Flagline 50k - My First Ultra

Me, Garrett (Prefontaine), Jon  

Sept. 21 - 3:30am - I am wide awake and thinking "Why am I awake and did the Ducks win?" Checking the phone I am surprised that they didn't win by more but a W is a W. I went to bed at half time the night before. I then started worrying about the race and thinking I NEED to get back to sleep. Finally fell back to sleep at 4:30am.

5:15am - Awake before my alarm again.... Okay so it was only 15min before when I wanted to get up. Eat and hydrate are a must. I think to myself "Why the HELL 'em I doing this..... that's right I've always got to push myself to my limits.
6:00am- Thank you Holly for dropping Jonathan and I off at Garrett's house so early in the morning.
6:45am- Where's the Porta Potty!! Jon, Garrett and I all unload for the last time before the race. And where are my calf sleeves?? Can't find them, oh well I don't need them anyways! "Wait for me bro!" I jump into the van still wearing bball shorts over my running pants because they were about to leave me and I didn't want to add 1/2 mile to the race. Luckly they let me ditch them in the van.
7:00am - Start Line Mile 0- Let's do this!! We were all pumped up and ready to go. Official start time was some time around 7:03. The pace felt really slow as our first mile was 10:52 but I glad we started so slow.

Feeling good ~mile 15

The 1st Aid Station ~mile 7ish - average pace at this point is around 10:15/mile. Most of the trail up to this point was single and double track in the forest. Pretty easy. Only had to walk a few hills. Garrett, Jon, and I were all in good spirits and felt good. I ate some red vines, grapes, peanut M &M's. We hungout there for longer than I wanted to at this point of the race. I really wanted to keep going because I felt great.
~10 mile - Let the up hill hiking begin. The Next 3 miles were all uphill we went from about 6000' to 7000' in elevation.
~11 miles- 9:05 am - The Pro Races that started an hour after us are already starting to pass us! I can't believe how fast they are up these steep hills!! 
~13 miles - What the heck is going on in my pants!!!! It's felt like sand paper between my legs. I thought I might have to stop. But I took a gamble. I ran off into the forest and got Naked. Well almost. Took off my compression shorts and just wore my running shorts (which had a built in brief). Best thing I did. I CAN DO THIS!!

~14 miles - Aid station 2- We are all looking and feeling good at this point except for the fire between my legs. Thank goodness that stopped!! More red vines and grapes for me.

~Between 14 and 17- We had great views, river crossings, and alpine meadows, and rolling hills. Best part of the course. We started to get worried about Garrett because he wasn't eating and not drinking as much as he should. 

~ Aid Station 3 - Mile 17.5 - Popsicles are the Best!!! Got down on two of those bad boys! Garrett and Jon also got some of that action. mmmmm gummy bears and m & m's!! We spent awhile here as the hills had taken a toll on our bodies.

~ miles 17-21- Were just nasty running down dirt/gravel roads with hunters wearing camo flying past us blanketing us in dirty. Some where along this stretch we lost Garrett.

~ miles 21-24.5 Jon started to pull away as I hit the wall. Walking most of it. My muscles did not want to move and I had to will myself to even run the few flat and down hill sections. This sound like a good idea 2 months ago.

We Love Pop slices! 

Aid Station 4 ~24.5 miles - Walked into the aid station and wanted to be done. I was wearing a superman shirt for the race and a lady asked, "What do you need superman?" I replied," Remove the Kryptonite from the course!" I had to force feed myself a Popsicle, goldfish, m & m's, and gummy bears. If felt like a pile of _____. I sat down in a chair and I didn't think I could get back up. Jon hooked my up with drugs (I love drugs!). I was really worried about Garrett as I saw tons of other runners coming in to the Aid Station. Finally Prefontaine (AKA Garrett) comes running in!!!! He cannot eat anything of substance and needed to rest so Jon and I took off.

~ miles 24.5 - 26 - Was Mostly downhill and flat and I COULD NOT RUN! Believe me I tried for 30s-1 min at a time. I stopped at a creek and dunked my head and almost pasted out. This was my lowest point. Surprising after taking like a 10 min break Garrett catches up to me. He said, "I had to catch up some how." He gave me motivation to keep up the fight. We ran most of the section until the next check point.

Tanner give me a 5

~mile 27.7- Last Aid Station - Why in the world does Coke and Sprite taste so good??!?! Walking the hill right after this check point and letting the foreign substance soak in (pop...I haven't drank it for 10+ years) gave me the strength to finish strong.

~ mile 28.5 - Coke is the anti-kryptonite for this Superman and I think the drugs finally kicked in. I ran until I hit the Mt. Bachelor service road around mile 30. This road was the worst section of the whole race. Hot, steep, paved and down right nasty. I mustered up the strength to run parts of this hill knowing that I was almost there. When I popped over the hill and could see the end I knew that I could run the rest (and I had to....I was wearing a superman shirt after all.) If I had a pink barbie shirt on I could have walked and got away with it...maybe.

The best part was seeing my family right before the finish line and giving Tanner a high five. This carried me to the finish. 

One of my favorite quotes comes to mind when I think about this experience.

“Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." Christopher Robin to Pooh

My Family at the end of the Race

My official time was 6:52:55. I placed 99 out of 130. I didn't get hurt and I learned a lot about myself.

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/596484636

I couldn't have done it without the support and love of Katie my awesomely beautiful wife, Garrett and Jon for running and sharing this experience with me.