Friday, February 21, 2014

A Sub-23 hour 100 at 13? I Hit the Jackpot!

The Jackpot 100 was a blast, I saw a lot of friends and got a huge PR! The course is a most flat 2.38 mile loop that features crushed gravel and concrete. My original goal was to average 15 minute miles, as you read on you will see that I did much better! The race weather was perfect, it was warmer then Colorado and there was cloud cover! I had my friend Terry crewing me and her husband Louie pacing me.

At the start with my Mom and our friend Rob
When the race started I was extremely excited, there were so many familiar faces! I wanted to go really fast but my Garmin helped me realize that I needed to slow down. As the race got started, I adjusted my strategy was to maintain 12 minute miles as long as possible and then slow down to 15-18 minute miles during the harder miles. My strategy worked well until around mile 27 when I hit a wall, I didn’t have any energy! A fellow runner (who I didn’t know) solved this by giving me a GU. I later found out that his name is Tony and that he has ran Badwater 5 times! He helped me a lot.

Photo Courtesy SweetM Images
When I was getting close to 50 miles I realized something... I was going to get a huge 50 mile PR! I also found out that Louie was ready to pace me at 50, my morale skyrocketed. I ended finishing the first 50 in around 10 hours 15 minutes that was a hour and a half PR! Between Louie starting to pace me and a PR I was feeling really good. It was great to have him with me. Louie held my flashlight, reminded me what I wanted when we came into the aid station, talked to me, and was overall positive.

When I hit the 100k mark I realized something again... I was only 12 hours 30 minutes into the race, that meant I beat my 100k PR by 2, hours, 17 minutes! Tanner, the race director’s son also decided to run a lap with me. It was nice to run with Tanner. We talked about school, his last 5k, and future races. Before I knew it I was in the dark miles... It was late at night I was tired and kind of said forget running I’m walking a lap! But when I hit the aid station I discovered an amazing combination -  pumpkin pie and cheesecake worked wonders. I stopped thinking about walking an entire lap and pushed myself to run/walk.

Something I realized at ATY was that you can run when you are tired. You can run when you think you can't. I focused on that at Jackpot and even when it hurt, I was able to run and maintain my goal pace.

I decided that I would run 100 steps and then walk 100 steps. My strategy worked well, I could do 15-16 minute miles at mile 80. When things got hard I tried to calculate how long I had left and say something like “only 6 hours until bed time!” I also did things like mix song lyrics and see what happened, playing games in my head kept me distracted from what hurt. Before I knew the sun came up and I was feeling brand new, all I could think about was that buckle and a sub-24 hour finish.


On my second to last lap I was extremely excited, the buckle was so close yet so far. The last 4 miles of a 100 is like winning the lottery but then getting in an accident and having to wait to cash in the win. When I finally go to the last part of my last loop adrenaline kicked in and I ran hard into the finish!! My final finish time was 22:29:21!! I GOT A 7 HOUR PR!!!! I was overjoyed!

Special thanks to:
    Terry and Diane for crewing me
    Louie for pacing me
    My Mom for the bringing me out
    And all of my friends and family!!! thanks for all the support!


10 comments:

  1. Rock star! Hope to see you at BLU or NG

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  2. WOW!!! Super impressed. Great job. Amazed at your vision and focus, Colby.

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  3. Totally AWESOME dude! I follow your accomplishments through your grandmother. You give me hope that I can achieve my own goals. Keep up the GREAT work!!

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  4. Congrats on 100 miler number five. Very proud to know you, and very inspired by your accomplishments. Can't wait to see what you do next.

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  5. Amazing young man, fantastic parents: proud to know the bunch of you!!!! See y'all at BLU!!

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