Javelina Jundred - RunUltra Marathon

Flashback
So it started all back in May. I got my new triathlon bike and devoted much of my training time to my weakness – biking. I wanted to do amazing at Mountain Man Half Ironman in Flagstaff, AZ, and I knew my strengths are swimming and biking. Well, Mountain Man HIM came, and I sucked. I felt like I had no power or energy. By the end of the race I was pissed off. Triathlon let me down – I gave it what I had, sometimes putting in 800-900 minutes a week, but what for? A crappy finish. I needed a break.

So Monday morning I sat down at my computer and looked for the break I needed – an adventure. Triathlon is structured and regimented, but I need something that I could make my own. Lisa (Javamom) told me about Bob’s Javelina Jundred, and I was sold. I was joking all day back and forth with the sportybots (Josh and Jen) about crewing me. Little did anyone know that sometime in late July, Monday after Mountain Man, I sent a check away to Jamil, the race director.

I had things to get over. Fears. First off was my fear of going on the trails alone. I’ve hiked with people, but the ONE time I decided to run on a trail alone, I nearly landed on a rattlesnake. Let’s see, there was that whole business of never running further than 18 miles in one chunk of time…no marathons…no 50Ks….no 50 milers…none. I was basically set up for failure, but I was excited and ready for a challenge.

Training was something else. I started “marathon monday.” Most people save their longs stuff for the weekend, but I like to get mine over with. Plus, my “mom job” is pretty busy on the weekend, and the classes I teach can always wait until 1am (when I do most of my school work). So in 110 degree heat, off I went. I encountered a nasty man that told me I could NEVER run 100 miles on the training I was doing. It shook me. I even did a 7pm-7am self supported (well I had the cool kids) 50 miler, where I had some other man (perhaps someone who didn’t quite make it to the finish line at Javelina) tell me I was completely unprepared. Why do men like to do this? (on a side note, this is what I am writing my Master’s thesis on – how the physical education of women - in the late 18c- was dictated by scholarly men who urged women to do things like horseriding and walking, and thought that running was so unnatural for women, so much so that they looked like a bird…it gets more complex than this, but you all will hear more about it as I get closer to finishing).

Flashforward
The race came. I felt completely unprepared. Doubt and fear filled me the ENTIRE week before. Even at packet pick-up, I was a nervous wreck. Meeting the extremely friendly community of ultrarunners was calming. Much nicer than triathletes (I had some woman tell me horrible things at my first triathlon). Racemorning was surreal. Chris picked me up a dark thirty. Sandy was trailing behind (she was great all day and night, always wondering what I needed and helping me stick to nutrition plans…). Having Chris to talk to on race morning is always nice. I don’t know why, but he stokes me up…I guess I’ve always thought about him as some sort of coach (not the kind that gives you the training plans, but the kind that motivates you). We get to the race site, and I am so worried about getting my feet taped that I spent all morning waiting, but then, Jen’s knight in shining armour (Josh), shows up, and spends some time taping my feet. When the call goes out for 15 minutes, I head over to the bathroom and line up near the runners. I find Tony, Chris, and Susan…they would be great friends and great help for the first 35 miles.

Lap 1
Starting this race was unreal. I was here, and I was finally ready. I think we all ran on pure adrenaline for the first lap. I tried really hard to stay with Tony, Chris, and Susan. I met Tony at packet pick-up and he seemed nice. We chatted mildly for the first section. I was mainly in awe of my surroundings. Not just the “nature” aspect, but the number of runners all in a line. I run alone…in the desert…in the middle of the day. Watching 30 runners follow each other up a hill…that was beautiful.

I really don’t remember lap 1 that well. I think the “pack” (Tony, Chris, and Susan) got to know each other. I followed their plan…they were smarter than me, today wasn’t the day to act pompus or know-it-all. Oh, I remember that the innov8 shoes weren’t working for me…too narrow. So I changed shoes and socks and tried to hurry at camp…I had people waiting for me.

Lap 2
I wore Montrail Wildwoods. Funny that I was sooo worried about not having the right shoe. I mean obsessive about this. I bought these a couple weeks before the race. Nope…not enough arch support. Looking forward, I did the entire rest of the race between the hardrocks that I bought for $5 and Jen’s pair of the same shoes. Enough shoes talk.

It was getting hot out there. And I was in company that I had no business being with…both Tony and Susan were going for sub 24 hours. Chris was hoping to finish – oh and he does triathlons too. He did an Ironman. I looked like an endurance dwarf in the middle of these people. I knew at any point in time they were gonna drop me. As we began lap 2, I was struggling. Here’s where I hit a low. I thought that if I was struggling at lap 2, then, what am I gonna be doing at lap 7? I shuffle along, quiet, but freaking out. At the first aid station, Tim from Tucson ran by me…yep he was one of those men that doubted me (secret goal…BEAT HIM). At some point the heat started to get to Chris. I think (and I don’t know if I am remembering correctly) Tony and I were running together for a long time and Susan would normally catch up on our walks. Oh I forgot about the crazy man that was dancing and singing. It was awesome. He had his IPOD on and was jamming. We kept trying to figure out what he was singing. Maybe something manly like Metallica, but I bet it was more like ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”

Tony proved to be an awesome running partner. We chatted a lot. I may have chatted too much. I like to talk. (Sorry Tony if I made you crazy). I even started to make jokes about other runners – not in bad spirit, more like “That guy looks like Jerry Garcia, if he gave up the coke and started ultrarunning.” Oh and our running joke was “we’ve only gone 5 miles.” Get it RUNNING joke…ah…I am so not funny! SO MUCH FUN!

Back to Shoe talk. My arches HURT BAD. I was certain that I needed the hardrocks. So the crew helped me change my shoes, fueled me up, and away we went.

Lap 3
We (yes, I say we…I fell like I can’t even tell this story thus without talking about the others) were hurting a little. The heat was getting to us. I dumped the nasty perpeteum for some Gatorade. Eating was not fun. At some point I tried to eat a clif bar, but it was so nasty that I threw it in the desert – my crew would totally think I was eating! Ha! I kept telling Tony how much I despised eating. He kept telling me I needed to eat. So I forced Gus down. I don’t think he was eating, though. As I was getting better he seemed to be getting worse. No! We slugged to the first aid station, and I remember him saying “if you feel good you need to go.” I almost cried. I did feel good, but I didn’t want to go. Funny but I just met these people (Tony and Susan), but I felt like I couldn’t finish the journey without them. But I guess I had to. I wanted to hug and say a long good bye, but instead I just ran…

Well. I turned on my Ipod and jammed. I thought about that jamming man, I even started singing, but no one was around to hear (thank god). The first song that came on that I really listened to was Sabotage – and for all of you who’ve see it…that’s my jam. I ran. Really I did. Some uphill. All flats and downhills. And I was moving out. I think I just love the heat. Crazy, right. I played rabbit with an older man. I hate to say old, because it’s kind of relative (hell, he probably finished faster than me), but he was well into his 60s. We get to the aid station at JA junction and someone proceeds to tell me that this is his 3rd hundred in 3 weeks. OMFG! That’s gonna be me when I get his age! Truly an inspiration.

I came into camp rocking out. I shed a tear or two of happiness. I mean I was 46 miles down, and I felt like I could conquer the world. My stellar crew fixed me up with new socks, food, and water and I was on my way.

Lap 4
I was a little scared going into this lap. I was gonna run a portion of it in the dark ALONE. whew. And at this point the course was thinning out, so I wasn’t seeing someone every couple of minutes. But I did come this far. What’s an hour and a half of darkness gonna do to me. I got back to Jackass Junction pretty quick, and there was an awesome motivator working at the aid station. I’ll be honest, on my last lap, Jackass Junction was kind of “not happening”…there was one young kid and two other people, and they were kind of slow and non-interactive. I’m not complaining, because I was happy to have anyone out there, but I didn’t get the greatest vibe. I didn’t even catch the guy’s name, but he was great. He noticed my SOMA visor and chatted with me while I was chowing down food. He even wished me goodbye…saying he’d see me back in 3 hours (I wish…details to follow).

I ran on. Some guy was standing on the side of the trail taking a picture. I tried to stay out of it, but he said “you can get in the picture of the most beautiful cactus ever.” Wow, I could take this two ways – he’s looped, he been running ALL day in the heat, or wow, I never thought about cactus this way. All in all a great little side story.

Immeditly after the cactus incident, I saw a coyote next to the trail. We just looked at each other traveling in the opposite direction. Holy Moly! Real wildlife. He/She was truly beautiful, even though I was scared, it never took over me. Earlier in the day, while Tony and I were running, we saw a guy jump and sort of backtrack. We thought, weird, and asked him if he dropped something. He said he saw a rattle snake. Whew…we were close. Oh yeah and as I was coming in on lap 3, a runner said “hey, a rattlesnake crossed the trail ahead.” Thanks. That helped me pick up the pack. Snakes are pretty scary in my book.

Back to running. At one point I found a rabbit (not a real one, but a guy that I could chase – or follow). He was moving, but I felt great, so I kept on his tail. At one point we both stopped to walk and uphill and he said “Thanks.” For what? Well, it turns out that he was just trying to get to the 100K mark. He tore his hamstring. For a tore hamstring, hell for a healthy guy, he looked like he was in great shape. We chatted briefly at the aid station. On my way I went.

I flew down those rocks. Again, this was a high point in the race. I felt like I could conquer the world. I passed people who were stumbling and I was all smiles. I got towards the end of the trail, and I started talking to a guy (another one) who was dropping out at 100K. He just did Furnace Creek (?), and he said that he just didn’t have it in him. Sad to hear about people dropping out. That was 2 people in like a 2 mile stretch. I wished him well, but I had to run in. On my IPOD a song from Rocky Horror Picture Show came on “Sweet Transvestite.” Love it. If my Ipod didn’t die, the people at camp were gonna get a show.

I came in and knew I was gonna take a longer pit stop. I wanted to eat something substantial, change my clothes (I was all cold and wet – I sweat soo much), and have the medics look at my crazy toe. Yep and really sore black toenail. They ended up not being able to do much about it.

Here’s where mistake were made. I had a veggie burger. A fibrous mess. I knew this would be a bad idea from the start, but I had to eat something and that’s what they had for a vegan like myself.

Lap 5
Tanya and I set off for some night running. I knew my body would have some issues with the veggie burger, but I didn’t think it would end up being that bad. We end up going the direction where it was rocky. I told her that I wanted to walk and settle my stomach in the beginning. And she was fine with that considering that rocks aren’t her favorite. My stomach was fighting me. I’ve never gotten to this point in any race, so I was dealing with new territory. My spirits gradually went downhill as the night progressed. Everyone we saw (with a few exception) was walking. Some shuffling. Running actually felt great on my body. It kept me warm, but my stomach hated me. It is just so frustrating.

After the first aid station, I decided to run the downhills and walk uphills. With Tanya in the lead this would be fine. She kept pushing me to run more. This is what I remember about this lap. I can see how two people can fight. I wasn’t mad at her for pushing me. In fact, I was mad at myself. I felt like a pussy. Like she was calling me out saying “what you can’t run this.” I know this wasn’t the case and that she was just trying to get me back to camp as fast as she could. Still, there were times when I wanted to shake her and be like “you want me to run, I just ran 60-something miles, and I feel like I am gonna barf.” I was on the brink of going ghetto on her, but I didn’t. Which is good.

At the last aid station, some guy suggested ginger chews…great idea. We ran most (if not all?) of the way back into camp. But I still felt like a pussy.

Lap 6
Rob and I went out for lap 6, and I was feeling pretty good. I got over the sick feeling, but all of a sudden I got hungry. I mean HUNGRY. My mental level was low. Lap 5 really fucked with my head, but I couldn’t get outside of the situation to notice that what needed to come back around was my head – not necessarily my body.

Something Tony said early on stuck with me throughout the race. We were at a point where we were taking longer walk breaks, and he said something to the effect of “we are getting lazy.” So throughout the race, I had in my mind that walking is lazy. Which was good, because every time I walked, whether it was an uphill or a time I wasn’t feeling that great, I was conscious of my “laziness.”

So Rob and I walked and chatted and I ate ginger snaps and saltines, but I had the serious munchies. We get to aid station 1, and I wanted to see a smorgasbord of food, but I was soo disappointed with the same old stuff. I peed and ate. I had been making a point to stay and eat at the aid stations for as long as necessary so that I could refuel. Not the most efficient race strategy, I know, but I was in it to finish it, not to win it….which brings me to my next point…

So there was lots of hype coming out of my great last stretch (before the bad stomach). Sub 24, people telling me what place I was in…great, but not what I needed to hear. I am not mentally ready to be all crazy competitive for a 100 miler. Seriously, the only competitive thing I did was to say I wanted to beat Tim (the jackass at my 50 miler), and that’s more vengeance than competition. I had no goals besides finishing. Numbers fuck with my mind. They always have. So to hear these things, especially when I was hitting low points, it made me feel like I was letting people down. Like all of a sudden I needed to do these things, which on lap 5 & 6, I was pretty certain they were not doable…I just wasn’t in that place. And besides, this race was supposed to be fun, no pressure. I didn’t need that at 2 am. I don’t blame anyone for encouraging me to push harder, but I just know that the combination of feeling crappy and these higher expectations than I originally set out to accomplish…it was a little too much for me.

The guy at aid station 1 nearly pushes me out to tell me that I needed to hurry so I could hit sub 24. I almost told him to fuck off. Funny, but no one would probably guess that was where I was at mentally. Rob and I ran/walked the next portion. I think this was my favorite portion of the course…the middle heading counter-clockwise (i think). Lot’s of running time. Again, my body still felt great to run, but lack of calories (and fear of eating were) were leaving me with little energy.

We get to the final aid station, and the guy that fills up my pack wasn’t careful. It leaked all over me. I was ready to cry. I mean I was already cold. I sweat so much and my base layers were soaked to begin with – even though I changed clothes like some crazy clothes whore (this is why I changed clothes). I told him it leaked. He started to argue, but I simply said I am really cold. He was nice and started to dry my clothes and set me in front of the heater with a blanket. Not what I needed now. This was a LONG stop. My legs got stiff, I got tired. If I wasn’t so cold, I am confidant that Rob and I would have continued on and ran smoothly into camp. Instead we got to watch a guy yak his brains out. Nice.

Well. After maybe 45 minutes or so we moved on. I left my pack, and would get in when I came back to that aid station, when it was dryer. We started running to warm me up, but all of a sudden I had the urge to pee. I went and we continued on. Then I had to pee again. Okay…I went and we continued on. Then I had to pee again. FUCK! This was frustrating. I cried. I just wanted to get back to camp. No offense to Rob, but I needed Jen. Kind of like when a kid needs her mommy. I was in a bad place. Quitting never crossed my mind, but the thought of prolonging this hundred sucked. Rob tried to keep me in good spirits though. We got a little Vanilla Ice going…ah…a man after my own heart.

The energy on the course seemed to be at a low. No one we passed either way seemed to be feeling awesome. I think I needed some good vibes. I didn’t get them. Sure runners were doing the occasional “good job”, but I think lots of people were struggling. I’ve never been in a race like this, so to have people all around me feeling as crappy as I did, it made me even more dejected. At one point I feel asleep walking. I have never been that tired before in my life, and I’ve been know to thrive off of caffeine and lack of sleep (it’s kind of my thing).

Rob and I ran it in. A grueling lap. As we got closer and closer to camp, my spirits lifted. I WAS SO CLOSE. I even started yelling, “Hey I’m coming,” I am pretty sure Rob thought I was nuts, but I didn’t care. When we got to camp, I went up to Jamil (the race director) for my glow necklace. I sounded like my 3 ½ year old, saying “can I have my glow necklace please?” I cried. So close.

Lap 7
Yes so close, yet still lots of mileage to cover in a rather “beat up state.” When we got back into camp, I was cold again. Surprise. I find this crazy. Some people never changed clothes. I needed to, especially at night. When I get cold, it’s over. I’m a whimp. I really didn’t want to stay too long at camp, but I had no choice, I did need to be comfy (to some extent, because at this point everything else hurt). Here’s where the wheels fell off. My body finally felt like running was impossible. Before is was quite the opposite, where running was possible but something else inhibited me from running….now I was just going for a “hike.”

Jen and I set off, and my boyfriend John came up behind us. I joked. I wish you could come with us too. He said, well then I will. To back up a little. John had to work Saturday evening – I’m a part-time teacher/full time student – so he’s our main income source. He came out right after work and saw me off on lap 5, but when I was leaving for lap 6, he said goodbye. I knew he had to leave. He had to work in the morning too. I wasn’t upset…I knew that’s how it had to be. When I said he was coming with me, I think I cried a little. We both do things that neither of us understands – he likes building things, and I like endurance sports and literature. He’s never really got why I love these two things, so it was huge to have him come with me. Now I know it looks like I am being double paced, but I think the park was open…he was just going for a short hike and I happened to be finishing my 100 miles.

I was stoked to be so close to finishing, but pretty beat up. I wanted to finish fast, but the time kept dragging on. Thank god for Jen and John. They talked to me, listened to me, joked with me…it was great. I even saw Tony, Chris, Susan, and Bob…and I was in better spirits this time! Yeah! I wanted to hug them, but I didn’t want to screw up their rhythm.

Jen and John were singing these songs. Honestly, I really don’t remember much here either. I went into a spot in my head where I could listen to things going on around me, but I was so focused on putting on foot in front of the other. At one point I looked at my watch. Finishing sub 26 became realistic. I told Jen and John that I wanted to run. So I did, for about 15 minutes straight. Then we came to a sign that said 1 mile left. WTF??? I had minutes to complete that mile before it turned 26 hours. No dice. Then Jen fessed up. The course was something like 101.3 miles. OMG! That’s evil. I kind of laughed, I was never really pissed, but it was just funny.

Jen and John left me to run it in by myself. It was so great to finish. Weird though, I had no emotions left to finish with. I was happy, but I thought I’d be crying so hard. I wasn’t. Strange.

I walked over to the med tent and got my toenail drained. Mommy Tanya held my hanad, but amazingly, it didn’t hurt.

The End
Well I plopped down in a chair. The best crew ever cleaned up. Sandy, Jen, Josh, Tanya, Chris, Rob, Kerri, Andy, John, Caboose, and Donut…I couldn’t have done this without them. Oh and come to find out that Josh2 was out pacing Chris. Yeah! Spread the love…that was so cool! They helped me earlier, and someone from my group could help him later.

I kept watching the finish line to see if Tony, Susan, Chris, and Bob were coming in, but I really didn’t want to move. I was lazy. Tony came over to talk to me after he finished. He could walk…man…that’s something. I felt like death. We exchanged stories. Then I went to the potty and said my goodbyes…Cindrella was turning into a pumpkin!

Chris took me home. He wanted to know all the details, but I was so tired (sorry). I feel fast asleep. He went and got me some ice and helped me into an ice bath. He got a kick out of this. He left, I showered, and then I went to sleep. What a day!