Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Vermont 100 25th Edition


Vermont 100 or is it Paradise Lost


This was my 3rd Vermont 100 and my 2nd finish and fastest time a good thing if you want to see progression!

We arrived on Friday afternoon to the inferno of Silver Hill Meadow temperatures heading up to Vermont read 102 in the car.  When my father and I arrived CC and MB had two tents set up and I set up a third tent to reserve more space.  It was the normal activity of tent set up and getting settled.  We all skipped the mandatory meeting this year I figure I have heard it twice and I had some stuff I needed to do.  DogMan and MadDog arrived soon thereafter as well as G$ and the Tincan.  Things were happening all around and then the action started.  The Tincan was grounded in small mud patch in the open field.  To make a long story short MadDog when to arrange a tractor pull and the Tincan was free to roll.

Bedtime came early until; cue the music of Riders on the Storm by The Doors, as the Vermont thunderstorms rolled in.  Wind, rain, lighting and thunder what a night trying to sleep I think I got 4 hours.  Morning was the same as always people moving around in their tents, the sounds of the zippers of the tens, headlamps etc etc.  I headed over to the Tincan to do some final details and then we all headed down to the race start.

Fireworks kicked off at 3:55am and at 4:00am the gun went off and we were off in the 25th edition of the Vermont 100.

CC, MB and myself all ran relatively close together I would say for the first 10 miles?  As soon as we hit the pavement of the re-route near Taftsville Bridge CC was gone and only MB was behind me.  Everything was going well heading to Pretty House.  MB passed me as I was stepping off the trail for bathroom pit stop.  I eventually caught up to MB before Pretty House and pulled slightly ahead on a climb.  MB left Pretty House before me and I never saw him again the rest of the day.  Leaving Pretty House things were good, I was getting about 150 calories down per hour, pounding the water and S-Caps.  The weather was hot, very humid but the sun had not reared its ugly head.  I caught up with a girl named Emma and we ran together all the way to Stage Road.  Short story is Emma is the wife of Ian the RD for Pinelands, small world.  Stage Road came and went still feeling good.  Made on small change which was drop the UltrAspire Synapsis and go with one single 20oz handheld and my Spy belt jammed with ClifShot gels and S-Caps.  DogMan walked out of Stage Road with me monitoring my eating and I left with some turkey sandwiches and potato.  I was taking a Clifshot gel every hour I had my watch time set for 60 minutes and DogMan would calculate my time to the next handle station and that is how many gels I would take.  It worked perfect all day.  The haul form Stage Road to Camp 10 Bear is a slog with there as some very big climbs and descents.  The climb after Lincoln Covered Bridge is a monster and the road is in the sun.  I had the aid station volunteer fill my shirt with ice for the long slog.  I was still with Emma at this point and we pretty much ran ½ way up the climb then power hiked the rest.  Once we hit Route 12 Emma took over and I kind of chased but was doing a lot of eating and getting down more gels and food.  Camp 10 Bear arrived, I forget my split 9 hour range I think.  Weight in was good same as when I started, not sure how guess I was doing a good job of hydration.  The 25 mile loop that takes you back to Camp 10 Bear the 2nd time is a beast.  Lots of hills, lots of mud, it’s the start of the suffering if you ask me.  

  • Rider of horse #100 very cute we talked a lot, more to come on this
  • The mother daughter Asian team talking Chinese interesting.
  • The guy after Stage Road hosing down horses with a shirt that said “Lynch’em”
  • The guy I was running with from Texas who asked, “when is camp 10 Bear” I said “we passed it about 5 miles ago”.

After Camp 10 Bear around Pinky’s I caught up with Jack.  Jack was in bad shape which he will admit to.  I absolutely SUCKED seeing him like this.  I stuck with Jack for about 5 minutes at Pinky’s forcing food down his throat.  I told him, “you can always eat your way out of bonk”.  We left Pinky’s together and I gave him the rest of the food I was carrying hoping he would rally.  We quickly separated and I was off.  The next big hurdle in my mind was get to Tracer Brook, hit the climb hard to Seven Seas handler station.  I was feeling really good still.  The crew as there and G$ met me probably a ¼ way from the top.  I rolled in and rolled out.  DogMan got me some food from the aid station table and I was off.  I kept firing back as much food as I could from Seven Seas to Margaritaville it was a short 3 miles some up but then some great downhill.  I came into M’ville feeling good, had some foot/blister issues but nothing I could do just live with it.  We tried a sock change and band-aid it helped for maybe 1 mile.  I did take down a hamburger or cheeseburger it was delicious.  Leaving M’ville I was completely isolated alone and hit a low point.  It is all runnable and I ran what I could.  Its only 8 miles from M’ville back to Camp 10 Bear but it felt like 26.2 – I kept eating and eating.  There is a long descent down to a left hand turn for Camp 10 Bear and before this is a Horse Aid station.  Rider of horse #100 was there.  I asked her for some water she offered to give me a sponge bath, why not I said.  I also got a quick water bottle fill and I was off. Horse Sponge and Horse water it didn’t matter at that point.  Camp 10 Bear for a weigh in down only 2 pounds at mile 70 in the heat that is a good sign.  I took down food, picked up DogMan and we were off for the last 50k.

The pickup of the pacer is something to really look forward to.  The sad part is it’s a death march, I smell, I am not very talkative and I can’t think for myself.  The last 30 miles are a death sentence.  It’s the get me to the finish line on my own two feet.  When we left Camp 10 Bear we climbed for a while I did some eating and our objective was West Winds in daylight which we achieved with plenty of daylight I don’t even think the candles or generator was running at that point.  West Wind was a blur I don’t remember much of it but I do know when we left West Wind I was feeling ok.  I told DogMan if we can run we will start to pick up carnage.  We picked up two guys right off the bat and a 3rd soon after.  The mileage from West Wind to Bills is 11 miles.  Well it a demonic walk to what I say is the Satanic Cult of Bills. During that journey we pass the Civil War field, we hit an awesome stretch of flat road that I think I ran all of this year.  We also hit climb after climb after climb.  I think the last 30 is tougher than the 25 mile Camp 10 Bear loop and would argue the hardest part of the course.  If you can run down and the flats you are in good shape, which I think we did.  DogMan was definitely pushing the pace, staying in front of me and I just trying to keep within 10 feet head down, grunting, swearing and pushing.  We hit Cow Shed in good spirits I think, eating food, broth and Coca Cola.  The grunt from Cow Shed to Bills is a test of ones will.  We trudged forward passing some blown out roads from heavy rain, DogMan gave me the low down on the sub-tropical climate Vermont was in and some kind of weed, not the smoking kind, that was taking over everything.  I think I told DogMan every light I saw in the distance was Bill, to which he would say, “I think we got another 1 hour to Bills”.  DogMan would ask me to run I would try.  DogMan would ask me “can you run this up”.  I would respond, “I think it goes up even more”. DogMan would respond, “Yeah I didn’t see the curvature up beyond the bend, fuck it walk”.  We would walk, power walk, eat the aroma filling Jet Blackberry caffeine gels. Those were good.  We finally arrived to at Bill’s.  The place is a death grip.  PM and Irish Rose where there.  I went it and got my weight checked I was exactly where I started.  I had about 3 cups of roasted potatoes and some soap.  I think I crushed more coke and some Vita Coco water.  I got my shirt filled with ice and we were off for the last 12 miles / 12 Heavy Weight Rounds to the finish.  Polly’s was 7 miles away I don’t know how long it took us to get there but I remember but we got there.  It looked like a big party there had to be 20-25 people there, cars, camera crews it was all fucked up.  I took down Gummy Bears, why I don’t know, but they were the best things ever.  I took two more handfuls and we were off.  Fields, mud, grass, road, hills and one final push and we hit the finish line.  We had two people breathing down our necks on the last ½ mile.  DogMan gave me the command “Don’t let them catch you”.  The finish was in sight, 100 miles complete 21:39.

The fun only continued but here are the main points:

  • Pass out
  • IV bag
  • Rally
  • Not so good again off to hospital
  • 2 more IV bags
  • I get a hospital roommate.  The GF of hospital roommate says I look much better than when she saw me in the tent.  GF asks me my time.  GF tells her BF who was urinating Guinness the guy next to you beat you.
  • Trying to piss in hospital bed, while my father holds the urinating container with the lid still on that was interesting.
  • All for a buckle.

As I captured in an off line email, I’m running for the collective cause and it’s the human spirits that keep me going.  There is always luck when finishing a 100 mile endurance run, but the human spirits, companionship and motivation of all of you keep the wheels in motion to cross the finish line.  The training and discipline is the selfishness aspect that you hope pays off for everyone to experience and feel a part of on race day.

Thank you guys for being there through thick and thin and to celebrate another VT 100.  The smile on your faces, the laughs and war stories make it all worth it!