Subject: A Tale of Two Vermonts Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 12:33:13 -0500 From: "Britt Starnes" Sorry this took so long to post but wanted to share for those who did not get enough Vermont articles. A Tale of Two Vermont's The first Vermont (1999) was a decision born out of "cockiness" fused with a few beers and a good cigar. I had always wanted to run one hundred miles at age forty and the above factors helped me choose Vermont. Along with a little help from my little buddy Tom Crull who said it would be "gently rolling hills" and cooler than the July temperatures would be in Texas. Vermont (1999) was run on the hottest day in Vermont history at 96 degrees. (Some say hotter) Needless to say I along with 60% of the field DNF'ed. (Me at 55 miles) I came to a spot in the road where I could not take another step. Found a rock to lay on. Get the "broom wagon". I was done. The second Vermont (2000) started the day after the first Vermont, at the awards ceremony. I sat there and watched, with a pit in my stomach, as my fellow runners, one after another, younger than I, older than I, fatter than I, uglier than I, better looking, went to the podium for their plaques and buckles. I was bummed. Green Mountain had beaten me. I made myself a promise sitting there in that barn on Smoke Rise Farm that I would return and claim the buckle that had eluded me. Run (and finish) my first one hundred miles! I made myself a promise that I would do whatever it took at any price to return and be victorious. And so the quest began. Every step I took running the following year was aimed at returning to Vermont. There it was, 364 days out in front of me, a dream! A goal to be had! A purpose to my running. And so I began to focus. Laser beam focus. I "picked the brains" of people who had gone before me. Others ( Scott Eppelman, Tyler Cruiel, Suzi Cope, Glenn Hamilton, Neil Hewitt, Jay Norman) who had been victorious there. Analyzing what went wrong. Analyzing what I had done "right" for 55 of 100 miles in '99. I mapped a plan to run long and strong for one year. A 50k or more every month from December "99 until Vermont 2000. Sunmart Trail. Done. Dallas White Rock Marathon. Done. Fat Ass 50k. Done. Phoenix National Trail 50 Mile. Done. East Texas 50k. Done. Catalina 100k. Done. Catalina Marathon. Done. Jim Bridger 50k. Done. Along with countless miles and hours on the trails at home near Dallas. Every step thinking of Vermont. Every Succeed cap, practicing how often to take them. Clip? How often? How much? Every mile thinking and preparing for the Green Mountains of Vermont. I put myself in a "ditch" so often in so many different settings JUST so I could feel the pain of what took me out of VT100 '99. Dehydration. I learned how it felt and what to do and how to overcome dehydration and every other obstacle I thought I might face. I trained on mountains higher and longer than Vermont's. I ran in hotter temperatures. I ran on rockier courses, rain or shine. Sought advice from people that had "fruit on their tree". All with a single, clearly defined purpose, "The Buckle". I talked about that buckle everywhere I went. Thought about it on all the previous races and runs. Every step was merely a training ground and "experimental lab" for finishing Vermont. For what was to come. Sunmart? "A trainer". Catalina 100k? "Lab work!" Jim Bridger? "Trainer". And so when July 15, 2000 rolled around I was ready. The race itself was actually anti-climatic. I had run it already a thousand times in my mind. Had visualized myself going to the podium, holding "the buckle" in my hand as Tammi snapped a picture, congratulating those who had finished just before me and just after. Victory! I had developed a clear mental picture. Vermont 2000 started in the rain. Rained off and on for the entire race (Been here done this. Ready for it!) with the last several hours becoming a real "gully washer"! And so it was for 22:34 hours. A stroll in the park. Just as I had planned. My wife Tammi (soon to run her first fifty) was my crew. She did a super job of having everything ready for me at the designated aid stations. Doing this for her may turn out to be a harder job than running. I think she worked harder than I did! Thank you sweetie! My plan was to go out slow to avoid a bad habit I have of going out too fast. Wanted to get through the first fifty in 10:30 - 11:30 hours and then see what I could do from there. I knew this was slower than I could run, however having never gone "the distance" I kept the buckle in mind. Went through the 51.7 aid station in 11:32. All is good. Was getting tired of taking my poncho on and off. Which I did 15-20 times during the day but it gave me something to do. Just when I would get it off it would start raining again. Back on. Ran the entire distance on Succeed, Clip, Cliff Shot, Turkey sandwiches and coke. A few pretzels thrown in for "time killers". Had a blister pop up at 68 (Camp Ten Bear) but it was raining and I was wet so instead of "tending" to it I just pressed on. My thought process was: I could create more problems than I already have by taking off my shoe and why put on dry socks only to have them wet again five minutes from now? (In hindsight I would have addressed the problem.) Bill's (83.7) came and went. Wanted to change clothes (wet) here. Had been thinking of how good it would feel to be dry for hours. Got there to discover that Tammi had lost the car keys. Car was locked. No dry clothes. Wasted little time on a decision to keep moving. She found them and later told me she had convinced herself she was "saving me time" by not having a long aid stop working on my feet and changing clothes. She was right. The pain I now had with my now pasty white "clammy" feet was nothing compared to the pain I had a year ago. Watching, listening to the successes and battle stories of those who had persevered in '99. "Setting aside those things that beseech me I press towards the mark." Had been running with 3-4 guys. ( Don't know their names. Didn't want to get emotionally attached just in case.) We were silently feeding off each other. Running the "downs" and "flats" and fast walking the "ups". Clicking off the miles. Speaking of "ups". Blood Hill was next. Last year (and this) all I remember hearing about was "Blood Hill." "Blood Hill." "Watch out for Blood Hill." Didn't realize I was up it already until I saw Mickey Rollins and his aid station. A huge smile came across my face as I ran past the aid station shouting out my number. Thinking of how all the hours in the gym doing squats and leg extensions/curls was paying off. Thinking of the huge mountains I had been on in Montana only a month before. Blood Hill? HA! It was MY turn to extract a pound of flesh from Green Mountain! Jenneville (90 miles) here I come! Dropped my fanny pack at Jenneville. Tanked up on fluids and Cliff Shot and left as soon as possible as to not get too comfortable. Learned on the farm a long time ago, when you are wet, stay wet. Once you get dry, stay dry! In other words: Once you are dry the working is over! I had a little more work to do. An uneventful 6 miles brought me to the last 4 or so miles. Three of which are uphill. With the torrent of rain this section was now a small waterfall and pond combined. I made a decision to run this section. What the heck. Nothing to lose. Better to speed up the process. Either way I had to go through this. I figured the longer I was out there the more opportunity for something to go wrong. And so I did. But the closer I got to the finish the harder it rained. Wind blowing it all around. I pressed on. The closer I got the slicker and muddier it became. I pressed on It felt as if the closer I got to my dream the harder Green Mountain was trying to deny me. I pressed on! Finally there it was. Just as I had pictured so many times. Finish line. Beautiful. Wet. VT100. Done! Green Mountain had thrown everything it could at me. Rain, humidity, more rain, flood, shoe sucking mud. This year it just wasn't enough. Make it a good one ! BrittStarnes@Qbiz.com "Chance favors the prepared mind" - Louis Pasteur