Matt, Jon, and I met up on Friday, the day before the race and drove into Wisconsin to embark on our version of the Kettle 100. We pulled into LaGrange around 6, picked up our packets, got a 15 minute warmup on the trail, and caught up with last year’s 100-mile winner Mark Tanaka. After that, we grabbed some dinner at a wonderful diner(with a pretty
cute waitress), drove out to our hotel, relaxed in the hotel’s hot tub and called it a night around 11.I woke up around 3(everybody was as excited as me as Matt didn’t seem too happy about my moving about), but couldn’t really go back to sleep until our alarm went off around 4. Matt and I grabbed some breakfast, talked race strategy and drove off to the start witnessing a 5 am sunrise.
Matt, Jon, and myself after our pre-race jog, getting pumped for the race!
We pulled up to the start of the race with Matt blasting some heavy metal/screaming music on his radio. We must have looked pretty ridiculous to say the least. Matt hit the bathroom a couple times (being on a very high fiber diet has its setbacks) and I chatted with some of the other runners I had met in years past, including Bill Thom, who was a part of our Western States crew(not to mention 2006 Grand Slam finisher) and another runner that I had met in the medical tent at the finish of the 2006 Ice Age 50.
Around 5 minutes til 6, race directors Timo Yanacheck and Jason Dorgan gave last minute race instructions and warned of the potential for storms later in the evening. With that and a friendly reminder to not litter on the trails, the countdown for the start began and at 6 am sharp the runners took off. Matt started off near the front, but was not quite with the leaders.
I drove over to the Bluff aid station(mile 7.5) in anticipation of Matt’s arrival. To my surprise, when I heard the aid station captain announce the first runner, Matt came around the corner by himself. I had expected a competitive relay race or an overzealous 100 miler to be leading, but Team Psychic Mary was in the lead!
I caught him again at Emma Carlin(mile 15) where he was still looking strong and extending his lead over the rest of the field. He stopped for a minute to fill up his camelback and took off into the meadow portion of the course, the section with the least sun cover. I stuck around to see Tanaka pull in, who was about 10 minutes behind Matt. Not much later came 2nd place runner Zach Gingerich and last year’s runner up, Joe Kulak.
Matt seemed tired at Hwy 67(mile 24), but I suppose running nearly a marathon in warm weather through pretty hilly terrain will do that for you. He took his time and pulled out only minutes before Tanaka came through.
At Hwy ZZ(mile 27), Matt came in looking strong and I encouraged him to gut it out to the finish. The very last section of his leg is hilly and it would not be easy. However, it was almost time for me to start running and I was pumped!
I waited around at Scuppernong(mile 31.5) in just shoes and my running shorts. I may have looked a little ridiculous, but with the warm weather, I believe I was justified. I was sweating just standing around and tried to relax as much as possible before starting my leg. The people at the aid station were very friendly and one of the guys there showed me a great stretch for my worthless IT band. After 4 hours and 36 minutes of running, Matt pulled into Scuppernong in first place! He handed over the bib and I took off running.
I was so relieved to finally be running, it had been a pretty tiring morning driving around and crewing! About a quarter mile after leaving the aid station, I saw Tanaka running towards me, still leading the 100 mile run. Soon after, I ran into Gingerich, Kulak, and the rest of the pack.
Throughout the first miles, I was running to my own rhythm. I felt great and was trying to put as much distance between me and the runners behind me. I also was planning on running faster than Matt. I ran up most of the hills, rarely walking so I would make up as much time as possible. I flew through Hwy ZZ and 67 feeling great and at about 10 miles into the run, I reached the meadow.
This is where things started to take a turn for the worse. It was now a little bit after noon and temps were in the mid 80’s, not too mention the incredible humidity that is accompanied with the swampy conditions. I was also drinking a Gatorade/Pedialyte mixture, which didn't quite agree with my stomach. I still felt strong and was moving at a solid pace and figured that if I kept things up, I would be running a 4:30 or faster. Every couple minutes, I looked over my shoulder, half expecting to see a couple of the stronger 100 milers right behind me. I must have really underestimated my pace, because I now realize that I was moving a lot faster than what they could have managed after 31+ miles.
As I kept going, the Pedialyte solution tasted worse and worse. For a little while, I stopped drinking and would fill up my bottles with Wisconsin well water, which is also not the best idea, considering that you can taste whatever the hell else is in that concoction. After approximately 2 hours of solid running, I pulled into Emma Carlin where Matt was anxiously awaiting my arrival. Coming into Emma Carlin is a great feeling, because once you are at this point, you know that you will have tree cover for the rest of the race. I still felt that I could pull off a solid time, but did realize by now that it would be a difficult finish, considering I was only halfway at this point. I was only briefly in the station before leaving.
As soon as I started onto the trail, I had flashbacks of the year before when I was at this point in the race. The trail becomes pretty hilly at this point and this is where I had the most trouble in ’07. You're by yourself for quite some time and the sun is at its highest point. Well, this year was pretty similar as '07. Except worse.
I started to slow down at this point, but was still not moving too slowly. I was walking the uphills, but making decent time on the flats and descents. However, by the time I reached Horseman's aid station(i believe just after mile 50) I was pretty gone. At this point last year, I opened up the water faucet and laid underneath it to cool down. I was so excited to do the same this year, but unfortunately I couldn't open the faucet! Quite convenient. Waterless, I continued up the trail, which was now quite a steep climb. All I was doing at this point was hiking up the inclines.
With approximately 2 miles until Bluff(mile 55), I ran across a group of people who cheered me on, saying i was in first. I explained to them that I was just a part of the relay, but they still expressed support. That was the first human contact I had made since Emma Carlin and it definitely was uplifting even though it was shortlived. Finally, after mile of brutal hills(and passing the point i nearly got lost at the year before), I reached the top of the last hill and started the steep descent into the Bluff aid station. I shuffled down the hill and ran into the aid station, where Jon, Matt, and now Travis were enthusiastically waiting for me.
They were pretty upbeat even though I was moving really slow. Despite my condition, I got out of the aid station pretty quickly. I knew the last 7 1/2 miles of my leg would be pretty long as it was and i figured that staying in the aid station would only make them longer. This section was one of the worst of any race i have done before. I started getting bad stomach cramps so bad that I had to walk the downhills(my strongest point). To make matters worse, i was not drinking anything at all because my stomach was in such bad shape.
The section from Bluff to the Tamarack aid station(57.5) is only 2 1/2 miles, but it felt like it went on forever. I went up hill after hill, turn after turn, just expecting every turn to be the last. A couple of times I even shouted out to see if anyone could hear me. The thing was that I was moving so slow that the normal time it would take me to cover 2 1/2 miles was more like what I would normally run 5 miles in. Throw in the humidity, heat, isolation, and some annoying f****** bugs and this was one tough section.
After coming around the 100-something turn, I finally pulled into Tamarack. The aid station volunteers were relaxing and seemed a little surprised to see a runner(again, I was part of the relay, so they were only so excited). As soon as I got there, I took a seat. Immediately, they were asking what I needed, how things were going, and tried to help however possible. I explained the stomach cramp issue and how I couldn't drink anything. They informed me that all of the runners were slowing down and that the heat was really taking its toll on everyone. While they were explaining this, I eyed a can of LaCroix soda water and started sipping on it. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to fill my water bottle with it and take it with me on the trail. Now, I have done many stupid things, but this tops the charts.
When I left the aid station, my stomach felt good. . . for about 100 meters. Then, things got ugly again and from there on out, I would shuffle 100 steps, then walk 100 steps. The cramps were so bad that I could barely move. I tried to run it out, I really did. But my stomach wouldn't agree with me. I knew I was dehydrated when I peed a darker color than I ever had before. Definitely not a good sign. As I reached the sign announcing there were 4 miles left, I started to really question what I was doing out there. Dehydration is what led me to the ambulance during my last Ironman attempt, the difference here was that I still had 4 miles to go on my own before I would come into contact with anybody that could help me. Kinda scary. At the top of one hill, I laid down for a minute and considered napping. Then I remembered Matt making fun of me for doing that last year so I quickly got up. Great motivation, right?
Well, I was still pretty warm and really needed to cool down. I looked at my water bottle which was full of soda water and decided it would be a good idea to pour it all over me. Why not, I mean why waste your liquids on hydration? Now, I was hot, sticky, tired, delusional, and just about fed up with this whole damn race. Luckily, when I was 3 miles out, the clouds decided to come out, relieving the heat from the day. Had this not happened, I don't know how much longer I would have been out on the course.
Finally, I reached the 2 mile mark and shortly(relatively speaking) afterwards I only had 1 more mile to go. I started running(9 minute mile at fastest) and planned to run the entire mile without stopping. About half a mile out, I saw Matt who was waiting to run in with me. Together we shuffled into the finish, where I handed my bib to Travis and immediately laid down. My time for the 31 miles was 5:06:45 which was a 9:54 pace. I don't know how I even managed to get under 10 minutes, I don't even want to know how slow the last 10 miles were.
Myself looking awfully ridiculous at the finish of my run
But now our team was at 9 hours, 42 minutes and Travis was out there running. He took off, making me very nervous, but in all honesty I was just happy to be sitting down.
We saw Travis next at mile 70(7.5 miles for him). He was looking good and seemed to be having a blast. He was caught in a little rain and came in a little wet, but that just added to his excitement. However, a larger storm was starting to come in and it was looking pretty rough. We heard from one of the guys that dropped that he could have sworn he heard the tornadoes, which were only miles from portions of the course. I saw Joe Kulak come in at 55 miles and he looked pretty beat. Not to mention just about every other runner on the course.
After leaving this station, the weather got worse. It started pouring, the winds picked up and just got real nasty. Travis was out there all by himself for the next 8 miles and he would be running without seeing another human in middle of this incredible storm. We were just hoping that he would make it to Highway 12(mile 77) in one piece(and without getting lost).
We got over to Hwy 12 to find the aid station in pieces. The aid station captain showed us a tent that was destroyed by the storm, the metal had actually been bent by the incredible winds. He also notified us of a couple tornadoes that had passed by, one being very close to where we had stayed the night before.
After chatting with him, we saw Travis come through, still looking strong considering that he had run a hard 15 miles through a very hilly section. He was out just as soon as he got in, and headed to the last 4 miles of his leg, and probably the most difficult on the entire course. The hills from Hwy 12(77) to Rice Lake(81) and back to Hwy 12(86) were what killed me the year before. There are a couple steep hills that really work you.
When we got to Rice Lake, I went onto the course just to do a little post-storm inspection and catch Travis over his last quarter-mile. As soon as I took about 20 steps onto the course, I realized just how much the storm had done. One of the small bridges was submerged and the water level had definitely rose. To add to that, the greenery was overgrown and I had to duck quite a bit to make it very far. After about 15 minutes of thinking I heard a runner coming up, Travis came charging by. A few seconds later, I heard the yelling from our party, marking Travis' entry into Rice Lake. Then I caught Jon, who was charging back towards me onto the trail to run the final leg of the relay. You could tell he was pumped to finally be running(Can't blame him, he had been waiting around all day long!).
We caught up with Travis, who was looking very good all things considered. He was pretty excited about the run and kept mentioning how tough the hills were over the last section. He had almost gotten lost at one point because the storm had done some damage to the course markings. After getting him a shirt, we drove back to catch Jon at Hwy 12(mile 86).
Jon came in looking strong, yet a little winded from the past 4 miles of hills. He was only there momentarily before taking off again into the woods. Soon after coming in, the lead 100 miler, Joel Eckburg(2:33 marathoner and '08 McNaughton 50 Mile winner) came in. He was definitely tired, but when I saw him heading out to Rice Lake, he was still moving very well. He was putting together quite an impressive performance and had really done a good job of pacing himself in the heat. We waited around for a while to see who was in 2nd place, but apparently he was way ahead of anybody else.
It was beginning to get dark when we arrived at Bluff(the 4th time that day). There was a lot more coming and going from this point and the aid station was fairly active. I kept thinking how nuts it was, seeing people heading back to the 100K, knowing that 15 miles later they would still be in the exact same spot. Brutal. All of a sudden, we saw Jon cruising towards us. He was running very strong and actually looked better at this point then he did 8 miles prior. I ran alongside him to give him his light.
I have never seen anybody hungrier/thirstier at an aid station before. He ate just about everything he could get his hands on--sandwiches, fruit, m&m's, you name it, he ate it. He even took off with a half gallon of water!
Well, after 15 1/2 hours of running/crewing we made it to the finish line to catch Jon. After standing in the woods and being eaten alive for mosquitoes, we saw a fast moving flashlight(it had been dark for quite some time). We called out Jon's name, but we got no response. As the runner went by us, i mentioned to Matt that the runner looked like Jon. We said his name again, to which we heard a "mghmph". "Jon!" we all cried. We took off after him and crossed the finish line in 15 hours, 48 minutes, and 44 seconds.
It was great to finally finish off our crazy race, but it was even better knowing that we were finally going to get some sleep. We drove to Jon's house in Arlington Heights, put down a few beers, ate about half of the food in the house and crashed. Day over.
Results for the race are available at http://www.kettle100.com/Finisher%20Results%20for%20Website%202008.htm.
Joel Eckburg and Darla Brader won the 100 miler while Christine Crawford and Matt Aro won the 100K(Christine was the overall winner). Congrats to everyone that made it through the brutal conditions, finishing was quite an accomplishment today.
