My second journey of the year and first crack at Hardrock qualifier. Not sure how this all started, I know I have had Hardrock in my sights and really never thought I would get at the level to run in a Hardrock qualifier soon and actually have the chance to enter the lottery.
I had a really good Vermont 100 came out of the race injury free, took some time off and spent two week in the mountains around Colorado doing some up and down and just really taking it easy. CC ran a awesome Leadville and the wheels started to turn. Grindstone was down in Virginia, short flight and car drive, it was in early October and I figured if I could stay in relatively ok shape in Colorado I could pick up the volume when I returned and really focus the month of September on training for Grindstone.
I think one of the milestone of realizing things would go well in my training was that Mutha and I did a Pemi look and I felt decent on the effort. I recovered perfectly the next day did a recover run and knew that I could put in some good miles. I put in a couple of two a days early in September and also was able to get up to NH with CC and MB for more NH mountain mountains.
My father aka "Drop Bag" had shown interest in crewing at Grindstone. I was tentative to invite him but looked at the crewing aid stations and they were repeats as Grindstone was an out and back course. I gave him the nod and some specific instructions for him to follow, which he generally did. Ultimately Drop Bag's life line was Grandmaster G$$$. G$$$ took the bull by the horns and basically said "FUCK IT", I will crew for you down at Grindstone. Now without G$$$ - CC and I would probably still be at Dowells Draft waiting for Drop Bag to show up. Again, thank you G$$$ for sacrificing your weekend and time away from the Louie Family to crew for CC and I and save Drop Bag's life.
We all arrived safely down in Swoope, VA at the Boy Scout's of America Campground, which I might add is awesome. Nice little lake, shower facilities, big dinning hall and bathrooms. We had three tents set up so everyone could spread out and get a good nights sleep Thursday night, the race started Friday night at 6pm.
I had an excellent nights sleep Thursday which I was really surprised about. Drop Bag slept in his tent and snored like a chainsaw. CC was his mute self jammed in his BD Mirage tent.
Friday was low key. The one thing about this race is that you don't even feel you are at a race. The RD is very hands off and you just do whatever until 6pm Friday night. All during the day we rested, hydrated, did our registration, had a great lunch, did last minute gear checks and instructions and we were ready to rumble at 6pm.
3-2-1 go!
The first crew station was Dowells Draft 22 miles in. I know that the heard of runners thinned out really fast and there was some runners in sight and overlapping up until Elliot Knob which was a beast of a climb. After Elliot's Knob I don't think CC and I had any company all the way to Dowell's Draft. The night running was really spectacular. Course markings were good and I don't think we had a single problem. Temps were cool at night and I went back and forth between having my arm warmers up and down. Everything in the first 22 miles went really well, both CC and I were feeling really good, power walking when necessary and pretty much running everything else. I thought the footing was much better than originally thought.
After Dowells Draft we had a grunt of a climb to Lookout Mountain and it was dark and windy. I remember our descent down into the aid station for Lookout Mountain was really fast, but I also remembered we would have to hit that on the return. After Lookout Mountain we had another descent down to the 2nd crew access station North River Gap. G$$$ and Drop Bag were keeping things together for CC and I. I do remember that you could get really cold at the crew access aid stations and while eating and refilling packs I did wear my Arc'Teryx coreloft jacket to stay warm and it helped. Leaving North River Gap we had another huge climb to Reddish Knob. This was on FS road the foot was great but it was a LONG climb. We got up to Reddish Knob and the wind was blowing hard. We dropped back down to the aid station and I loaded up on grill cheese probably about 5. I might had had some warm liquid I don't remember, but we had a 3.2 mile descent down a road just like the access road at Blue Hills but 3 miles of it. We ran it pretty convincingly. G$$$ and Drop Bag were at Briery Branch but we still had an out and back to Gnashing Knob which really sucked. On our return heading back to Reddish Knob at Briery Branch we dropped our headlamps and some other stuff off with G$$$ and Drop Bag loaded up our packs, took down calories and heading back for the 3.2 mile climb back to Reddish Knob. We climbed with pace from what I remember and had a great sunrise off to our east. The aid station at the bottom of Reddish had the grill cheese going still and I took a bunch and we continued on. We had a really awesome descent down off of Reddish Knob and CC was definitely starting to feel good again. He was battling the sleep monster early in the night, grunting, groaning his normal stuff, but I think the morning light really sparked things up for him. I was really surprised how I did during the night, I'm not a night Owl. At Little Bald Knob, the aid station was really good they had perogi's going - which CC and I took down with ease. I had about 5-6 and they really are good and do the job with giving you the carbs you need. After we left Little Bald Knob I took 2 Advil, as my left testicle was numb. I either had a hernia going on or something was wrong with it. Pissing hurt, taking a shit hurt, running up hurt, running down hurt it just sucked. It was probably a really low abdominal strain, but within 35 minutes the Advil kicked in and I was happy again, but the testicle was not.
We hit Lookout Mountain and things for CC and I were going really well. We load up on some more food, took in warm liquids. It was tough getting CC out of Lookout Mountain as he was really into the pet pig they had there, not sure if it reminded him how he eats like a pig sometimes. I finally pulled him away we had some climbing and then it was a long descent down to Dowell's Draft. We hit the Dowell's Draft to be greeted by G$$$ and Drop Bag. Everything was going well, we had our weigh in I was down 5lbs but not really worried, I was feeling good and knew I would be doing a lot of eating as we would see the crew several more time. Leaving Dowell's Draft I definitely hit the lowest point of the race for me. Stomach was ok, but I was ready to go night night. Sleep monster had struck and he had a grip. Twice I dozed off walking and told CC, "I want to fucking sleep". He asked if I wanted to sit down, if I did I would still be there. I asked him what to do, he said "eat, that's what you told me to do", o yeah I forgot. I ate and ate and ate and ate and it worked. I came alive again in about 30 minutes.
The climbing from Dowell's Draft was relentless, Elliot's Knob never ever ever came. I would put it in the death march category as we just kept gaining elevation and grunted our way up. I believe we got passed by two or three people. We had another aid station at Dry Branch Gap before Elliot's Knob and dropped our packs and just went with a single bottle waist pack. We continued to climb and when we reached the top of Elliot's Knob access road, we both kind of just turned and ran down the access road all the way to Fall's Hollow the last aid station. We both had really good "running" legs during the 4 mile descent and ran everything aggressively. We had sub 26 in the cross hairs. Our last aid station Fall's Hollow, we loaded up on Coke and rice that G$$$ cooked for us. The rice was warm and it stuck to our guts and warmed us up. Night had hit again we put on our headlamps and I think we had about 60 minutes to cover the last 5.18 miles with some climbing on the front end. Within about 5 minutes I dumped out the water in my bottle, basically ever ounce of weight counted and I knew we were going to drop the hammer for the last 5.18 miles. We did, negative splits and picked off everyone that went by us on the ascent to Elliot's Knob. We were running through trees, water, jumping streams etc etc it was blast 96 miles into a race.
We finally crossed the finish line in 25:52:59.
This was a EPIC race and it seemed more like a high end adventure compared to VT 100.
I have to thank G$$$ again for what he did, coming down to Swoope, crewing for us through the night, doing everything as text book as one could and anticipated our every need. When you don't have to communicate to someone but they know what you need, that's a person you can trust with our life.
Drop Bag - well a lot can be said. He stayed up all night, was at all the crew stations and wasn't taken Deliverance style down in the Blue Ridge if he was he had all the body glide he needed :-)
CC - you have definitely taken me under your paw and made me a better ultra runner, thanks. I don't know how many words we said to each other during the race, but the silence was nice :-) I'm getting there slowly but surely.
To the rest of the crew that was at VT 100 you guys were with us every step, we missed you guys but thought of you often. Trust me you guys were there in spirit.
Side note : Special thanks to MB for putting the pace charts together and bringing Klondike bars over.
Side note: Special thanks to Mrs. for ordering CC and I pizza
