.

There was also a girl that was just ahead of Mark and me, that I had closed the gap on, but could not seem to pass. I struggled to try and keep up with her. By this time I was starting to leave Mark behind. I would almost catch her and then I would stop to walk a little more. Finally, I saw the mountain get the best of this girl. She slowed temporarily to a walk. A sign of weakness. I knew then that I could and had, to catch her. With a little more that a mile to go in my 3.6 mile leg. I decided that I was done walking and that I had to tough it out and keep running. I caught and passed this girl and eventually passed a couple of more guys. Eventually, I think that the grade got a little flatter or I got back a running rhythm again, because the running became a little easier. I rounded a corner that exposed itself out on the ridge of the mountain, and I could see down into the valley. I thought to myself, I have climbed a lot of elevation in a short time. I had about 1/2 mile to go. I could see no one behind me, and I kept plugging along. With about 250 yards to go, I could see someone behind me 100 yards making good time. I vowed that I was not going to be passed again. So I put my mind into sprint mode and made off to the finish line as fast as I could. My mind was thinking I was sprinting, my body was in as much pain as I remember when you are running the 400 meter race (most painful sprint that I know of), but in reality I probably wasn't going that fast. But I did it and made it without being caught, and in fact, I think that I lengthened the gap to that runner.

When I handed off to Darin, I was actually mad because I felt like that I could have done better. I didn't want to get back in the sturgeon admitting defeat to the mountain. So, I wanted to keep going up the mountain. I power walked a couple hundred yards more before I got back into the sturgeon. The one blessing of the whole thing was that I realized that I had just run through a break in the rain. Darin was getting the same break, as well. I ended up running the leg in 42 minutes. I was shooting to be under 40. My pace ended up being an average of about 11:50 minute miles.

I was surprised that I seemed to recover quickly. By the time we caught up to Darin, who was just past his first 1/2 mile, I wanted to get back out and run again, to avenge myself of the walking that I had done. It is true, though, that everyone that I saw on the mountain when we ran this RAGNAR section, did some walking. I'm sure that those darn BYU cross country guys didn't though. Dang it all.

Darin was complaining when we passed him and he looked like I must have when the mountain was kicking my butt, but I knew he had plenty in him and he kept plugging on. At his two mile mark we offered him some gatorade and he tried to drink it and could not swallow it and had to spit it out. He said that he felt like he was going to throw up. He kept on going. Here again I was glad that it hadn't rained on us but was cool and overcast. We couldn't have asked for better conditions. I can only imagine what it would have been like to be running in the hot sun on this climb. When Darin neared the top, close to 9000 feet. The run turned into a series of up and down hills, that I think helped him catch his breath. Darin finished his 4 mile leg in just over 48 minutes or a pace of 12:08 minutes per mile.

Next up was Michael, who now was going to run his specialty: the down hill run. His leg was 7.3 miles and dropped 2000 feet into Park City. First, he had to climb a couple of hundred feet to the top of the pass, and then cruise. When we caught up to him, he was all ready in his down hill run, just flying. He was passing people left and right as he was going. He did have one little section where it turned back up hill for a minute, but then it was back to going down again. Almost immediately, the rain started falling on him. He was pretty wet by the time he got to the bottom. He averaged somewhere in the 7 minute range per mile.

Jon took off on the final glory leg. It was a 5.1 mile leg that dropped just over 500 feet. We cruised down to the end to get ready for the final run across the finish line. Everyone on your team gets to meet up with your final runner and you can all run across the finish line together. The traffic jam at the end was incredible and we thought that we weren't going to get to the finish line before Jon. We parked and walked quickly up to the finish line. This was at the Park City sports complex. The final 100 yard run was across astro-turf with a narrow runway lined with people on either side cheering wildly. It was a great party atmosphere. We got up to the spot where the runners meet their final runner. Our van #1 folks were lagging behind somewhere and we were afraid that they wouldn't arrive before Jon got to the finish line. Sure enough, Jon came along and the rest of our people hadn't got there yet. Jon ran his last leg at a nice comfortable pace, but as I said before, his pace is very deceptive. As he came in, there was a group behind him that decided that they were going to make a mad dash sprint to the finish line. All of a sudden Jon turned it on and made a incredible sprint to the finish line with the rest of us trying to catch up so we could finish with him.

Our time flashed up on the electronic board. I noticed that we had finished in 27 hours something. Later the official result showed that we had finished in 27 hours 31 minutes and 4.4 seconds. This placed us at 106 out of 679 teams or in the top 15%. During the whole race there was really no way for us to tell where we were compared to everyone else. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with our finish. They then placed a triumphant medal over heads that weighed, it felt like, 39 lbs. to signify our completion and participation in the event. I'm sure that the winner's won a bottle of coke or something. Speaking of bottles. I noticed that the medal was actually a bottle opener. I'm sure that it was going to be used by many a team in celebration later that night. Just as we crossed the finish line, the rest of our team showed up. We were then able to make take a triumphant photo of the team. Hopefully, when Michael sends this to me, I'll be able to post the picture.

We came to find that the most difficult part of the race was actually getting out of Park City. When we got back to the sturgeon we found that we had cars parked at a stand still nose to tail in both directions. Finally after much consternation and with a little help from some race volunteers we were able to get turned in the right direction of the flow of traffic and got out of town. That felt like it took us 28 hours to do.

In all it was a great experience and I look forward to doing it again. Where else can you, as my wife puts it, "spent $85 plus dollars to go sleep deprived and run yourself to death all night long to get a shirt and a bottle opener."

Yeah Man, count me in.