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