Burning River 100 Mile Race

Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 21:23:15 -0500
From: Juli Aistars
Subject: Re: oh, to be weak and oh, to be last!

I guess the way to start my race report would be to say that I ran with both Mary, who never frowns and does a great job of making sure no one else does, and Nikki, who is great company and has been missed since her move to Ann Arbor. I ran with Mary, Stephanie, Bo and Scott after they passed me and I tried to hang on, but just couldn’t keep their pace. When I first saw them I asked what happened to Nikki. Mary said she wasn’t too far back. I soon found out exactly where she was because she caught up with me and then we ran together–perhaps trudged, power-walked was more like what we were doing most of the time. We commiserated on how we had both been feeling sorry for ourselves that we had been running solo. I was so happy to have a chance to spend time talking with Nikki, but after some miles and several subjects including speculation about a “toe reduction” and possible transfer of amputated tissue to another underserved body part, I again was left “behind”. She is STRONG on those hills! Interesting that we had discussed a “toe reduction” when that is what Nikki apparently had at the finish line.
Where did you say you put that “toe in a bag?” I can put it to good use… 🙂

The next aid station at about mile 62 I saw Julie Bane, who would pace me for the last 31 miles. She was with a young lady who turned out to be Amanda Stickel. Nice to finally meet you in person Amanda! Julie met me at two aid stations before she joined me at mile 70. It had been dark for a few hours, but it was not so bad running alone in the dark. I was being consistently passed by other runners, but almost all of them slowed to talk with me before they left me in the dust, or mud, depending on whether it was raining. I was glad to finally have my own pacer so I wouldn’t be alone in the dark. Shortly after Julie joined me, we went through the ledges, following another runner who guided us. Julie was thrilled and talked non-stop about how cool this was. She also sings well and she did plenty of that later on. Julie was on my crew at the Badwater solo in 2005, and she is great at knowing what I need, making suggestions instead of asking open-ended questions, noticing my slouch and making me straighten up, telling me, “No, we don’t have plenty of time–you have to MOVE!” It was great to have someone who knows me really well, who talks so much that I
couldn’t possibly do what I usually do at night which is nap at trailside or roadside or in chair. Then the torrential rains came as we wandered the corn fields before the Covered Bridge aid station at mile 81.6.

Though the course markings were excellent at all times, this section seemed too long and though we could hear or see the aid station, it seemed we would never get there while the fog and rain made it hard to see very far. After we finally “got there,” we had just 4.1 on bridal trails, but what a 4.1! Mud, rocks, roots, hills up, hills down, rain, deep mud, fell in it, shoes sucked off and had to extract them and squish our feet back in–what a loop! From there to the finish, it was a constant struggle to ignore the discomfort, push ahead, follow Julie’s orders, glad to have someone to tell me what to do.
Did I mention many, many flights of stairs??? Though I complained, I thought that was a unique feature of this run, in addition to the waterfall, the rock ledges, the beautiful views, the varied surfaces, the flat and the steep, the exposed and the shaded. This course had it all!

So we get to that last flat road after a few sets of stairs and we see Mark from the race committee. We must be almost there. Nope! About 1.5 miles more to go and Mark runs with us to the trailhead, encouraging us all the way. It is hilly and there are sharp dropoffs which I can’t look at too closely because I start to pitch in that direction. I am moving as fast as I can and think I’m doing pretty good but when I look at my splits later, I see I was moving at about a 15:44 average pace in the last 12.2 miles and I am amazed that it seemed like such a monumental effort. Mark–are you the one who was out there on the road with cheesburgers and ice cream earlier in the race?
This man is an angel. He also helped us carry our stuff back to the car after the race. We finish the trail and have a short stretch of road to get to the finish line. Tanya Cady, volunteering this time, joins us before we finish the trail and runs with us almost to the finish line, staying on the outside to protect me from the traffic. My chance to run with Tanya–she is phenomenal! Except I think she is slow-jogging, while I imagine I am “running.” I finish in the place of distinction–DFL, a place that is often honored in some way, this time by having my name called first at the awards.
Made the final time cutoff by 10 minutes and it was the most rewarding race of my life for many reasons!

Congratulations to all who started and all who finished, to Tara who was attempting her first 100! The company of people who know what it means to truly live, friends old and new, the great volunteers who went out of their way to make this a great experience, the man with the cheeseburger and ice cream (Mark?), Paul Braun who is so supportive of sister Kathy and helped me out too, Mike Keller, Tanya Cady, the RD and esteemed co-list owner, Joe, who had about 2 hours of sleep Saturday night, the course markings designed for the directionally-challenged, the beautiful, unique, and creatively orchestrated course, including the doughnuts in the cornfields in the pouring rain, the almost DNF and the rise from the ashes…what a way to spend a weekend!

Thanks for the photos Mary and congratulations on your great finish!

Juli


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