[mountainmilers] September Progress Report (and The Bear report)

  • From: Terri Rashid <terri@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "mountainmilers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <mountainmilers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 18:24:25 +0000

This report is *really* late, but I still wanted to write up the summary and 
share it with you.  :)

September was a lower total-mileage month, in comparison to my 3 summer running 
months.  I logged roughly 212 miles, and participated in a couple of events.  
The lower mileage was mostly because I was tapering for The Bear.

The first event was The Rut 12K in Big Sky, MT.  I flew up to Montana on 
Thursday, in part because I had offered to host some of the iRunFar.com crew 
that was doing web coverage for the events.  The first event was the vertical 
kilometer (VK) on Friday, so I wasn't sure when Bryon might need me to put 
someone up at the house.  It turned out I didn't have someone there until 
Friday evening, which was kind of nice since it let me be free to go run on my 
own schedule on Friday morning.  I decided to run from my house over to our lot 
in the YC, but then changed my mind as I heard the cheering on Lone Mountain 
for the runners headed up on the VK.  I decided to run/hike up to the course, 
which resulted in my meeting, and getting a selfie photo with, Anna Frost, who 
happened to be working as a course marshal *right* where I came upon the 
course!  Too cool.  :)  I ended up run/hiking a short section of the course 
(with permission) to just see a bit what it was like, then came back down and 
put in some other mileage around the mountain.  10.8 miles for the day, but at 
a pretty easy, sightseeing and picture-taking kind of pace.

The next day I ran the 12K (which is actually a bit short).  I started with 
some friends, and just planned to take it at a bit harder than training pace.  
I didn't want to chance getting injured with only two weeks to go until The 
Bear 100.  After the run I hung out with my friends and we waited for other 
friends who were running the very hard (10,000' total ascent) 50K.  It was a 
great day on the mountain and the weather could not have been any nicer.

My husband (1st week) and sister (2nd week) were taking care of the boys in 
Prescott for a couple of weeks so that I could stay in Big Sky to get re- 
altitude acclimatized before attempting The Bear.  So my next two weeks 
consisted of runs in the Big Sky area which was great.  The wildflowers were 
gone, but the scenery is still amazing and I love it there.  Rick, the boys and 
my sister visited on the middle weekend, which was also Rick's birthday.  Rick 
and I got to take my sister on a hike up into Beehive Basin and that was great 
fun.

I flew to SLC on the Weds before The Bear.  Thursday my family and crew (Cheri 
Pompeo & Karen King) arrived and it was great getting to visit with everyone.  
I was starting to get a bit tense on Thursday afternoon, but still managed to 
get my things organized and get some sleep before starting The Bear on Friday.

I had an amazingly good start for The Bear!  The weather was nice, albeit a bit 
warmer than I would have preferred, and the views over the opening miles were 
stunning.  Vistas looking back over Logan, fall color in the aspens up high, 
and great comradery with the runners I was hiking with up the first long climb.

Here's a link to the photo album (you can use this to view it, even if you're 
not on Facebook):
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152729960314564.1073741973.717159563&type=1&l=2ef6e58f24

I hit the first crewable aid station (~20 miles) feeling really good, although 
a bit warm.  I told Rick how gorgeous the course was and headed off.  I was 
looking forward to the next crewable aid station (mile 30) as I would get to 
see the boys and Janet in addition to Rick.  I had a great pace going, and 
plenty of cushion beyond the cutoffs and was still feeling fine.  At this aid 
station I commented to Rick that maybe I really could get the whole 100 miles 
done!  I changed shoes here and re-slathered my feet.  I had been starting to 
get a bit blistered on my little toe (the bottoms of my feet were taped) from 
the Asics Gel Kayanos, but the Hoka Cliftons that I switched to felt great and 
didn't hit that area at all.  I said a cheery goodbye to the family and headed 
off, warning them that I would be at the next aid station (6.9 miles away) 
pretty quickly (in a relative sense).

That aid station was where I was expecting to pick up my pacer, Karen.  
Unfortunately I was running way ahead of schedule, so she and Cheri did not 
make it to the aid station in time.  Instead Rick, Janet and the boys were 
there.  I was thrilled to see them again, but a bit confused.  It didn't really 
matter though because on the pace I was doing, I would almost be to the next 
aid station by the time it was dark.  (Originally I expected darkness to be 
setting in pretty shortly after I left Right Hand Fork.)  The big mistake I 
made here though was in turning down the rain jacket that my sister kept 
offering.  I told her I was still really warm from the day and felt like I'd be 
OK even if I got wet.  But as I hit the trail again, the winds picked up and 
the temps dropped and the thunder and dark clouds rolled in.  I realized I made 
an error in judgment and in my worrying about getting chilled I started pushing 
the pace more.

Unsurprisingly, after all the miles and ascent I had already done, picking up 
the pace resulted in my starting to feel nauseated.  (The stress about possibly 
having sleet and/or lightning as I crossed the broad, open, saddle at the top 
of this leg probably didn't help any either.)  I did start to back off the pace 
as the rain was short-lived and the worst of the clouds passed by, but I think 
that at some level this was the beginning of the end of my run.

Karen, Cheri and Janet were waiting for me at Temple Fork, and as per my plan, 
I changed back into my Asics.  I had only worn the Cliftons once before since I 
had just ordered them the week before The Bear, and at a 4mm drop, I was 
worried that I would severely irritate my Achilles insertion areas and or my PF 
- both of which have plagued me for months.  My Asics are 12mm and I just 
figured that was too much difference for the long climb up to Tony Grove.  I 
was sad to give up the Cliftons though as they are much lighter and were not 
bothering my blisters.

Karen and I made good time (for me) up to Tony Grove.  I knew that would be 
mostly hiking for that section, but that was fine.  I had plenty of cushion 
built up by this point.  My nausea though was starting to be a problem.  At 
first I was able to stick to my normal gel rate, but then I got to the point 
where I really didn't want to eat them.  And I had switched HRM watches since 
my Garmin was low on battery, but I never really learned that much about the 
Ambit3 and could not figure out in the dark, even with backlight, how to get it 
to the display I wanted, so it was pretty much useless.  Karen got to be my gel 
reminder timer, since she actually could use her watch.  :)

Originally I was going to change back into my Cliftons at Tony Grove for the 
mostly downhill section to Franklin Basin.  Karen thought it might be a better 
plan though to just keep moving and keep my time cushion.  That seemed 
reasonable, so we didn't spend long at Tony Grove.  Just switched out my pack 
(I had two packs so my crew could just hand me the next pack all ready and we 
didn't take time with refilling), and continued on into the night.  At this 
point I was tired, and still nauseated, but still feeling pretty optimistic 
about things.

Unfortunately that really changed on the next downhill.  I had remembered it 
was pretty rocky and hard to make time on, as I had pre-run this leg during the 
summer.  But even with allowing for being tired, I just didn't realize HOW hard 
the rocky, brushy downhill trail was going to be for me at night, after ~55 
miles.  I was having to catch myself A LOT with my poles, and that was a lot of 
effort and work.  By now I was hardly eating anything because it felt like it 
was just going to come back up.  We got through this section, but I felt very 
weak and discouraged by the end.

At the Franklin Aid station, the skies absolutely opened up and it started 
pouring.  My crew tucked me under the edge of the aid station food tent (there 
were already some other runners in chairs under there - some looking worse than 
I did) and I got some RunGoo to reapply to my feet.  (I think I also put on 
fresh socks here, but it's hard to remember.)  I tried to eat a little bit of 
the Ramen noodles from the aid station, but it didn't taste that good.  I was 
also getting really chilled (and my poor crew was getting soaked).  I decided 
to put on my rain pants, in addition to my rain jacket, and finally got back up 
and put on my pack.  I looked at Cheri and said, "I really don't want to go 
back out there."  She made an understanding comment and then we headed out on 
our way.

There was mud everywhere from the rain.  It wasn't too bad until we started 
steeply uphill.  Then for every attempted step forward, I would slide back 
about 2/3rds of the distance.  I mumbled my first profanity of the run, "You've 
got to be fucking kidding me."  I was SOOOO tired, and we were setting out on a 
longer segment before we would see our crew again.  The next aid station (Logan 
River) was not crewable, so we would have to get to Beaver Lodge (~76 miles) 
before seeing Cheri and Janet.  Even though there was an aid station 
in-between, to me it felt longer because I was worried that I was going to need 
to drop and didn't know what would happen if I needed to drop at the non-crew 
accessible aid.  (I now know that crew can go pick up a dropped runner from 
there.)

I stopped frequently on this slick, muddy climb, and looked back down the 
trail.  A couple of times I did say to Karen that I wasn't sure I would make 
it.  She encouraged me to just go to the next aid station and decide.  I knew 
that she was right, and doing the right thing as a pacer.  But as I got more 
and more tired climbing up the hill, stopping every few steps to rest, and I 
still couldn't really eat, I realized that there was no way I was going to be 
able to finish the 100 miler in these conditions.  We had the inReach satellite 
messenger with us, so I sent a message to my sister to tell her I was going to 
drop at Logan River.

I started uphill again, and then realized that I wasn't sure I would even make 
it to the top of the current climb.  I was tired and getting more so with every 
mud-slick step.  I wasn't even sure how far up we'd gone since we were going so 
slowly!  I immediately turned back to the inReach and sent a second message, 
hoping desperately that my sister would see it before she got out of cell phone 
range into the mountains, I told her we were turning back to Franklin Basin and 
I would drop there.  Janet did get the second message in time and sent a 
message saying she would see us at Franklin.

So we turned back.  It was still really hard work for me to go down the slick 
hill, but I felt confident that I would be able to make it back to the aid 
station.  Karen was really supportive of me, even though I felt like I'd failed 
her, and she took point in making sure we stayed on the trail for the return.  
(The markings are set up to mostly be visible to people going in the correct 
direction, not necessarily backwards.)  We confused a few people who were 
wondering if they had taken a wrong turn when they saw us heading back, but I 
just kept repeating that I was going back to the aid station to drop.

When we finally got there, they were already starting to close down the aid 
station, with only another runner or two coming through.  Oddly, even though my 
pacer checked me in/out of Franklin, and then we later all told the Franklin 
aid station people that I was dropping, there are no time-in / time-out numbers 
for me on the webcast for that aid station.  In fact, my status still says "On 
Course".  ;)

So that was my first career DNF, but it was still my longest run ever.  By GPS 
I ended up with around 65 miles, so I've been joking with my friends that I did 
do The Bear 100.  Just 100K not miles.  ;)

I learned a few things from that event.  I probably should have started even 
slower than I did.  I definitely should have taken the rain jacket.  And I need 
to learn to stay calm and keep my effort level down, even if something happens 
that is not quite right or not what I expected.  I am also planning to back off 
a bit on the salt tabs.  While I took them at pretty much the rate I used in 
training, I don't think I needed that many, and over such a long day the total 
amount is probably more than I was used to.

The great thing is that after a few days to recover from blisters and sore 
Achilles insertion area on my left foot, I was able to get out for some 
loosen-up runs by midweek.  And the following weekend had a pretty typical 
training pace 25 mile run.  I decided that I would try again to do 100 miles at 
Javelina Jundred on November 1.  I was already signed up for that run as it was 
always my backup plan if I didn't make the full distance at The Bear.

October goals:

1.        Make sure I am still having fun and enjoying my trail running

2.       Squeeze in a bit more training for JJ100 and then...

3.       Taper to settle down injured areas (Achilles insertion and PF)

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

.Terri

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  • » [mountainmilers] September Progress Report (and The Bear report) - Terri Rashid