In Ryan’s words:
I have been running off and on since college. I ran a Marathon in 2001. In November 2008 I started running with our good friend Garett after he and his family moved to our neighborhood. With his help and inspiration I was ready for a 50k (31 miles) run at Big Hhorn last year. Upping the ante to the 50 Mile race was a result of a New Year’s celebration with a few beers, tequila and scotch (where all great ideas come from, right?!).
The Big Horn trail run is a held in Dayton Wyoming on the weekend near the longest day of the year. Dayton is a sleepy little town about 20 minutes outside of Sheridan Wy., 10 miles south of the Montana border and nestled against the Big Horn Mountains. I think there are about 700 people, one liquor store, one restaurant, one bar, maybe a few other shops and that is it. However, it is stunningly beautiful there. We are so fortunate that Tiffany’s god mother (Trudy) and her family live in Dayton about 2 miles from the finish line. She and her family have a wonderful place, including a guest log cabin that we stay in. Here is a picture of the Bighorn Mountains from their place.
I really have the best situation of all the runners in the race. Most others get a hotel in Sheridan, sleep in tents in the campground, or sleep in their cars at the finish. The Munsick family is amazingly talented musically. Dave and their three boys, Tris, Sam, and Ian all play instruments and sing. We had an awesome Thursday PM in Sheridan watching Dave and Ian playing music during the street fair.
Preparing for a big race like this takes a lot of planning and coordination. Each runner is allowed to have two drop-bags with gear and food to place on the course. I think I was the first one at the bag-drop, the volunteers were not really sure what to do. They didn’t instill too much confidence, but I didn’t worry about it too much (maybe I should have).
Didn’t sleep much night before, but that is typical. I got to bus to go to the start bright and early for the 4:00AM departure. I sat next to a nice woman named Jen from Denver. She found out the day before she was in the race when her check cleared her bank account. She left Denver 4:30 the day before, got there at midnight, slept in her car for 3 hours. She is a plastic surgeon about to start her practice who just loves to run. She did a 20 miler the week before. She didn’t have time for a drop bag, etc and was just there to enjoy the sights.
The bus got us to the start at about 5:15am. I enjoyed hearing stories from some of the other runners. One guy was doing his 2nd attempt at the 50 miles. Last year he went out too hard with no food and had a DNF (did not finish). Another guy had a DNF from the previous year because he was running in a group and several group members struggled.
As with most things in life, things don’t always go according to plan. My first problem was that my Garmin watch was dead at the start even though I thought I had plugged in and charging, oh well. I had planned to monitor my pace with the watch, but that plan went out the window at the very beginning. In hind sight, I think I really enjoyed not having a watch to look since the tendency is to look at the watch way too often.
There were people at the start to sing the National Anthem, which I always love before races.
At a little after 6am we began from the Porcupine ranger station.
The first stretch was up hill on a jeep road with a good amount of snow. Luckily, there was a path through the snow from the 100 mile runners that I stayed in. By the first mile, the pack really seemed to thin out.
Next came 18 miles down a drainage from about 9000 feet to about 4500 feet. The trail is really beautiful, lots of single track through woods, next to a river, etc. It was really muddy; we had a lot of trudging through mud or picking our way around it. The first aid station was manned by volunteers who rode in on horseback.
As I was running down the canyon listening to some Samples music, I had my head down watching my footing as we were up on a ledge next to a flooding river. I heard a voice say “when you gotta go, you gotta go”. I quickly looked up to see a woman squatting next to a log probably two feet off the trail (it was a steep canyon) going to the bathroom. I wouldn’t have even seen her if she hadn’t said something. My instinct was to look away quickly and I almost went off the trail (would have ended up down a steep ledge into a raging river), close call!
One reminder Garett gave me was to make sure to sometimes pick some Sage and smell it to remind me of the amazing surroundings. I did this and it had the proper affect.
The first major aid station after 18 miles was Footbridge. When I got there, the volunteers could not find my drop bag (remember the confusion at the bag drop off?). After searching all the bags, we could not find it. My shoes were soaked. I was wearing a long sleeve black shirt. I was out of Gu shots. I was really looking forward to my drop bag. Lucky me, I was the only one who didn’t get their bag (the volunteer said “this is the only one we haven’t found”). As I sat there watching everyone change gear, I had a decision to make. I could have gotten really upset and angry. Then I remembered Jen who was just out to do this run with no preparation at all. That really motivated me to figure out how to come up with a new plan. Luckily, I had packed a dry pair of socks in my CamelBak so I was able to put on new socks. I made sure to grab a good bag of food since I didn’t have my Gu shots.
Leaving footbridge there is a good climb up to the next aid station 2.5 miles away at the end of the climb, which was about 3000 feet. In need of a little extra motivation I looked at the picture on my phone that I took the day before. I smiled as I saw Tiff and the girls standing under the Finish line. It really motivated me to get there.
I had a good climb, cranked some new music, ate my food and just powered through. Some of it was difficult as water was running down the path so it was muddy. I really felt good on the climbs, my training in the Flatirons really helped me prepare. Thanks to Garett for really showing me the right example of how to train. The wild flowers in the entire climb were amazing, it really was beautiful.
After the climb it was another 13 miles to the next drop bag (hopefully this bag would be there). The half way point was the Cow Camp aid station. This was an important aid station for me because it was approximately half way of the course and it was the point where I had run the course the previous year in the 50k. So after that point, I knew the course. It was a lot of nice single track mostly through the woods, lots of up and down so a good mix of running and walking. There was a water refill 3 miles from the end of the hill climb at a natural spring. You could see the water bubbling out of a rock, it was really a cool visual. During this stretch is when I realized I was having feet problems. It felt like I had small pebbles in my shoes. I remember thinking this at footbridge, but I had new socks on I had shaken out my shoes, so I thought maybe they were in my socks. So I sat down and tried to clean out my shoes, however it didn’t help much (more to come on the feet issues later). Nearing cow camp, I could see dry fork ridge. This was motivating as I knew Tiff, Matigan and Sarah were there. Thoughts of the family really helped motivate me. It was mentally though as I knew it was far away (probably 8 miles) and I had to get from cow camp to dry fork (my least favorite stretch from the 50k).
During this stretch was the only time I really had any doubt I could finish. I was having feet problems, my knee was a little bit sore (could be a repeat of last year on the downhill, wouldn’t find out for 8 to 10 miles). I had to get to dry fork from cow camp. However, there was no way I could quit, too much training, too much pride to let those thoughts take any hold. Too much motivation provided by Tiff (for the week before the race, she cut out motivational quotes and taped them all over the house. The night before, the girls showed me a motivational poster they made and a card to take with me).
At cow camp, I knew my feet were in trouble, I was starting to feel blisters on my heels. I took my shoes off, put on some donuts on the blisters starting on my heels and lubed up with Vaseline. I grabbed some bacon (and other food) and continued on. I remember the volunteers here being especially great. They were all great, but this station sticks out in mind for some reason.
Off from cow camp, 6 miles later was dry fork, a drop bag (please, please) and the family. I was dreading this stretch because it is jeep trail, mostly out in the open (no tree cover). I wasn’t able to change my shirt, so I was in black long-sleeve, during the hottest part of the day. I made steady progress running the flat and downhill and walking the uphill. At every stream, I rinsed my face and dripped my visor in and put in on my head, this helped me keep cool. At one point a girl caught up to me right before a hill. She pulls up to me and says (“race you to the top, looser carries the winner to dry fork”), this made me laugh. She then took off and I never saw her again. I passed many 100 miler racers at this point. They were about 20 miles to finish and struggling, but they were still moving. Most were not in very good spirits, but I made sure to talk to each one and encourage them. I knew some were going to drop out of the race, I can’t image the feeling of dropping after 80 miles and probably 27 hours of continual movement. Then again, they had gone 80 miles straight.
There is a good climb to dry fork, it is this ridge with no trees and emerald green. Here is a picture up the valley where we came from.
I told Tiff I would hope to be there after 8 hours, and it was more like 9 (pretty good estimate considering being new to the race and the issues so far). Here I am coming into Dry Fork.
I pulled into dry fork to find Tiffany, Sarah and Trudy (Matigan was sleeping on a blanket and we decided to not wake her). The thought of seeing them really motivated me through this stretch and the last climb. Tiffany was taking pictures and she said BOTH of my drop bags were there (I had wild thoughts during the last stretch that someone ran off with my bags, etc. Funny how the mind wanders during long distances). Tiffany was able to help me get cleaned up. My feet looked like I had been in the swimming pool for hours. I got Vaseline on my feet, tried to get donuts on the blisters, new socks, new shoes. I changed my shirt, got my Gus. I was ready to go, seeing my family was really what I needed. I got some food (saw a poor 100 miler passed out on a cot) and continued on.
Leaving I saw Tiff and Sarah one more time. I then started power hiking up the next little climb.
Last year I tried to run part of this which I think really hurt me, so I decided to just power hike. As I got running down the road (and then trail), the legs started to feel pretty good. I actually found my knees felt better running than walking the flats
There is a short climb (maybe 200 feet) and then a descent to the next aid station. I was strangely starting to feel better (knees and energy). Mentally, I was doing great; I knew I could get through the rest. After the aid station, I got to know a couple that I’d seen off and on for the last several miles. Their plan was to run the entire thing together and 40 miles in, they were still doing it. This is amazingly hard, but they were pulling it off.
Mentally I was really scared for the next stretch as last year this is where my knees gave out. I started running down and I was feeling okay. Then I got to the exact point where I finally couldn’t run anymore last year, it was maybe a 50 vertical ft. stretch, but very steep. My knees hurt, but I tried more of a gallop stride (my left knee hurt, my right didn’t), and it felt okay, so I could actually pull it off. This is a huge descent, maybe 5000 feet, but I had a strategy that could work, gallop down the steeper sections, run down the gentler sections. After a couple miles it was working, I was so excited, I was running the entire thing, where last year I was barley moving!
All was going well until I heard some rattling. I don’t remember if I saw it or heard it first, there was a big rattle snake crossing the path. It was not coiled but it was close to the path looking at me, a little too close for comfort. I didn’t know what to do. So I picked up a few sticks and threw it at the snake until it moved a little more, then sprinted past the snake. Later, thinking about this, this would have been funny candid camera moment. Here is this guy who had been running for 10 hours staring and throwing sticks into a bush. Without knowing there was a snake there, it would have looked very odd.
I was so excited, this stretch was so much faster than last year, it was actually fun. I was getting pretty excited (okay, maybe a little emotional) as I had been here before feeling so much worse. And to boost my spirits even more, I came around a bend and a man in a kilt with a bag pipe was standing there and said “how about some music to send you home”. He started playing some traditional Scottish bagpipe music. It was perfect.
I finished this stretch in good time, got to the aid station. I ran into a woman who was running the 50k and was the last one in the 50k. She was beating herself up a bit, but I reminded her that she was 5 miles from finishing an ultra marathon which is an incredible accomplishment. (Funny enough, we sat across from her in Casper Wyo and it turned out she hadn’t run more than 10 miles and she entered with her husband for to celebrate her 50th birthday). She was the last 50k finisher, but still a major win for her!
From here it was 5 miles on a dirt road. I was able to run and found that I felt better running than walking (pretty odd huh). My feet were killing me on the bottom of my feet, each step felt like I had rocks in my shoes, but the pain was manageable. I was so excited as 2 miles down the road, the canyon cleared and I knew I could call Tiff (we had checked out where we had service the day before). I had estimated it would take me 5 hours for the last stretch and I was an hour ahead of that estimate. I was so excited to call her. She was thrilled to hear from me and was leaving Sarah and Matigan with Trudy and Dave and would be at the finish. I pushed through, passing a few more 100 milers that were about to finish (awesome!!). I finally got passed the 50 mile mark, only 2 more to go. I could have gotten hit by a bus or a moose and I still would have gone 50 miles.
I finally got the park, Tiffany was waiting and taking pictures. She then ran to the finish to take more pictures. I was so happy to be able to run all the way to the finish (last year I was in so much pain, I had to walk in the park). Then I did it, crossed the line, 13 hours, 10 minutes later.
It was over and I did it. It was sort of anticlimactic as I had so many minor victories over the last 10 miles, that I was just happy to be done. Tiff gave me a big hug (ehhwww gross, so sweaty and yucky, but she didn’t care). We sat down to put on some sandals and a dry shirt. This is when I got a good look at my feet. It felt like I was running with rocks in my shoes, because I had blisters under the ball of each foot. I had 4 or 5 other blisters, one huge one on the back of my left foot. Ug. All things considered, the rest of me felt okay. My knee was a little sore, but not too bad.
We got some food, collected bags and waited for just a bit. Tiff even brought beer but I wasn’t ready for it. I was ready to get back and see Sarah and Matigan. When we got back, they were not in bed yet and each gave me a big kiss.
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