A quote taken from the TATUR chatroom Heartland thread from Tom Brennan (who just last weekend WON the Arkansas Traveller 100 for the 2nd time): "I'm anxiously awaiting to see two things - (1)If Trail Zombie can Zombie his way to two consecutive 100s in two weeks! (2)Will Michael Adams claim his first 100 and just how fast will it be?! I would have posted this earlier but wanted to wait until the race started because I did not want to add to their pre-race jitters."
Well, I did "Zombie" my way through it. :-) When I signed up for these two 100s, I knew it was highly improbable that I'd finish them, but because I was coming off of 3 consecutive DNFs, I felt this "double" would right the ship.
I did recover well after the AT 100, and by Thursday, felt good enough to run an easy 6 miler with very little discomfort. Also, even though I am quite the night owl, I managed to get 8 hours sleep the two nights before the race.
This weekend's race was the Heartland 100 Spirit of the Prairie, in Cassoday, Kansas. Cassoday has the distinction of being the Prairie chicken capitol of the world. I can now check this town off my bucket list.
The Heartland edition of Team Zombie. Roman was a pacer from mile 43-58, crewed, and took a ton of pictures. Marvin also helped with the crew duties and paced me from mile 58 to the finish. Dana, crew babe extraordinaire, was in her usual form going more hours without sleep than I did.
A strange thing happened before the race. Dana and I were EARLY to the race, and Brian and Kathy were the ones who made it to the starting line with just minutes to spare!
Kathy was to be running all the way with Mr. Johnny Spriggs aka Tatur Uno. Uno had ran 99 marathons in his illustrious career, and wanted his 100th to be a hundred miler. Kathy was along to make sure he made it, and because, well, she is just always around! There had been a little smack talk thrown around between me and the two of them. I had been secretly been ordering extra cheese on Kathy's sandwiches when I brought in lunch on Fridays at RunnersWorld, and threatening to through her in a ditch if she tried to pass me. I had not actually threatened Tatur Uno, since I suspect he might be packing a firearm, but I had told him I would definitely have the bragging rights if I finished anywhere near him after doing a 100 the week before.
Actually, all this smack talk was all in fun....I think. Also pictured is Bill Ford, aka Spud. More about him later.
We started about three minutes late by my watch, not that it mattered to me. I had my stopwatch going on my watch, and my Garmin working for me. I had Dana's Garmin to trade out whenever mine ran down. I had my data screen set for average pace, and wanted to keep the 14s off the screen for as long as possible. Like last week, I wanted to go out a little fast and then see what would happen as the day progressed. I suppose that a 100 miler that starts on pavement would seem like a fast start. It seemed like everyone was starting a 10K, and I tucked right in and ran with them.
The 100 milers and the 50 milers all started together, so about 120 runners spread out quickly along the wide gravel roads that marked the beginning of our journey. Along the way during the pre-dawn hours, I chatted a little with some of the runners, particularly ones who had ran this race before. I asked when the hills were coming, and how rough the roads were. I still was a little worried about 100 miles of course gravel tearing up my tootsies.
In about an hour, the sun was making it's debut for the day. A nice forecast of sun and 82 degrees was on tap, along with steady south winds. I had not started with a headlamp and mooched off of other runners who had. Worked for me last week, too.
Soon, at the first aid station, I ran into Spud. Now I knew I was pushing my pace a little, but to catch up with him, I thought I must be in BIG TROUBLE. Bill is FAST!!!
He was glad to see me, and wanted to run with me. The privilege was mine. We kept our pace in the low 12s including the walk breaks on the hills. We would come to a hill and pick out a spot about 1/3 of the way up, and run to it. Then we'd walk to almost the top and take off running again. Along the way, my pace was well within a 20 hour finish. I knew that would change.
The roads at Heartland are mostly gravel and the rocks are flint....the stuff the Indians used to make arrow heads with. To me, it was like running on a cheese grater, or on serrated shark teeth. It seemed like it was tearing all the tread off of my shoes. Also, I kept getting grit and pebbles in my shoes. Can you say GAITERS?
After a quick dumping or debris from my shoes, I was ready to go.
And as you can see, I was not the only one who had this problem!
There was not a lot of shade on the course. During the day light hours, I suspect I might have been ran in the shade for a total of 50 seconds. It had to wear on the aid station workers too. Sure, they set up tents, but the wind all day was so fierce that tents were kites waiting to lift off.
The question is....What Lies Beneath?
The answer is....Brian!
Bill turned around at mile 25 as he was running the 50 miler. He went on to finish in 9:47:22. Nice job, Brother!! I went on and the road entered some free-range area. This section was amazing as you could see for miles and miles, and yet see nothing but tall grass and gentle rolling hills. There were no mile markers, no runners to be seen and even when I would catch a glimpse of one, they seemed like ants on the horizon. (Could be because I did not run with my glasses!) There were no telephone poles, no landmarks except an occasional cattle guard. It seemed whether I ran slow or fast, I was getting nowhere. Had I not had my Garmin, I surely would have wigged out as it seemed I was running in place. The temps were in the mid 80s, but with the strong south wind, I was quite cool for most of the day. Some runners complained about it being exceptionally hot, but weather-wise, it was a perfect day for me. Eventually, I hit the Texaco Hill aid station at the top of a slight hill, and then it was more of the mysterious prairie.
After what was probably the most trying miles of the race, I reached the next crew station.
Dana was there, cold Gatorade was there, and Dave Dinkel's Power Pellets were there. These magic pellets were actually a 48 bean soup with little sausages in it. Quite salty, and quite good. He claims to have saved the lives of many a tired ultrarunner with this wondrous concoction. I told Dana and Roman about the no-mans-land I had passed through, and of seeing a huge red and white tower that it looked like I was going to run right by, but it seemed to keep moving, sometimes in front of me, sometimes beside me, and sometimes behind me. Then it would be back in front of me, but I never seemed to get closer. They just shook their head. Later, Roman and I indeed did run right past that tower, but neither he or I had our cameras. Now I wonder if it was all just a hallucination.
6 miles later was the crew stop where I could pick up a pacer. I was excited and picked up the pace a little to get there.
At about mile 41 for me, I met Michael Adams, a fellow Tatur doing his first 100. (This pic was taken at the starting line.) He was leading the race, and yet stopped to talk to me for a bit. Wow. He was feeling a bit queezy and food was not sounding good. I had an unopened pack of Shot Bloks and gave it to him. He went on to finish the race, finishing a strong second. I am glad he was able to pull it together! :-)
My crew was waiting and ready for me as I rolled into mile 43.
Roman was geared and ready to go the 7.5 miles out to the turn-around and back. Dana had hamburgers and hotdogs on the barbie, but I opted for some chips and vowed to have a burger on the return trip.
We bettered the pace all the way out and back. Even on the hills, Roman and I did not let up. When we walked, we kept it short. I also began trying to increase my walking speed. That is an area where I definitely need work. If I remember right, we managed to pass 2 or 3 people on our out-and-back. We also were able to see all the people coming back toward us and all the people we were ahead of on our way back. Randy Ellis was about 5 miles ahead of us, and we were ahead of Kathy and Johnny by about 2 miles. Johnny was having some tummy troubles, so I gave him my sea salt and a few E-caps, and reminded Roman to make sure I restocked when I made it back to Dana.
At mile 58, Roman's duty with me was done. He kept me in the game for a 24 hour finish where I could have easily have dropped off.
Marvin was chomping at the bit to take over.
He was ready to TAKE IT TO THE HOUSE! I told him I was probably in way over my head, but as much as was possible, I would continue to push. We did not talk a whole lot, just a little conversation here and there. I would ask him to remind me to eat or drink whatever at the next aid stop, as I tend to get extremely absent minded in the wee hours in the morning. He also made sure I did not twist an ankle on all the cattle guards. At one point, he kept me from stumbling right over a skunk. Not sure if I would have smelled better of worst had that encounter happened!
The mystery section that had played with my head was not a factor on the return trip. You could not see for miles since it was dark. All I concentrated on was what was illuminated by my headlamp and the miles passed. One by one, we went through aid stations, eating chicken noodle or potato soup and refilling our water bottles. At the crew stations, Dana waited on us like a busy little waitress. MMMMMWA!! I love ya!!
With our pace still in the 14 minute mile range, we were not losing to the quest for sub 24. We also passed maybe 5 or 6 runners. My math is fuzzy after 90 miles of running with no sleep, but it finally hit me that if I could at least keep jogging and not doing my zombie walk, I could finish under 24. Marvin was nothing but encouragement, and kept me motivated. Thank you so much, my brother.
When I finally reached that last turn that led onto a paved road, I knew I was only 1/4 mile from the finish. I ran that at about 98% effort, which was still pretty slow but seemed really fast. 23:20:17 was my time, hence the final 3 numbers in the title line of this post. The first 3 numbers are the date of the race. (Kinda dorky, huh?)
Brian and Dana were there to congratulate us and take a few pictures. Special thanks to Brian for some of the pics in this post.
Me and my goofy grin and my closer.
We went back to our motel for a shower, and met up later with Brian, Kathy, and Johnny. I was bummed that we missed their finish.
I was thinking they were probably gonna finish in the 28 hour range, but Uno came back to life and ran the last 16 miles strong despite the hills and finished in 26:34:34. Very impressive!!
We had some breakfast and sat around and talked about all the events of the night before. Good times.
Then, it was back to Cassoday for the awards ceremony, which was short and sweet. All of the 100 milers were awarded a big honkin' belt buckle.
Gotta say, I kind of like this belt buckle collecting hobby!
This weekend was the 31st running of the Tulsa Run, a 15K which is the largest race in Oklahoma. I have ran it in 2002 (5K), and the 15K every year since with the exception of 2006 in when I ran the Mother Road 100 on the same day. I am not a huge fan of road races although I do my share of road marathons, but this race is so much fun. I have a ton of friends there, and the course lends itself to running fast with some rolling hills, and also a lot of flat stretches where you can really pick up the pace. A lot of the course is out-and-back so you get to see who all is ahead of you and behind you. Us runners always seem to be good about saying how good everyone looks or in my case, lying about how good I look. (But this year, I was looking FINE!) I was part of a team that ran as a boxing match. My good friends Kathy and Debra were the boxers, My Heartland pacer Roman was the referee, and I was the ring girl.
Sorry if you were eating while reading this! If you got throw-up all over your keyboard, just send me a bill!
Don't know this girl, but her boyfriend is a fruit.
I am so lucky to run with so many princesses. These babes are in my Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday running group at RunnersWorld....
as are these fine looking ladies.
Someone must have thought this was nice enough to snap a pic!
