Ok.. just one mile to go…
but it was the most brutal mile in the world. People kept telling me, it is ALL downhill from here…. Unfortunately at this moment the last thing I
wanted was a downhill, uphill, flat or whatever. I was ready to be done.. I barely could feel my feet, all I was
feeling was pain, horrible sharp pain… my whole body was in pain and my hands…
OMFG, they were BIG… There was a disproportion between the size of
my hands and the rest of my body, they
were so damn big.. more on that later.
When I learned that I have gotten into the WS lottery, I couldn’t believe my luck and I was really
happy I did, but I was really scared of
the whole thing. The idea of running
100 miles in hell like conditions, for some reason, scared the hell out of me. I
always heard of this incredible ultrarunning party and I had been invited… ooohhyyeaa!!
My training had been, I thought, right on the money. I ran a lot and for the last month I had
been doing some “heat training” which consisted of sitting in a sauna everyday
for as long as I could endure.. well..
that wasn’t the whole truth.. The
reality is that I could endure more but I had so much to do that the only time
I could afford was ½ hour. I recently
got a membership at 24 fitness with the sole purpose of making my body
accustomed to extreme heat. I even, once, wore running clothes into the heat
room, that didn’t work well because I sweat like a mofo so the clothes were drenched
and.. well.. it wasn’t wise and
advisable.. But in any event, I actually completed almost a month of heat
training in preparation for the run… and
I had adapted my body to the heat so I was ready…
The night before the race, I managed to go to bed
early. Sometime at night, I felt some
sort of “shake”, I heard a friend of
mine describe his “religious” experience at WS,
an experience that was, according to him, a defining moment in his
race. I thought my wife had come to
bed, and when I realized that she hadn’t, I thought, perhaps this is it, this was my “experience”. It turns out, as I learned the next day,
that we had a small earthquake in Squaw Valley.
Nothing major, big strong enough to wake me up and made me believe
something that I couldn’t explain and with that thought in my mind, I went back
to sleep….
At 3:00am in the morning race day, I woke up and ate my breakfast, which was cooked the night
before. I drank some tea, got dressed
and went back to sleep for a little bit.
My beautiful wife had gotten up with me and while I was getting dressed,
she prepared my breakfast. I have never
experience having a crew before, In all
of my racing I was solo or with Janet, and both racing. Later, Janet got up, and the three of us
walked to the starting line. Now, this
is something I have never experienced in an ultramarathon, the bib handing experience was awesome, I got mine is a very short time, pinned to my
shorts and I was ready to rock and roll..
The weather, as we learned the day before, was going to cooler than
usual. Because of that prediction, I
went the day before and bought myself a hat and a pair of arm warmers. I thought, as soon as we start running I am
going to get hot, but I was wrong… so… very wrong.
All the runners congregated at the started line and
then… the countdown started.. 10..9..
Ok.. ready or not here goes
nothing.. 8..7..6..4… oohhh
yyyeaahhh!!! 3..2..1.. Goooooo.
And everybody starts running, everybody is excited and then a few meters
into the race, everybody, but the elites starts walking. The first few miles of the race are a very
steep section. From the base of squaw
to escarpment, there are about 4 miles,
but they are really steep. It
takes the leaders about 40 minutes to reach the top, it took me 1:20, I am already 40 minutes behind the leaders,
and that is just 4 miles into the race.
As we reached the top, we are
also at the highest elevation of the race,
about 9,000 feet above sea
level. My breathing is very heavy, it reminds me of the multiple times I used my
elevation training mask while doing CF…. but at CF, I wore that mask for no more than 15
minutes, here, it was going to be a loooong time. It was like breathing with a sock in your
mouth.. and I kept telling myself keep climbing, keep going.. it will eventually end.. and it did…
Ok, I thought, it is all downhill from here… As soon as we reached the top, my face was
hurting because of the cold and the intermittent hail was painful as well… the
trail was very technical, I was glad I
wore my tough shoes… and then it happened..
I hit a rock with my left foot… pain shoot through my foot and I knew
that I probably I was going to lose a toenail,
I just hoped that it wasn’t going to be so painful the rest of the way…
I only had 95 miles to go..
I kept moving and talking to people. I knew that soon the field was going to
spread so much that I would not have much company at all. I was expecting hot and got cold, but hey..
I kept thinking as soon as we get down to the Canyons it will be hot and
then you will get your money’s worth. I
made it through the first aid stations with easy; my goal was not to spend more
than a few minutes in each one of them.
I kept my promise for the first few as it was easier to keep moving that
staying in one place and be cold. People
couldn’t believe it how cold it was, and most of us weren’t prepared for these
conditions, in fact we were prepared for the totally opposite. My hands were numb at this time… my fingers were in pain, my face was
numb, I thought I was going to
freeze… and my foot.. OMG..
I reached the aid station where I was supposed to meet Janet
and Rujeko. I assumed they were going to
be there and had a jacket for me or something..
Sadly, I bet them to the aid station.
They weren’t there when I arrived.
I asked the aid station people if they had a garbage bag I could use to
make a raincoat… no luck… somebody told
me there was one in the garbage can so I dug some and ... SCORE... I found one... but it was too damaged to be of any
use.. Damn it… oh well!! This was the lowest point of my race, at
this moment I thought of quitting, the cold was unbearable, and my foot was in so
much pain… and then it hit me… how about some Ibuprofen Luis.. I reached into my funny-pack and spent a
lot time trying to get the pills out of the bag, my fingers were numb, but I
managed to get them out and took my first 4… I kept on running and a little
while later I started to feel a lot better.
Foot wasn’t as painful anymore and it stopped raining and the weather seemed
to be getting warmer. I was soaked, but
I was moving well.. I was back… wooohooo!!!
My strategy was always made sure I had plenty to eat, I
wasn’t going too fast and I had my salt intake under control. I set my watch to beep every hour… and at
every hour, I would take two salt pills.
During the first 38 miles I noticed that my hands were beginning to
swell. It was my understanding that I
was retaining water because I needed more salt.
So I kept taking salt every hour and my hands and feet kept getting
bigger and bigger and my wedding ring started to get really tight. However,
at the aid stations, where I had to check my weight, it was OK.. I wasn’t feeling bad, and I
wasn’t losing or gaining any considerably weight, so I assumed things were
OK. Other than my hands getting big,
nothing else was out of the ordinary. I
was even peeing constantly, and my pee was clear, a good sign.
I kept moving along pretty well, and at mile 55.7, aid
station Michigan Bluff, I saw my wonderful wife and her sisters. They came to cheer me up, at this aid station, I actually change
clothes. It felt good to have a dried
shirt on, and I knew soon I will see
Janet (my pacer), and having her company was going to be awesome. My wonderful wife was encouraging and she
told me that she was scared that I had dropped due to the rain and cold. I am glad I did not disappoint her. After she helped me change and remove my
wedding ring from my fat fingers, I
continued forward. I was feeling
OK, not great, but enough to keep
plowing along It is funny, at this moment I really can’t recall much of
the run as I was probably “in the zone”
but I do remember kissing my wife entering the aid station, that was the encouragement I needed to keep
on going.
After I met my pacer at “Forest Hill” mile 60, and taken
care of a blister issue on my right foot, I was ready to go. I was happy to have Janet with me as she was
giving me the encouragement and the juice that I needed to keep going. We chatted about everything and about nothing
like we usually do when we are running long distances. A funny thing happened in the trail.. you see, I had to go #2, and I realized that
there was no way in the world I could hold it until the next aid station. So I stepped out of the trail to do my
business and after I was done, I was
about to retake the trail when I saw a couple of runners, they couldn’t see me,
but they sure could hear me. When they
finally saw me, they were stopped on
their tracks and told me they thought I was a bear. I thought that was funny. I joined Janet and we continue moving along
quite well… the sun was down and nighttime was upon us.
Running at night is awesome; I think that is my favorite
time to run. For some reason in WS, it wasn’t as enjoyable as I had experienced
in other places. It was probably the
fact that my foot was hurting, I felt like a water balloon and I had been
running all day long… When we finally
arrived at Rucky Chucky, the river crossing, my spirits were already at an
alltime low. For some reason I was not
looking forward to the river as I knew the water was going to be cold… and it
was. I managed not to fall in the river
as that was my biggest fear, when I got to the other side, I quickly was giving my dropbag and I
proceeded to change clothes... and shoes.
It was great to feel dry again and the new socks and shoes felt great as
well. Janet did not change, I don’t understand how she did it, I was freezing and she was in great spirits
and smiling all the way. I knew she was
concerned about me, as this time I had become a bit rude and my level of energy
had decreased a lot. Once I finished
changing my clothes, I was ready to get
going, I didn’t want to stay there
too, and for some reason I was looking
forward to get to aid station at mile 85 where many of my friends would be
stationed.
I told Janet as we were approaching mile 85, that I wanted
to take a break there. When we arrived,
I was put on a scale… and I had gained so much weight. They Aid station people were concerned about
me and told me NOT to drink anymore water and stop taking salt pills. As I explained in the beginning, I was
taking two salt pills every hour, thus my body was retaining water. Although I was peeing constantly, I was also
drinking quite a bit. The thought of
not continuing was a nice thought, and then I was greeted by George Miller and
his group and Leigh Moser. They were
awesome, I sat by the fire and they quickly brought me warm pancakes and orange
juice as I had requested. I let my body warm a bit and I don’t remember how
long I was there, but then I felt the need to get going again. I recompose myself, had a few more bites of
my pancakes and other fun aid station food and just like that we were in our
way again.
The last 15 miles were the slowest and the hardest. When I got to aid station "Highway 49 crossing", (mile 93.5) I saw my beautiful wife and that made me feel a lot
better, albeit, shortly. I knew I was
getting chaffed in an unmentionable place and I was beginning to hurt. I told Janet I needed some Vaseline, she brought
me some and I went to the bathroom to get it in all crevices. It did hurt, but I knew it was a small price
to pay if I wanted to be able to take a shower the next few days. I couldn’t believe I only had one more aid
station before the finish line… and it
was sunny again.. I changed clothes once
again, from my warm night clothes to a more comfortable shirt and hat. I told my wife, I will see you at the finish
line and with that we were off again.
The views were magnificent, but at this moment I was ready to be done, I
did not have the desire or the time to stop and smell the roses and appreciate
the views. All I wanted is to be able to
fly and finish as soon as possible, but my legs were spent. They say that in an ultra, you run the first
50 miles with your legs and the next 25 with your brain and the final 25 with
your heart. I don’t know what kept me
going, because my brain and my heart were telling me to stop and my legs barely
were able to move. And then… a
wonderful view… No hands bridge.. mile 96.8 just a few from the finish line,
and I had plenty of time to spare. I
started to move well again, I passed
several people and all seemed to hurting, just like me. The final ascent to town wasn’t as bad, but
it was slow, very slow. I knew I was
going to finish… I just needed to move
and even if I crawl, I would probably finish within the cutoff time. I had no desire nor I could run
anymore.. I was dragging myself to the
finish line… somehow. When I finally
got to Robie point (mile 98.9), I didn’t even stop. I kept on going, walking mostly, all the way
to the end. Funny thing is that at this
point many people are about to start their day and they kept telling me… “go go
go.. it is all downhill from here”.
They were right, but downhill,
uphill, flat… they all would hurt the same and I was not going to change my pace… slow pace that was. My beautiful wife and friends were waiting
for me just before the finish line, they “ran” with me for the remaining of
the race and just like that that, I entered the finish chute.. just 28+ hours after I started this
incredible adventure. I told my wife
and pacer, “I am done with 100’s, I am
retiring”.... but as those words were coming out of my mouth, not even I believed them.
I recently got some news that puts things into a much bigger
perspective, I hope I can do this again, otherwise, I can say I DID IT….
 |
| The prize... |
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