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!

Across The Years 2013-2014

Across The Years was a blast, I got a huge distance PR and had a great time! In the race you can sign up to run for 1, 2, 3, or 6 DAYS! The ATY course is a flat 1.05 mile loop around the White Sox/Dodgers training facility. The aid station is huge. They basically bring a kitchen to the course and put tents over it. The best part about the course is there are spots to put tents, cars, and RVs.

My Dad and I at the start

At the start I was excited, I signed up for the 3 day so it was going to be my longest race to date. Since it was a flat 1 mile loop my parents let me run by myself, so I decided to see what I could do. Unlike my Dad I didn't start off fast, I was pretty proud of myself for being able to pace myself. I later found out that my Dad had the fastest the first loop! This was the first race that I had ever listened to music, boy did I enjoy it! I just kind of cruised along listening to a mixture of classic rock and Christian music, things felt good and the miles went by fast.

Feeling great early in the race - photo from Aravaipa Running

Before I even looked up I had 20 miles done! To celebrate I drank a cup of Mt. Dew and Coke :). The best part about ATY is that every 4 hours you change directions so you get to see everyone. Things continued to go well until I was about 10 hours into the race and reality kicked in... Woah I still have 62 hours to go! That was a huge mistake, I was treating it like it was a 100 and in a 100 I don't really sleep. So my mind automatically assumed that I was going to stay up for another 62 hours! The mental part is so huge in these long races.

Phota credit - Aravaipa Running

At around mile 50 heaven on plastic plate came! Our friend Deb went to Cracker Barrel and brought us Sunday fried chicken!!! The chicken was delicious and it definitely made things better. The chicken worked its magic until about mile 65 when I found several blisters on my feet and things started to hurt. I have never had blisters, so I was surprised. I stopped in the medical tent to have them taped and then went to sleep for about 4 hours in our friends' RV. When I woke up I was confused and pretty tired, my dad  kind of prodded me out of the RV and I started going again! I found my Mom and we stayed together for a while.

After 24 hours were over I had 70-75ish miles and was feeling decent. It was so cool to see new faces start, it brought my morale up. I didn't really feel like running so I power walked with friends. At around mile 86 I was walking with my friend Mark Hellenthal who had done over 100 miles on an injured leg! I only had 14 miles until I hit 100 but I was hurting, a lot... I decided to take a brake at mile 87 because my heel hurt, when I took my shoe off I had spots all over my heel, so my parents decided to put my foot in the ice chest. The ice chest was bitter sweet, it made my heel numb but also hurt. The funny part was I was crying/laughing at how much it hurt and suddenly my nose started gushing blood! I am sure it was pretty funny to watch!

After getting blood and ice everywhere, I decided it was time to get going again, but before I knew it was dark again. I kind of hobbled along until mile 99 when a big group of people walked my 100th mile with me. It was nice to have so many people around me, they kept my mind off the pain. When I saw the start/finish I kind of did an excited shuffle and finally got 100 miles!! I was extremely tired and grumpy so I decided to sleep.

When I woke up I was stiff and didn't think I could get out of the RV, much less do a couple more laps, but I really wanted to. I told myself that I would at least walk my Mom's last lap. To prepare for the walk I would walk a couple of steps and just stand there. I mostly sat around all day. It was fun to watch people go by and have friends stop to chat with me. When my Mom came for her last lap I got up and walked! It was funny to look at my lap time and see that mile 101 took 20 hours!! After my Mom hit 100 she decided to keep walking so I followed her, it felt really good to be moving again. I was wearing my Dad's flip flops because my feet were still swollen.

Before I knew it I was at mile 110 my Dad had his 100 done and they were going to our friends' house to eat dinner and sleep. Mom tried to get me to leave too, but I wanted to keep going.

Since I wanted to keep going I walked with our friend Kristen who had 100+ miles as well. I walked with Kristen for about 5 miles when she decided to take a break. Since I was feeling good I laced my running shoes and started to run again!! I was doing about 15 minute miles when I caught up to my friend Ed the Jester. Ed was 3rd place in the 6 day and has over 300 miles done!! Ed kept me motivated, we kept up the pace for around 15 miles when he needed to take a break. I decided to keep going, I managed to run another 5 miles when the blisters caught up to me and I started walking again.

I walked about 3 miles when one of the best pacers ever decided to walk with me! My friend Fat Boy AKA Ryan kept me company by talking about hikes, recent races, and movies. Before I knew it I had 144 miles done and 1 hour 30 minutes left in the race, I decided to stop and lay down in the warming tent. Minus a lady hogging the heater the warming tent was nice, I went through cycles of falling asleep and waking up right before I started to fall out of my chair. After a while I decided to find my parents, I borrowed a friends phone and called them.

I was sleeping when my Mom and Dad told me the race was about over and it was time to get up.  My Dad made me stand up and we hobbled to the showers. The warm water felt so good on my aching legs. After the shower I felt like a million bucks. I fell asleep during the awards ceremony so I don't remember very much of it but I ended up with 144 miles!! That was an official 44 mile distance PR for me! ATY last year was my first PR. This year it was my first 3 day event. I hope we can come back every year. It is a great experience with a lot of fun friends and amazing runners.

Javelina Jundred

Javelina was not only a 2 hour PR but it was fun! The Javelina course consists of six 15+ mile loops and one 9 mile loop at the end. After you finished a loop you would turn around and go the other direction washing machine style. It was fun because you see everyone else on the course. There were a few hills but they weren’t very challenging during the first couple of laps. The hard part of the race was the heat and the rocks. The cool thing about Javelina is that since the race happens a few days before halloween, lots of people dress up in unique costumes.
   

There were about 400 runners, so we were kind of forced to walk the first mile. I didn’t mind since my Mom and I knew a couple people that were running the race. Seeing them was fun. After about 2 miles our friend Rob caught up with us and he was wearing a pirate suit! Running with Rob was funny because every few minutes some one would yell “Arrrr!”. The first lap was fast and very fun.
   
We started to slow down a lot during the second loop because it got hot and painful. The heat started to make me lose motivation and things sucked, but I just thought to myself “We didn’t fly all the way from Colorado to drop down!”.  One thing that made the heat a little bit better was to put ice and some cold water into my buff and have the cold water slowly run down my neck. The really nice thing about the loops was that the last half of the loop was always down hill.

 The third loop was pretty exciting because I was getting into the big number and the sun was starting to go down so heat-wise everything was getting better. What is really cool about the higher miles is that if feels like people stop doubting you and you morale goes up a lot when you go through an aid station. When my Mom and I hit the down hills we were making great time. We walked most of the uphills. At about mile 43 a bunch of family and friends called my Mom and gave us some motivation.

 Mile 45-60 is a little bit of a blur but I remember it being very dark and our headlamps were starting to dim a lot. It was weird because we just put in new batteries. Since our lights weren’t doing well my Mom and I were constantly stubbing our toes and making weird noises out of pain. If you haven’t kicked a rock at mile 60 when its dark then you are lucky. It makes you lose motivation, it hurts, and it stops your motion for a second, which is the worst part. When we finally hit the aid station we both sat down. We found out I had a pacer that was willing to go out with me for a loop. Because I was taken care of and she was in pain,  my Mom called it quits at 100k. I felt pretty bad for her because she had to take care of me and herself which makes running even harder. Luckily there was someone to pace me and help keep me awake through the dark hours.
   
The person that paced me was suppose to run the 100 but he got hit by a car two days before the race. (his name is Eric by the way). The nice thing about Eric was that his headlamp lit up the whole trail so I could see everything within a mile. Eric also had a few stories to talk about so I didn’t think about the pain I was in or being tired as much. This loop was nice because I didn’t know Eric before Javelina, so I could talk to him about a lot of things. I ended up getting to mile 75 in about 22 hours so I met the first cut off with around 2 hours to spare.
  
Since Eric was hit by a car he wasn’t feeling too good,  my Mom managed to enlist another pacer. His name was Jeff. Jeff was like 10 feet tall so when he walked I had to jog to keep up with him. It sucked at the time, but now I am glad that his legs are so long. Jeff had a lot of interesting things to talk about as well. For example, he owns a Christmas tree farm and teaches 5th grade. But the best part about Jeff was that he had bacon. When I would start to fall behind he would grab a piece of bacon and I would have to catch him to get it. Since our walking was super fast because of Jeff’s long legs we got to mile 91 in 27 hours. That meant that I had 3 hours to 9 miles.
   
Jeff didn’t let me sit down at the start/finish. I grabbed some food from my Mom and left. At the time sitting sounded amazing but if I sat down I might not have made it. So the last 9 miles were the same course as the other loops but about 6 miles in you cut down to this 3 mile down hill section that takes you to the finish.The 6 miles to the down hill was a struggle. It was hot, rocky, and uphill. It just seemed to go on and on, and since I am colorblind, from a distance I can’t tell the difference between the trail and normal dirt.

   

When we finally hit the last 3 miles we took off, which when you are at mile 97 “taking off” is a slow painful jog. When we finally hit the one mile marker I almost cried I was so happy, we had 27 minutes for the last mile! I didn’t even bother to go fast for the last mile I just slowly walked until well, I could see the finish of course! When I saw everyone I started another slow jog and made it!!!! I was quickly handed the buckle and youngest finisher award, someone took a few pictures and I finally got to sit down. It was awesome to finish and get a 2 hour PR but what really made me feel good was that  there was a more than 50% drop rate and I actually finished!!
   

Buckle and youngest finisher trophy presented by RD Jamil Coury

This is Teagan. She is 8 and ran the 100k!

Thank you so much to my pacers, Eric and Jeff. The buckle wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t volunteered. If you ever need a pacer, I would love to return the favor!

Jeff and I at the finish. So happy to have met him

Silverton 1000 48 Hour

Silverton 48 hour

Silverton was a blast! The course is a not so easy 1 mile loop that features 250 feet of climbing, oh and it's 9300 feet above sea level! Going into the race I thought "oh 250 feet isn't to bad, that's just a little hill." But when the race started I changed my mind...

With my sister Mimi at the start

beautiful course!

Cameron and I. I was about 55 miles in here

When the race started I ran, well that was until I got to the hill. I ran probably 10 steps and was already winded, I thought to myself "this sucks..." When my Dad and I finally made up all the hills we took off. Closing in on the start/finish I decided that the trick was to not run any part of the incline.

As the sun went down and I did more miles the thought of 100 miles seemed impossible. The hill was just so intimidating, and it felt like it was taking me longer to finish the mile then it actually was. My mind played a trick on me and for some reason I didn't feel like I could keep going for another day. My Dad and I were just trying to stay up and get more miles in. Finally at about mile 41 we took a little break and my dad called it a night and asked our friend Mark (who happened to be the race director) to help me find someone to run with.

It was nice to run with Mark and distract myself by asking him questions about the race. After a couple miles Mark got busy and I started running with one of his friends named Willy. Willy was in the 6 day and had about 150 miles done already. It was cool to run with someone I didn't know and hear his story. At mile 50 I took about a hour nap because I couldn't keep my eyes open. When I woke up I ran with my friend Rachel who was in the 48 hour and was at about the same mile as me. Rachel and I ran until the sun came out and my parents came back.

Seeing my parents and having the sun slowly come up again felt great. I just felt encouraged again. After I did a couple of miles with my Dad our friend Ed also came out. Ed had already done 100 miles and was trying to get 150 for the 72 hour male record. Mile 60 -70 went by fast because I was talking to family and friends a lot since the 24 hour runners had just started.

At about mile 70 Brandon Plate started running with us. Brandon is a kid ultra runner as well he was in the 72 hour and was at the same mile as I was. Talking to a fellow kid runner was pretty cool because there aren't very many of us. At mile 75 it got hard for me. I was hot and tired and lost motivation with every step. As we came into the aid station my Mom and friend Deb quickly changed that, they loaded me up with Mt. Dew and pasta which quickly changed my attitude!

Since my dad had gone to sleep I gained 15 miles on him. My dad wanted to catch up with me so he sped up and I stayed with Ed. Right after my dad left Brandon's brother Cameron started running with us too. After the top of the hill we always took a break and I had a certain stump that I always sat on. So as we get to the top Cameron takes my seat! Ed's reaction to that was to lift up his skirt and let a juicy fart come out all over Cameron! After that Ed and Cameron started having a farting contest, which was a funny but really disgusting if you smelled it!

75 miles done

At about mile 95 I heard Mark yelling "Attention runners there is a bear on the mountain! Do not approach the bear, I repeat do not approach the bear!" I decided to keep going and that I could take on a bear if it was in the way of my buckle!

At mile 98 I was running in a pack but was slowly getting ahead of them as my adrenaline kicked in. At mile 99 ran out of the aid station and very slowly jogged up the hill. It hurt to run, but I was being fueling with anticipation. When I had conquered the up hill I sprinted the down hills, I couldn't wait for the buckle. Closing in on the last .1 I sprinted as fast as I could, my Mom expected me to finish with the pack so when she saw a single light she was caught off guard.

I finished!!! I couldn't believe it but I finished! My last mile took 20 minutes which is pretty good with that monster hill. After 100 miles I sat down had some soup and decided to go out for one last mile and make it a distance PR. I did the last mile the group of friends that I had been running with and took it slow. I am very proud to have finished 101 miles and coming in second place male, third place overall. Silverton was so fun and brutally difficult from the first step! I will wear my buckle with pride and can't wait to come back next year!

My second 100 mile buckle. Yes, I would have fought a bear for it!

My friends and the RDs, Sharill and Mark

My Dad thought I deserved a lift!

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InknBurn is my favorite running clothes company.  I like them because their shirts look cool and don't chafe my skin. The colors are bright and don't fade or change over time. I like that they make kids' running clothes that are really made to run long.

I am so honored to be chosen as an InknBurn ambassador.  The best part about that for you is that I can give my friends a discount! If you want to get your own InknBurn apparel, you can go to their website: www.inknburn.com, use the  code "colbytoldme" to get 15% off!

I know you won't be disappointed!

I ran 100 miles in my favorite InB 100 shirt!

My Dad was very dashing in his InB tuxedo!

Rocking my InB Sonar shirt at the Leadville 10k

Giving Back to The Running Community

I love running so much, but there are a lot of ways you can be involved in the sport besides running in the race.

Have you guys ever been running on a trail and made it to an aid station without anybody there? Well if you haven't, let me just tell you... it sucks! During my 100 miler at Ride The Wind, there were several unmanned aid stations. It wasn't nearly as much fun as when I have experienced fun volunteers at the aid stations of other races.

So when you go volunteer at an aid station or help out a race, you may not know it, but you probably just made a runner feel a lot better. Volunteers are really part of the running family. Volunteering can also be quite fun!

manning the aid station at mile 83 of the Chimera 100

For example, one great thing about big races are people cheering near the finish line. Basically all you need are your hands and/or a cowbell. When people hear all the noise, their adrenaline and morale are increased and they get a great finish to their race experience.  I know from personal experience that a few people cheering for you and some loud noises really make for a great finish. My friend Ed (the Jester) and I have stayed at finish lines until the final runner comes in. That is always really fun. You should try it!

Cheering for the runners at the OC Marathon in 2012

Another way you can give back to the community is by running in someone's name or by running for an organization. I ran in honor of Pete Mingwah at a few of my races. He was an amazing runner I met at several races. He was a member of our California running family and he passed away of a brain aneurism.  I wanted to honor him by wearing a bib with his picture on it. It made me feel good to show his family he was loved by runners everywhere.

Crewing for a runner is another great way to give back. It can help a runner get through their race safely. By crewing you are giving the runner everything they need and helping them get through tough times throughout a race.  I have crewed before and it is really tough work, but to a runner it is amazing to have whatever you need whenever you want it. It is also fun to be such an important part of their race success.

Being on the crew for Ed at Badwater made me really want to run this race!

The last way I think that you can give back to the community is by pacing. Pacers are amazing, they keep you company and entertain you. In my opinion the best part about pacers are the fact that you get to see another living soul that isn't exhausted. Pacers have helped me make bad times in a race not so bad.

pacing my dad at his first 100 miler

It takes a lot of hard work from selfless people to make a running event successful. If you are a runner and you have never volunteered, you really should. It is fun and rewarding.

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!