Ride The Wind 100

RTW (Ride the Wind) was by far the hardest race I have every done, but guess what? I did my first 100 miler!

The course is composed of three technical 31 mile loops and one 7 mile loop.

At the beginning of the race it felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest because I was super excited. My Mom was going to run the first 100K with me and then my Dad was going to run the rest with me. 

The first five miles went by pretty fast because it was cool and and we spent time talking to our friend Giovanni and another runner. But after that it started to get hard. After the first aid station, there was an extremely steep down hill and then it was basically like running in a riverbed full of rocks.

part of the downhill portion after AS1

The good thing about getting out of the riverbed was there was some solid ground. Getting to the next aid station was hard considering it was hot and we were out of water. As I was running I was starting to feel good, when my toe got caught under a big rock and I fell and scraped up my elbow. After the fall I shot back up and kept running, but it hurt a lot.

When we hit mile 20 my Dad and sister came out and prepared us for the hardest part of the loop, the last 11 miles. They were exposed, mostly uphill, and it was really easy to get lost. So after getting lost, and gaining about two bonus miles, we got on the right trail and managed to make it to the next aid station. There was little water and the heat was really effecting me, but my Mom managed to encourage me and we made it to the start/finish.

As we ventured the 2nd loop I realized that the hardest part of the race was the heat, because the hills were not tough at all. I also struggled with the rocks and tripped several times throughout the race.

As we were getting closer to mile 50 it was getting really dark, we had to use my Mom's iPhone  for light because we had not made it to the aid station in time to get flashlights. It was really scary until finally we heard bells and saw our friend Ed with our lights. 

What really sucked about running in the dark was those dang Joshua trees... Since it was dark and we didn't have any lights, they looked like people following us!

During the last 11 miles of the loop I felt awful. We had gotten lost again and that added mileage. I was exhausted. I got discouraged, but Ed and my Mom helped cheer me up. 

We ended up finding a main road and we finally made it to the aid station. Ok... so lets get a few things straight now that we are more then half way done with my journey... The last 38 miles were NOT easy, in fact they are the hardest part in my opinion! Since you have gotten this far I am not going to sugar coat it! My Mom said the night part was hard, and boy was she right!

Now that I was running with my Dad and Ed I was exhausted. A mile felt like 10 miles and I felt really tired. By far the worst part of that loop was that awful riverbed, it was dark so it was hard to see the rocks and I wasn't lifting my feet up very high so I stubbed my toe numerous times. 

The one thing I found really nice about the last loop was that the glorious sun was coming up!! As the sun came up my energy slowly came up too. It also helped that my Dad and Ed made a game out of the trail markings. We came up with some unique ice cream flavors. You probably would have had to been there to understand!

I went a little faster when I was starting to realize that I was almost done!  Although I was getting tired it felt really nice to see the mile 20 aid station. At the aid station I ate a donut and slept for a few minutes before heading off again. The good thing about the sun coming up is the recharge of energy you get but the bad thing is that it gets hot...

Boy did it get hot on the last 11 miles! I started bonking again. The only positive thing I can recall from the last 11 miles is the fact that I was so close to that amazing buckle. My pace seemed to increase slightly as I got closer to the start/finish. When I hit the start/finish I basically got an anxiety attack, I was so excited. After that loop the only thing between me and my dream buckle was the last small 7 mile loop.

The last 7 miles hurt a lot, but people came out to help me.  The first 3 miles were all uphill, and the rest of it was flat and rocky. About 4 miles in my knee just started burning and it made me walk even slower. I was just really ready to be done! 

My Dad and I on the last loop

On the last little stretch my Dad and I start running! Our friends made a human tunnel for me to run through and I got the buckle!! 

I was so happy!

When it was in my hands all the pain was worth it. 

It didn't take very long for me to feel normal again after this race. I can't wait to do it again!

only 3 finishers and I was one of them!

My first 100 mile and 100 kilometer buckles!

Beyond Limits Ultra Race Report

BLU was super fun! I did 50 miles, so I had 112 miles for the week. The race was really nice because we slept in cabins right next to the course. The course was pretty nice too because it was flat and was only 1.78 miles long so you were far from the aid station.

I was signed up for the marathon, but Ken, the race director said I could do more miles. The day before the race I was feeling pretty confident that I could do 100 miles, but what I didn't realize is that my body was still recovering from the 100k the week before.

When the race started I was feeling really good. I had some minor pain in my shoulder, but it didn't last long. Since my Mom was still sore from her 100 miler the weekend before and couldn't really run, she decided to walk. Trust me though,  it is a really fast walk! I spent a lot of time early in the race with my dad because he felt good and we ran a lot. As the miles went by I started hurting. The pain just got worse but I was determined to get at least 50 miles. When I hit about mile 30 I found out that my friend Matt who is 13 and was doing his first marathon won his age division, this made me feel pretty good.

When I reached about mile 40 I had this really bad side stitch that wouldn't go away so I walked to mile 44. Since it wouldn't stop I laid down for a while. After several hours, I woke up and the pain was gone, so I put my running gear back on and went out to find my parents. Honestly they looked really bad, so I decided to walk with them. The last six miles were pretty nice because I didn't really have any pain and I was with my Mom and Dad.

Although my original goal was 100 miles, I was pretty happy with 50 miles considering that I did my 100K the weekend before. During the race I was a little bit disappointed that I didn't get 100 miles, but there is always next time!

Overall BLU was a great race and I would recommend it for your first ultra distance because the race directors, course, and volunteers were amazing.

I earned my first buckle!

Razorback was so much fun! It was my first 100k and I got my first buckle there! The course is a 2 mile loop and it is pretty flat. The only really bad thing about the race for my Mom and I was that the drive to get there was 7 hours long!

Right before the race started I was very nervous and excited, it felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I had a feeling that I would be fueled by Mt. Dew, soup, and anxiety,  like at Across The Years.

I was glad when the race finally started. Our good friend Ed The Jester ran with us for about 10 or 12 miles but then he left us to run his own pace. He just took off he was going super fast. At about mile 12 I had to go to the bathroom 3 times, my stomach was starting to hurt. It worried me a little bit.

After a few more miles my stomach stopped churning, and thank goodness things started getting better. My confidence was going up and I was starting to feel really good as the day went by.When I started approaching mile 30 I got really excited because I was already half way there, but that is where it starts to get harder for me. I started to ache some and get tired. My mom had me eat more and slow down our pace. After a while, I felt better.

Later, my Mom had a bad tape problem and her toe was just ripped up and looked pretty bad, but I was doing pretty good. When the sun went down my Mom and I still kept around the same pace and we found out that we had an hour to do 2 miles for a sub 12 hour 50 miles. That was a nice little morale boost that helped my mom and I feel a little better.

The next milestone for me was mile 56, that was what I ran at ATY. I was anxious to get passed that distance for the first time. The good thing was I wasn't doing the death march, I was still going pretty strong. After I hit 56 an 11 year old kid ran a lap with me, he had done a half marathon earlier but the farthest he has ever gone was a 50k. It was fun to talk to another kid runner. Along the way I was happy to share several laps with our running friends. It sure makes the time go by faster.

During the last lap anxiety for that buckle started to  kick in and I started to run faster. Ed and our friend John were running with us. All I could think was, "I am about to get my first buckle!!!" The finish line was in sight and I ran as fast as I could. When I hit the finish, my emotions started flooding in.  A phone was handed to me, and I was happy it was my dad talking and I had just gotten my first buckle!!!

After I finished I fell asleep in our car and woke up to seeing a bunch of people huddle around my Mom to see how nasty her blisters were. She finished her 100 mile race while I was sleeping. It was fun to celebrate with everyone.

Razorback was a great race and I suggest it if you are going to try to run your first ultra run Razorback, because of how easy the course is and they have great volunteers and food.

Across the Years - 2012

My First Official Ultra-Marathon!

 I did my first ultra-marathon at Across The Years. Across The Years is a 24,48, or 72 hour event (I chose to do 24 hours). The course is a 1.05 loop and you switch directions every 4 hours so you don’t get bored of it. I was really excited the morning that my race started, my goal was to do a 100k which is about 62 miles. My Mom and Dad had already been running for 24 hours and were doing great! In the beginning I started out way too fast.  “I am doing 62 miles, not 13.1”  was the thought that reminded me to slow down.
 

 I was supposed to be doing 13 or 14 minute miles but I was doing 10 minute miles instead, that made my 10k time about 57 minutes!  That was definitely too fast so I decided to walk half of the next loop with a 9 year old that was going for 50 miles. He looked like he was having a blast.

  
At around mile 18 I ran up to my Mom and Dad and found out that my Mom was at mile 100! She also told me that to win the female division for 48 hours she only had to do 30 miles, so she might have a chance to win. This happy thought made me ignore my aches and run faster. At about mile 26 I was having weird pains, for example if I bent my knee too much pain would shoot up my leg which really hurt. I finished the first marathon just under 6 hours so I was keeping a decent pace.
  
After the first 50k I realized that every step I took was a PR, because this was the farthest I had ever ran! I was feeling pretty good at mile 35, but that ended when I realized that for a 100k i still had 27 long and hard miles... When I hit mile 40 I walked a little bit with the 9 year I was talking about earlier, I found out that his name was Liam and the farthest distance he had ever ran was a marathon too.

  
Miles 45-50 really kicked my butt. My legs were super tight, I was some what cold, and I was pushing to finish 50 miles in under 12 hours. At the beginning of mile 49 I passed my Mom and Dad and this is the conversation me and my mom had:

Mom- Colby why are you crying?
Me- Their tears of joy, I have 20 minutes to finish this lap then ill have done 50 miles in under 12 hours!
Mom- Go do it!   
  
I ended up finishing the first 50 miles in 11 hours 55 minutes, I did it! After that I walked 6 miles with my Mom and was really hurting so I sat down in the warming tent with my grandma. I waited until it was midnight and watched the runners do a “victory lap” to celebrate News Years, and well, I noticed something... our friend Michael Miller was wearing a diaper! I laughed at it until my Mom came back. When my Mom got back I got up to finish my 100k, but my legs were so stiff that I was basically walking like a penguin, so my Mom made me go sleep in my tent.
  
My Dad said that while I was asleep I was rolling around saying, “just one more loop”. Sadly, I couldn't finish the 100k but I did 56 miles that is more than double the farthest I have ever ran.

By the way here are my family's results: my Dad: 103.95 miles, My Mom: 137.52 miles she got first place in the 48hour!, Me: 56.7 miles.      

My Birthday Marathon

My Birthday marathon was a blast! It took place on November 29th, my 12th birthday. It was a 6.55 mile loop we ran 4 times. I was a little bit nervous because 26.2 seemed like a massive amount of miles. Since this was my first marathon, my mom would run the first half with me and my dad would run the second half with me so that I would never be alone.
   
When the marathon started everyone stayed in one group so there was plenty of things to listen to during the first lap. During the middle of the first lap I was starting to cramp up just a little bit, the idea of me cramping at mile 3 kind of annoyed me because I still had 23 miles to go.
   
When we hit the aid station I took a few pretzels and a Mountain Dew and took off. Right after that I realized that listening to some talk about races and what they have endured really helps for you to kind of ignore pain. After we made it to the turn around I felt great and was thinking that the next loop was going to go by really fast with my dad and Ed pushing me.
   
After the second lap we started flying and Ed said that our average mile was 11:06, the thought that I might get under five really helped me not to walk. I was really starting to hurt, after the turn around we did a lot of walking. When we were about .5 miles out from the aid station I started cramping a lot it kind of felt like my stomach was being tied in knots.
   
Most of the cramping went away after about a mile of running, when we were about two miles away from the aid station I saw my science teacher Mrs. Rickards jogging and that kind of gave me something to think about. When we were almost at the turn around I had to go poop and almost right after I said that Ed found three pieces of semi clean pieces of paper towel. So after a few minutes we found a good bush and well... lets just say I went.

At about the last mile Ed told me that I only had a mile to go and that I was going to get under five hours if i kept my pace, this made me run a little faster and made me a little emotional. When I saw the finish I could hardly breath because I was so excited :). In the end my finish time was 4:51, I broke 5 hours!

Thank you to everyone that came. It was the best birthday ever!

Long Beach 13.1

 Long Beach was a blast! The Long Beach half marathon course is awesome, most of it runs by the beach so you can smell and see the beach for several miles. Since I hadn’t ran a half in a while I use a little nervous so I just decided to have fun and not try to PR.
   
At the start of the race I heard Rudy Novotny say “Runners set....... GO!!” I felt pretty good at the start, I was hoping it will stay this way! Boom! The first mile went extremely fast, the course was pretty flat so I decided to make my strides longer. After a while I slowed some so I wouldn’t cramp or have any other problems.

At around mile 5 I passed a 10 year old. He said that this was his first half marathon and that he felt like he was going to throw up. I ran with him for about another half mile then he had to stop and walk so I kept running. At mile 6 we started to run on another beach, and I heard two of my friends coming by Andrea and Chris, they were running the marathon and looked like they were doing great!
   

I was hurting when I hit mile 8, it felt like I had knots in my stomach but I wanted to keep up the pace so I could get a few of those doughnut holes my Mom said would be at mile 9! I passed Joe Taricani from the marathon show at about mile 8.2 he looked like he was having a blast out there!
   
When I hit mile 10 I was feeling pretty good so I decided to pick up the pace. Mile 11 and 12 went by super fast but the last mile was slow and painful. My cramps came back and I wasn’t feeling good.

When I was getting closer to the finish line I started hearing Rudy yelling and I decided I was going to go all out once I saw the finish line. When I saw it I sprinted like someone was chasing me, but wow I definitely felt it when I crossed the finish and stopped.
   
Long beach was amazing! if you didn’t do it this year you should definitely do it next year!

My Experiences At Badwater 135

Badwater is special to me because.....

When Ed “the jester” Ettinghausen got accepted to run he asked me, my mom, my dad, and four other people  to crew for him. We were very excited.  Ed also made us wear skirts! 

At the pre race check-in I met Dean Karnazes, he lifted me up on his shoulders and said “I couldn’t run as far as you can when I was your age, keep running.” You have no idea how happy that made me :) I was wearing a jester hat so people would say things like “Hey mini jester.” and they would usually talk about our skirts, Ed (who most people thought was my dad), and about Badwater.

Almost everyone at the race was wearing all white and some people had their faces covered, so Ed was really easy to see in his orange shirt and jester hat. Ed’s crazy outfit also made it easier to crew because you could see him coming and have enough time to grab the stuff that he needed.

Ed started at the back while everyone went out fast and he was like a fisherman just pulling in and passing the people as the time and miles went on. 

For the first 17 miles runners weren’t allowed to have a pacer so when the runners hit the first check point the pacer had to experience the heat too. Most of the check points were really small cities with only a general store, restaurant, and hotel. Gas, ice, and almost all food was way over priced in these little towns.

At probably mile 25 we pulled over to help the pacer van and I was writing a sign, and we started hearing groans coming from the guy behind so we looks behind us to find a naked man using the toilet (a bush). The sight of that made me laugh for a few hours =).

At about mile 41 we were driving to the next checkpoint to get some ice and popsicles when this huge dust devil came in front of us and all we could see is sand I didn’t see it coming so it kind of freaked me out. After going through the dust devil we passed these massive sand dunes. I can only imagine how hot that sand is.

I noticed that if you didn’t give Ed what he wanted when he wanted it he wouldn’t take anything until the next stop to save time. Ed also didn’t stop running so he saved a lot of time.

At night most of the runners were climbing around a 7,000 foot hill and the temperature dropped down to about 45 degrees! When me and my mom stopped in front of the pacer van I would lean out of the car and cheer and then have to get back in because it was so cold.

I fell asleep in my mom’s car and I woke up and found out that Ed is at mile 98. He complained his knees are shot because of the shoes he was wearing, oh no! After about an hour Martha Ed’s wife came back to my mom’s car and we drove to mile 122 the next check point to take a shower and a nap.

After we got ready we went to were the race staff was setting out times and we would cheer for the runners and every once in a while one of the staff would come out and yell something along the lines of “Here comes elite athlete ....” It would kind of shock me when they came out because I never heard them coming.When Ed made it to mile 122 he looked terrible and you would have to yell at him for him to talk to you, I felt really bad for him.

The travel up Whitney Portal (the last 13 miles) is all hills and is really hard for all the runners.  You would go up a hill just to find another hill plus there is high elevation. I noticed that on the trip up to Whitney portal that Ed was in the zone and seemed to be in a lot of pain.

Most runners and their crew were crying and cheering for the other finishers, so in the end most of the runners picked up their pace a lot for a strong finish! 

After Ed finished he sat down, took a picture with the race director and the crew and he got back up and said “okay guys time for me to carry you.” so Ed literally picked all of us up, one at a time, and ran across the finish!

The day After Badwater there is a little awards ceremony and you watch this years race recap and Chris the race director comes up and calls on all the runners and says their time, place, and if they got close to or beat a Badwater record. After the awards ceremony was over my dad started talking to Nickademus Hollon, Nick is the youngest Badwater, and Furnace Creak 508 (the Badwater for cyclists) finisher. My dad introduced me to Nick and told him that I was gunning for his record and he gave me his e-mail address and told me to e-mail him, meeting Nick was exciting and made me really happy.

...... Badwater certainly lives up to its title and that makes me want to run it even more.

Congratulations to my favorite Jester for another Badwater victory!