“I think we missed some ribbons. We are off course.” Not what you want to hear at mile 66 of a 100 mile race as it is starting to drizzle but the only thing you can do, is turn around and keep moving.
First, we have to start at the beginning and the beginning of this adventure really began in December of 2022 when I broke my fibula snowboarding and had to miss out on running Canyons 100k, which was to be my 2024 Western States qualifier.
With the new Western States rules, I could just save the tickets I already have and qualified again next year but I really wanted to qualify this year, for personal reasons.
Having only just started really running again in May, it was a lofty goal to run a 100 mile race by November. I was not even sure it was possible, so much so, that I did not even register for Rio, until a month before the race. Then three weeks later, I injured my ankle so badly that running was not even possible the week before the race.
I even tried cryotherapy! I had never done that before but I figured out quickly that localized cryo, made the ankle feel better. So with that, I continued prepping all week for the race as planned. I was getting to that start line no matter what.
When Friday packet pick up came, I was feeling ok. The ankle mobility was much better than it had been. I still lacked a lot of dorsiflexion, but overall, I could finally walk without a lot of pain.
While at packet pick up, Shawn and I chatted with Kirk from Fleet Feet. This was going to be Shawn’s first 100 mile race and he is 100% a data man. He likes to plan and he was trying to figure out what the first 21 miles would look like for us. We had agreed to run together for the entire race. Shawn already had his qualifier, but he wanted to run a 100 mile race and I just needed to finish to get my qualifier so we made a plan to get each other through it.
Needing answers, Shawn asked Kirk how long that first loop should take us. I was adamant on the ride over with Shawn that we needed to take that first loop cautiously. I have had numerous friends tell me not to take it too fast and risk blowing up later in the race.
Kirk told Shawn, “You want to be able to run the first 20 the way you plan to run the last 20, slow and steady. I would run the first loop in no less than four hours.” That seemed to appease Shawn.
I woke up at 2:50 am without even needing my alarm. I had a weird dream that startled me awake and I just stayed awake. Michele, my one and only crew person was going to be at my house to take me the start at 4 am, the race started at 5 am.
Shawn and I both were excited and a bit nervous to watch the day unfold. When the gun went off, we started in the dark and settled into a nice steady run.
Most of the first 21 miles are on pavement. You start at Beal’s Point and run all the way down to Hazel Bridge via the Johnny Cash Trail. Around mile 5 we arrived in Folsom near the Rainbow Bridge. We run under the bridge to the bike trail section on the other side. This tiny bit of an embankment set my ankle on fire all of a sudden.
Excruciating pain radiated throughout my leg. I was hobbling. Once I got into a rhythm, the pain would ease until I hit another uphill or stopped to walk. Stopping and starting was unbearable. I kept it all to myself but it was obvious I was limping. I always carry some Advil in my pack but I didn’t want to take it 5 miles into a 100 mile race, that just seemed too soon.
The sun was finally starting to rise and we ended up right at the perfect spot for it. The sunrise from the Hazel bluff trails is always stunning.
We both were in good spirits and chatting the whole way. I was keeping the ankle talk as minimal as possible. I could not go there yet in my brain but I knew there was no way I was going to be able to do 100 miles if my ankle stayed like this. I promised myself that when I got to the crew at mile 21, I would take an Advil. I had no choice.
When we finally made it back to Beal’s (mile 21 at about 4 hours and 1 minute) I was thrilled as Vans and the girls were all there with our crew.
I was so excited to see them all! Vans had even told some of his friends who biked over to see me. Such an incredible boost.
Just as I had promised myself, I took two Advil here and put some topical cream on my ankle to try and ease the pain. Things were not great.
Shawn and I left the Beal’s aid-station with me hobbling up to the levee. I made another promise with myself and that was to give myself an hour to see how much the Advil helped. It is never good to take Advil for an entire race but if that’s what it took for the ankle pain to subside, I’d do it.
After about 45 minutes, the pain in my ankle went from a 9 on the pain scale to about a 5. A 5 I figured I could manage.
Then something crazy happened. Somewhere, shortly before mile 35, I rolled my ankle pretty bad on a downhill. I immediately thought to myself, “Crap! That can’t be good.” Instead of terrible pain however, I felt a huge relief! It is like whatever was impinging my ankle from flexing, had been moved when I rolled it! I was all of a sudden 100% pain free and I remained pain free for the entire race! It was a miracle but one I kept to myself. I did not share it with anyone until after the race. I did not want to risk jinxing myself.
Shawn and I came into Rattlesnake aid-station (mile 35.75) in pretty good spirits. We both felt that we’d been fueling fairly well even perhaps a little more than what we had planned on. When at the aid-stations with my crew, I would eat solid food but between aid-stations out on the trail, I used my Tailwind and Spring Energy which seemed to be working.
When we left Rattlesnake, we knew we were really approaching the “fun” part of the race. We were officially headed to Auburn! The Overlook we knew would be a huge aid-station and a major stopping point for us as we’d need to change and grab headlamps to go into the night. We could not wait to get there.
The climb to the Overlook however is never fun. It is a 3 mile solid climb up but we filled the time and miles just chatting away and we ran any little flat parts we came across.
I was feeling pretty good. I had waves of good energy and waves of fatigue. My fueling would get a little off each time I would stop at an aid-station with crew and eat solid food. Then when we’d start running again, I wasn’t hungry but also had energy so I would run but not refuel while running and put myself into a deficit I think. Something to work on.
Shawn had his own battles but I think was feeling pretty good when we got to the Overlook.
I quickly changed out of my tank top and into a t-shirt. I grabbed my night time headlamp and toyed with taking a jacket. It was just so warm and the night before was warm too. In the end, I left without the jacket and decided that was a good call.
We made our way from the Overlook down the 4 miles to No Hands Bridge. While at No Hands, I heard one of the volunteers talking and recognized her voice and face as Melissa Johnson. She encouraged us to try the veggie broth which was absolutely amazing! It was the perfect amount of saltiness. I also really appreciated the racing having veggie broth over chicken broth.
Melissa wished us luck and told us she’d see us on the return much MUCH later. We were headed towards Quarry and Cool next.
While Quarry Road is one of my least favorite places to run, it does lend itself to some nice views of the river. Shawn and I took the gravel road easy. Running and walking until we entered the single track and by then, it was dark.
The distance from the No Hands aid-station to the next aid-station (ALT) was over 10 miles and it was over 20 miles before we would see our crew again. I would say (for me) this was probably the hardest section overall.
Although you would not have known it by the way Shawn and I were motoring some of the runnable sections. Shawn took the lead and we were passing some runners. I was starting to fade and feel a little fatigued when I think Shawn was hitting his second wind. I was able to keep up but I think it drained me a little more than I care for and the ALT aid-station (mile 59.35) seemed a million miles away.
When we finally reached the aid-station our watches had the distance at over 60 miles. I quickly had some broth and it felt good to refill my pack. I was feeling better. This aid-station also had a lot of carnage and negativity with exhausted runners talking to the amazing volunteers about dropping. I wanted out of there quickly.
Shawn and I took off down the trail not eagerly awaiting the infamous Goat Hill but excited to know that we were headed to Cool where we would see our crew.
Goat Hill was rough. My quads were pretty tired. I determined that the early miles (5-35) in an effort to not use my bad ankle, I had been running up hills using mostly my quads instead of hamstrings so my quads felt shot. I was still unsure if the ankle pain would return so even going up Goat Hill, I wasn’t climbing the way I normally would.
Throughout this section it was sprinkling a little, although never a full on rain and not cold at all. The trail however was just so rocky and with loose rocks which Shawn and I kept finding ourselves kicking over and over. The tips of my toes felt mutilated on any rocky downhill.
We were pretty quiet for a while trying to navigate down hill sections. The last thing I wanted to do was fall. His feet were bugging him too so we both were just focused on our headlights shining on the ground so as not to kick anymore rocks.
We broke ultra runner rule #1 – keeping your head down. After running downhill for a good stretch, at mile 66-ish we realized we had missed some ribbons and essentially a big turn. We had run about a half mile off course, downhill. We had to turn around and go back uphill to find where we had gone wrong.
No one wants to get lost. Shawn felt awful but I refused to let him think that this was his fault. We are two people each with our own set of eyes. We just both had been looking down and consequently missed our lights shining on the reflective ribbons.
In my mind, there was nothing else to do but turn around, forget about it and get ourselves back on track.
Getting ourselves to Cool and seeing our crew was all we wanted and needed at this point. It was past midnight.
Our crew had a nice little set up. Vans was there too which was a huge boost for me. He’s never done the middle of the night crewing aid-station thing. I was excited for him to experience it.
It was here I decided to ditch my hydration bladder. I had been having back spasms and pain almost all day. My pack is normally pretty heavy and I train with a heavy pack but for whatever reason, it was killing me this time. I also stopped drinking my Tailwind here. I had Michele removed my Tailwind flasks and replace them with a flask of all water and a small bottle of Coke. I never drink soda except for late miles of a race. I needed the liquid calories and the caffeine.
As we were leaving Cool, in my head I was thinking that all the long stretches were done. No Hands Bridge was the next aid-station and was only 3.61 miles away!
We got to No Hands and true to her word, Melissa Johnson was there and so was Miss P! I had paced Miss P at this very race in 2017. Their smiling and welcoming faces were a beacon!
As we were crossing No Hands Bridge, making our way back to the Overlook, Shawn started doing some math. He was figuring that if we kept our pace at 20 minute miles (walking – as we were both walking a lot the last few stretches), that we might not finish in time. We went from having a cushion to not much of a cushion.
Shawn texted the crew and did more math, daylight savings was also not helping our cause (the race does not abide by day light savings so we had to keep that factor in mind the whole time).
Finally, he came to the conclusion that we’d have an hour buffer … or, we’ll be the Golden Hour finishers.
When it comes to ultra running and 100 mile races, I don’t like “an hour” as a buffer. So many things can go wrong. We could get lost again. One of us could fall or start having digestive issues. Internally, I was not settling for an hour.
When we got to the Overlook (mile 76.84) and saw our crew, Shawn used the restroom. I told Michele about our hour buffer and that I would prefer if we could keep him from hanging out in the aid-stations now for too long. Shawn admittedly loves to hang out with the crew who has devoted so much time to us whereas I am the opposite typically but I was taking the time this race more so than I had at my last 100.
However, now we needed to make up some time. I didn’t want to finish in 29 hours or 29 hours and 59 minutes. Our original goal had been 27 hours and that was out the window. I was happy just to finish, but I wanted to finish strong and running, not walking. Shawn I think (I don’t want to speak for him) was in the pain cave at this moment and not a fan of my wanting to move it and not a fan of me not wanting to finish in 29 hours. I think I had even said to him, “You won’t be happy with that later.” LOL
Shawn and I agreed to run part of the paved section down to the river. That quickly went out the window after a few yards. The quads were not having the pounding. It didn’t help that a whole group of runners ran by us or that we made yet another wrong turn, but luckily we only made it two steps before some other runners told us they’d also gone the wrong way and to turn around.
For the first time ever in my life, I was actually falling asleep while running down hill. I think my body relaxed enough because it was pavement and I didn’t have to focus that I would literally drift off for a few second at a time as I was walking.
Once we hit the river single track, I was in the lead and I was on a mission. My second wind had kicked in and I ran every downhill bit of trail we came across. I could feel the daggers in the back of my head from Shawn but he was quiet and he was still behind me. I knew he’d hate me now, but would appreciate it later … maybe much later, but I knew he could dig himself out of that hole and find his second wind.
We passed a ton of runners on our way to the Rattlesnake aid-station (mile 86.02). This was our last spot to see the crew before the finish. We also knew that the trails that lay ahead were a bit of a pain with a lot of smaller ups and downs, rocks, and steps. Again, not the most runnable of sections but one we’ve trained on many times.
It was less than 3 miles to the next aid-station (Horseshoe bar) and this was the aid-station I have volunteered at for the 4 years I think. It had changed crew hands this year so I was bummed knowing that I wouldn’t see Monica and Eric there but I knew there was a porta potty and that was what I needed. While I used that, Shawn sat (uh oh). He said he napped like 5 seconds while I was in there but I think that’s what he needed too.
After we left Horseshoe, Shawn came back to life and just in time too. We had 7 miles to the last and final aid-station before the finish and my burst of energy, was finally starting to wane just a little.
Granite Beach aid-station literally took forever to arrive but I passed the time by pointing out my silly landmarks to Shawn (Meat Grinder, Stripper Pole and Yoga Rock). The aid-station was a virtual ghost town minus the volunteers. Shawn and I both stopped briefly and then we were on our way, excited to be headed to the finish. We were going to do this!
Normally the gravel road back to Beals seems like it lasts forever but I think I trained well enough on that section recently that we were able to run all the downs which made it pass so much quicker and before we knew it, we found ourselves on the levees headed to the finish!
I texted Michele and Vans that we were on the first levee and would be getting there soon. We walked and ran but made the agreement that we’d run that final levee and into the finish.
When we finally got to the last levee, I could see Vans and my girls with a cowbell cheering for us!
We did it! Shawn has his 100 mile buckle and I have my Western States qualifier and a second hundred under my belt after having had a bone fracture earlier in the year.
This adventure will go down as one of my most memorable. Oddly, I finished in almost the same amount of time it took me to run Pine 2 Palm in 2019 which had way more elevation but this time, I was able to run with Shawn from mile 1 to mile 101! 🙂 LOL!! We’re in that special 101 club now. 😉
We learned a lot about each other and I think we can both agree, we each have strengths and weaknesses when it comes to running 100 miles, but we even each other out. Yin and Yang. Shawn is an incredible runner and a fantastic training partner and I am so happy to have been a part of his first 100 mile journey the way he was for mine.
Trail friends make some of the best friends. Now, we are both enjoying some down time looking forward to lottery day with fingers crossed that we both get called.
Happy Trails!
~Trailmomma
Gear Used:
Shoes: Topoathletic Ultraventure 3 (one pair the whole race)
Socks: Injini (one pair the whole race)
Watch: Garmin
Pack: Salomon
Fuel: Tailwind and Spring Energy
Extra Photos 🙂
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