Subject: Rocky Racoon Race report (long) Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 10:10:25 EST From: Gwen Heist The SLUGS had a pretty good showing at RR this year. We certainly lucked out with the weather. The weather channel had forecast scattered showers originally for Saturday but we ended up with perfectly clear skies during the day and plenty of moonlight at night. A lot of prayers were answered; I for one, was not looking forward to 100M in the rain and mud. I could easily make a small novel about this race but I will spare you that. I'll limit it to a short story. Suffice to say, it was a good choice for a first 100M. The trail is very easy to run; not really hilly except a few on an out and back at the halfway point; nice soft sandy dirt and pine needles and the roots were really not any worse than what I am used to dodging on the trails here at home. There were a couple of mud pits that by the end of the race were getting REALLY annoying but, at the end of the race, almost everything was getting REALLY annoying. I think there were 132 starters, I don't know the total number of finishers. Of the 5 SLUGS that started, we had 4 finishers. Mark Williams ran a PR in ~18 1/2 hours to finish 7th overall for the men (awesome!). I managed to lead to women's race from about mile 20 through 89. I had been reduced to walking the majority of the last loop and was caught by the eventual winner at the 1/2-way point on the last loop and by the second place woman (Monica Scholz) a short time later. She is really something-- having finished the HURT 100 just a few weeks before and she looked like she was out for a morning jog. I am not sure of the finishing times for Mike Price (around 22 1/2hrs I think) or Jan Ryerse, as I was flat on my back at that point! I was sad to hear that Tom had been forced to drop at around 70M due to stomach problems. The first loop was run only about 1 hour in the dark. It was cool, around upper 30's to start but once the sun came up, things heated up fast. At first I was concerned about my choice to start in shorts and light long-sleeve shirt and vest but was soon glad I did. I really felt too warm on most of the race, even later after the sun set and I was walking a lot. The first loop went really quick and was fun because everything was new. I tried to remember as many of the turns, etc. as I could (I figured later I would be doing well to recognize the arrow signs) and just tried to keep Monica (the leader at that point for the women) in sight. We went too fast (for me), almost no walking at all the first 20M. Mark caught up to me about mile 13-14 or so and we finished the first loop in 3:15. The second loop both Mark and I knew we had to do more walking. Did we? Not really! We brought the second loop to completion in about 3 1/2 hrs. My weight was down 4lbs on this loop and although the aid workers didn't say anything, Scott Weber (who was there to pace someone else on the final loop) did. Start drinking more! OK, OK, I promised. I knew he was right. I hung with Mark until about mile 50, which we hit at about 8 1/2 hours. I was feeling intermittently nauseated-- not bad, and was able to stave off feeling worse by alternating a bottle of my Cytomax/amino mix with plain water. Unfortunately, I was also not eating enough because of the queasiness. Although I was still not walking much, I was definitely hitting a rough patch. This was all new territory to me, as I had not run farther that 50M before. By the end of the third loop (60M) I felt pretty good again. Mark was not all that far ahead (~10 min.) and my weight had come back up some. I told Scott of my nausea problems and he said to start pushing the salt. He really bailed me out towards the end and started meeting me at some of the aid stations. The fourth loop got tough round mile 75. Despite the salt, I was still having a hard time making myself eat anything-- you can not run one of these things without refueling. I started drinking Coke for the calories and caffeine as it didn't bother me too much. I was still running, sort of, and had maintained about a 24 min. lead over the second place woman, who I found out was now Michelle Burr. Monica had dropped back to 3rd. The last loop, well, it wasn't pretty. It was dark now, and although the temps were getting cold, I still felt really hot most of the time, a little chilled at others. I was now reduced to a lot of powerwalking. Scott met me at the first aid station, made me sit down a minute and drink some soup and eat. He also brought me some warm clothes from my drop bag. Like I said, he really saved my butt out there. I still had a hold on the lead, and he told me to try to keep running/walking. I said OK and headed down the road at a jog (I think). The road was really nice at night-- there was enough moonlight that you really didn't need to use a flashlight at all there. I made it about another mile and that was it. It was walking from there. Although it was disappointing getting passed at the halfway point on the last lap, at the moment I was really too tired to care. I did try to jog again when Michelle came up on me and hung with her for a few minutes but both her and her pacer were definitely feeling stronger than me. I wished her luck and settled back down to my powerwalk. A short time later Monica pulled up and we ran together for a few minutes. She looked really good; was just chatting away with her partner like they were out for an easy training run. She is really something! After they left me, I just focused on maintaining pace; refueling and drinking consistently and not stopping (a DNF was looking mighty tempting at this point!). About 2 hours out of the finish, my main flashlight gave out. Well, that gave me some incentive to get moving. I still had my backup light fortunately. Although by this time I was discovering I had developed a herd of blisters on my toes and the tendons in front of my ankles were getting sore, I was determined to finish this thing. By the last aid station, I was feeling better. I met Scott one last time, handed him my dead flashlight and focused on that last couple miles. I managed to return to a walk/jog and then... missed the turn! I ran into a cross trail where fortunately two other runners were coming toward me. I asked if this was the trail back to the start/finish and they said no, it was to the 4th aid station. I had already been there, and didn't want to go back! I back tracked and found where I had gotten off course (it was well marked, had glow sticks, etc., I was just stupid at that point) and finally got back on the road home. I figure I lost a couple minutes there, so that gave me more incentive to start running again-- I was mad now! At long last the finish area was in sight-- I can't begin to put into words the relief I felt when I saw it! They insist on weighing you again at the finish-- I asked what would they do if I was too low now-- make me go back out again? Actually, though, I was 4 lbs heavier now than at the start (a sign of the leg edema to come!) Mark was still there at the finish when I came in and looked pretty darned good. Figuring that Mike was probably still a couple hours out, we figured we could run back to the hotel and shower and make it back for the finish. Well, he did, anyway. I made the mistake of laying down for a few minutes and when I tried to get back up to go back to the park, well, the world started doing some weird things. I really missed not seeing everyone else finish and getting some pictures. Although during the last 20M I swore I wouldn't run anything father than a 10K again, now that the leg edema is going down and I can walk (sort of) again; I am starting to look forward to Leadville this summer. Some people never learn. Gwen