| The Third 25Miles: Lake Morena to Todd's Cabin |
| Page 5 |
| Philip and I left LM around 5:50pm. On the way back out, it was again a chance to see other runners on the trail as they made their way to LM: Sammy, Hans, Catra, Linda M, Ammon, Joe , Mike, Rick, Terry and others. Ammon was on his way to finishing the 50mile event. Then he would transition from running to crewing the rest of the 100mi event for Catra and Linda M. The night sky was clear and littered with bright stars. Philip was enjoying the view, identifying various groupings of stars. I was torn between looking at the stars and preparing my mind for the long upcoming night section. I fell into a bit of a physical valley in this section, and slowed my pace by walking more until I could pull out of it. I told Philip I planned to walk all the uphill sections from here on out, especially at night. He commented about my 30minute lead over the WBN plan. And I remember replying that it was still early in the race, and 30 minutes could easily be lost due to unexpected things which could crop up at night. (Little did I realize the truth in that statement). But, so far, I was keeping to my plan fairly well. I was concerned about the cold night temperatures from a respiratory perspective. I had taken a puff of my asthma inhaler around 5:30AM on Saturday morning and was hoping that would tide me over through Sunday morning. I�ve never had to use the inhaler midway through a race, and was apprehensive since it is a stimulant and causes a short-term increase in heart rate. But I could hear a wheezing start in my breathing and then a slight constriction. I decided that I should get the inhaler from my waist pack when I was stopped at BO, and take a dose. The night air would be cold the higher we climbed and the later it got. I was looking forward to reaching Boulder Oaks so that I could have my Green LED Flashlight and put on more layers. Already the temperature had dropped some. Reaching Boulder Oaks I had a list of things in my mind which I had to take care of (relative to the contents of my dropbag) before worrying about food. I drank two cans of boost from my drop bag. I removed my sweaty long sleeve coolmax shirt and singlet. I put on a dry singlet, two dry longsleeve coolmax shirts, my fleece vest, then my long sleeve black jacket, mittens and my knit mugger hat. I grabbed my green LED Flashlight. I also accessed my asthma inhaler and took a dose. One of the volunteers said he would put all of my stuff back in my drop bag for me. I thanked him. There was no coffee at this aidstation, so I grabbed the little baggie of coffee beans I had in my drop bag and munched on a few. I put the remainder in a jacket pocket. Philip and I then departed and headed on down the PCT. We took it at an easy pace for a mile, to let my system �process� the asthma medicine. This section I remembered well from mental note-taking earlier in the day and could anticipate the landmarks�. The left run out of the campground, along the fenceline, alongside the pink stone PCT markers, then across the asphalt road, another 0.5mi or so of fairly flat single track, under I-8, by the trees changing color (I aimed my flashlight beam on the leaves so Philip could see the fall color, which was distorted by the green LED light). Then we started the climb up. A while later I told Philip about the granite in this particular section, how it was different from the rest of the granite and resembled granite from further north in the Sierras. Soon, we were approaching the Kitchen Creek Rd Crossing. There we found Ammon with the back of his van open, offering us an assortment of bars, treats, fruit juices. We took a few items (one of which was a package of Sharkies!) and thanked him. He was waiting for Catra and Linda M to come through this point, then he would continue on to Cibbetts. Immediately after we crossed the road and started down the single track trail , we were slapped in the face with a strong gust of wind. We decided to have a Sharky Party! One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish... In our efforts to open the bag of Sharkies with all of the wind, we mangled the bag. This difficulty to open packages of foodstuff would be a recurring theme for the next 10+ hours. The wind was coming at us sometimes as a headwind and sometimes as a crosswind. Some of the heavy gusts seemed to last a while� enough to stop us in our tracks a few times, or cause us to trip sideways over rocks. . Other times the duration of the gusts would be long enough that we would start compensating by leaning a bit, then the wind would stop and we would stumble to regain our balance. I was grateful that we were out in the middle of a national forest, and did not have to worry about dodging debris in the wind from structures and dislodged objects. ( Not that we would have much reaction time in the darkness to dodge any incoming debris! ) Philip thought we were moving along at about a 20mi/mile pace, but it seemed slower to me. The Windy Bandito Ridge seemed endless, and I knew my WBN plan of 27 hours was probably GONE WITH THE WIND literally and figuratively. Later weather reports would log the wind speed at 55 mph. What an adventure... I thought we would receive some refuge from the wind once we reached the dirt road junction with the PCT which lead down to Cibbetts Flat. But that was not to be the case. We ran down the dirt road still battling the wind. My three rewards in my Cibbetts Flat Drop Bag were my new Columbia Polartech jacket , a spare brace for my left knee, and a flask full of Raspberry HammerGel. The Windy Bandito Ridge section and another section of the course seemed to aggravate my left knee. I had meant to grab my brace that last time through Cibbetts (around 37mi) but had forgotten. Arriving into Cibbetts, Philip went to his dropbag and I went to mine. Most of the volunteers and food had been moved into the RV camper since it had become so windy and cold outside. RD Paul was there. Paul and several others tried to convince me to go into the camper, but I wanted no part of it. I just wanted to get the stuff out my dropbag and keep moving. I was afraid if I went in the camper, it would be Hell coming back out into the elements. I asked Paul for some coffee, which he got for me from inside the camper. Philip also went inside the camper. I got my Boost cans from the drop bag, along with my knee brace, I then removed my black jacket , then put on my red Columbia Polartech jacket. I was readying to place my black jacket into dropbag, when a medic volunteer suggested I tie it around my waist and take it with me in case I needed another layer later on. He told me the temperatures were dropping in the higher elevations and that he suspected there would be a few cases of hyothermia among the runners before the night was through. He asked me if I knew the signs of hypothermia. I told him feeling very cold and getting a headache. He added �uncontrollable shaking is a sign too�. I told him �OK. I will remember that�, and I asked him to let Philip know that I was going to start back up the hill . I had told Philip prior to the race, that if he wanted to stay in an aidstation longer than I wanted to that I would just start walking down the trail and he would be able to quickly and easily catch up, because I just don�t move that fast at night. In all of the activity, I would make a major mistake at this aidstation and forget to grab my gel flask which contained 500-600 calories . After a few minutes, I heard a noise behind me and look back to see a white headlamp and green flashlight approaching. It was Philip. I told him I was definitely now on the BASIC plan: finish the race within the 31hour cutoff. Philip and I headed back up the dirt road to the PCT junction . The section from Cibbetts to Dale�s Kitchen (DK) in this direction is a very long 7.9miles of mostly uphill. With the darkness, the enjoyable scenery was not visible to entertain us. The wind was the worst in this section and was coupled with falling temperatures the higher we climbed. My Polartech jacket was working well� although some gusts of wind seemed to still go right through me. Fortunately I never reached the �miserably cold state� that I had reached at Bandera 100Km . I took great comfort in this fact. I quietly said a prayer for energy, strength and warmth. I knew that eventually we would enter a forest and the final 1-1.5miles to Dale�s should be somewhat sheltered from the wind. But until then , we were at the mercy of the elements. It was not until I read Philip�s race report, that I realized just how cold he was in this section.( He was fearing hypothermia). I think he learned the same lesson at SD100, that I had learned last January at Bandera 100Km regarding being properly dressed for the elements . Moving along and also having to generate body heat burns a lot more calories than just moving along. Within a few miles out of Cibbetts, I suddenly felt a wall of hunger and deeply regretted having forgotten the gel flask. We would stop and eat fun size snicker bars and other stuff� opening the packages was a major challenge. Looking at my watch, I told Philip we would be doing well to make it to Dale�s by 1:30AM. Eventually Philip and I ate all of the food we had between us, and when it was gone, we still had not reached the forest . The little shelter we received from the wind in this section was when the trail would occasionally turn a few degrees briefly changing the angle of the wind�s assault. There was silence while we slowly forged our way up the trail. I had a close call of tripping on a rock. The ensuing adrenaline rush felt like a heat wave flowing through my body. In contrast when I took a sip of water from my bottle , the water was so cold that it froze my insides as it traveled down to my stomach. I started noticing a few familiar markings on the trail� a downed century-type of plant across the trail, a rain gully that intersected the trail, and then a line of rocks across the trail to prevent erosion. It seemed out of nowhere, Philip piped up with �Have you heard the joke about the rabbi and goat?�. A man went to the rabbi to request advice for dealing with his perceived unbearable life. The rabbi told the man to get a goat. After a week, the goat had been a source of much frustration for the man, and when the goat was removed from the man�s life the man viewed his sans-goat life as blissful . Philip proclaimed that the wind was our goat. And when we finally reached the forest, there was shelter from the wind and we joked about leaving the goat farm and entering into a goat-free zone. The goat analogy brought us what seemed an endless source of humor. I was secretly hoping that DK would have a warm camper. I would not be so stubborn and refuse a camper�s shelter and warmth as I had at Cibbetts. Soon the lights of DK became visible, and our matching headlamps and green LED flashlights became visible to the �LookOut� Volunteer and he welcomed us to the aidstation. It was 1:15am (which was 50minutes behind the WBN plan) and I rejoiced in seeing a RV camper! In no time Philip and I were inside of the camper trying to thaw out and eat food. Redemption! It was necessary to stay at this aidstation as long as it took to replenish our bodies with calories and to add more layers. DK�s Menu included Chicken Noodle Soup and Grilled Cheese sandwiches. We were there for 25 minutes I think. I consumed three cups of soup and many quarters of grilled cheese sandwiches. I think this is the most solid food I�ve ever eaten in an ultra. We stuffed our pockets full of fun-size Snicker bars and mini Cherry Almond Cliff Bars. It reminded me of a bizarre cold and windy halloween night; we were two little kids armed with green flashlights having to travel miles between houses for our Trick-Or-Treat Goodies. 25 minutes is the longest I have ever spent in an aidstation. My previous record was 10minutes at Devils Thumb because I drank down three cups of ginger ale too fast and then had to sit and let my stomach calm down from too much carbonation. Typically I only spend 1-3minutes in an aidstation. The DK volunteers were veteran ultrarunners (two of the volunteers are the RDs for Leona Divide). I was still having a lot of fun despite the weather . And I could tell that they completely understood how it was possible to still be having fun ! Philip�s attitude seemed to be holding up well. So far he had been a trooper and considering this was his first pacing experience and only 2nd time to traverse 50miles he was doing a wonderful job in my opinion. I was so happy to have him along on this windy cold adventure: goat jokes and all. DK marks the 71-72mile mark� we were down to less than a 50km, and I told the �lookout� volunteer that I can always trudge out a 50km. Philip and I left the RV camper toasty warm, but a cold gust of wind soon reminded us of the goats . It took a few minutes to readjust to the elements. Just 3.7miles up to Todds. In this section, Philip found a full sized Snicker Candy Bar on the ground which brought him much joy. It was about a mile later that the leader (no longer Curt; Curt had dropped by this point) came down the trail in the opposite direction. Then we saw two runners in shorts (from Colorado). Eventually we saw Diane, she was still in 1st place among the women and about 4th or 5th overall. Looking very strong, she asked how far ahead another runner was � (she had been running with this person earlier in race) and she was trying to catch back up with him. We told her he was not too far ahead, and she should be able to catch back up soon. We reached Todd�s and spent about ten minutes longer than we really needed to there. It seemed somewhat disorganized and chaotic to me. But it was nice to be able to use a real toilet for a change. Leaving Todd�s was a psychological boost, knowing that we had reached the last turnaround and had less than a marathon to go to reach the finish line. |