Well I'm very excited to have completed this race! I was definitely a little nervous going into it cause it was my first real race since my knee injury two months ago at Santa Barbara 100 and it also happened to be the most difficult race I've attempted so far.
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| FAT DOG 120 |
I knew the more I pushed the speed the less likely I was to finish. The race has a 48hr time limit which is far more than enough time to get through it, I just needed to stay the course. I made my main focus getting a negative split in the last 60 miles. This would insure that I didn't blow out all my energy in the first half. keep my legs fresh all the way through and reduce the risk of any injury.
Before the first aid station around 10 miles into the race I was already in last place. I knew I was going slow but i didn't expect everyone else to be going so fast. I was wearing hiking boots, hiking pants, had my trekking poles and a huge backpack with all my supplies. I was gonna keep a steady pace no matter what, even if I was the only one left in the dust.
I barely made the suggested time cutoff for the mile 18 aid station with 10mins to spare. There I met up with my younger brother and pacer Xavier. He paced me the next 23 miles to the mile 41 aid station which had the first hard cutoff time of 130am. Our plan was to save energy by just riding the cutoff times to each station and not to overexert ourselves, but our plan would only work if we didn't have to take too many unexpected stops and kept a steady pace.
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| Xavier and me at the mile 18 aid station |
As the sun started to go down my little brother started having trouble with his blood sugar.
He is type 1 diabetic and continuously has to keep checking his sugar to make sure its under control. When his sugar is not right it makes it very hard for him to focus and makes him very drowsy. We had to take a few unexpected breaks to help him get it under control which cost us at least an hour, but once taken care of we were going strong again and picking up some lost time.
I got to the mile 41 aid station at 133am, 3mins after the cutoff time. The race director, Heather, was hesitant to let me continue but let me cause I explained the issues my younger brother was having had cost us lots of time. She let me continue, but sent along a fresh pacer with me, Brian, to make sure I was still safe and not falling anymore behind. Brian kept me updated with my pace so I wouldn't fall too far back. It was a major help cause the next 12 miles were uphill and it's very easy to think you've gone farther than you have when you're going uphill.
About 3 miles before the mile 53 aid station I passed a few more racers who were going slower than me on the uphill. Brian stayed back with them because he saw I was doing well and wanted to make sure they stayed on pace.
As I got closer to the mile 53 aid station the sun started to come up and the morning air was foggy and cold. I used a rain poncho, space blanket, gloves and a beanie to stay warm and dry. A lot of people dropped at the mile 53 aid station and I must admit that it felt horrible at that time of the day but I kept going.
I left there just after 6am and was hoping to get through the next 9 miles in a little less than 4 hrs, but I was very tired and ended having to take a 10 min nap on the side of the trail about a mile or so after the station. once i got going again i still a little drowsy but knew that once the sun came up my body would start feeling better.
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| me shortly after my 10min nap |
I made the mile 62 station around 1030am. next stop was 11 miles away and I had about 4hrs to make it. I was also starting to form blisters on my feet and my backpack and hiking boots were starting to feel very heavy, luckily though most of the next part was all downhill.
I made it to station 73 with about 30mins to spare and finally started having some time to breathe. they patched me up real quick and I got going again. only 5 miles to the next major station where I could meet up with my family again switch my gear that had been slowing me down.
Station 78, I arrived still with about 30mins to spare. here is where I ditched my hiking boots and backpack, patched my blisters and finally put on some running shoes.
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| mile 78 station |
Although the last 3 miles or so before the station the air was thick with mosquitoes. they started eating me alive and i started to get really frustrated.
mile 90 I got some hot food and put on a jacket to hopefully cover some of my flesh from mosquitoes.
kept a steady pace to the mile 99 station and made a new friend named Heather. Time flies so much quicker when you're talking with someone.
mile 99 station i left around 1030pm with my little brother. he was feeling better to pace me again and wanted to go with to the finish. This next part was brutal.up up up and up. it seemed never to stop. it was already dark now and all the racers were tired. lots of people were stopping by the side of the trail to take a "quick" nap. I knew this was a vital time to gain ground and told Xavier that we can't afford to nap at this time. we need to keep a steady pace. finally around 230am we got to the top and we saw a sign for lightning lake (the finish line). this brought up our morale and we quickened our pace. near 3 am we came into the second to last aid station. we stopped briefly to refill our water then kept going. 5 miles to the next station then only 8 to the finish.
the next five miles went pretty good with only a couple stops to check my lil bros blood sugar. and we got to the next station just after 5 am.
the last 8miles were the most difficult. they were explained to us at the aid station like this: "3 rolling miles of up and down, 3 miles of down and 2 flat miles to the finish." and they were exacting just like that, but I was having very bad pains in my left knee and had to take downhills very slowly. People started passing us left and right gunning for the finish line as we struggling about a mile an hour to get down there ridiculously steep hills. I was also getting very frustrated that I couldn't go much faster and was more than ready to done with the race. But eventually we made it with a final time of 46hrs 16mins 06seconds.
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| View from around mile 115 |
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| my picture on the board of official finishers |
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| Me, RD Heather, and Xavier after the race |
