2006 WESTERN STATES 100 MILE ENDURANCE RUN JUNE 24-25, 2006 By Mike Samuelson Eight days before the 2006 WS100 I re-injured my right Achilles that I had injured during the Berryman 50 Miler three weeks earlier. After spending two days limping to avoid the pain and being very dejected, I decided that I could not give up on a ten year dream of running Western States so easily. I purchased an Enduro Sports ankle brace at Walgreens and tried it on. Amazingly, my Achilles felt better while I wore the brace. I also purchased a heel lift to lessen the range of motion of my Achilles. I did a slow test jog Tuesday before the race with the ankle brace and did not have any Achilles problems. I would fly to California and give the race a try – even though there was a big gunfight going on inside me with half of me saying that I was absolutely insane to try to run this difficult race with a bad Achilles, and half of me saying that I could not give up my dream of completing Western States and the goal of completing the 2006 Grand Slam. Furthermore, Race Director Greg Soderland’s comments at the mandatory race meeting the day before the race only added to my angst about running the race since he strongly advised runners who were injured not to attempt this race since the Duncan Canyon aid station at mile 23.8 was really the first place that runners could be easily evacuated from the course due to all the snow still in the area of the first part of the course. Maybe it was prophetic, but after catching up on my running magazine reading the night before the race as I relaxed in bed, I read one last article as I was ready to fall asleep – John “Penguin” Bingham’s No Need For Speed column in the July 2006 issue of Runner’s World. The Penguin wrote about his difficult experience at the Disney World Half Marathon in January and his thoughts of not running the Disney World Marathon the next day due to his difficulties in the half marathon. The Penguin ended up running a great marathon the next day and he ended his article stating, “And, even more important, you can’t finish if you don’t start.” I managed to crack a smile as I drifted off to sleep. Kevin Dorsey (AURA member), Steve Durbin (WKRC member), Rob Hills (SLUG), and I were driven to the start by pacer and crew volunteer Mike Howard (WKRC member). I prayed to God once again to allow me to the finish the race uninjured. The temperature at the start was in the 60s as expected. Kevin and Rob moved out faster than Steve and I and were out of sight shortly. Steve and I stayed together for the climb up the Escarpment - Steve’s company being greatly appreciated since every time I pushed off with my right foot I wondered if that would be the step that caused my Achilles to tear enough to force me from the race - and possibly force me from running for some extended amount of time which would definitely be extremely frustrating for a running addict like me. Steve then quickly moved out of sight as we crested the Escarpment and I took the now downhill much slower than I would have if I was not injured. The temperature was disappointingly not cooler, but such is life. Although I was already near the back of the pack, runners slowly trickled by me for the next five plus miles as I made my way down the mostly gentle to moderate downhill trail to Lyon’s Ridge while crossing a number of small and large patches of snow. When I pulled into the 10.5 mile Lyon’s Ridge aid station I was virtually alone on that section of trail. I don’t remember when I pulled into Lyon’s Ridge, but as I headed out of the aid station I overheard one volunteer tell another that 380 runners had passed through the aid station meaning I was the 381st runner out of 399 starters at this point. As I left Lyon’s Ridge I pulled out my laminated sheet of aid station info to note the cutoff time for the next station, Red Star Ridge at mile 16.0. I felt no concern about getting to Red Star Ridge before the cutoff and continued my slow but steady relentless forward motion. It was already hot at 8:00 AM and I was thankful for the small patches of snow that allowed me to scoop up snow to put under my hat and hold in my hands to keep my core temperature as low as possible. I really enjoyed the ridge running (OK – slow running) during this part of the course as every once in a while I took my eyes off the trail to gaze at the absolutely stunning scenery of this beautiful back country that I was running through. I slowly caught up to some other runners and passed 5 or 6 in this section of the course before arriving at the Red Star Ridge aid station 20 minutes before the cutoff. The super aid station volunteers filled up my hydration pack as I slathered more Two Toms Sports Shield on my legs and stuffed more Vanilla Bean Gu and Chocolate Hammer Gel into my Race Ready shorts pockets. Once again as I left the aid station I brought out my information sheet to check on the Duncan Canyon 23.8 mile aid station cutoff time. Up to this point in the race I had averaged 17 ½ minutes per mile. I was quite concerned when I did the math and figured out I needed to run faster than 14 minutes a mile over the next section of trail or I would be pulled from the race for missing the aid station cutoff. I had no choice but to increase my pace, and I prayed to God again to let me get to the next aid station before the cutoff. As I sped up I started catching more runners. I reminded some of them of the Duncan Canyon cutoff time. I made good time as this section of the course trended downhill and my large mass allows me to run gentle downhills fairly well. My Achilles was holding up fine – thanks be to God. About mile 21 I caught up to Steve Durbin. I did not want to see Steve at this point because we needed to make good time to Duncan Canyon to continue in the race. I enjoyed running with Steve again for about a mile, but my pace at this point was faster than Steve’s and I slowly moved ahead of him. I then crested a small uphill at about mile 22 and all of a sudden I could see about 15 runners not too far ahead of me now. I really was surprised – doesn’t everyone know that we need to pick up the pace to beat the cutoff??? I reminded some more runners of the cutoff as I was graciously allowed to pass my fellow race participants who were running slower than me. Fifteen anxious minutes before the cutoff I passed two race Safety Patrol and I asked how far to the Duncan Canyon Aid Station. One answered that it was about a mile and half to the aid station. Hence, if the Safety Patrol was correct, I had to run the next 1 ½ miles at ten minute pace. I ran faster, even though I really felt that I must be closer than a mile and a half to Duncan Canyon. Thankfully, the Achilles held on the moderately sloped last mile downhill to the aid station and I reached Duncan Canyon 4 minutes before the cutoff. Mike Howard was there and it was great to see him. I let him know that Steve was not that far behind me. After three minutes in the aid station refueling, I headed on down the trail quite concerned that Steve – and many others – were going to miss the Duncan Canyon cutoff. Although I felt the Robinson Flat cutoff was going to be an easy one to beat, I had no time to waste. At this point I was concerned that the fast downhill into the aid station would lead to problems later in the race, although hindsight shows that that was not the case. According to my watch, four minutes after the officially stated cutoff time, the dreaded cutoff horn sounded. I was hoping that a lot of runners I passed in the last two miles before the aid station made it. Note – I heard later that 27 runners missed this cutoff, but I have not seen the race splits to verify that. Did Steve make the cutoff I wondered – I would have to wait until Dusty Corners (mile 38.0) to find out. It was officially quite hot now as the sun was directly overhead. I saw few runners as I made my way towards Robinson Flat in the heat. It was a nice two miles of downhill running to a very large stream crossing before four miles of uphill – with some steep uphill taking its toll on runners in the heat. I beat the Robinson Flat cutoff by 18 minutes, but the realization that I was going to be fighting the cutoff all day started to sink in. This course was tough. It was, however, mostly good downhill running – with decent cloud cover - yeeaahhh – enroute to the Miller’s Defeat aid station at mile 34.4 and I pulled into the station 22 minutes ahead of the cutoff. I was making progress on those hated cutoffs – or was I??? I pulled out my trusty aid station guide and noted that I could not rest – I needed to continue to push the pace to beat the “tight” Dusty Corner’s cutoff. Although I definitely wasn’t running at a pace anywhere near breakneck speed, it seemed like I had to keep pushing myself. I wanted to walk more than I allowed myself, but I had no choice to “run” if I desired to beat the cutoff. I arrived at Dusty Corners 12 minutes before the cutoff. Mike Howard was here and he saved me with some much needed Succeed capsules (S-Caps) since I had either lost my small bag of S-Caps on the trail or had simply left them in my Robinson Flat drop bag (I did leave the S-Capt in my drop bag as it turned out). Mike let me know that Kevin Dorsey was doing great and that Rob Hills was just 5 minutes or so ahead of me. Mike also let me know that Steve Durbin had indeed made the Duncan Canyon cutoff, but I was regretfully not optimistic that Steve was going to finish knowing how much I had pushed just to get 12 minutes ahead of the cutoff at Dusty Corners. It was disappointing since Steve and I had run so many good miles together this year, most notably in May when Steve, Mike Howard, and I ran the 60 mile Land Between the Lakes North-South trail one super Saturday. It is interesting to note that I had averaged 16.78 minutes per mile up to this point in the race and I had to push to do that. It was good trail to the 43.3 mile Last Chance aid station and I made nice time to beat the cutoff by 26 minutes. I passed fellow SLUG Jeff Neumann in this section. He was proudly wearing a SLUG race shirt. At Last Chance I ended up catching SLUG Rob Hills and we left the aid station together enroute to the most difficult part of the course, the steep descent and then the steep 1200 feet 1.5 mile climb to Devils Thumb. Unfortunately, Rob’s knee was not doing well so I forged on ahead. I reached the steep downhill section and started making my way toward the bottom of the canyon. It felt like I kept going, and going, and going, and still the bottom was nowhere in sight. I have yet to learn (will I ever???) how to run steep downhill well and when I finally reached the bottom the legs were definitely far from 100% - but the Achilles was holding out (and in fact never did end up bothering me in this race). I now had 63 minutes to make it to the aid station to beat the cutoff. I did not feel like I had much margin for error. I slowly trudged up the steep uphill. It was tough going, as I guess I can also say that I don’t like steep uphill much either, but I reached the top with 7 minutes to spare. A lot of runners drop from the race at Devil’s Thumb – and who can blame them with that tough climb. Since I was running just ahead of the cutoffs I was thankfully spared walking that uphill in the hottest part of the day which would have made that climb much more difficult. Anyway, it was interesting to note that the fantastic aid station volunteer who took my race number upon arrival at Devil’s Thumb immediately stated, “You are continuing on” almost as a direct order. Even though I had no thoughts of stopping (OK – while I was heading up the steep climb I definitely had some thoughts of stopping at the aid station), the encouragement to continue in the race was greatly appreciated. I actually ended up getting the chills and shakes when I sat down for the first time since starting the race nearly 14 hours previously and I ended up changing my sweat soaked 2006 Mt. Cheaha shirt for my 2004 Ouachita Trail race shirt. Of course, my core temp shot right back up after I left the aid station so the shirt change was really just a waste of time. It was nearing 7:00 PM now and the temperature had mercifully dropped a few degrees from the high of the day. The five miles to the next aid station, El Dorado Creek, was mostly a nice descent into a canyon and was good running. It is interesting to note that good running is a whopping 15 minutes per mile pace at this point. Is 15 minutes per mile whopping fast or whopping slow??? It is a matter of perspective I guess, and I leave that to the reader to decide. I arrived at El Dorado Creek, mile 52.9, at the bottom of the canyon right at 15:00 hours on the race clock. Now all I had to do was run 47.3 miles (the race is 100.2 miles) in 15 hours – could I do it??? It was now time to walk the second toughest climb on the course, a 1700 foot climb in 2.8 miles to the small town of Michigan Bluff. I’ll break in here to talk about Teamwork. Virtually every runner knows that running with other people can make you better. There have been many races that I have run where it was other runners – some of whom I had never met before – who pushed me to make better time on the trail. So, right before arriving at El Dorado Creek I caught up to Carol Cuminale who had previously passed me at the Last Chance aid station (mile 43.3). We introduced ourselves and started heading up the climb. I was happy that the trail to Michigan Bluff was not as steep as the climb to Devil’s Thumb. In fact the uphill was a good grade for me – and Carol too I guess – as she led me up the hill in a perfect paced walk which got us to the top of the hill just as it was time to turn on the headlamps due to darkness. Thanks, Carol. I was now 26 minutes ahead of the absolute cutoff, but I was 34 minutes slower than the theoretical 30:00 hour runner pace. This was an improvement however!!! Steve Durbin (recovered now from missing the cutoff at Robinson Flat hours earlier) and Mike Howard took care of me at the aid station as I prepared to run through the night. I changed my shirt again, choosing to don my 2005 Berryman shirt. I now headed into the night with a number of other runners and pacers around me. It was good to have company in the darkness, even though I wasn’t actually running with anyone. I hope I don’t miss any turns!!! After a drop down into Volcano Canyon and the climb back up it was time to smile upon reaching the biggest aid station on the course, the Foresthill School aid station where most runners pick up their pacers. I switched from my hydration pack to two water bottles here and tied a long sleeve shirt around my waist just in case it got cold through the night (I can tell you that it didn’t get cold – not good news for a cold weather runner like me). While I was at Foresthill, it was announced that Brian Morrison had crossed the finish line first, paced by seven time Western States winner Scott Jurek, but then a minute later word was announced that there was some type of disqualification concern?! Only after I finished did I learn that Brian Morrison had collapsed on the track, was assisted by his crew, and then disqualified for not completing the race unassisted. I had heard that the running from Foresthill, mile 62.0, to the Rucky Chucky river crossing at mile 78.0 was a very runnable section. Well, there were definitely a few miles of nice trail to run, but there was also some steep ups and downs which didn’t make me happy – and no, I am not complaining. The theme of the day (push, then push some more) continued as I arrived at the Dardanelles 65.7 mile aid station averaging 18 minutes a mile over the past 3.7 miles. It is true that all I needed to do was average 18 minutes a mile for the next 35 miles and I would be an official finisher, but I needed to factor in some wait time – possibly up to 30 minutes – at the Rucky Chucky River Crossing, and there is no way I could count on being able to run 18 minute mile pace for the last ten miles of the race. I needed to gain some time. And the pushing turned out to be a little successful as I pulled into the 70.7 mile Peachstone station at 20 hours and 44 minutes into the race. I now had 9 hours and 16 minutes to go 29.5 miles. Since math has always been fairly easy for me, even in my tired state I knew that I could now average almost 19 minutes a mile and still finish. The downhill out of Peachstone was perfect for me and I made good time on the trail, and then after a short but steep up, more good downhill running and some actual flat trail, I reached the 78.0 mile River Crossing more than an hour ahead of the cutoff and 37 minutes ahead of the theoretical 30 hour runner. I waited 8 minutes for my turn to cross the river - the crossing being the efficient operation that it was. The gentleman operating the raft was simply an animal – he was giving it all he had to paddle the raft to speed tired runners across the water faster than almost humanly possible. Great thanks to the animal. A tough uphill section finally brought me to the Green Gate aid station at mile 79.8. Although we had never met, Steve Platt, who works with my cousin Don, was there at the aid station waiting to pace me to the finish. It was great to see Steve. We got to “meet” each other while running. Steve asked how he could help me and I said just get me to the finish by 29:59:59. An hour after leaving Green Gate, we arrived at a trail junction which had a sign stating that Auburn Lake Trails was 2 miles. HMMM, that means we only went 3.4 miles in an hour, barely faster than 18 minute miles on a mostly downhill section of the course. I was not happy – I was quite tired at this point – I really wanted to just walk it in to the finish but I realized that I could not walk the last 17 miles and finish in under 30 hours, so with Steve’s urging I started to “run”. The legs were not happy, but I slowly built up a decent 12-13 mile pace. All of a sudden we round a corner and we end up passing Scott Finnell and his daughter pacing him. I wanted to stop and chat, but I did not dare stop, I needed to keep my mass moving down the trail or I would not enjoy the sweet success of finishing. I hoped that Scott would fall in behind Steve and I, but I lacked the energy to even root Scott on and urge him to join us. Steve and I reached the Auburn Lake Trails aid station 25 minutes ahead of that theoretical 30 hour runner. 8 time WS100 finisher and childhood friend Kevin Sawchuk weighed me and got me through the aid station in under 4 minutes. More slightly downhill trail was ahead of us, and Steve urged me on. I got the legs to turnover at a decent rate and continued at a 12-13 mile pace. We caught up to two other runners about two miles from the Brown’s Bar station. Although I had been running a faster pace than those two runners, I did not have the energy to pass them on the single track trail. It was probably a good thing, however, since spontaneous Teamwork happened and the four of us now made good time running nearly every step those last two miles to Brown’s Bar. I know that I would have loved to walk more, and I am confident that the runners ahead of me would have liked to walk also, but we all drew strength from each other and we were stronger as a group than we were separately. We arrived at the Brown’s Bar “party” aid station at 26:24 with classic rock blaring from stereo speakers pushing us to the aid station that last ½ mile or so. I now had 216 minutes to go 10.3 miles – 21 minutes per mile. I knew the finish was mine as long as I remained injury free!!! Steve kept urging me on as we continued to push toward the finish. The trail became more and more crowded as we caught up to more runners. It was a nice change to be running with a number of other people. Scott Finnell’s wife, Judy, yelled a nice HI to me at the HWY 49 93.5 mile station that is crew accessible. She stated that she did not know where Scott was. I was so out of it at this point that I could not even reply. Judy took a picture of me and I look like death warmed over with a huge scowl on my face and chocolate Hammer Gel and plenty of dirt on my yellow 2005 Berryman shirt - and I hadn’t even worn the shirt for 40 miles! It was great to reach No Hands Bridge at mile 96.8 and then complete that one last climb to Robie Point at mile 98.9 as I had been reading race reports which discussed those aid stations for years, and now I was there, nearing the finish of this big race I had wanted to do for more than 10 years. I choked back tears as Steve and I reached the track. I thanked God for the 50th time that day and slowly made my way to the finish line. Not that it really matters, but another runner ran by me shortly before I crossed the finish line which caused the announcer to err, and the announcer ended up announcing the finish of another runner twice vice announcing my finish. What an outstanding finisher’s medal and fantastic official finisher belt buckle. Great thanks to the 1400+ volunteers who made the 2006 Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run a success. Also, super thanks to Steve who pushed me to the 29:24:30 finish. Without Steve, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have finished in the 29:50s after walking and running scared to death until crossing that finish line in less than 30 hours. So what is up with the right Achilles? I write this five weeks after completing Western States and two weeks after completing the Vermont 100 in 26:30:03. The Achilles was not a problem at Vermont although I did ‘feel’ it on occasion. I have not worn the ankle brace or heel lift since Western States and hopefully never will again. All I can say is that while apparently foolishly walking through high grass 8 days before Western States I made a misstep and there was definite, unmistakable tearing of some tissue in the lower right leg. Did God answer my prayers and repair my Achilles or was the tearing I felt only tearing of some meaningless scar tissue??? I will never know, but I default to one of my favorite sayings – you have to have faith. Aid Station Splits Elapsed Time Aid Station Mileage Pace (minutes per mile) 4:40 Red Star Ridge 16.0 17.50 6:26 Duncan Canyon 23.8 16.08 8:22 Robinson Flat 29.7 16.73 10:38 Dusty Corners 38.0 16.78 11:49 Last Chance 43.4 16.48 13:38 Devil’s Thumb 47.8 16.97 15:00 El Dorado Creek 52.9 16.98 16:04 Michigan Bluff 55.7 17.21 18:01 Foresthill School 62.0 17.43 20:44 Peachstone 70.7 17.52 22:53 Rucky Chucky (near) 78.0 17.60 23:49 Green Gate 79.8 17.86 26:24 Brown’s Bar 89.9 17.60 27:33 HWY 49 Crossing 93.5 17.58 29:24:30 Placer High (Finish) 100.2 17.61 Race Website: www.ws100.com Race Location: Squaw Valley to Auburn, CA Acronyms: AURA – Arkansas Ultrarunning Association, website www.runarkansas.com SLUG – St. Louis Ultrarunners Group, website www.stlouisultrarunnersgroup.net WKRC – Western Kentucky Runners Club, website www.wkrc.org