More Hell than Heaven

Going into this years Wasatch100 Mile Endurance Run I felt pretty good.  My training was not quite up to where I wish it was, due partly to injuries, but overall ready to crank out the 100 miles across the mountains.  I finished last year in a little over 28 hours and felt I could at least do that well again or better if I ran smart and flew through aid stations. I spent 1 hr 40 min at aid stations last year. 

Pre-Race:

All summer I have not really stressed for this thing, that is is right up until the week of the race.   The day before, I played a little Frisbee golf and realized how dang hot it was going to be the next day.  That eve I  attended a fun pre-race-BBQ with other runners at the William's and met my pacer Aaron.  Go VHS!.  There are some real strong runners that live around here.  Cool to meet and talk to Davy Crocket a little, he is a local legend and nice guy to talk with.  My buddy Spence stayed at my house and we got up at 4:15 (=mucho sleep).  Sooo  glad I live so close to the start line.  I let Izzy and and little Anan sleep and Spence and I walked over to the main road by my house and thumbed a ride to the start line. Oh ya, and the car that stopped and gave us a ride was Nick Clark, who went on to win the race that day.

Race:

Long story short.  I DNF’d. (Did Not Finish)

 I rocked the first half and by mile 54 I was almost an hour ahead of my goal splits.  I felt good through the extreme heat all morning, other than some leg cramping, and Aaron and I rocked the hottest section.  I felt prime going into the cool Lambs Canyon with my buddy Court by my side to keep me company till Brighton.   Out of nowhere came the onset of extreme nausea and stomach cramps.  I puked everything inside of me and felt super weak.  After going up and over into Millcreek Canyon the nausea remained and the stomach cramps turned into bad diarrhea.  I trudged on and on and on all night through hellish sickness hoping it would go away. The more I walked the sicker I felt.  The more I tried to run the weaker I felt.  The more I hiked the more I hoped it would pass and I could start to recover.  I laid down many times, stumbled and screamed, and just felt sicker.  Somehow, mostly due to Court’s patience, I made it to Brighton Mile 75, with almost zero running.  The doc there got me sipping V8 and OJ.  I laid there for an hour in the lodge hoping the stomach cramps would go away, but they did not. I dropped out at 4 am.  Miles 50-75 took almost longer than miles 0-50.

After much thinking I have decided that the cause was simple, not enough water and salt.  I was drinking tons and eating SCaps, but I guess it was not enough.  I do not believe nutrition had much to do with the GI failure.  I got low blood salt which led to blood leaving the GI area resulting in Ischemic colitis.  I was taking at SCap every hour, I should have done 2 per hour.  I was not peeing enough. I should have taken more time at aid stations and drank more.  Simple. 

Izzy and I drove to the finish the next day, after crashing on Pete’s couch, it was fun seeing the last few finish. Good job to all my friends that finished.  Especially to Spence who is a beast and charged all the way to the end for a 20^th place finish in 25:32 hrs.  He trained like a mad man and ran a great race.  Thanks to Aaron, Court, and Pete for pacing.  Sorry Pete I could not show you the last 25 miles.

Post Race:

My legs feel good, I really only ran 50-60 miles, so I signed up for
 the Bear 100 Miler in 3 weeks.  Yes I have an ego and hate to fail, but I also just really want to finish a 100 miler this year, I love the Mountains by Logan in the Autumn, and Izzy said
 go for it.

START LINE

Getting Baked

LAMBS before the crash