P.S.

Thoughts, comments, rants... Post Stumpjump.

-- I'm a little disappointed in the race shirt... it's the same EXACT color (different fabric) as last years. I guess this is the universe telling me that I don't need both of them anyway...

Umm.. Yeah, not kidding.

--You know what my favorite thing about trail racing is? No, not the feeding stations with Peanut M&Ms, Pringles, Fig Newtons, and flat Mountain Dew. No, not the trails. Not the nature or the scenery. Not the shade or even the peace and serenity. Hands down, without a doubt, it's the people. I've ran a bunch of road races in my life... and had a blast. But, the people in trail races are amazing. They are the most non-judgemental, most encouraging, most AMAZING people you'll ever meet. Think I'm a dumbass for running a marathon after a 50k? Yeah, well... that's being a pansy to these people. They are the baddest asses you'll ever meet. And most of them (at least in my back of the pack group) are at least 20 years older than me. And they run these ultras like it's their job... weekend after weekend. You'd think it'd be all Lord of the Flies out there...but there is an unflappable bond of respect and camaraderie out there.

--Plus, the guys are hot as hell. Bonus.

--I'm not going to lie. I'm still a little peeved about the grilled cheese fiasco.

-- Today I ran. For the first time this week. And while my legs felt surprisingly decent, my lungs felt like I was running a 5k. Um. And now my quads feel sore again. Not a good sign for Sunday.

--My finger. So, yeah, I fell on it and bent it in some funky ass way and it swelled up a bit and it's still a tad swollen and I still can't really grip anything (opening stuff is a real pain), but it's getting better.

--Last year, the Monday after the race, I threw up. I think it was from all the junk food during the race, all the drinking after the race, and all the junk food the whole next day. This year, I played it smart. I lightly fueled during the race, I ate a fairly decent dinner Saturday night (no booze! can you believe it?!) and went right back to my regular eating on Sunday. Monday, I woke up feeling great!

--I still haven't signed up for the Lookout Mountain 50 miler in December. I wanna do it. But, I'm scared of the 34 kazillion creek crossings. IN DECEMBER. Ugh. Such a pansy. I'm pretty sure I'll do it, though.

--The race packet this year was kinda interesting...

Goldbond??? Who told them I'm a sweaty beast???

So, yeah, shirt and a hat this year instead of socks (pretty sure I would prefer smartwool socks... but, whatev), a stumpjump sticker, a hammer gel, some cortizone-10 (really?), goldbond (really?), a sample of Nuun, and a Trailrunner magazine. Also as a finisher I got another medal (exactly like last years, except the ribbon is a different color).

--Had kind of an awkward moment when I realized that one of the guys from NIPPLEGATE (the one I had just met for the first time that day) was AT the race.. and recognized me (my face, guys. I wasn't showing my nipples again, I promise). Thankfully, the nips were not discussed and I was able to gush over his recent awesome race finishes (he's kinda awesome and hardcore... which makes the whole thing more awkward, cause here I am gushing over him and asking him for his autograph, and he's all... "remember I told you about XYZ at the beer mile?" And I'm all... "I was trashed out of mind, hell no, I don't remember," but, instead of saying that, I nodded and said.. yes, yes, I totally remember.) Sigh.

Race Report: Stumpjump 50k

So, I'm not really sure what to say about this race. Another year... another beautiful day and another fantastic race.

I guess I'll start at the beginning...

FIRST of all... I want to apologize to anyone that was following me on raceday morning. YES, that was my Silver SUV with the 26.2 sticker on it. And YES, that was me who somehow ended up leading a pack of  94 cars up signal mountain and YES that was me who missed two turns and had to turn around and backtrack. But, I hope that taught you a lesson... never just follow the car with the 26.2 sticker to a race. Cause, I can't read directions in the dark any better than you can! But.. anyway... sorry!

Despite that, I got to the race, saw and said hello to a friend and picked up my race packet, took care of my business in the porta potties and went back to my car (we had to park KINDA far away this year. Oh well). When I got to my car I got pinned up with my bib and took my time getting things situated, I had plenty of time. With about 15 minutes till the race start, I started making my way to the Start line.

The weather was a cool but dry mid 40s/low 50s. It was perfect, I was chilly standing around in short sleeves and shorts, but not freezing my ass off. I wasn't nervous at all. I knew I was trained well and prepared and I'd not only raced this exact race last year, but I'd seen parts of the course other times this year in other races. So, when the gun went off... I was just settling in for a long, fun, beautiful day.

I didn't discuss this with anyone... but I did have a goal. Last year, I ran it in 9:11 and this year, I just wanted to be around that time. I didn't want to go over 9:30. That was my real goal. But anything in the 9:00/9:15 range was perfect for me.

As usual, there was lots of jockeying going on in the first few miles.. people started too slow or too fast and so there was a lot of passing going on. But, ya know.. it's a trail race... and for a lot of people I met that day, it was their FIRST trail race (I cannot even imagine running the stumpjump 50k as your first trail race! But, I love the insanity!!!). The first 6 miles are the longest without a feeding station. And I knew what I had to go through to get there.. lots of downhill.

I felt good, I kept watching my watch, checking my time.. making sure I wasn't going out too fast and I got to the first feeding station in under an hour and a half. I was pleased. I ate one fig newton, had my water bottle refilled with Heed, grabbed another fig newton for the road and headed out.. and UP.

I wanted to get to the next feeding station, which was a little over 3 miles away and try to run as much as I could, knowing that there were some hilly spots in there that weren't going to be runnable.

At one point, I got into a train and we were chatting and I started to lose my balance and I tried to catch myself, but failed and fell down hard, lightly scraping my knee, but landing on my finger that was holding my handheld water bottle and I bent it forward as I landed and for a brief moment was sure that I had just broken my finger. I got up, looked at my hand, expecting my finger to be dangling from my hand or something, but to my relief it was still attached and  I was able to bend my finger (with extreme pain), so I called the fall a success.. no broken bones! And kept going. My finger throbbed the rest of the day, but in the grand scheme of things, it was bearable.

We got into the 2nd feeding station and some guy came over to me immediately and was like.. "whoa... are you okay?" and I was like.. "yeah, why?" (as I munched on peanut m&ms) and he pointed down at my left knee and I looked down and I had a trail of blood that went all the way from my knee to my sock. "Oh," I said, "I didn't even realize." And then he took a picture of my bleeding knee. Awesome.

I left that aid station and knew that now was my chance... the next 10 miles were some of the easiest trails on the course. I got into another train.. towards the end... and no one was eager to let anyone pass (I later found out that it was their first trail race for a lot of them) and when the girl in the front wasn't taking advantage of the trail like I wanted to, I eventually told everyone that I was passing them... and I did and I took off.

A girl that was behind me followed me and we started chit-chatting. Turns out, it was her first 50k, her first trail race AND she lives like 2 miles from me!!! I kept telling her that if she wanted to pass me, then by all means to do so, but she said she was content...

Being familiar with the course is awesome... but it's also kinda crappy, too.. many times, I would think... ohhh the next aid station is just at the top of this hill! I remember! Only to realize that ummm.. no... it's not, I've still got another mile of hills that look just like that to go.

Last year I was obsessed with the Rock Garden. I was scared of it, scared of the stories of people busting their shins, having to crawl over rocks, getting lost and going the wrong way...This year, I knew it wasn't that bad, and even took the lead during the Rock Garden, this year.

It was about mile 20 when I realized that I was doing really well on time. But, I just considered it a buffer for my 9:00/9:15 finish. The last 6 miles of the course are brutal.

Yeah, that's right. Going from 1300 feet to 1950 feet in 1.5 miles at mile 26. FUN TIMES!

My new friend was still with me! And still pushing me along. It was great! She was very worried about the those miles 24-26. And rightly so. But me? I was kinda more worried about the last 4 miles, because I remembered that last year, they felt like they were about 10 miles.

By the time we made it up the steep incline and to the last aid station of the race, I was teasing some of the aid station workers about their Stroh beer (we had the same exact conversation last year) and I saw that my new friend had taken off. She was wanting to finish under 8 hours and I knew she was going to make it! Me? I was starting to adjust my goal time and figured if I can finish in 8:30 that that would be fantastic.

At this point, with 4 miles to go, I was at a little over 7 hours. I felt good, mentally... but my body was getting stiff and I knew that these last 4 miles weren't going to come easy. I left the aid station and started to make my way to the finish though...

Again, those last 4 miles were the worst. They aren't bad trails... fairly wide, mostly gravel or dirt... but, just knowing you're SO close to the finish. Knowing that you've been out there for 7+ hours... I pushed myself and made myself run as much as I possibly could. And with about 2 miles left, I realized... Hey.. I might can finish a whole hour better than last year. And then I was like.. FUCK! Why did I realize that? Now, I REALLY have to run more. Ugh!!!!!

The last half mile was on pavement (and includes a nasty uphill) and I was starting to think I wasn't going to make it in 8:11. I kept running though, I kept trying. Not giving up and even when I could see the clock and could see that I still had a minute or two to get there, I was still unsure if my legs would actually get me there in time.

But, as you know.. they did! I finished in 8:10! And my new friend, she came in at 7:59!!!! I talked to her and some other friends after the race and then hobbled over to try and get my free grilled cheese from the hamburger truck (which an email during the week said that there would be grilled cheeses offered for those who didnt want a hamburger). And OF COURSE... the guy told me.. "No, we don't have any grilled cheese today." WTF? All you need is cheese and bun!!! Just skip the hamburger! But, he walked away from me and I was too tired to argue or get bitchy and decided to just head back to my car and eat an energy bar that I had (yeah, because I hadn't had enough sugar during the course of the day. ugh).

Anyway, it was the perfect day, the perfect training, the perfect fueling (light breakfast, a cookie/M&Ms or chips at each aid station, lots of Heed, and a couple of endurolyte pills during the course of the day) and the perfect race result!

I was thrilled.. and still am! (Although my quads are still very, very angry at me. They don't call the race a meatgrinder for nothing!)

Race Report: Stumpjump Part 4: The Aftermath

After the race, we hopped in the car and I think April was asleep by the time we got out of Chattanooga. I was still reeling from the race and was boring my parents to tears recounting as much of the race as I could remember.

We stopped at a rest stop just outside of Chattanooga and getting out of the car was no small feat. We hobbled our way inside and I found that once I started moving, I was fine. But those first few initial steps were painful and slow.

We settled back in for the rest of the 2 hour drive and again, April fell asleep and I yammered the whole ride home. About 15 minutes after our stop I immediately starting to feel an uncomfortable sensation in my butt and hamstrings. A dull, aching pain. Luckily, someone in the car had some advil, so I took a couple of those and about 20 minutes later, the pain was mostly gone.

We arrived home to Nashville around 6pm. We immediately took showers and decided to go out for a celebratory dinner! We hit up Mafiaozas and while the place was packed, we scored a parking spot right out front and 2 seats at the bar immediately!

We drank a couple of bottles of wine, had a nice big pizza and salads and enjoyed chatting up the bartender and some of the people around us. It was good, it was fun.

After dinner and that 2nd bottle of wine and an additional glass of wine for me, April was starting to get tired. But, I, always the dumb one, urged her to rally! Let's celebrate! More! She ended up rallying and we headed to 12 South Tap Room for a beer.

Total buzz kill. The place was kinda empty (it was probably close to midnight by this point) and we all know how tired, understimulated, and drunk Amy gets: SAD. And we also know the only cure for Drunk, Sad Amy: more booze in a different location.

Where to go?? My local bar of course! I headed over there and that's when things get a little fuzzy. I remember chatting it up with my bartender, I remember scoring bar seats, and that's about it.

Apparently, we were looking fairly good, though

We woke up the next morning at 11am and I was like... holy shit! I've wasted the whole freaking day! I can't believe I slept that late! And I got out of bed and was hungry. I didn't really notice the soreness too much. But as the day wore on... it was clear that my quads were absolutely trashed.

April and I bummed around and ate a LOT. And we came across two random discoveries. First, the jeans that April had been wearing the night before were on the floor in the bedroom and when I picked them up so that I wouldn't step on them, I noticed that they were wet. Like, really wet. No smell... just wet. Then later in the day, we noticed that a couple of shirts that I had in the floor of my closet were wet, as well. Again, no smell. Just wet. There was also an unopened Blue Moon on the coffee table. Apparently, we came in at 2am and thought we'd keep on drinking???

I talked to my bartender about it a week later and he confirmed that we were pretty trashed, but, we made sure to pay our tab (which was the first thing I thought of when I woke up! Did we pay our tab!!!???!!??!!).

Anyway... that whole Sunday, I was just basically tired and sore. But I felt pretty decent. My worst day was Monday. Monday, I woke up feeling ok, but as I sat at work longer and longer, I started to feel shittier and shittier. And eventually, I went home for lunch, slept for an hour and a half and thought I'd feel better. I didn't. I ended up throwing up at work (usually I'm only throwing up at work cause I'm hungover, not cause I'm sick). Luckily, that seemed to do it for me and after that, I started to feel better. I think I just still had all the remnants of shotblox and alcohol and being so tired.... I think it just all caught up to me at once. I took all of Monday off from activity. Walked Tuesday morning and started back with running and yoga on Wednesday.

Overall... the recovery period wasn't that bad. My legs felt pretty fresh pretty quickly after.

Now that Stumpjump is done... I've got the Bourbon Chase Relay this weekend to worry about!

Race Report: Stumpjump Part 3: The Last 12ish miles.

As April and I flew into the aid station (amazingly, the aid stations ALWAYS came quicker than I expected, which is a huge bonus, mentally) and I was immediately greeted by a guy coming up to me to take my water bottle asking if I wanted HEED or water, it was at this point that I realized my parents were standing there and cheering!

Here we are approaching the aid station.

I was stoked! I wasn't expecting them to be anywhere on the course, because I didn't want them to be waiting around on me or getting lost trying to figure out where we'd be and when. They had ended up hiking part of the trail we had just ran!

I was trying to talk to them, but the aid station worker was all business. He was telling me to eat (dude, TRUST me, I will) and he was unzipping the pouch on my handheld, telling me that I have some shotblox in there still (dude, I KNOW). Seriously, though, I understood that a lot of people who came into the aid stations weren't feeling as great as I was and I appreciated the one-on-one attention. It just turns out that I was rocking the race and didn't need the extra attention!

I stood around and chatted with my parents, who I think were both surprised and relieved that I was looking so good and feeling so good.

Double thumbs up and a lovely shot blox-filled belly sticking out, there.

It was awesome! I loved seeing them and I think it really boosted April and I even more! We stood around and ate and picked up our drop bags. I had a snickers in mine and ended up eating that along with some pretzels and I drank some HEED.

They even had a bathroom here, so April hit that up, while I continued to chat with my parents and munch. Eventually, the guy that we had chatted with at the earlier Aid Station came over and was telling us how awesome we were and how we looked about 100x better than the other runners coming into that station.

Fueling up.

The guy reached down into his pockets and pulled out two handfuls of pills. One had advil and the other had tylenol. Need any? He asked. I wasn't experiencing any pain or fatigue, so I said no. April said no as well. After a few minutes, it was time to hit the trail and finish up this bad boy. 19 miles down and 12ish to go. Everyone says that the real race at Stumpjump starts at mile 19.

We said goodbye to my parents and assured them that it'd be another 3-4 hours before we would even expect to be finished. And we headed down to the trail. The aid station guy jogged down there with us, attempting to describe the next bit of course for us.

(thats the guy in the grey shirt!)

And neither one of us were really listening, I don't think. We were just ready to start running! And just like that, we were back on the trails with a new pep in our step! We started talking about how awesome it was that my parents were unexpectedly there! And we started talking about the guy in the grey shirt and how nice and enthusiastic he was. April came up with a great nickname for him: Fanclub! We weren't on the trail for 3-4 minutes when all the sudden I heard April say a loud OW! I turned around and she was grimacing. Somehow, in a freakish way she jacked up her IT band and her knee was starting to hurt her. We stopped for a second to walk and the walking was even hurting her. We stopped for just a moment to assess the situation. Neither of us had any pain killers, she was obviously in some serious pain. We were about 5 minutes away from the previous aid station. We were also getting ready to head down some really steep rock steps. We walked down those (hurriedly, since a guy had yelled up at us that there were some yellow jackets) and April decided that she felt like she could continue on through the pain. I felt bad, cause I knew the pain she was experiencing, I had jacked up my IT band in my first two marathons and I know how shitty it feels.

Fortunately, though, the aid station at Indian Rock House was still set up and we were there within a few minutes! Bonus! She was able to take some advil, which seemed to help pretty soon thereafter and we were off on the trails again. Running when it was flat and walking up the hills.

It was a beautiful day and I was feeling awesome. It didnt even feel like I had been running for 5.5/6 hours! We kept on going, knowing that the next aid station (and the last aid station of the day, we thought was in 4.5ish miles). At one point in this section, I ended up slipping on a rock and landed in such a position that I was sitting down and for special effect, I crossed my legs at the end, to attempt to make it funny. We both laughed, it hurt, but no serious damage done. It's clear...I'll do anything for a laugh.

We kept saying to each other things like... I wanna say something, but I'm going to save it till the end, or... I wanna tell you something when we finish. We both knew that we didn't want to jinx how awesome we were feeling, but we also both wanted to express it!

We caught up to a couple of people on this stretch and I asked one of the guys if he knew how much further to the aid station. He answered with a much shorter distance that I was expecting, but he was kinda grumbling and wasn't attempting to let us pass (usually, whenever someone comes up behind someone, the person in front ALWAYS says... just let me know when and if you wanna pass and I'll get over. It's like trail law or something. And the person in back usually says... no, man, you're keeping a good pace. And then they eventually pass them and say, I'll see you again soon when you pass me.) This guy was having none of that, so I passed anyway. I didn't like the mojo he was throwing. He didn't budge to let us pass either. I can only assume that he wasn't an asshole, but just suffering from Ultra-Brain. Where all you can think about is putting one foot in front of the other.

We hit the aid station and were pleased to find out that there was another one in about 2.8 miles! Yay! All we had to do was tackle the hardest part of the course. Two steep hills and then we'd hit the aid station and have around 4 miles till the finish! Mentally, it was huge knowing that we had another aid station.

We fueled up and headed back to the trail. The hills were very steep, but we just walked up them. And surprisingly, I had a lot of energy still. (The nutrition plan worked!). By the time we hit the end of the first hill, we had caught up to a woman. It seemed she was struggling. She was taking her sweet ass time going up and down and I really wanted to pass her, too. Although this section was a little more tricky of a trail to do so. Eventually, I asked her how she was doing. And she wasn't doing well. I knew she wasnt a bitch at that point and knew she was suffering from Ultra-Brain as well, so as we started to climb the second hill, she swung out on a switchback and I made my move and cut her off on the inside and passed her. We climbed the rest of the hill and made it to the last aid station! The hardest part of the trail was over!

April making her way to the last aid station.

See the mushroom rock behind her!

At this aid station, they had cans of Strohs sitting out and I made a joke about the shitty beer. One guy jokingly took offense and I claimed that even though I had just ran 25-26 miles on the trails of Signal Mountain that I could still kick his ass. It's a good sign when I'm still able to trash talk.

As we stood around and talked to the people and fueled up, the girl we had just passed showed up and looked pretty bad. A couple of the aid station workers huddled together and then a couple minutes later came over to her and offered her their last electrolyte pills. Apparently, they were discussing that she seemed to really need them. She took them and April and I took off on our last 4ish miles!

We were told that there were two baby hills and then mostly flat till the pavement. We walked/ran and enjoyed being side-by-side during the wider parts of this trail. It was kinda funny. I could walk faster than April at this point, but she could definitely run faster than me. So we were kinda swapping back and forth, but in the end, it all evened out.

Not going to lie, this section of the trail, though definitely not difficult, did seem like a lot longer than 4 miles. Knowing that you're almost finished can play mind games with you. Even though we both felt great, we were both ready to sit down, to eat, and to be out of the woods. At this point, to liven things up in my head, I started making up songs that were solely comprised of cuss words.

My favorite while running was... F*ck, F*ck, F*ckF*ckF*ck, Mother F*ckingF*ck.

It had a good little beat to it, and it made me feel good to drop some Fbombs out loud along the way.

We passed another guy with about 2 miles of the trail left and I think we both decided that we didn't want him to come back and pass us in the end, so we kept that in our head as mental motivation to keep going.

FINALLY,we made it to the pavement and I saw someone standing at the base of a little hill that we had to run up. We got closer and I realized it was my mom! She came out to meet us to run the last .6 miles in to the finish with us! She had instructed my dad to be at the finish line with the camera, ready to take pictures!

It was good. Seeing her and getting off the trail, it was finally settling in that we were finishing this thing! When we got almost to the finish line, I started to veer off in what I thought was the right direction, until everyone started yelling at us that we had to go straight, not turn. Haha. It was pretty funny, actually.

We approached the finish line, together...

And as we got closer, I could see the girls at the finish line waiting to hand us our medals.

WE DID IT! and WE DID IT TOGETHER!!!! Just like when we ran our first marathon together, here we were running an Ultra together!

I felt great, too! No major feet or leg pain. In all honesty, I could have kept going, if I had to. (Though don't get me wrong! I was glad to be done and to rest).

I hugged my parents and thanked them for giving up their saturday for us. And we stood around for a bit... talked to Fanclub for a little bit and got in the car and headed home.

Clearly I was sweaty and gross, but my dad still hugged me.

Yes, we ran 31ish miles only to have our picture taken staring directly into the sun.

I was told that if we switched places, then the sun would blind the camera.

I was too tired to argue.

Next up: The Aftermath.

Race Report: Stumpjump Part 2: The First 19 miles.

So, the race started and April and I hung out in the back of the pack. No need to get crazy.. we had 31 miles to run, afterall. The first .6 of the race is on pavement, while you wind back to the trails. And first of all, let me just say that the start of the race was beautiful. The weather was perfect (cool, probably in the low 50s?), the trees were just starting to turn and the setting was a nice precursor of how pretty the trails to come were.

My absolute favorite thing about this race, was realized in the first 30 seconds of the race. There is an 11-mile race option, and instead of grouping everyone together on the trail (like so many other races do), the 11 milers started in a different chute and they turned off in the opposite direction as us, almost immediately! YAY for not having to step off the trail every minute for the first 5 miles to let speedy 11 milers pass you. Nice work, Stumpjump.

As we started running, before we even hit the trail, my shoestring untied (I can feel Vandy Montana rolling his eyes this very minute). So, I shuffled off the road and tied my shoe, while April made some shoe adjustments of her own (new shoes, afterall). At this point, we got on the trail and we were like the last two people. But, we didn't care. I hate having people all up on me and breathing down my neck on trails.

We had decided as we always do, that we weren't going to try to stay together. Attempting to stay together on a trail can be a nightmare situation. It's hard for two people to pass multiple people, etc. So, we were just happy to be able to stick together for the first few miles.

My strategy was I was running to every aid station. I was not thinking about what was ahead, how many total miles I'd ran or had left. All that I was focused on were each individual aid station ahead of me. I also planned on eating a little something at least every hour on the trail and drinking plenty of water, whether I felt like I needed it or not.

The first segment of the race is pretty easy. There are portions of the trail that are wide and dirt packed and most of this segment is downhill. With some pretty steep downhill parts. We cruised along, chit-chatting, and passing people. The first aid station was around 6 miles away and was the longest stretch we had to run the entire day between aid stations.

There was a random thing that happened about 2 miles in... we crossed a street to get back on the trail and the race officials were stopping traffic to let us pass and I thought one of the cars in line was my parents. Turns out, it was!

This part of the trail, wasn't particularly scenic. About a mile or two in, we did hear a marching band practicing... which was kind of fun. Marching band music is fun when you're running. We discussed why the country music marathon doesnt try to enlist more high school marching bands for the course. The one cool thing on this part of the trail though, was Mushroom Rock. It's a crazy rock formation that looks exactly like a mushroom. You know how when people tell you about something like that and then you get disappointed when you see cause it's wayyyy smaller than you thought (cough, The Alamo, cough)? I was expecting this.. but it was actually pretty damn big and pretty damn cool.

The shitty thing was that it's apart of a steep downhill and there were course officials there, shooing us down the trail and a photographer was there to catch us looking down and trying not to lose our footing.

Around Mile 3.5. Yes, we were smiling. At this point,

we still had no idea what the rest of the day would bring.

I think at this point, April and I were both cautiously optimistic. I mean, sure, we've got a long way to go, but so far we were having fun and staying together (even while passing people) wasn't a problem, at all.

We plugged along and finally made it to our first aid station. That was on the side of the street. I had my handheld filled with water and drank HEED from cups at the aid station (this was my routine for all the aid stations). I snacked on a few m&ms and checked out the cars that were passing along the highway. And what do I see? Another car that looked like my parents! I got over closer to the road and as it passed by, the window started rolling down and it was them! We said hello, my dad asked if we were finished yet and they went on their way. It was a nice added bonus. (completely unplanned as my parents really didnt know the course or where it went and were on a mission of their own to go hiking for the day, etc).

After that first aid station. We had to climb up a little bit of a hill and then took off on a part of the trail that ran by the TN river and was supposed to be fairly flat. It became apparent pretty quickly that there was NO one else behind us. We were the last to leave the aid station, and no one had caught up to us yet. Hmmm...

We stopped on the trail for a few minutes so that April could pee and then started back up again. We were chatting about anything and everything. And talking a lot about how good we felt. April expressed a little concern though, about no one being around us and whether or not we were on pace to make the cut-off at mile 19. For whatever reason because I'm generally naive, I wasn't all that concerned. We kept plugging away and were able to run for a good portion of this section. This segment of the race between aid stations was only 4.5 miles. With about 2 miles till the aid station, a pretty big group of runners caught up with us. Turns out, they had taken a wrong turn off the trail and had added about a half a mile to their race. They ran with us till the aid station and we chatted and joked around with them. They seemed like a fun group.

I was in the front during this section and when we were almost to the aid station, I heard someone coming towards us and I looked up and saw local trail running beast, Josh Wheeler, coming right at us. I quickly jumped off the trail and he flew past us yelling, "Get out of the way!" (in a friendly way, of course). We were all amazed where he was on the course... he had 10 miles to go, when we still had 20 to go! He looked good and was flying over the trail, so we all expected to see his name at the top of the results list.

We got to our next aid station, the Indian Rock House and fueled up. This was a pretty busy aid station. It was here that I started eating pringles. Loving the salty flavor, and I'd always grab some m&ms and sometimes some pretzels filled with peanut butter. One of the volunteers started talking to us and was telling us how good we looked, etc. And not only did we look good, but we felt great, too! I was telling him how beautiful the trail was (it had been a pretty stretch with views of the TN river along the way) and how much fun we were having. It was time to head off though... Only 2.7 miles till our next aid station.

And off we went. The guys that had been running with us, had left the aid station a little earlier than us and I was relieved. We kept a pretty decent pace for those miles with them and even though I was feeling awesome about it, I knew that there was no reason for us to be speeding up now. There will be time later for speed if we still have it in us. So, we were able to settle back into our good pace.

About a mile after the aid station, I had a scary, scary moment. I tripped on a tree root and fell straight down. As I fell, I put my hands out to break my fall and as I fell down to the ground, I fell directly on my handheld water bottle. As in, my entire body weight landed on my water bottle on my chest. The first thing I noticed was the pain, it was excrutiating and the next thing I noticed, was that I couldn't breath. It had completely knocked the wind out of me and from the pain, I thought it had made my right lung collapse, too.

I stood up and started tearing up when I realized that this might be it for me, I might have to drop out. I quicky regained my breath and as I started to breath and then run, the pain completely left and it was like nothing had happened! (My chest is still sore there, though).

We powered through to the next aid station. At this aid station I started asking people about the Rock Garden. I was still feeling awesome and I was ready to tackle the Rock Garden, when I still had energy and my mind was still fresh. Someone at this aid station assured me that it was in this next stretch. So, I mentally prepared myself as we left this aid station.

We had 3.5 miles before the next aid station. We had off and on been leapfrogging with a guy from Atlanta. He told us about how he'd recently lost 40 pounds or something awesome like that and that he was signed up for the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile race in February. And I secretly took this as a good piece of Karma. You see, I had told April just that morning, that I'd had Rocky Raccoon (the song!!! Not the race!!!!) in my head for the past week or so and that I knew I was going to be singing it my head all during the race. And I had been singing parts of it to myself off an on for the race so far. I kinda laughed to myself and kept on trucking.

I was ready for the rock garden though. I was feeling good and getting nervous that by the time we hit the rock garden, that I wouldn't be feeling so hot. We finally got to a dirt road and realized that we had to climb up a steep, but short hill to get to the aid station. Ugh. No rock garden!

As we climbed up the road, there were two volunteers at the top cheering for us. It was kinda funny, cause it was taking us a long time to get up the hill and they were just yelling and hollering for us the whole time! It was awesome.

We got to the aid station and there was a young girl there that gets my shitty volunteer award. She made the comment... "you're past the worst part." And lucky for me, I knew better than to believe her. The worst part is either going to be the rock garden or the last 2 hills starting at mile 25. She thought she was being cute and helpful by lying to us, but I wanted to go off on her. I didn't. Instead, I asked about the rock garden again. Everyone had different opinions, some thought it was in this next section, others didn't think so. The funny thing is, there was a park ranger at this aid station and he never weighed in on the issue. WTF?

We took off, hoping the rock garden was soon.

Pretty quickly on, we caught up to a guy that had a Stumpjump 2009 shirt on. I started talking to him, asking him about the race and the rock garden (which he assured me was coming up). And then we hit it... the infamous rock garden. I had kept hearing about how it was only about a half mile long, but that it felt like it was 3-4 miles long. As we walked through it, I kept looking back at April and giving her a face, like.. "this is the scary rock garden????" I mean, sure, trail runners of our ability and experience were by no means able to run through this section. But, I had imagined this section to be soooooo much harder and soooo much longer. I think we were both just so properly hydrated and fueled, that it wasn't a big deal to us, at all. The worst part would have been trying to stay on the trail (which is why I stuck behind the guy the whole time). Eventually the rock garden was over and I said thanks and goodbye to the gentleman, assured him that we'd see him again and we pulled ahead to the next aid station... the mile 19 aid station.

The rest of the race to come...

Race Report: Stumpjump 50k - The Pre-Race

Friday afternoon the posse headed down to Chattanooga. April and I were in the backseat, while my parents (who graciously were coerced with the prospect of it being a hiking trip for them volunteered to be our chauffers for the weekend) drove and rode shotgun.

The ride down was filled with April and I chatting about the race. The strategies, if we had enough gels, shotblox, etc, what to put in our drop bags, etc. The drive flew by. We arrived in Chattanooga and got to the clusterfuck that was the packet pick-up. Here's the thing... when the directions from the race director say: "turn on such and such street and look for parking" be afraid. Be very afraid. We circled around once and then thought we found some sweet street parking. The sign said: 2 hour parking. No way would we be there longer than 2 hours. As soon as we left the car, some lady started yelling us:

"EXCUUUUUUSE ME." We turned around.

"ARE YOU COMING TO THE THEATER?"

"No."

"THIS IS TWO HOUR PARKING IF YOU HAVE BUSINESS WITH THE THEATER."

Because, clearly, that's what the sign says. "Two Hour Parking" Wait, you didn't catch the inferred "for business with the theater?" Yeah, neither did we. But, instead of arguing, we got back into the car and drove around again. No parking to be had... so we ended up having to park in a lot that cost $5. And who profitted from this parking lot fee? The damn theater. That theater can kiss my ass. But, I'm not bitter.

The actual set-up for the packet pick up was good. Although, we seemed to get there at the wrong time, as we had to wait in line for a few minutes. And April got haggled into picking up a packet for someone's wife.

The packet did not disappoint. We received ladies sized Patagonia shirts, smartwool socks, and ear candy headphones.

That's a lovely magenta color, if you can't tell...

After packet pickup, we decided to head to the start of the race. To see how long it was going to take us to go there. Good thing, too, since the garmin and the directions were a little different and we made a few wrong turns. Signal Mountain was gorgeous though and I was starting to get a little nervous about the race.

We got to the hotel to relax for a little bit before hitting dinner. As we were getting our stuff out of the car, April realized that she had left a bag in her trunk in Nashville. No big deal, though.. the bag only contained her breakfast for race day and her SHOES. 

We immediately headed back downtown to Rock/Creek to find her a new pair of trail shoes. Nothing like breaking in a new pair of trail shoes on your first 50k, huh? After conversing with the friendly sales associate (who we both decided kinda got on our nerves during the sale) April finally found her some shoes and we headed back to the hotel to get my parents to go to dinner.

After a yummy dinner with two screaming babies seated behind us we headed to Wal-Mart to buy April a ziploc bag for her drop bag and I picked up a snickers for my mid-race fuel. Once back at the hotel we laid out our outfits, got everything ready and crawled into our beds. I dont think either of us fell asleep before 11:30, but we both know that sleep the night before a big race is a rarity.

My alarm went off at 5:45 and I immediately got up and got dressed. I was all about the pre-planning this time around. I even had a morning routine planned which I implemented perfectly. Wake up at 5:45 and get dressed. Head to the free continental breakfast at 6. Eat breakfast: Bagel, yogurt, and a cliff bar. Funny enough, while eating breakfast I ran into one of my favorite relay team members from last year! She was running the 11 miler, so we chatted with her a bit.

I got back to the room around 6:25. I sat on the bed and read over the course description again. I also broke out my meditation book and reviewed a few passages in it. After about 10 minutes, I took care of some business (its all about timing) and went back to my meditation book. I read over some passages about being in the moment and focusing your mind on ONE thing at a time. I also read a passage that I felt was perfect for the day... something about there is the boat, there is the other shore, and people can tell you what the journey is like, but you must go find out on your own. (I annoyed April a few times on the trail saying this aloud. Though I couldn't see, I could feel her rolling her eyes. haha. But, I found it inspirational). I also repeated my Mantra (which loosely translates to Jewel of the Lotus and the literal translation focuses on transforming your impure body and mind into exalted mind and body. It always relaxes me and forces me to focus on my breath and clearing my mind) and did a few breathing exercises.

At 7:00, we loaded up the car and headed up the mountain.

Double thumbs up, indeed.

We made it to the start line (after turning into every wrong parking lot along the way, because no one in the car could read clear signs) and immediately headed to the bathrooms. Bonus: the start line was at a school, and the school was open... so we got to use actual bathrooms! (The fact that they smelled as bad as porta potties is beside the point). Then we stepped outside, dropped off our drop bags and waited for the start. The timing was actually perfect, we didn't have to stand around and wait too long. We said our goodbyes to my parents and took pictures with my broken camera (which is why I have none) and we were off...

Sorry to make this a multi-part post, but there's a lot to write about it...

Done.

Yes, I made it. I finished my 2nd 50k: the Stumpjump 2010. I'll have a race report either tomorrow or Friday.
(Sorry for the crappy picture, my camera is officially crapped out and in route to the Canon service center as we speak. Blackberries take awful pictures).

Strategy, Goals and Gravy.

Ready or not... Stumpjump 50k here I come!

As of right now, I feel pretty good. I've been fairly relaxed all week, I've been tapering and eating light and healthy (carb loading doesn't work for me... I get fat and bloated too easily and I can't run well fat and bloated). I've been mostly chill. I've been reading race reports and trying to familiarize myself with the course.

I've been spending time psyching myself up to be prepared for the inevitable pain and fatigue.

The plans are in place, hotel room secured. All that's left to do is get down there, pick up my race packet, eat dinner and get a good nights rest. Hopefully my chill nature will continue through the rest of the day and night and I won't end up freaking out and consuming an entire bag of Hershey Kisses tonight (like I did before the Swampstomper. I was feeling MAJOR anxiety and stress before that race). It helps that I won't have a bag of Hershey Kisses available to me.

I have somewhat of a race plan prepared. My plan is to stay ahead of the bonk. And the only way to do that... is to stay up on my nutrition and hydration. This means eating and drinking early and often. I can't fall behind on energy. This race will smash my face into a jelly if I get behind.

The next part of my plan is to break the race into parts. By each Aid Station. I plan on either having them memorized, or written on my arm, so that I can keep my head focused on each little task, rather than the entire race. There are 7 aid stations. And at the aid station at mile 19, I'll have a drop bag that I can pick up. I plan on treating this like the half-way point of the race. Because the last part of this race, particularly miles 25-28 seem to be the hardest. This is also the cut-off aid station. If you're not at this aid station in 6 hours, you could be pulled from the race. And nobody wants to run a 19 mile Stumpjump.

And lastly, my plan is to run my race. I'm not going to get mentally bullied by other trail runners. Too often, I follow their suit. If they're running up a hill early in the race... then... I should be running up it, too, right? Not always. I need to pace myself in the beginning, there are going to be plenty of opportunities later in the race to run up hills if I want. Save some gas for then.

It's hard to have goals for a Trail Ultramarathon. Particularly if you've never ran the race before. Sure, I can read race reports and course descriptions till I'm blue in the face... but I won't actually know how hard it is, till I get there and start running. I tried to compare finish times between the Stumpjump and the 50k I ran in January, the Swampstomper. But that's impossible, as well. The race conditions for Swampstomper were horrible and the Swampstomper doesn't attract nearly the field that the Stumpjump does.

But... obviously, my first goal is to finish. My second goal is to have fun.

Anything after that is gravy.

But... like any good southern girl.. I do love my gravy, so let's delve into the gravy a bit, shall we?

Gravy goal 1: To finish under 9 hours. It appears that after 9 hours, you don't get an official time. Most runners seem to have a 9+ or a 9ish. I want a real finish time. Even a 8:59:59 would be awesome.

Gravy goal 2: To not fall. (yeah right).

Gravy goal 3: To finish and immediately want to find another Ultra to sign up for.

Gravy goal 4: To get a 50k PR. (have to beat 8:29).

No matter what happens.. failure, success, or gravy you'll get to hear all about it next week!

The Wait is Almost Over (thank god)

Per my usual preparation... when I signed up for the Stumpjump, I didn't really do any research. I knew it was a 50k in Chattanooga, I was familiar with the race management, and I knew it was one of the most well-respected ultras in the southeast. And hey... that's enough for me to plunk down a small chunk of change. (Ok, you're right, you're right... I really just signed up for the patagonia race tee).

And then, a couple months after signing up, I closely examined the course elevation chart. I briefly freaked out and then per my usual race preparation... I went into elevation denial. Ohhhhh.. it'll be fine!

And now... with less than 2 weeks till race day... I'm doing a little more research on the race and have come across the following notations from the course description that have given me pause:

Suck Creek Road and Rock Garden.

Now... maybe I'm overreacting here a bit... but... I have a feeling that a trail that is referred to as Suck Creek Road isn't going to be good. And the best part??? We get to run Suck Creek Road TWICE. Awesome.

Next up... Rock Garden. This is not a phrase you want to hear in reference to a trail you are running on. I've hiked through rock gardens. On the Fiery Gizzard Trail and the Stone Door Trail and it sucks major ass. They call it a rock garden because that sounds nicer than the trail of broken shins, ankles and spirits. But, you can't fool me.

Despite the fact that this is going to be the hardest race I've ever ran, I'm actually starting to relax and get excited about it. These next 10 days are about getting myself as mentally prepared as possible. My legs are as prepared as they are going to get, but, where I can really gain strength these next 10 days is in my head. And for me... that's the hardest part.

Part 4: "I'm not a runner, I'm a pacer! Don't clap for me!"

I took off and tried to run as fast as I possibly could to the finish-line (which turned out to be around 10:00 miles. haha). And... it was kinda uncomfortable. Because as I passed a couple of racers, I had to be like... "don't mind me... I'm a pacer. But you're doing a great job! You're almost there!!" And they would let out a sigh of relief that they didn't just get schooled by some chick at the end of a 50 mile race.

After running for what seemed like 10 miles, I finally got close to the finish. And... there was one problem... I didn't really know exactly where the finish was. I mean, there were lots of people around and people cheering, but I couldn't really figure out how to get OFF the course. As I got closer and closer, the crowd started cheering for me and at first I tried to yell out... "I'm just a pacer, I'm just a pacer!!" and then finally I just gave up trying to clarify and took the applause. Eventually I realized I was REALLY close to the finish line so I hopped off the course and then everyone was like.. NO NO NO, the finish line is over there. And I had to yell and explain. I'm just an effing pacer!

I walked over to the finish line and got the camera out and ready. It took me a minute to figure out how to turn it on, but thank god I figured it out just in time, cause Vandy Montana was RIGHT BEHIND ME.

I recorded him finishing, attempted a little post-race interview with him and got him a coke and went to his car to get our flip flops, etc. He made a phone call while I was gone and basked in the glory of finishing a 50 mile race.

He was so mellow and cool, that I tried to be, too. But it was hard for me to contain my excitement for him. He had just ran a 50 mile race and not just any race, but a freaking HARD one. With the way he was reacting you'd think he just finished an 18 mile training run or something. I mean, it was ridiculous. I wanted to jump up and down and scream and shout and he was just totally chill. No tears, no nothing.

I was really proud of him and really freaking glad that I didn't have to run the whole thing. I would have died. Seriously. It was clear to me, after seeing him for those last 17 miles that this is his forte. He has the mental stamina and the physical ability to power through pain. Whether he likes it or not... he was made to be an ultra runner.

Looking back now, it was an awesome experience for me. Sure, I didn't get to be Awesome Savior-Pacer, and I had to climb up a freaking mountain, and I'm pretty sure I'll have melanoma in about 10 years from the severe sunburn I got, but, I did really enjoy working at the aid station and most importantly, I loved that I got to share the awesome and inspiring experience of being a small part of one of your best friend's biggest accomplishments.

Congrats Vandy Montana!!!!!!

Part 3: I almost threw him off the mountain in a fit of ridiculous bitchiness.

As we rolled into the Aid Station #9, Vandy Montana immediately ordered me to "get him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." And he immediately went over and sat down in a chair. I looked around and the first table we came to had bread, peanut butter, and jelly. Ummm... you have to make your own? I looked around the table and saw no pre-made sandwiches. Hmph. I thought to myself, at my aid station we had them all already made and covered up so they wouldnt get stale. I shrugged it off and proceeded to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. As I was just pressing the two pieces of bread together, an aid station worker came over to me and said, "the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are on that other table." I looked in the direction she was pointing and saw that just ahead to the right, there was indeed a table that had a stack of pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I glared at her, thinking.. why the hell would they put THAT table ahead of this table???? Told her thanks and took the sandwich over to Vandy Montana.

Simultaneously, the guy from the previous aid station that was impressed by Vandy Montana's personal attention was just rolling in and had a seat next to Vandy Montana. "Ahhh..." he said... "still taking care of him, I see." And then Vandy Montana immediately responded... "Yeah, put your order in to the waitress."

WHATTHEHELL??? At that moment, my first reaction was to take that peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I had just MADE for him after I had just climbed a friggin' mountain for him and shove it into his mouth and try to suffocate him with it. I mean, are you kidding me? Don't mess with a tired, thirsty bitch. There's a long way down that mountain, hoss.

I was just opening my mouth to let him have it, when I stopped myself and turned away. I looked at the mountains and tried to Zen it out. He's delirious or he knows that he's in a position where I'm there for him and not complain about anything and he's taking total advantage of that fact by throwing in cheap shots whenever he can. He's been out here for 40 miles and he's just climbed that friggin mountain, too. And I let it go. (But obviously, I didn't forget it. haha).

In hindsight, I realize he was joking. And under normal circumstances I wouldn't have cared, and would have had the oxygen to come up some kinda zinger about a tip or something. But under the present circumstances, it touched a nerve.

After filling up his water bottle and getting him some chips that I didn't realize were salt and vinegar till he cried out at how nasty they were once he ate them, I started comtemplating my own existence. My water bottles were bone dry. All of them. And it was another 4-5 miles to the next aid station. But, the location of this aid station made it difficult to get supplies and water to. They were actually getting the water for the aid station from a freaking creek. So, instead of taking care of myself and filling at least one of my bottles up with water, I decided to leave the water for the runners and continue on with empty bottles.

It was a decision I would regret.

Just as I was getting ready to start nicely nudging Vandy Montana out of his comfy seat and back on the trail (which I had been trying to do for the last couple of minutes and kept getting shot down), a gentleman to our far right start puking and just like that.. Vandy Montana was ready to get out of the aid station.

Chilling at the aid station.

A broader view of the aid station happenings.

The next mile was all downhill. Which was awesome, but it was also all downhill in snow. And not Tennessee snow that is like 1/2 inch deep. No people, we're talking SNOW that people ski on. Snow that isn't completely compacted and so with every step you're  one, unsure if your foot will slide forward and out from under from you making you fall on your butt in slow motion.  Two, if your foot will slide off and down the side of the trail making you lose your balance and topple off the side of the mountain. Or three, if your foot will crunch right down into a foot deep hole which makes you fall forward from your other foot.

Good times.

Once we finally got out of the snow we were able to cruise down the mountain pretty rapidly. I was super impressed and proud of Vandy Montana and his mental stamina at this point. He kept putting one foot in front of the other, we RARELY walked (only if the footing was precarious) and only took a little break for his feet every 20 minutes or so. We rocked down the hill and for the most part, I felt good, too. But, I felt like I could have spit fire from my mouth. I was DYING of thirst. All I could think about was getting to that last aid station where I was going to drink a gallon of water even if I had to kneel down at the edge of a creek to drink.

After being told by multiple hikers along the way that were "just about there" when we were actually 20-30 minutes away usually (FU hikers) we finally started hearing people and knew we were coming up on the last aid station.

Aid station Number 10. HALLELUJAH. And best of all, it was in a public park with PLENTY of water. I took care of Vandy Montana's multiple cups of coke and then got myself a huge cup of water. Ahhhhhhh. Relief. I filled my water bottle up this time, too, even though we only had about 4 miles left to run.

Once we left the aid station, I was ready to get this mofo race DONE with and I'm sure I unfairly pushed the pace a little on my fresh legs...

It was at this point that I felt like Vandy Montana needed me, but I didn't know what the hell to do. I didn't know if he wanted me to talk the entire time to try and take his mind off it. I didn't know if he wanted me to stay quiet. I didn't know if he wanted to take his handheld water bottle and beat me to a pulp and leave me for dead. And, I suspect, that he didn't know what he needed (if anything) except to see the finish line. I was beginning to feel like I hadn't really done anything to help him. I mean, sure at aid stations I took care of him, but other aid station workers would have done that for him, if he had asked. I felt like this was my time... the time that I was supposed to be doing something and that I was supposed to intuitively know what that something was. But, I didn't. Vandy Montana is one of my best friends and I know him really well, but for once... I didn't know what the hell to do. So... I ran.

And apparently, I annoyed him by looking at my watch too much (which, would have annoyed the shit out of me if I were in his position, too). As soon as he told me to stop looking at my watch, I felt his pain. I knew at that moment, that he was in that stage... that raw stage where you'll obsess and drive youself crazy over any little random thing. Like.. your running partner looking at their garmin every 2 seconds.

Finally, it was time for us to break off. We had already discussed that he wanted me to "sprint" (muahahahaha) ahead of him so that I could be at the finish to video tape him (with his flipcam) crossing the finish line. I took the camera from him, and told him I'd see him at the finish line...

Part 2: Running err... Climbing.

So here I was finally "pacing" (or as I liked to call it.. keeping Vandy Montana company and annoying the shit out of him for 17 miles). It had been a long day of waiting around anxiously, and it was finally time to get down to business.

Going into this pacing gig, I had all kinds of preconceived notions: I was going to be the best damn pacer there was. Vandy Montana was going to attempt to throw in the towel and everytime I was going to go all Herb Brooks on him and inspire him to the finish line. He was going to attempt to throw himself off the side of a mountain instead of finishing and I was going to talk him off the ledge. Literally.  I was going to be the pacer that drived him and urged him across the finish line and all the other runners were going to be jealous that I wasn't their pacer.

In reality though, that didn't happen, at all. 

Once we left the aid station, we kind of took it easy. The next 7+ miles to the next aid station were the toughest of the course. And we had no idea what to expect. We knew we would be topping out around 9000 ft, and we were at about 6500 feet at the aid station. I wore my garmin and Vandy Montana asked me to put the elevation setting on the display, so that we could monitor it as we went along.

Eventually we started climbing a bit and I thought... oh shit. Here we go. We got up to about we were hovering around 8,000 feet for awhile and I was looking forward to getting the hard part over with.

And then... we started going down.

And I started to get pissed. In my head I was cussing the race director. What the hell? When are we going to get this freaking mountain over with? You have us go up part of the way, to tease us, only to make us climb BACK down and then BACK up another mountain????? Ass-hole. I kept it cool with Vandy Montana though. That was my strategy for the day, when he asked me how I was doing (which, he did a lot) my response was going to always be upbeat, but not annoyingly so. My usual response was, I'm good. Or I'm okay. Even if I was suffering from acute mountain sickness I wasn't going to led on that I was in any pain or discomfort. I wasn't going to be a problem for Vandy Montana. He had enough problems. 50 of them.

Eventually we got to a clearing and Vandy Montana took a break, laying down. I looked ahead and saw this

Ummm... Okay. And then in the white stuff up there, I saw tiny little dots moving. Must by my imagination, I thought. A guy passed by us and I asked him... ummm... that's not the mountain, right? He told us that indeed it was. And that white stuff?? Yeah, that's snow. And those tiny dots are racers. F@*K.

The next mile or so, we would be climbing that mountain. Straight-UP. No switchbacks, no trails around the mountain, but straight up.

We got back on the trail and started our ascent. I've done some hiking that is straight up and I've ran at 8000-9000 feet of elevation before (at the Madison Marathon in Montana last year), but I've never CLIMBED AT ELEVATION like this before. I was out of breath literally after about 5 steps. We were climbing about 100 feet of elevation every 10 minutes or so. And we stopped to take breaks about every 125 feet.

The breaks were awesome. As soon as I caught my breath, I felt fine and the next few steps up felt wonderful, and then the elevation would zap my breath again and I'd huff and puff until our next break. And once we took a break, it took me a good 2-3 minutes to actually catch my breath.

If I could have cussed and breathed at the same time, trust me, I would have been throwing expletives off that mountain like you wouldn't believe. And then we hit the snow and it was slippery and annoying. I mean, it's bad enough to be struggling with your breath, but now we were struggling with our footing. Luckily, going up the mountain, there wasn't too much of the path that was covered in snow. But enough to be shitty.

Finally, we started approaching the top. We stopped for a minute to take a last little break and I could tell that Vandy Montana was not doing so hot. I had been offering him food everytime we took a break, but he never took it. Finally, he agreed to take a mini cliff bar that I had. I chowed down on some shot blox and before we got ready to tackle the last little bit, we chatted up someone going past us.

Turns out, because of the snow, the top of this mountain, wasn't actually our summit. Oh no, we actually had to climb up another mountain next to it for another 300 feet of elevation. Just a little bonus, ya know. I mean is this a damn race or a freaking mountaineering expedition? Jeez.

At this point, Vandy Montana and I were both pissed. We started to make our way, slowly up to the top of the mountain. We took another break and Vandy Montana ate another cliff bar (a full size one) and admitted to me that he had started feeling light-headed awhile back.

D-U-D-E. You gotta tell me this stuff! I'm your pacer, you gotta let me save you and be awesome! Ugh.

Finally, we got to the flippin top of that piece of shit bonus mountain.

9500 ft. The highest I've ever been

And I was thrilled. Thrilled with the view, thrilled with the fact that the aid station was close by and thrilled with the fact that the hardest part (course-wise) of the race was behind us. 

Vandy Montana taking a break with other runners on the summit.

Self Portrait (duh)

Views.

We started making our way down the mountain and towards the aid station... Only 10ish more miles to go...