KUS News
In This Issue
Briefing
from the Crew
By Stacy Sheridan Page
1
The
President’s Column
By Tom Lasater Page
1
“Not Milk”,
said the PFRM
By Scott R.
Demaree Page
3
MOUNTAIN
MIST TRAIL 50 K
By “Bad” Ben Holmes Page
4
Wasatch
Front 100 – 2000 Edition
Briefing from the Crew
Greetings to all,
As I sit here writing this, the forecast is
for snow again tomorrow; we can’t seem to break this wintry pattern as March
quickly approaches. Phil is back running again, thankfully, after an extended
healing break, when he jokingly told me I should add a new column,
complimentary to the RFP column, to the newsletter called the “Walking
Wounded”. He ran the Rockin K lake trial yesterday, only falling on the ice
twice, and finding Alum creek running waist deep with snow- melt water only a
couple of degrees above freezing. He will have a little trail maintenance to do
before the fast approaching Rockin K, the trail can certainly change in just a
few days, Mark Crisman, our marathon men’s course record holder was home from
Korea on leave last week and emailed me his Rockin K trail report, he ran the
course in 4:28 and reported that the water crossings were all jump-able and had
no waist deep water to cross like at last year’s race. He will be back in Korea
for Rockin K this year, but plans to run Flat Rock in the fall.
I
would like to fill out the RFP column, anyone wishing to be included please
send or email your plans.
The
last membership reminders have been sent, if a star is beside your name on the
address this is the last newsletter you will receive unless you renew, please
contact me if you need the information for renewal.
Ever in your service,
The President’s Column
Thomas J. Lasater
I awake at midnight. Outside it is pitch black and
raining. We decide to wait another hour, hoping the rain will stop.
One a.m.
Jordan and Roberto are talking in Spanish. It is still raining. I am not ready
to get out of the warm comfort of my sleeping bag. I have been in bed for six
hours, but feel tired and unrested. Getting a good night’s rest at 14,000 feet
is difficult for a flatlander from Wichita.
Jordan and Roberto continue their discussion of the weather in Spanish. Finally, without much input from me, a decision is made to leave for the summit of El Pico de Orizaba, know locally as “Citlaltepetl.” The 18,700-foot summit makes it the third highest mountain in North America.
My
climbing partner is Jordan Clay. Neither of us has climbed anything more
difficult than Pikes Peak. Roberto Flores is our guide from Mexico City. Our
climbing gear is new or borrowed. The climbing harness, crampons, ropes and ice
axe are all essential safety items when climbing on a snow-covered glacier.
Our
summit attempt began the day before in the town of Tlatchichuca. We rode in the
back of a World War II vintage Dodge Power Wagon from Tlatchichuca to the
climber’s hut at Piedra Grande. The Power Wagon serves as a public bus as we
travel from Tlatchichuca to Piedra Grande, picking up and dropping off
passengers along the way. I suppose this activity supplements our driver’s
wages. A man and woman from Germany ride with us to the small village of
Hidalgo. We were told that Hidalgo is the highest year round inhabited town in
North America. The Power Wagon slowly moves into the clouds as we climb to
Piedra Grande. No one is at the hut. Early October is not prime climbing
season. The Germans who rode with us in the Power Wagon to Hidalgo are hiking
from Hidalgo to the hut. They arrive at the hut at about 6:00 p.m. as we are
getting our gear ready for the climb and preparing to sleep.
We leave the hut for the summit at 1:30
a.m. A cold drizzle is falling on us—the kind of slow, soaking drizzle you
would expect to encounter in a rain forest or the fjords of Southeast Alaska.
After no less than 10 minutes on the trail, I am hot and sweaty. I cannot
readily make out the trail as we climb toward the glacier. I am glad we have a
guide. On the lower portion of the trail, there is no ice, and very little
snow. The safety equipment and crampons are not necessary until we are on the
glacier. After about two hours, my $30 Petzel® headlamp goes out. I think it is
a victim of the rain and cold. Jordan’s $8 Eveready® flashlight suffers the
same fate a few minutes later. Roberto’s headlamp continues to light the trail.
I am glad we have a guide.
Our initial pace is quick. I conclude
later that it was too quick. From the hut to the glacier, the trail is steep,
but not difficult. We stop periodically to rest. I try to drink some water
whenever we rest. Staying hydrated helps you adjust to the altitude. I am not
yet gasping for air; that condition will come in due time. I have some energy
bars and energy gel in my pack, but never take the time to eat. I will pay the
price later in the day for this lack of discipline.
It is still dark when we finally rise
above the clouds and drizzle. The stars appear to be brighter than I remember,
and close enough to reach out and touch. As I gaze at the sky, Orion’s belt
appears just above the horizon created by the mountain. It too is bigger and
brighter than it appears at sea level.
The early morning darkness lingers as we
approach the glacier. It is time to “rope up” and put crampons on our boots. I
struggle with the crampon straps and have to remove my gloves and expose my
cold, stiff finger to secure my crampons. Roberto helps us with the climber’s
knots required to tie the rope to our harnesses. I am glad we have a guide. Our
pace slows as we move up a snow chute that leads to the glacier. No foot prints
to follow. We are the only humans on the mountain. Three small specks of color
in a sea of bright white. Roberto marks our route with bamboo “wands” that have
a red cloth tied to their tip. This will be helpful on the way down. I am glad
we have a guide.
As we climb higher and higher on the
glacier, the danger increases. We are roped together for a reason. Falling on a
glacier can be disastrous. The ice axe each of us carries is our hand-held
break in the event of a fall.
On the glacier, our pace slows further
and we stop more often to rest. I am
having ever-increasing difficulty getting the necessary amount of oxygen out of
the thin air. My heart is pounding against my chest and I feel light-headed.
Now I am controlling the rate of our progress toward the summit. Since we are
roped together, Roberto and Jordan can only move forward when I am moving
forward. They know to stop and rest when the rope becomes taut. Then they
encourage me to struggle upward and again create slack in the rope so they can
continue.
We are now just below the rim of the
volcano. We kick our boots into the near-vertical mountainside to create steps
to climb, like a ladder. I am exhausted and dizzy as I crawl over the top of
the rim. The summit is the highest point of the crater’s rim and is about 50
yards around the rim to our right. I am satisfied with reaching the rim of the
crater, but Jordan and Roberto push me on one stop at a time to the summit.
Finally, eight hours and 43 minutes after leaving the hut at Piedra Grande, we
are standing on the summit. I am thankful four our guide and my friend.
There are several lessons to be learned
from this story. I will leave it to your to decide which ones apply to you.
This month’s quote is the antithesis of one of those lessons: “You don’t need a
weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” – Bob Dylan.
“ The higher you walk, the
harder you fall.
The longer the walk, the
farther you crawl.”
---James Hetfield
RELENTLESS FORWARD
PROGRESS
WHERE KUS MEMBERS PLAN
TO RUN AND RACE
Jim & Nancy Davis
3/3/01 The Old Pueblo 50 mile trail run Patagonia, AZ
4/7/01 The Rockin K 50 mile Kanopolis Lake, KS
6/9/01 Laurel
Highlands 70 mile trail run Ohiopyle, PA
7/01 either the Elkhorn
Mt 100 Km trail run or the Mt Rushmore 50 mile
Possibly the
Arkansas Traveller 100 mile Oct. 6
Volunteer at
12/24 hour in April
The Elk River Trail
cleanup 9/8
Flatrock 25/50 9/29
The Heartland 100 Oct. 12-14
Scott Demaree
2/3/01 Rocky Raccoon, Huntsville, TX
Eric Steele
4/7/01 Rockin K Trail Run, Kanopolis State Lake, KS
Phil Sheridan
3/17/01 Cross Timbers Trail Run, Lake Texoma, TX
4/28/01 Lake McMurtry 50 K, Stillwater OK
10/13/01 Heartland Spirit of the Prairie, Cassoday, KS
Dave Noltensmeyer
9/29/01 Flat Rock, Independence, KS
Duane Frichtl
3/01 Kentucky Ultra Trail Sojourn
Marc Friesen
3/4/01 LA Marathon, CA
4/7/01
Rockin K 50M!, Kanopolis Lake, KS
4/21/01
KUS 24 Hour, Wichita, KS
6/2/01
Grand Canyon R-R-R, AZ
7/28/01
WhiteRiver 50M, Greenwater, WA
8/25/01
Cascade Crest 100M, WA
10/7/01
Chicago Marathon, Chicago, IL
11/3/01
JFK 50M, Hagerstown, MD
Wes Monteith
2/3/01 Rocky Raccoon, Huntsville, TX
Tom Lasater
4/7/01 Rockin K Marathon, Kanopolis State Park, KS
David Dinkel
3/11/01 Brew to Brew, Kansas City, KS
4/21/01 KUS 12/24 hour, Wichita, KS
6/2/01 Kettle Moraine, Eagle WI
Rich Golden "Big Bird"
4/7/01 Rockin K Trail Run, Kanopolis State Park, KS
4/21/01 KUS 12/24 Hour run, Wichita, KS
John "Mad Dog" Lowrey
4/21/01 KUS 12/24, Wichita, KS
3/11/01
Brew to Brew, Kansas City, MO
3/17/01
Crosstimbers, Lake Texoma, TX
4/7/01
Rockin' K, Kanopolis Lake, KS
4/16/01
Boston Marathon, Boston MA
4/21/01
KUS 24-hour, Wichita, KS
5/6/01 I will lead the motley crew to
Lincoln for the marathon
6/2/01
Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim, Grand Canyon, AZ
6/23/01 FANS 24, Minneapolis, MN *
03-10-01 Big Basin Redwoods Trail Marathon (CA)
04-07-01 Rockin K 50-mile Trail (Marquette, KS)
04-21-01 River to River Relay (IL)
04-28-01 Zane Gray Trail 50-Miler (AZ)
05-28-01 Dead Runner Society World Conference # 9,
Albuquerque, NM
06-16-01 Grandma's (MN) - Boston Qualifyer
(hopefully)
07-??-01 Minnesota Voyageur Trail 50-miler (I love
this one)
09-03-01 Heart of America Marathon (MO)
10-01-01 Arkansas Traveller 100-Mile Trail Run
12-??-01 Sunmart Texas Trail 50-Mile
* Tentative plans
“Not
Milk”, said the PFRM
I saw a “health” news report
on TV a few days ago that seemed odd at first. Then, after further
consideration I began to realize just how misleading it was, and how following
their advice could hurt a lot of people.
The report didn’t give results of any new studies, but was instead the considered opinion of a group called the Physicians for Responsible Medicine (PFRM). The topic was dairy products and how the dairy industry’s ads featuring celebrities sporting milk mustaches is damaging people’s health by influencing people to consume more dairy products.
First, let me admit that there are a
couple of ways this could be true. For example, some people are allergic (or
develop sensitivities as they age) to the sugar in milk called lactose. This lactose
intolerance can cause all sorts of uncomfortable symptoms, which go away when
lactose is eliminated from the diet. The other way increased milk consumption
can cause harm is if whole milk and any dairy product containing more than 1%
fat is used. It’s important to understand that milk fat is very saturated, and
excess dietary saturated fat has long been associated with increased risk of
heart disease.
The problem here is that the PFRM
did NOT say don’t drink milk if you are allergic to it, or don’t drink high-fat
milk. They lumped all dairy products together, then said “don’t eat too much of
this dangerous stuff”. To their credit, they did suggest eating more dark green
leafy vegetables, which have some calcium in them. Eating more vegetables is certainly
good advice for the American public, which doesn’t get nearly enough of them.
However, vegetable sources of calcium are poorly absorbed, and decreased
calcium delivery to our bones will almost certainly follow any switch away from
dairy products.
This leads me to the looming health
disaster known as osteoporosis. With the US population trend toward aging, the
nation faces massive increases in health costs in the coming decades as elderly
people break bones weakened by osteoporosis. These people will often face
long-term care and even permanent disability as bones weakened in such a way
usually don’t heal properly. Osteoporosis is often thought of as an older
woman’s disease, but in fact aging men are also at risk.
If there ever was an incurable disease
that could and should be prevented, this is it! Osteoporosis is a deficiency
disease. You avoid it by eliminating the deficiency. In other words, make sure
you get your calcium ANY WAY YOU CAN.
Now I’ll tell you what the PFRM
should have said in its report: -- Avoid all dairy products that have more than
1% milk fat content. Consume plenty of lower fat dairy products. If you are
lactose intolerant or simply don’t eat enough dairy products for any reason,
take supplements. Everyone loses bone strength after age 35, so be sure and
build up your reserve before then, by getting regular exercise and high calcium
intake. If you have not built that reserve, all is not lost as regular exercise
and high calcium intake can limit the bone losses after that age. High protein
diets can accelerate calcium loss, so be sure and take even more calcium if you
eat that way. -- Finally, I’ll second one thing they did say: eat more
vegetables!
I think people are smart enough to follow the advice in the preceding paragraph. They don’t need the PFRM’s dumbed-down advice, which is really hazardous to follow. Or maybe there is something more sinister here. If people get so tired of hearing that this or that food is good for them, then getting the rug pulled out by hearing that no, it’s bad for them. Eventually they may decide to give up on healthy eating and go back to eating high-fat fast foods that taste good but have no redeeming nutritional value. If that happens, the doctors are going to get a LOT more business. How convenient - but this result is hardly what I would consider “responsible “ medicine.
MOUNTAIN
MIST TRAIL 50 K
Huntsville
Alabama, January 27, 2001
By Bad Ben, Kansas City Area KUS Member
Do you like to run on large
rocks, go mountain climbing and caving?
Boy, do I have the run for you.
The Mountain Mist Trail 50 K is held every January in Monte Sano State
Park near Huntsville, Alabama.
Huntsville
is a beautiful, fairly sophisticated small city whose claim to fame is the
Marshall Space Flight Center, where many components of the International Space
Station are currently being built. It’s
also a college town with a large population of students 75% of the year.
Running is big here, and the Huntsville Track Club makes sure the calendar is
filled with quality events such as Mountain Mist.
Race
director Dink Taylor unleashes us to experience his small piece of Hell at
8AM. The weather was 35 degrees and
sunny. The course starts out as a
typical trail run, with a little bit of up and down and easily traversed
trails. We all make good time. At about mile 6 or 7, there is a good
elevation loss with semi-technical bits of trail here and there. We descend to a power line area, and run
under the lines for a while through dead grass and clay-based mud. Now I see why they make bricks out of this
stuff; it holds together well, and has to be scraped off…it will not just wear
off of your shoes. At mile 8, we start
up the first large ascent. It’s a
dandy, but does not give me a clue of what’s to come. At the mile 12 aid station Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”
is playing.
Miles
12 through 20 are definitely harder than the first third, and the geology has
definitely changed to the rocky side of reality. At one point, we actually run through two short caves.
The last third of the course would have done the Marquis De Sade proud. Rocks on the course are now multiplying. These are not rocks that will end up in your shoe; rather, they are large ankle-breakers that can slow you to a crawl. The elevation changes become more severe, culminating to a crescendo at mile 24, where you scale a cliff of several hundred feet. An honest-to-God CLIFF! After this, my calves started tweaking, but were OK by the next aid station. Next, we started ascending an old jeep trail that was very conducive to proper running. At the top, I realized we would have to cross a deep valley to get to the finish area. It had fairly severe downhill, much of which was dangerous to run on. The uphill was nasty, of course. The last 1-1/2 miles were kind to us, with dirt-covered trails, and a level grade. I finished with a time of 6:42, and was happy with that result.
The
aid stations were well placed, and staffed with helpful, knowledgeable
volunteers. I would rate this course
much harder (per mile) than anything I’ve done before. The only thing that would have made it
tougher would have been nasty weather or well-placed whips & chains. The scenery is beautiful, and you get a
finisher’s mug, as well as a cool shirt.
Wasatch Front 100 – 2000
Edition
By Stacy Sheridan
Phil ran, for the first time, the
Wasatch Front 100 mile trail race on Saturday September 9th. This
race starts in Kaysville, Utah, about 20 miles north of Salt Lake City, and
goes up the Wasatch Front mountains, winds up and down the mountain range and
ends at the famous Sundance Ski Resort. The race literature, sent out before
the race, says: “The Wasatch Front 100 is one of the most uniquely challenging
ultrarunning events in the world. It is a study in contrasts: peaks and
valleys, trail and scree, heat and cold, wet and dry, summer and winter, day
and night, Desolation Lake and Point Supreme, “I can’t” and “I will!” Dickens
had the Wasatch 100 in mind when he wrote, “It was the best of times; it was the
worst of times.” The primitive and isolated nature of the course is both its
beauty and its challenge, for it requires the individual runner to rely
primarily on himself or herself rather than the Race’s support systems. Wasatch
is not just distance and speed; it is adversity, adaptation, and
perseverance.” Wasatch features 48,590
feet of combined ascent and descent, with 5,000 feet of ascent in the first 5
miles of the race, going up to the ridgeline. It starts at about 5,000 feet of
altitude and peaks at 10,480 feet, with numerous ups and downs before and
after. Wasatch has a 36-hour time limit to earn an official finishers award,
however the race’s policy is if you miss a time cut-off at one of the
checkpoints they will not pull you from the race if you choose to continue, but
you may have to finish without aid station support!
Wasatch
would turn out to be an endurance race of another kind for me also, this would
be the first time I crewed one of Phil’s 100-mile races by myself. Some of you
know that I am directionally challenged, take me out of Kansas and I can’t tell
directions without a compass. Yes, I can read maps, but without knowing which
direction is north they aren’t a lot of help to me. I had visited with Rosemary
Marston at the Leadville 100 back in August about crewing Wasatch as her
husband Bob had done the slam a couple of years before, her advice was to find
another crew to follow to each crew station or drive them beforehand. Reading
through the crew directions before the race was not encouraging, one of the
first lines says “Utah is experiencing unprecedented road construction!” And
then next, in the driving directions to the start of the race it says, “The
East Mountain Wilderness Park appears on the left before the shooting
range” So, reading through the rest of the directions, it looks like I would be
doing a lot of back tracking! Phil and I had originally planned on leaving the
Wednesday before the race and driving part of the way, then going on to Salt
Lake on Thursday. Packet pickup and weigh in was Friday morning and the
pre-race meeting on Friday afternoon. We decided that didn’t leave a lot of
time to scout the course, so we then changed our plans, we left Tuesday
afternoon and drove the Cheyenne Wyoming, then on to Salt Lake on Wednesday.
We
arrived in Salt Lake mid-afternoon and found the motel, after driving around
and around the block between two one-way streets, opposite directions of
course, and then explored some of the downtown area. Looking over the city
guide provided at the motel I noticed there was a Hard Rock Cafe, which I’ve
never been to, Phil has been to the one in Chicago. We decided to eat dinner
there; it was within walking distance from the motel. I can now say I’ve been
to one and yes, I have a shirt to prove it, can’t leave without buying a shirt!
The
start of the race is at the East Mountain Wilderness Park near Kaysville, north
of Salt Lake, the parking is very limited and the race provides busses to the
start from downtown Salt Lake the morning of the race. Not knowing the area, we
had decided to have Phil take the bus to the start. I was a little
disappointed, it would be the first time I wouldn’t see him off from the
starting line of a race, but I didn’t want to battle that much traffic that
early in the morning either. Thursday morning we started out to scout out the
course and crew directions, and I realized just getting out of Salt Lake City
might be my biggest challenge. The streets of Salt Lake are all numbered
streets, for instance the address of the park where the pre-race meeting was to
be held was 1300 East 2100 South. Okay sure... so all I have to do is find 1300
on East 2100 South, or is it 1300 East, on 2100 South, or 1300 East 2100 on
South? Let’s see ground zero is the Mormon Temple, of course, 00 on 00... so we
go 13 blocks east and find the 21st block of South right? Well, no
not really, because they stuck some “name” streets in between and didn’t count
them as numbered streets. Needless to say I was clueless! Good thing Phil drove
so I could make my own directions up as we went. The driving directions tell
you how to get to the start and then each successive crew station. We drove to
the starting line first to see where it was and so Phil could take a look at
the trail, then we drove to Francis Peak Aid station.
The
Francis Peak Aid Station is in a parking lot of a maintenance shed on top of a
mountain. The road starts out as a narrow, winding asphalt road and then
narrows even more and turns to dirt. Halfway up the mountain Phil bottomed out the
CRV and it started making a terrible grinding noise. Turned out it was a bent
bracket on the bottom and Phil just had to straighten it out. I knew I was in
for a very long crewing jaunt when it took us 2 hours to drive up this 9-mile
road to the aid station in the daytime, with relatively little traffic. I would
be driving it at 6 o’clock in the morning along with 200 other crews! Needless
to say I was very glad we had decided to scout the course early. The racecourse
goes along the top of the Wasatch mountain range, with the aid stations on top
of mountains or pretty close to the tops of some. There is no direct driving
route from one to the other, so you have to drive up to the top, then turn
around and drive back down the canyons to the Interstate highways, go south and
then drive up another canyon to the next one. I would end up driving
approximately 500 miles while Phil ran 100.
Sometimes
exploring a new area, you stumble on the best places, not in the guidebooks or
hyped like the Hard Rock, but small locally owned places, which you wish
weren’t 1000 miles from where you live.
About mid-afternoon on Thursday while on our way to the Brighton Ski
Lodge aid station we decided we would stop at Brighton to get some lunch. We
arrived at Brighton to find it’s the off-season and not one place was open for
business. As we were driving up the mountain we had passed a small bed and
breakfast that looked like it was open, so on our way back down the mountain we
stopped to have lunch. The Silver Fork Lodge is this wonderfully rustic log
building, bigger than a cabin, with seven rooms to rent, a bar and an inside
and outside dining area. We sat on the outside deck dining area in the chilly
weather, looking at a gorgeous view of the mountains on all sides. The service
was supreme, the food delicious and this was one of those places we just hope
will still be there when we go back again.
There
was one crew station called Poleline Pass at 83.23 miles into the race, that
was described as “a 4-wheel drive road and punctured oil pans are not uncommon,
a high clearance vehicle is necessary.” We had decided I wasn’t going to try to
drive to that one in the middle of the night after being up that long, it was a
drop bag station also, which meant Phil could bag some of his things up and
have it taken there. We finished driving the rest of the course and went back
to the motel to try to sort out our plans for the race, and decide what Phil
would need in his drop bag.
I
would call the race organization at Wasatch “loose” at best. Various materials
sent out to the runners said different things, so the pre-race check in was
supposed to start at either noon or 1PM on Friday at Sugarhouse Park in Salt
Lake and then the pre-race meeting would be at 4PM, and it was either at the
Lake Terrace Pavilion or the West Hill Terrace. We went to the park early that
morning to see the area and try to decide where it would be held. We took a
walk around this beautiful park and watched some dogs and their people playing
Frisbee fetch at the lake. When we got back to the car I recognized the van
parked next to us as Ann Trason’s, one of the best ultrarunners in the country.
She owns numerous women’s course records and has won some races out-right. Phil
has been in several of the same races that Ann Trason has run, but in none of
those races have both of them finished, one or the other has dropped. As we
left the park Phil was wondering if this would be the race that both of them
would finish.
Later
in the day, we finally found the weigh-in and packet pick up, and Phil came
back to the car with a garbage bag full of shirts! Normally Phil doesn’t buy
any souvenir shirts until he has finished the race, as he won’t wear them if he
drops out, so I was wondering why he bought all these shirts! Turns out he
didn’t buy them, they were giving each runner 4 shirts, I’m still not sure if
they do this every year or if they over ordered or what. Phil asked one of the
race volunteers if they would have shirts for sale at the finish and the guy
told him, “Probably not, even if we have shirts left over, we’re not organized
enough to get them to the finish line to sell them.” Okay Phil, if you want a
shirt you better buy it now. He dropped off his bag for Poleline Pass and
weighed in at 147 pounds, the most he has weighed at a 100-mile race since
Vermont several years ago.
We
talked to Brandon Sybrowsky at the pre-race meeting; we had first met Brandon
two years ago at the Cross Timbers trail race where he had missed the course
record by 6 seconds. He had stopped to lead some dogs back to their owner and
was heartbroken about missing the record. The course record was set on an
“easier” course and no one ever thought it would be broken. He came back last
year and smashed the record. He is one of the nicest runners we’ve ever met;
originally from Utah now living in Colorado, he is a veteran of the Wasatch
course with 8 finishes. His joking advice to Phil was “run all the uphills”;
his real advice was “just have fun.” Brandon and his brother Travis were both
running the race, so his family was splitting up the crewing duties, his dad
would crew him and his mom would crew Travis. The pre-race meeting was short
with just a few reminders about the racecourse and road construction for the
crews. I-15 would be closed northbound on Saturday, I was thinking, no problem
I’ll be headed south. We finished up with the meeting and went by the grocery
store for supplies and then to the motel to finish all the details for race
morning.
Unlike
most 100-mile races that start at 4 o’clock in the morning, this race starts at
5 o’clock, however the bus for the starting line leaves at 4 o'clock, so we
were up around 3 o'clock, Phil getting his clothes and gear together. I walked
with him to the bus stop a couple of blocks from the motel and waited while
they all boarded. I jokingly told Phil if no blood or bones were showing he
would finish the race because I wouldn’t let him back in the car. I went back
to the motel to finish packing all the gear in the car and check out of the
motel. As this is a point-to-point race we would be staying at a different
motel closer to the finish the next day. I was then headed off for the two-hour
drive to the Francis Peak aid station to meet him at 18 miles.
I
had rewritten all the driving directions so I would know how to get to each of
the aid stations. The traffic in Salt Lake at 5 o’clock in the morning was very
light, so I had no problems getting to the Interstate. At Farmington I would
take the 9-mile twisting mountain road to the aid station. Once you get away
from the city lights it is very dark in the canyon and as I was driving up this
road you could see all the crews headlights stair stepped up the mountain all
the way to the top. Most of the drive up the mountain I was in second gear,
slow and twisting, crossing several wooden bridges, and widening just enough on
the curves to allow cars to pass each other. It would take me an extra half
hour to get to the top, but after getting there and talking to some of the
other crews, I found out that 3 other crews had flat tires coming up. I felt
lucky to have made it with no problems and was grateful I didn’t have to change
a tire on that road in the dark! What a way to start the day. The sky was just
starting to get light when I got there and parked on the dirt road where Phil
would pass the car. Phil had said he hoped to be there about 9 o’clock, which
would be 4 hours for the 18 miles, climbing from 4880 feet of altitude at the
start to 9200 feet on Chinscraper then back down to 7500 at Francis Peak.
Brandon came by in about 5th place overall, looking strong and Phil
would come by shortly thereafter at 8:45. He said he felt good and wasn’t
having any problems, and the climb up Chinscraper was almost straight up. We
exchanged the clothes he was carrying and his glasses for sunglasses, refilled
his bottles and food supplies, took the night gear out of his pack and added
the next section of course map. I told him I would see him at the Big Mountain
aid station at 39 miles, and he was back on the course in 5 minutes. He would
climb back up to 9120 feet on this section before descending to 7420 feet at
Big Mountain.
The
next crew station from Francis Peak is Bountiful B only 5 miles from Francis
Peak. Crews don’t have enough time to drive there on the mountain roads from
Francis Peak to make it before the runners come in so I would have to skip that
one and meet Phil at Big Mountain, another 21 miles for him. There would be
three aid stations along the way where he could get food and drinks, so he
would be well supplied until I met him again. From the Francis Peak aid station
I would drive back down to Farmington and take I-15 back to Salt Lake, then I
would take I-80 east to Parleys Canyon and back up this canyon to the Big
Mountain pass, another 2 hour drive, but at least this one was on paved roads
and in the daylight. The aid station is located in a parking lot between a
transmission relay station and the Pioneer Monument. Evidently at Wasatch, the
style of parking is free-for-all. They only had one aid station that had a
parking volunteer and that was at the 93.6-mile aid station. There were only a
few cars at Big Mountain when I got there and as it started to fill, everyone
just seemed to park wherever they pulled in at, I finally moved my car to the
side of the road facing where Phil would come down the trail and cross the road
to the aid station. As we all sat there you could see the runners top the
mountain and start down the switchbacks headed for the road. I visited with a
lady named Cathy who was parked on my right, she was from Ohio and was crewing
for her husband, Ron and we would meet each other at most of the rest of the
aid stations. Her husband was running a couple of hours behind Phil so she
would catch up to me when I was waiting for Phil. Brandon’s father was parked
on my left, so I got to talk to Brandon when he came through. He said he wasn’t
having a good day, his knees were bothering him and the climbs and trail were
aggravating them. Phil came through at 1:15, a little over 8 hours into the
race for 40 miles, just a short time after Brandon left and weighed in, his
weight was holding steady, so he was eating and drinking well. He told me he
thought he had sand in his shoes so I changed his socks and put his shoes back
on while he ate some fruit and a sandwich. He said he was having fun, but the
trail was tough and he had to really watch where he was running. He was on a 24
hour pace if he could hold it through the next 60 miles. I loaded up his gear
and he took off, the next section of trail would be all downhill after a short
400-foot climb out of Big Mountain.
The
next crew station would be at Lamb’s Canyon about 13.7 miles away. It would be
a short drive for me, after driving back down the mountain, I would get back on
I-80 and back track a couple of miles, then exit and go under the freeway where
the aid station was set up next to the on-ramp of I-80, this one was by far the
easiest to get to. This aid station had a progress board set up with the time
of each runner checking out of the last aid station at Alexander Ridge about 6
miles from Lamb's Canyon, so I could track the progress of the runners. I had
figured Phil would be in about 4 o'clock in the afternoon if he were still on a
24-hour pace. Brandon came up the hill behind the aid station, his crew was
parked behind me, and so I went over to talk to him. He told me he thought he
was probably done for the day; he had raced his best two races and had his
worst two races in the same year. He had set the course record at Cross Timbers
and won the Mohican 100 mile race in Ohio back in June in 17:53. He had started
the Hardrock 100 race in July in Colorado and had to drop, now it looked like
his race at Wasatch was done also. As 4 o'clock came and went I decided Phil
must be having a down patch, by 5 o'clock I was wondering if he had injured
himself and he really would have the "blood or bone" showing. He
finally came up the hill at 5:15, and told me he had rolled his foot over
shortly out of the Big Mountain aid station and had debated whether to turn back
or keep going. He said it hurt very bad for a couple of miles then got kind of
numb, he hadn't taken any pain medication at any of the aid stations because
all they had was ibuprofen and he tends to have major side effects if he takes
it during a race. I dug the Tylenol out of the pack and gave that and some food
to him while I changed his shoes and socks once more, he had some swelling and
a bruise about the size of a quarter on the side of his foot, but it looked
like he could go on, his plans for a 24 hour finish would have to be revised
though, now it would have to be finish under 30 hours, or if he hit a really
bad patch under the race limit of 36.
Brandon came over to talk to him while I was refilling his pack. As it
would be getting close to dark or dark by the time I saw him again at the Upper
Big Water aid station at 61.6 miles, I changed his sunglasses, gave him his
windshirt to wrap around his waist, put his flashlight in his pack and sent him
off on the next leg.
From
Lamb's Canyon at 6100 feet Phil would climb to 8130 feet before descending to
7660 feet at Upper Big Water the next crew station. From Lamb's Canyon I would
drive back to Salt Lake on I-80 and then turn south for a few miles on I-215,
then turn back east and drive up the Millcreek Canyon road. The runners would
be running the last 3 miles of this narrow, paved road to the aid station at
Upper Big Water. The aid station was in a very small parking lot; about 15 cars
can park in it at a time, the overflow crews park down the road at the Little
Big Water lot. Only about a half hour driving time for me, and I decided to
give the upper parking lot a try, and I was lucky to get a spot there so Phil
could come by the car on his way out. I had seen Cathy briefly at Lamb's and
met her again here, where we had an hour or so to visit. Her husband was
running well and he was still about an hour or so behind Phil. We spotted Phil
on the road about 8 o'clock and he was still smiling. We checked him into the
aid station and I went to get him some soup. It was just starting to get dark
as he sat down in a chair by the car. While he was eating I wrapped him in a
blanket as it was starting to get chilly, and then got his gear together. We
decided to put his running tights and windshirt on as he wasn't able to run on
the uphills or flats due to his foot. As we checked him out of the aid station
about 20 minutes later, he was headed out on the trail again in the full
darkness now.
From
the Upper Big Water aid station at 61.6 miles to the next crew station at
Brighton, it was 14 miles for Phil and he would climb 2250 feet before
descending 1120 into Brighton at 75 miles into the race. I would have to make
the drive back down Millcreek Canyon road, a nerve-racking drive on a narrow
road, in the dark, with runners and crews both headed for the Upper Big Water
aid station. I would then make what I had planned to be a short detour of 36
miles on I-15 to Provo to get our motel room then head back to Brighton. When
we had driven it before it was an hour from Upper Big Water to Brighton, so I
figured I would have plenty of time, as it would take Phil at least 3 hours.
What I hadn't remembered was that I-15 was closed to northbound traffic. After
leaving Provo at 9:30, I was suddenly detoured through scenic downtown Sandy
Utah, six lanes of traffic squeezed into two lanes with stoplights every block.
As I was sitting at the stoplights barely crawling along, looking at my watch,
I wondered if I didn't make it back to Brighton by the time Phil got there if
he would wait around for me or go on with his race. I fervently hoped he would
go on. I finally got through Sandy and came out on Highway 48, since I really
didn't know where I was I decided to head east and hope I could pick up the
directions to Brighton along the way. After what seemed liked an eternity I
found the intersection for Big Cottonwood Canyon. I stopped to get gas and a
cup of coffee and confirmed I was on the right road. I arrived at Brighton at
11:45 and went up to the aid station to make sure Phil hadn't come in yet. The
aid station at Brighton is held at Molly Green's bar, on top of a hill, up many
railroad tie steps from the parking lot. It is warm, has running water, and
they serve breakfast all night long, it is affectionately known to the veteran
Wasatch runners as "the morgue" as many runner's races die there. It
isn't uncommon for runners to take several hour naps there in the middle of the
night and then go on. Phil hadn't checked in yet so I went back to the car to
try to get his gear ready, I didn't really have a clue what he would want, so I
just tried to stuff one everything in the pack and filled 3 bottles, 1 each of
water, coke, and Succeed, his sports drink. At 1 o'clock in the morning I
decided to go up to the aid station to get warm, and as I was coming back to
the car at 1:15 I met Phil in the parking lot, he said he thought he might have
blisters forming on his feet, so while I went to grab his gear, he went on up
to the aid station to weigh in. He was down 2 pounds but that was about right,
he was keeping up with the eating and drinking. I took his shoes and socks off
and washed his feet and put the Compeed blister protection on, then put fresh
socks and his trail shoes back on, while he had hot chocolate. I replaced the
batteries in his flashlight, which had just given out as he made it into
Brighton, and gave him the next course map, restocked his food supplies and got
his pack on him. At Brighton it's tempting to stay too long, Phil checked out
30 minutes after check in, and as we exited Molly Green's and at the bottom of
the deck surrounding the bar, he took a right turn and started the next climb
which would take him from 8790 feet at Brighton to 10,450 at Point Supreme just
3 miles away, before starting the downhill to the finish. The climb out of
Brighton up Catherine Pass on the way to Point Supreme was boulders to climb
over on the outbound side and just as Phil was looking forward to the top and
going down on the other side, he discovered the other side was loose gravel
rocks!
Phil
would have three aid stations and his drop bag at Poleline pass, for the 2390
feet of descent between Brighton and the next crew station at Alpine Loop at
93.6 miles. It would be 18.1 miles for him to travel; I would have over an hour
and a half of drive to Alpine, back down Big Cottonwood Canyon road to I-215
then west to I-15, then south for 8 miles, then turn back east on the American
Fork Canyon road, a narrow, twisting, thankfully paved, road to Alpine
trailhead. As I was driving back down the Big Cottonwood Canyon road, I had to
dodge rocks that had fallen onto the roadway from the mountains above, and
slowed for deer to cross in front of me. I had been up for 24 hours at this
point and was just hoping I would get to Alpine soon, as I planned to bed down
in the back of the car for a nap. When I got to the exit for I-15 there were
barricades and a big flashing sign that said exit 12 closed from 10:00 PM to
3:00 AM, as my luck would have it I arrived at 2:45 AM, it was still closed. I
ended up taking the next exit and backtracking, as the northbound side was
open. I finally got to Alpine about 4 in the morning and bedded down for a
couple of hours, I didn't think Phil would be there until 7 o'clock or so. I
woke up at 6:30 in the morning, frozen to the bone, got out and walked up to
the aid station to see if I had missed Phil. He hadn't been through yet, and
the aid station volunteers offered a seat next to their heater. I sat for a
while and then went back to the car to get warm, and get Phil's bottles ready.
I figured with only 6.4 miles to go he would want to dump his gear and go
light. Phil came in at 8:14, he peeled his night running clothes off, while I
took his pack and changed his sunglasses, and he took his two hand bottles and
was out at 8:19.
I
went on to Sundance where the race would end under the ski lift, to wait for
Phil's finish. There is one last climb and descent of 800 feet on this last
section of trail and Phil would later tell me that he had decided that he
wasn't going to let any other runners pass him. Coming down the switchbacks he
"might have been a little out of control," missed a turn and did an
end over end flip over the side, but "it was okay because the rocks and
brush stopped his fall." When he came down the side of the hill and
started running across the grass to the ski lift, he was covered in mud and
dirt, the race director at the finish line was brushing dirt off his back as he
was congratulating him on his 28 hour 49 minute finish. Phil would miss the
"Crimson Cheetah" under 24 hour award, but earn the "Spirit of
the Wind" belt buckle award for the under 30 hour finish. Anyone finishing
between the 30 hour and 36 hour cutoff would earn the "Badger Award."
We went back to the motel for a few hours of sleep and then went back to Sundance to watch the finish and attend the awards ceremony. I introduced Phil to Cathy and Ron; he had finished just a little over 3 hours after Phil. As we were standing there at 35 hours and 56 minutes a runner topped the hill, the crowd gathered for the awards started yelling "hurry, hurry", as she started down the hill, she stumbled and fell, she was shaking her head as the crowd screamed. Two of her crew ran up the hill and helped her up, then ran with her, arms locked around each other, to the finish, with the crowd cheering. The clock said 35:59:08. We weren't sure if her finish would be official since she accepted aid in the last minutes, but at the awards she earned the Badger buckle. As for Ann Trason and Phil both finishing the same race, again it wasn't to be, Ann dropped at Brighton with stomach problems. Phil says this was the toughest race he has run yet, and seems it may be one of those that we'll have to go back to.
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Sheridan
302
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Ellsworth
KS 67439
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