With the record breaking extreme heat on the race day, this year’s Pine to Palm 100 was certainly special. With 198 registered participants, 64 DNS, 79 DNFs, only 55 runners managed to finish within the slotted 34 hours cutoff.
The race was canceled last 2 years due to CoViD and fire and smoke conditions on the race day. For this year, we all watched the smoke and fire conditions closely as it got closer to the race day. Finally during the race week, the race director Hal Koerner announced that even though there would still be some level of smoke on the race day, the 10th edition of this race is a go. He warned us we should be expecting extreme hot triple digit temperatures on the race course.
Pre-Race Day
The hours before the race were quite hectic. I wanted to get my pre race day run and a bit of course scouting in before the heat hits on Friday morning so I had to get up with only 5 or 6 hours of sleep. I went to Pacifica Garden first (25 minutes drive from the hotel) where the race briefing and start-shuttle starts. I drove another 35 minute to the Greyback Mountain trailhead where the race course resumes after the first couple of miles on the road. The trail was beautiful and I tried hard not to get carried away doing about 3 miles with 650 ft of gain. I then scouted out the start location, it is literally in the middle of nowhere.
I drove back to the hotel in Grand Pass, showered and quickly got my lunch at a local Thai restaurant. I then drove another 40 minutes to Medford’s REI and I realized that I left my poles at home. At REI, they do not have the one I have (black diamond carbon z pole), the closest one I could find was the Leki Makalu Fx carbon, which is much more expensive ($219) and felt a bit heavier. After going back and forth with the pros and cons I decided not to get one as trying to get used to new equipment during the race is a big no no, and I have done all my training runs without poles.
I left REI and drove another 40 minutes to Pacifica Garden for the drop bags and pre-race briefing. I asked Hal if poles would help and he said you could certainly do it without but they would definitely help, especially during the later stages where there is still a lot of climbing left. I was still thinking about this during the pre race pasta dinner and Hal’s pre race briefing. I decided I would go back to REI, get the Leki poles and try it out that night and see if I should bring them to the race.
I drove another 40 minutes back to REI (also stopped by at Dick’s sporting goods store nearby to see if they carried the z-poles.) I got the Leki Mafulu Fx, drove 30 minutes back to the hotel and started packing for the race day and testing out the new poles. The best feature of these new poles is its adjustable length, and quick unlock with a push of a button. But it does seem to be on the heavier side, and I could’t find a folding position that I can comfortably tuck it behind my back when not using it. After reading people’s opinions on the Facebook forum, I decided to bring them to the race anyways. The most deciding factors are that both of my over 20000 feet gain running adventures (IMTUF, and wonderland trail) I used the poles and they seemed helpful to not overextending my legs too much on the climbs. I also quickly watched a YouTube video from Dolan Bowman about some pro tips on how to use the poles. I learned that not only could you use it on the climbs but on flats and downhills as well, as they would all help to distribute some shocks and fatigues from the legs.
Race Day
After about 4 hours of tousle and sleep (I am not too worried about the lack of sleep before the race day and I know the adrenaline will carry me to the finish.) I got up at 2:30 and drank coffee, muscle milk, ate bagel with ham and peanut butter, showered, put on body glides and bandages for chafing, sunscreens, dressed and made sure I didn’t forget anything in the race vest, especially my car key.
The shuttle that took us from Pacifica to the starting line was scheduled at 5:00 am. So I left the hotel at 4:20 to give myself plenty of time and find a good parking spot. About 20 of us were waiting for the shuttle (most other people have crews and their crew would drive them directly to the start.) At 5:10, the shuttle was still not there and it became chilly standing outside with only a race t-shirt and shorts on (since I couldn’t park the car at the front, I didn’t have the luxury to wear extra clothes and drop them to the car right before the race.) Fortunately the door was not locked and a few of us got inside and waited there. It was not until 5:30 when the shuttle finally arrived and it was a small shuttle, a few of us had to squeeze in essentially standing in a crouched position for the next 25 minutes.
After arriving there with 5 minutes till the start, I quickly got the bib from the registration, and tucked it on my race belt. Then at 6:00 am we were off, with quite a number of people cheering on.
Start to Seattle Bar (mile 28.5, 6275 feet gain, 6766 feet loss)
The initial quarter mile was downhill so many people shot out fast, I followed the crowd but not let it get carried too much away. As we turned onto a road, a lot of people were still running. I knew it was the start of the next 5000 feet of climb so I went into power hiking mode with poles out. After a mile or so I heard someone calling my name from the back, but since I wasn’t sure it was my name he was calling so I continued on. After about 2 miles on the road we switched to the Grayback mountain trail, the same part I did the scouting on Friday. At that point, we were stretched apart so there was enough space for us to keep it at our own pace. Then I realized that I somehow dropped my medical wrist band, which was probably why someone was calling my name as they may have picked it upl At the first water only aid station Rock Creek (at mile 5) we didn’t find any water but since it was not hot yet I was ok without it as I still had plenty of tailwind water left in my two front flasks.
The sun started to rise at that time and it was beautiful and peaceful running in the mountains as the sun rose. To my surprise, many runners didn’t seem to have poles or chose to not use them this early in the race. I decided to use them early and found them quite helpful to not overuse the legs. I caught up with a lady named Joanna and ran with her for a while. She also was using poles, and seemed quite an expert in properly using it. My climbing seemed strong and it didn’t feel much effort so I passed Joanna and charged to the top. After 10 miles we peaked and started the long downhill descent to Seattle Bar. The first part was on single track trails and I ran down with an easy pace. Quite a few runners passed me as I decided to run downhills also with the poles to let my legs rest a bit. Joanna also passed me at that point.
At mile 14.5 we arrived at the first aid station where I quickly refilled my water bottle with Scratch (the official sponsor and aid station electrolyte drink), took one of the shoes off to dump some dirt out, ate some salty food and took off. I asked the volunteers there if it was ok to not have the medical band, they said it should be ok as long as I have the big still on.
The next section to SteamBoat ranch at mile 21 is on a fire road with gentle rolling terrain. I tucked the poles behind my back and started running with a decent pace. I soon caught up with Joanna and she was still using her poles and seemed effortless. I passed her and the pace seemed easy enough (doing 7-9 min/mile pace) and I wanted to get to Seattle Bar early to avoid the peak heat on the climbs to Stein’s Buff. Then I noticed that the tucked poles started to rob my lower back and I didn’t feel I could sustain this for too long. So I took the poles out and decided to use them on flat and downhill runs as well, with a single light touch on each side for 3-4 steps. Soon I started to get used to this and allowed the speed to increase.
I caught up with a few runners on the way to Steamboat Ranch and Seattle Bar. At Steamboat Ranch, the temperature was already getting hot. I used the ice sponse to wipe my face and neck, and asked a volunteer to put some ice inside my cap. This seemed helpful so I kept running. I probably should’ve slowed down but the desire to get to Seattle Bar to avoid peak heat was so strong I just kept going since at that time I was still feeling good.
Seattle Bar to Squaw Lake (mile 41-43.5, 4513 feet gain, 3738 feet loss)
I arrived at Seattle Bar at 11:28 am (30th/134), which is quite fast since even my most aggressive goal for a 24 hour finish was to get there by 12:00 pm. However, due to the fear of running to Stein Butte during peak heat, I either consciously or subconsciously decided on the fly to bank a bit of time to avoid suffering during the heat. I quickly refilled the bottles, ate some bacon and pickles, took a bottle of sunscreen and Chamois Butt’r (leftover from triathlon training days) from the drop bag and rubbed some on my exposed skin. I pulled out one of the buffs from my vest and made a balaclava to cover my head and neck, then dumped some ice inside my cap. I also took a 3rd flask from the drop bag and a volunteer helped me put some ice water and put it inside my vest. I had a running singlet and some beef jerkys tucked inside the drop bag and decided to not bother with them. I took off from Seattle Bar without spending too much time there.
The initial climb to the Stein’s Buff aid station (at mile 35) was not that bad as the slopes were gentle and a lot of them were in the shade. I did this section last year when I was scouting out part of the course so I was familiar with this first part of the section. Max Kam (I passed him on the way to Seattle Bar) passed me on the climb and he seemed very strong. After about 4 miles, I got to Elliot Ridge and ran along this ridge to the next aid station. I read quite a bit about this section and people forewarned about the suffering during the heat along this section. With temperature reaching over 100 at that point, I already consumed almost both of my bottles at that point. It was hot! I started to worry about running out of water as the next aid station still seemed quite far away. Fortunately there were a bunch of water bottles dropped there at around 5 miles from Seattle Bar by race organizers, which allowed me to refill my bottles and drank quite a bit as well. That helped a bit but as soon as I left there I felt thirsty again. I saw Jasper Pollock at that time (we chatted a bit during pre-race briefing. He is a young 20 year-old with super fast cross-country experience and speed). He was clearly suffering, I asked if he was ok and he said he needed to move slower as the heat was really getting to him. I saw another guy lying under a tree and took a bit of a rest. He said he would be ok and urged us to move on. I ran with Jasper a bit and asked him to follow me. After a few minutes he told me to go ahead as he needed to go slower to recover from a high heart rate.
The next few miles to Stein Buff aid station seemed a blur to me now. It just felt like forever climbing in relentless heat. And just when I thought I should be at the aid station, there was a sign saying that the next aid station was still 1 mile away! For a moment I was confused and thought maybe the water bottle drop site was the Stein Buff aid station and this sign indicated Squaw Lake aid station:(
I finally arrived at the Stein Buff station at 1:44 pm (29th/120), so it took two hours to cover the 7 miles from Seattle Bar to Stein Buff, and I probably consumed 6 bottles of water during this time. I followed my nutrition plan for taking a gel every hour and a salt pill every 3 hours. I probably took a third salt pill before Stein Buff as it was so hot I worried about running out of electrolytes and muscle cramps if I didn’t refill my salt intake. I am usually a heavy sweater during my runs. I sweat profusely even in moderate temperatures and I am often soaking wet after a long training run. Once I got soaking wet, the wet clothes started to rub the skins and chafing started to happen. I worried quite a bit before the race to deal with chafing. However, for whatever reason, I wasn’t sweating as profusely as I expected even in this heat. Maybe my body knew that it was a long, long race and it couldn’t afford to sweat it all out quickly? Anyway, I put some anti-chafing cream on my inner thighs as these are the places typically chafing happens once my shorts become soaked. I asked a volunteer how far to the next aid station, he said about 6 miles. I asked if it was all downhills, he said not really. Just when I was about to leave, Jasper also arrived. He said he was going to take it easy and spent more time at Squaw Lake to cool himself down. I bid him good luck and took off.
I had been able to take some gopro videos along the way till Stein Buff aid station, even though juggling between gopro and hiking poles was a bit of a hassle. However, after I left the station, I noticed that the gopro started to give out SD card errors when trying to record, maybe because the card reader was damaged due to this extreme heat? I tried to pull out the battery and card and put them back to no avail. I tried to take some video with my iphone but the quality was quite bad as it doesn’t have the built-in stabilization feature of a gopro camera. I would try a few more times and eventually decided to give up on recording at Hanley Gap and stewed it away in my drop bag there.
The next 7 miles started with a climb in a forest road (about 1400 feet of gain in 2 miles), then switched to a technical trail (Summit Lake Trail) with rapid descent (2186 feet of drop in just under 4 miles). During the descent, I started to notice pain from my quads. Maybe because I ran a bit too fast from Steamboat to Seattle Bar so my quads were over-cooked? Or maybe I didn’t take enough electrolytes during the heat toward Stein’s Buff? Initially I only planned to take 2 Tylenol pills (one at mile 51, one near mile 90) to alleviate pains but not to mask it so much it may cause injuries. Since I wanted so much to get to the Squaw lake with the potential to jump-in and cool down, I decided to take one Tylenol pill at around mile 38 to alleviate the pain. I went down the trail gingerly, utilizing the poles as much as possible to cushion the blows to my quads. Eventually I arrived at Squaw lake aid station at 3:16 pm (27/ 119). The last half mile was a bliss as people were cheering all the way from the summit trailhead to the aid station at the lake.
I took a bit of time to refill, drink, eat, and cooled down before I started the around-the-lake 5k run. Foolishly I didn’t put down my vest since I wanted to have enough water during the run and I didn’t pack a handheld bottle. The 5k around the lake was pleasant enough but seemed quite long, and with 600 feet gain I could still feel the climbs. After 1.5 miles, I saw a fork and was not sure if I should take the inner trail along the lake or the outer one. I ran along the inner one a bit before I realized that the outer one was the correct one. I ran back and saw a female runner (Elizabeth) also debating at the fork. I told her to go with the outer loop and I followed her up. She looked super happy and very strong. We chatted a bit and after a few minutes I over took her as I was too embarrassed to run so slowly. Once I got back to the aid station, I spent more time there refilling, drinking, eating whatever aid station food that seemed appealing, and cooling down but I didn’t jump into the lake.
Squaw Lake to Hanley Gap (mile 52, 3200 feet fain, 2197 feet loss)
The next 4 miles from Squaw Lake to French Gulp (water only station at mile 47) was on a forest road with the hottest temperature of the day and very little shade. Elizabeth either left the station early or passed me during that section as I found out she was ahead of me at Hanley Gap. I ran with Kris and Brandi a bit during these 4 miles. Brandi seemed a very strong runner but she only carried one bottle of water. I remembered that she was quite relieved when I told her that the next water only station should not be that far away. But these 4 miles seemed forever, and eventually we saw this hidden trail (Little Grayback Trail) tucked to the right of the forest road. I took a bit of time refilling my bottles when Kris and Brandi took off. The little Grayback Trail is a nice trail with quite a bit runnable sections although it was still really, really hot. The problem was that everyone seemed to say that once you get to Squaw Lake, the hardest part dealing with the heat is done, although my experience of the worst heat was from Squaw Lake to Hanley Gap. It was during this time the temperature reached its peak and running along Little Grayback Trail with full exposure to the unrelenting sun was certainly not something I expected. The only respite was that when the trail was on the backside of the sun we got a bit of breeze and cooling but as soon as it switched the sun side the heat came back with a vengeance. Eventually I passed Brandi and she seemed to be affected by this heat. She said “You look perky” to me when I passed her. I didn’t quite know the meaning for the word at that time, and I didn’t expect to be happy and lively while I felt I was almost dying from this heat exhaustion:)
Hanley Gap to Dutchman Peak (mile 66, 3769 feet gain, 1506 feet loss)
I finally made it to the Hanley Gap station at 6:11pm (27/100) at mile 51 where I had a drop bag waiting. I sat in a chair for a long time, and the nice volunteers brought me two cups of noodle soups and some cheese quesadillas. I was told that I needed to run up 1 mile to a summit (Squaw Summit) to retrieve a flag, then come down before starting the next section. At that point, I was so tired and really didn’t want to move. Mentally I kept asking myself if I felt this tired only half way through, how on earth could I finish this race?
I thought back to my previous races, and never before I felt this much stress at only half way. People say the race doesn’t really start until after 100k, I felt I was almost done at only 50 miles! As I sat there, I remember Hal said during the pre race briefing that you need to move with a purpose. Sitting there is not moving with a purpose! So I willed myself out of the chair, drank more water and coke and started the slow climb to the top. This time I didn’t carry my vest, and just brought the poles with me. I hiked behind Max and started to see runners coming down (Elisabeth was one of them). As I was climbing, I kept thinking how I could run down this slope with my quads pain after the flag as the slope seemed quite steep. Eventually I got up and tried to cheer up when a volunteer took a picture of us. Held the flag in my hand with a pole and started the downward journey. I had to use the poles to slow myself down on steep descents as my quads were incapable of controlling my descent speed at that point. I worried about injuring my shoulder and arms but the shock absorption feature of these poles worked like a charm. I never felt the pain even after the race, having used it extensively throughout the run.
As I saw other runners coming up, we said “good job” to each other to cheer each other up. When I was almost back to the station, I saw Joanna just about to run up the hill. I told her “go get it”, and she took off, looking fresh and strong.
Back at the aid station, I again sat at the chair, ate another cup of noodle soap, another piece of quesadilla, some watermelons, and potatoes with salt. I am blessed with a healthy stomach, I could almost eat anything without adverse effects. That’s why I was confident to do this without crew and pacer, and didn’t have to pack too many drop bags for my own nutrition needs. I only have 3 drop bags (one at seattle bar to prepare me better with the heat, one at hanley gap with a second light and warmer clothes, one finish bag to clean up and change out of running clothes after the finish). At every aid station, I would fill up my bottles with either water or Scratch, and just ate anything I felt appealing at that time. I did bring some lactaid pills with me as I am lactose intolerant but I only used one at the first aid station. My stomach felt ok with the station food so I stopped taking them afterwards.
Eventually I moved slowly to the drop bag location. For a while I couldn’t find my bag! As the sun started to set and the bag colors seemed different from what I remembered. I was looking for a black colored bag but that bag looks purplish to me. It turns out I mis-rememberd, my bag is actually dark green:)
At that point, I decided to travel light. I only switched my sun cap with a black running cap. Changed the wet t-shirt and a dry one, and took out a second light. I decided to risk it by putting back the 1st light and just relying on one light for the night. The temperature still seemed high at that point so I didn’t bother with gloves or any other warm clothes as I still had a thin windbreaker tucked inside my vest from the start. I had a pair of shoes, socks, and running shorts there as well but decided to not use them as the ones I had on seemed ok. I also put back the 3rd bottle to the drop bag (I never even took it out after filling it at Seattle Bar!)
With heavy legs I started moving towards the next aid station. I must have spent a lot of time there as it was getting dark when I left there. I tried to run as much as possible on flats and small descents, and power hiked up the hills. The next aid station was 7 miles away with 1579 feet of climb and 965 feet descent. I don’t remember much about this section, the only thing I remember is that it was not as cool as I expected. Eventually as we were getting onto higher altitudes and after the sunset the air still felt warm and I still sweat quite a bit.
With only one light (an old Petzl Reactik I bought in 2017 before my first 100 mile race), I delayed turning it on until it was completely dark and only used the max autonomy mode (80 lumens as it would give me about 10 hours of light) and didn’t dare to switch it to higher lumens mode.
This section from Hanley Gap to Squaw Creek Gap to Duchman Peak was probably the biggest climb of the race, but it’s mostly on forest road and my climbing with the help of poles was still quite strong. So I was able to maintain a decent pace and passed a few runners here and there. The air temperature never seemed to cool down that much even though it was much better than the afternoon but my body felt overheated. The extended exposure to the sun also caused my eyes to hurt a bit and almost non-stop running nose. I had to wipe my nose with a buff almost constantly and in the end the skin under my nose became raw. Taking deep breath through the nose and breathing out through the mouth seemed to help a bit so I kept doing it whenever I could.
After Squaw Creek Gap station, it was another 7 miles mostly climb to the Dutchman Peak AS. After 3 miles though, I could hear the loud music from the top, which gave me false hope that the station was near. What I didn’t know was that the route actually took us 2 miles further west, passed the station, then eventually turned back 2 mile at the parking lot and towards the Dutchman Peak station. I saw quite a number of runners coming down Dutchman Peak station as I was moving up the last two miles. Since now there were pacers joining in as well, it was hard to tell how many were actually runners ahead of me. We offered much needed encouragement to each other as we passed.
Dutchman Peak to Siskiyou Gap (mile 73.5, 1201 feet gain, 2216 feet loss)
I could finally hear the music again! Soon I arrived at the station at 11:09 pm (30/68). At this point, more than half of the runners already dropped out. We were told before the race it could be very cold up there at 7500 feet but on this day it was much warmer. I never needed to bring out my jacket. I stayed at the station a bit doing the usual things, refueling before moving down the way we came for 2 miles. I saw Joanna come up to the station just when I was about to move out. She looked fresh as ever!
Psychologically I knew Dutchman Peak was the highest point of the race, and from there people were expected to make a lot of ground with mostly downhill runs. However, since my quads were too painful to run fast on the downhills, I knew I would lose a lot of time when other people were running. After I left the parking lot 2 miles after Dutchman Peak, I passed Elisabeth and saw another running light behind me. I thought that was Elisabeth but it turns out that it was Joanna! She looked amazing and only seemed to gain more speed as time went. Just when we were about to enter PCT, she ran past me and got away as I could only watch from behind. I didn’t see her until I was trudging up towards the Wagner Butte and she was almost 1 mile back from there already. She would eventually finish a full hour ahead of me, and I learned that she just finished the bigfoot 200 in August! What an incredible and accomplished runner!
The next 6.5 miles was on the beautiful Pacific Crest Trail. At this point, the full moon was up in the sky, and because of the fire and smoke it had a bloody tinge. Running along PCT at night with a full bloody moon was as surreal as it could get! The only painful part was that I couldn’t run very well on the runnable section as I was too afraid to trip and fall without fine motor control of strong quads. Every downhill was a struggle and I had to use my poles to slow me down every time the descent seemed steep. Some sections were along the ridge with cliffs on the other side. I had to be very, very careful not to trip and fall. I tripped twice and almost fell on that section but fortunately the poles saved me and they caught me at the last moment. I was thinking it was probabl a miracle there were no accidents in this race when people were running this section in the middle of the night. Twice this year I fell during my training runs and each time I hurt my wrists pretty badly. I started to learn to play piano this year and having injured wrists doesn’t help me with finer controls and smooth motions at the piano. As my online piano teacher told us, “don’t just type the notes, you need to learn to control your strokes with smooth wrist and arm motions!” So this time, I made sure that I would take every precaution to watch my steps and avoid hard tumbles.
Siskiyou Gap to Grouse Gap (mile 80, 1268 feet gain, 663 feet loss)
I arrived at Siskiyou Gap station at 1:28 am (28/56). I sat there quite a bit longer as both sleepiness and tiredness were overwhelming. I ate half of a hamburger (a bit cold) and drank some coke to keep me awake. At this point, I stopped taking gels and only relied on station food. My bottles were also not as empty as they should because I only drink a little based on thirst, no longer following any precise calorie intake plan. Eventually I moved on, knowing that at the next aid station I got to see my friend Brian Johnson who is the captain of the station at mile 80. I missed him at Hanley Gap but talked to his mother who was also volunteering at that station. Siskiyou Gap station didn’t have Scratch but they had Tailwind which is what I trained with. I filled one bottle with Tailwind and one with water, then took off.
The next 6.5 miles were just a repeat of the previous section, running on PCT in the middle of the night, losing time on downhills, and gaining some back on uphills. The station offered Redbull but since I never took any energy drink so I declined. I still felt reasonably lucid and never had a hallucination but I saw a runner claiming he saw a bat under a bush and his pacer stopped to investigate and never saw anything there. He said “I want to have whatever you have:)”.
There was a section where I was following along the ribbons and all of sudden the trail seemed to end. I ran back a bit to check if I missed a turn with a ribbon pointing somewhere but couldn’t find any. I checked the map on my watch and it seemed to point straight ahead but I didn’t see a trail there. Eventually after a few minutes back and forth I realized that the trail did indeed go forward, I just had to cross over a small stream to get to the next part. The steam was wide enough I wasn’t able to see the next part of the trail with my puny light.
Grouse Gap to Weasel Creak (mile 90, 1887 feet gain, 3342 feet loss)
I arrived at Grouse Gap at 3:43 am (29/58) and was quite happy to finally meet Brian in person. I ate his famous vegi cake and did the usual refills. The next aid station is 10 miles away and we had to do some rock scrambling and retrieve another flag from the Wagner Butte. Brian told me it was 5 miles up and 5 miles down, and I was almost there.
The first 2 miles were on a forest road. I felt a bit better as I knew this would be the last forest road where I had to deal with driving cars, and each time they passed it would have these big dust storms following them. I had to take out a buff to cover my nose and mouth every time a car passed by. I remember one lady driver who was so nice she actually stopped the car 30 feet before me, turned off the light and waited for me to pass and then drove slowly off. I wish every car would do something like that when they pass runners!
The next section on the split rock trail towards Wagner Butte was truly brutal. I even asked Hal after the race who the hell designed this part, it was pure evil:) The trail was fairly rocky with quite a bit of ups and downs. With my painful legs, every step going down a rock stair caused huge pain. Many times, I had to rely on the poles to slowly lower myself down to the next step. The worst was the mental part, as I knew I was bleeding time like crazy and with this pace, I’d be lucky to finish within 30 hours!
After what felt like forever, I eventually arrived at the junction where there was a sign to say go retrieve the flag first. I thought it was just a short distance away but that section seemed quite long. It was 2 miles from there to the flag but as it happened many times during the night, I typically mis-counted and expected a milestone to be much closer than it actually was. As I started to see runners coming back from the flag, there was this strong sense of despair and dread, like sitting in the audience listening to the Mule playing on Visi-Sonor (sorry about the Foundation reference). I just felt that there was no hope to get to the finish with the pace I was crawling.
As I started to see the first set of runners coming back after half a mile after the junction, I thought I must’ve been close but in reality I was still quite a bit away. I probably saw at least 5 or 6 runners and their pacers coming back and they all moved fast.
Eventually just before sunrise, I arrived at the bottom of the butte. There were still quite a few runners up there, and they all seemed to be quite agile moving up and down. When I tried the first step up a stone, I couldn’t move my leg up, and had to hold onto a small tree branch to pull myself up. From there, I moved slowly, holding onto some rock to keep balance. Eventually I got to the top, asked the volunteer there to stick a flag into my vest, and took one picture as the day started to break. The volunteer there also offered me Advils when I told him my quads were gone. I only took one as I knew I shouldn’t have taken more to further mask the pains.
Coming down from the rock was as slow as I felt, and it seemed that I would stay there forever.
The 2 miles down from the rock to the junction was not as bad as I thought as with the daylight I could see much better and felt less risky to run a bit faster without having to worry about bumping into a rock or falling.
After the junction, we followed 3 miles of Wagner Glade trail down to the 90 mile station. The trail was probably quite runnable if I had good legs, but at that point, I just simply couldn’t have control on the descent. The trail doesn’t have a lot of switchbacks so the descent was just going down, down, and down. I had to use my poles as aggressively as I could to slow down the descent, each time worrying about getting injured on either legs or arms/shoulders.
It took me almost 4 hours to cover the 10 mile distance from Grouse Gap to Weasel Creek, even though many of the sections should be quite runnable. I made it to the station at 7:36 am (28/54) and did a mental calculation on when I would finish. If I kept the same pace as the last 10 miles, I would probably finish very close to 12:00 pm instead of the 8-10 am window I was aiming for. I remembered that I read a report from someone mentioning that the last 10 miles of descent was brutal and I was fully expecting to run a similar terrain like that from mile 87 to 90. That would be hell! When I asked what the next section looked like, they told me it was on a forest road with some sharp turns and rocky technical sections. It didn’t quite register in my mind what they really meant, because in my mind I still had this preconceived notion of super hard technical descent of 10 miles of hell.
At the aid station, when I tried to show the aid station worker the flag, I couldn’t find it! I unzipped the vest, looked everywhere, I just simply couldn’t find it. I told the person there that the volunteer at Wagner Butte said I should be Ok even if I lost the flag as he saw me there and I took a picture of me standing there. After a few minutes he told me that he had enough flags as he probably took it from me when I came in.
I took my time at the aid station, fully prepared for the next 10 miles of onslaught. Once I heard that most runners just took off without spending too much time, I forced myself to move again.
Run to the Finish (mile 100.5, 1149 feet gain, 3579 feet loss)
The initial section was on a slight incline so I took it easy, preparing for the upcoming brutal descent section. After a few minutes though, the trail seemed to have leveled off and started only a slight descent. I started to run and gradually increased my speed. The faster I run, the better I feel. I was thinking, if the next 10 miles were like this, I could probably make it before 10:00 am if I could manage an average of 10 minute/mile pace. I looked at my watch, it was showing some pace between 8 to 9 minute per mile. I said to myself, this doesn’t feel too bad, maybe I could keep it up and really make it within 28 hour finish. So I started running as if I was fresh out for a morning training run. I ran past a couple of runners and told them we should run fast if the terrains were like this. I heard someone mentioning some rocky descent but it didn’t register. I kept going faster and faster and felt really good about this. I had been struggling since mile 43 and this is the first time I felt like a runner, just flowing down effortlessly with poles flying in sync with my legs.
I kept running, passing more runners along the way, a few were trying to catch up with me but soon fell behind. I ran past the water only station, turned onto the rocky descent section but kept the same pace. I didn’t feel any pain at that point, all I felt was this elation that I was able to actually run the last 10 miles of a 100 mile race properly! I remembered I was running the last 2-3 miles with a couple of friends at the end of the IMTUF 100, and it was the same feeling but even better this time.
I ran past a few runners training on the trail, I ran through the turns and descents, and ran even harder when the route became hard concrete with sharp descents. The average pace for the last 10.5 miles was 9:42/mile but without the long stoppage at the aid station, and the slow initial climb, the actual running pace was probably close to 8:30 pace.
When I finally crossed the finish line at 9:18 am (total time: 27:18:33, 24/55), I knew I’d survived the brutal heat and battled the inner demons and won the battle. With the strong finish, I felt happy and satisfied with the result.
The funny thing is, I did find the flag in my vest. It was right there. I don’t know why I couldn’t find it at the mile 90 aid station. When I told it to the same volunteer, he laughed and told me to keep it as a souvenir.
I saw Joanna at the finish line as she finished one hour ahead of me. Later on, I saw a few other people who shared the shuttle drive to the start line finish (Jasper, Juan, and others). On the ride back to Pacifica Garden, we shared our experiences of the run and chatted happily as we were riding back to retrieve our cars.
Final Words
I would like to thank the organizers and so many volunteers for their dedication and care. As a runner without a crew, they treat me better than any crew could do. Every time I arrived at an aid station, they would offer me a chair and bring me anything I wanted. They were always cheerful and offered encouragement whenever I felt down. Many of them had to stand in the hottest of the day for hours and kept cheering and taking care of us.
When Hal asked us at the award ceremony why we do trail running, I answered that I initially switched to trail running because I thought running on trails would be easier on legs, but after last night’s run through split rock trail, I was not sure any more (laughter). But truly I enjoyed the trail running because of the community and the great support offered by other runners and volunteers.
Many people also mentioned that they chose trail running because it offered an opportunity to understand yourself better, to go through multiple ups and downs, and eventually to come out victoriously. It is so true! On many downs, our bodies would be the first to tell us to slow down, to give up. It was up to our minds to tell our bodies to shut up and keep going. When the darkest hour descends, our minds would tell us we were not going to make it, they would come up with all the rational ways for us to quit. At that time, it was up to our hearts to pull us out, to truly believe what we were capable of. It is this mind over body, heart over mind experience I truly cherish and would come back again and again for the next challenge.
Run with your heart and move with purpose!