2014 San Diego 100, my first mountain 100.

2:50 am, Alarm Goes Off.

  So many thoughts rushed through my head as I woke up. Will my injuries hold up? Will I get sick in the heat? Am I forgetting a critical piece of gear? Will my pacers show up? Will my drop bags go to the wrong aid station? Will I even remember that I have drop bags out there?  Will I disappoint myself and my friends/family by not finishing?

  These thoughts I was having at 3 in the morning were nothing new for the week. Everything bad that could happen in the week leading up to the race, did.  Instead of tapering, I was operating a jackhammer, tearing out my wood and stone flooring, and a removing a section of my foundation. Instead of resting, I was icing my sore back from handling the jackhammer. Instead of resting my mind, I was stressed about finances.

This was not how I envisioned race week when I had signed up 6 months prior.  The one thing you learn in doing ultras is that you have to learn to adapt and overcome the challenges that arise

3:00 am , Time to Focus and Test my foot.

  Bad news, my right heal is still excruciatingly painful when standing. I hurt it the day before, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to race today. I got ready for the race anyways, packed my bags, applied sunscreen, and lubricated all my friction points.  Even during the drive, my foot was in unbearable pain.

4:40 am, Arrival .

  After I put my drop bags in the appropriate places, I went back to the car to rest. I did the only thing I could do at this point, which was to pray for a miracle that my foot would be better. And that is what I did. I also set a bunch of alarms to give myself a quick snooze before the race began.

5:30 am, Time to get moving.

  I get out of the car to get the day started. My foot feels ok when I stand and walk. My prayer was answered.

6:00 am, The Adventure Begins.

  I placed myself off at the very back of the pack.  We were off and I was running pain free!  During the first mile I thanked God for healing my foot, and prayed for the health and safety of the other runners. When the second mile started to click away, I decided I would say thanks and pray for each body part individually, both for my own and for the other racers, and I also prayed for the people who are not so fortunate to have that body part in good working order. One mile after the other, working my way up the body. Toes, feet, ankles,shins, calves, knees, quads, hamstrings,  etc etc.

Mile 6.8, Paso Pichacho . I came through in a hour and half and in 121^st place after spending a good deal of time in a Conga line on the singletrack. I was still ahead of my desired split goal by 4 minutes. I really enjoyed that section of trail, but it was time to let my competitive juices flow a bit. I took off full steam ahead to stonewall peak. I ran every step of the climb to the top and started to pass a whole bunch of people. I started blazing down the backside until I felt a buzzing on my neck, I swatted at it and got stung by a bee! I hadn’t been stung since I was a little kid, so I didn’t know how my body would react. As you would expect  in a ultra, the guy from behind stopped and helped me get the stinger out of my neck. Holy smokes, that was some uncomfortable running after that!

Mile 12.5, Chambers 1.  I came through here at 8:36am and in 91^st place. Everything was starting to flow perfectly, and I was starting to feel unstoppable. I was on top of my nutrition and hydration, following the plan I had created. After running past the lake I was running off into uncharted trails for me. The rest of the race would be new trails with the exception of Noble Canyon. This is when  it started to get really hot and very exposed. The course was starting to show its true colors, between the heat and its runnability, I can see how people get into trouble out there. It is so easy to get overheated!

Mile 18.5 Pedro Fages. I came through here at 9:43am and in 76^th place. I started to mix in some hiking and take my heat management very seriously. I was really looking forward to running the coming sections of the PCT. I don’t remember much about this section. I was so mentally focused on self management that  the time and miles just started to slip by.

Mile 23.2 Sunrise 1.  I came through here  at 10:35am and in 66^th place. The beauty of the trails on the PCT  was a real treat. The views of Anza Borrego were amazing! It is a shame that it took doing a race to get out there. I ended up getting making the mistake of racing too early in this section. It felt like it was in the 90’s , and I think this was the beginning of digging myself a hole.

Mile 30.4 Pioneer Mall 1. I came through here at 12:08 and in 51^st place. At this point in the race I had grown my 4 minute gap under my desired split at the first aid station to 42 minutes ahead of 24 hour pace by this aid station. I got caught up in the idea of putting time in the bank that I could use later in the race(what a mistake.) Luckily, I was still able to eat at this point, and switching to a hat meant I could start putting ice in my hat for better heat management. The canyons were so blazing hot that it was hard to think clearly. The lack of heat and elevation training were making me lose focus. I thought I was lost several times through this section, and I started to lose it mentally.

Mile 34.4 Penny Pines 1. I came though here at 12:58pm and in 43^rd place.

 It was a boost to see my pacer that would I would be running with later, at the aid station. I was still feeling good here, and I was out of the aid station in less than 2 minutes. I had to make my predictions as to when I would be at mile 56 , to meet up with her. I made the bold prediction of covering the next 22 in 4 hours.

Mile 39.6 Todd’s Cabin. I came through here at 2:13pm, in 37^th place, and 47 minutes ahead of my goal time. This section will be known as my last good one before my race went to crap. I started running all of the hills and was feeling very strong. I had finally caught up with and passed a few runners that I knew were much better than I.

mile 38, feeling good

Mile 44.7 Red Tail Roost. I came through here at 3:25 pm and in 30^th place. 43 minutes ahead of my goal split *

 Around mile 42 was when things started to go bad. I started to get very nauseous , and I was unable to eat anything. I was unable to run for longer than a minute at a time. I started alternating with 2 minutes of hiking and 1 minute of running. By the time I got to the aid station, even that slow pace became daunting. The bouncing motion of running was just getting me more sick. I had made the ridiculous error of putting my headlamp , gloves, and hat in this drop bag. So not only was I carrying 70 oz of electrolyte and a ton of food that I wasn’t able to eat, I had to lug around my headlamp and night gear.  I was now unable to run and everything started tightening up and hurting. My feet felt like they were on fire, but I decided I would not look at them. I had never been in this situation of feeling sick while running before. I witnessed one guy on the side of the trail forcing himself to throw up. I wondered if I should be doing the same, but I was too afraid it would make me weak. I started to see my time slipping away as I got closer to mile 51.1.

Mile 51.1 Meadows.  I came through here at 5:15pm, in 46^th place and 20 minutes ahead of my goal split. 

On any given day I would be happy with a 10 hour , 50 mile split in the mountains but not today, not after getting passed by 16 people in such a short span of time. I finally sat down for the first time and decided I was done moving for now. I sat down for what seemed like an eternity, but I think it was only 10 minutes. Jim , the medical volunteer and the a/s volunteers catered to my needs wonderfully as I sat there. I got doused in cold water and was served endless cups of ginger ale. Jim talked me into getting my butt in gear and to go meet my pacer at the next station.

mile 50, feeling really bad

Mile 56.3 Penny Pines 2.  I came through here at 6:44pm, 46^th and 6 minutes ahead of my goal split.

 I had attached myself to a runner and  pacer between Meadows and Penny Pines, in hopes of keeping me motivated to keep moving forward. The runner wanted to sit down after about 2 miles, so I was on my own again. Thank goodness for my awesome pacer, Kathryn, who decided to run out onto the trail and meet me at mile 54. I no longer had any motivation to take care of myself out there, so having someone else force feed me and distract me from my misery was a welcome break. Mile 56 aid station was another 10 minute sitting break for me.

Mile 64 Pine Creek. I came through here at 8:47pm, 45^th and 22 minutes behind

We were finally back on familiar trail for me. The good ‘ol Noble Canyon descent was ahead of us. I was still not wanting to run, but Kathryn talked me into making an attempt to do so. I am glad we did, because I ended up running almost half of it. The rocks completely tore up our sore feet and ankles. We did the last bit of the trail to 64 with no headlamps as the sky  became dark. My back/neck were so beat up at this point, but I knew I made a good choice of pacer when she did some active release massage on my neck. J

Mile 72.1 Pioneer Mall 2. I came through here at 11:32pm,  43^rd and 32 minutes behind.

Oh my goodness, how can a little 2000 foot climb over 8 miles be so difficult. The combination of darkness and everything hurting was a recipe for extremely slow movement onwards and upwards. My hiking speed was still quite strong though, and my pacer had trouble keeping up with me in the steep sections.  I was relieved to make it to mile 72, but I was also worried at the same time. I was relieved in that I knew almost for certain I would be able to finish now. I  even pep talked myself into believing sub 24 was still possible, and I decided I would make a go of it. On the flip side, I was pretty overwhelmed with worry  about having to do the next 15 miles through the canyons, without a pacer. I also had to try and shrug off the fact there was a mountain lion on the course a few miles back. After exchanging a few items at my 3^rd drop bag, I had to say goodbye to my pacer.

Mile 79.3 Sunrise 2. I came through here at 1:36am, 39^{th place} , and 51minutes behind my goal time.

I was running alone from mile 72 to 75, motivated  by the idea of hitting my goal time. This quickly came to a halt when I had a few nasty falls, causing my knee to hyper extend and put a huge strain on my left Achilles and knee. I was able to hike slowly through the canyons until 1 mile before the aid station, when the Achilles and knee blew up. I was suddenly unable to even walk. I somehow managed to hobble it in to the aid station. I started to freak out about having to do the 8 mile section ahead. I hadn’t seen anyone on the trail for 3 hours, and the thought of walking another 8 miles into the moonless night was not a pleasant thought.I considered dropping out due to injury, but I decided to keep moving on even though it didn't seem smart to do so. I  also forgot to take into consideration that my rechargeable headlamp was well past its maximum usage time. Oops.

Mile 87.9 Chambers 2. I came through here at 4:51am, 46^th, and 2hrs and 6 minutes behind my goal.

Miles 79.3 to 87.9 were the beginning of the worst pain in my life. I started to make the 8 mile trek, but the only way I was able to move forward was to keep my left leg completely straight at all times and not use it at all to propel myself forward. I’d have to do the remaining 20 miles on one leg. As the hours passed at my slow 19 minute a mile pace, I started to worry more and more about my headlamp. I used my cell phone to plead with my pacer to run out onto the trail to meet me. My worries were not misplaced, because as I predicted, my headlamp died. It was so dark that I could not see my hand when holding it a few inches from my face. I had to start using my phone flashlight which only had 20 percent battery left on it. I sent out my final SOS to my pacer, Jeremy, and put the thing on airplane mode. After almost  4 hours of not seeing anyone, a runner finally came up from behind. I told him about my situation and pleaded that he help me. He was moving pretty well and said he couldn’t stop,  but his pacer might be able to. I waited about 15 minutes for the pacer to come to where I was. I couldn’t believe how dim his flashlight was. How was that even possible?!  I was still relieved nonetheless,  and he agreed to walk it in with me until I found Jeremy.  He was even so kind as to offer me some “Herbal Medicine.” I politely declined after realizing he meant marijuana.   After finding Jeremy, we started the most painful hike of my life to the next aid station. My knee was hurting so bad, that the burning of all the blisters and hotspots under my feet were a nice distraction from the bigger problem.  I finally made it to the aid station after 3 hours and 8 miles of walking like a one legged pirate. How fitting that the name of the aid station was “Pirates Cove.” I finally got to sit down again, and I removed my shoes and socks for the first time.I had my blisters drained and bandaged, and off we went.....at a blistering fast 25 minutes a mile pace....

Mile 94.4 Paso Picacho . I came through here at 7:47am, 63^rd, and 3 hours and 12 minutes behind my goal. I knew in the back of my mind that the 3 hours of pegleg walking over 8 miles of flat terrain would be child’s play compared to this next section. I had to climb up and down a very rocky Stonewall peak with a leg that couldn’t bend. I really wanted to throw in the towel and call it quits, but I didn't want to let my pacers down after such a enormous effort to help me finish. I also felt like it would have been a waste of months of training to not finish my race. Besides, my “C” goal was to just finish, and I had 6 hours to do a half marathon. I could move almost at 30 minutes a mile and still come close to being under the cutoff.

Climbing up Stone wall peak caused the most pain I had ever been in.  I had to propel myself up the trail and over rocks with one leg at a 25 to 30 minutes a mile pace. Every time my left shoe would tap a rock, a feeling of my knee being ripped in half sent me into minor shock, and I would have to take a break to catch my breath and regain my composure. It ended up taking a total of 3 hours to do the 6 mile section. That was at my absolute max effort!

Mile 100.2 The Finish.

 The heat was back in full force again early in the morning, and I had 5.8 miles to go. I was emotionally drained from the torture of the last section. The last section had less climbing, but the cumulative fatigue and injuries became too much to bear. Sleep deprivation was also becoming an issue. It was the longest I had ever been awake.From the drive the previous day until now, I had  been on the go for 29 hours. Every rock  in those 5.8 miles looked like a plush mattress. My leg never did get better, but I was able to push through the heat and pain to find the finish line. Although it was albeit slower than I had wanted,  the feeling of finishing my first mountain 100 with 20% of it on one leg, was unbelievable.

Feeling sorry for myself would never have got me to that finish line. Ultimately, I just had to stay in the present and keep on taking one more step. Taking one more step was all I knew how to do.

 Finish time of  28:25:51 

  Many thanks to my pacers, Kathryn and Jeremy, you both were amazing for many reasons ,and thanks to all of the amazing volunteers that got me in and out of the aid stations fast.

Old Goat 50 mile race

***Disclaimer*** If you are reading this, you probably know that I finished, but you do not know how bad it actually went. This is a quick recap of all the bad things that happened. The only good thing that happened was being able to stop when I reached the finish line.

“Even the downhill is up” "100 mile race experience packed into 50 miles" "It is one of the hardest 50 mile races in the Country" These were the type
of one-liners I came across when I first heard about OG50 (Old Goat 50.)

  My friends, Mark, Jeremy and I were talked into signing up for this beast of a race by our ultrarunning friend, Carlos. Mark gave in first, then Jeremy,and I followed suit not wanting to be the odd man out. It was one of those moments where you click submit on that online form then think,"What have I done?!?!"

  I immediately started to read the race reports about how hard the race was in previous years. With every personal recantation  Jeremy and I read about the race, the more of a caricature like image of the race we painted in our heads. All of the possible doom and gloom scenarios of things that could happen during the race became the normal topic of conversation (although we were mostly joking about it.)

  Training for the race was going amazing... I was on a 50+ day running streak and had run a few 100 mile weeks back to back, averaging over 10 miles a day in February for the Taji100 challenge. Then came the opportunity to run a 12 hour race the month before Og50.......I got talked into this one too. I rationalized the decision by telling myself that it would be a good training session for the Goat.

  It turns out it was a bad decision to go into that race over-trained. I managed to go 50 miles in 9 1/2 hours, but in turn I badly injured my right heel. Out of fear of a stress fracture, I did not run a single step during the 20 days leading up to OG50.

 March 23rd, race day was finally here. All 3 of us were injured in various ways, but we made the deal to at least start the first loop and then make a decision whether to continue on after  21 mile loop

  We all headed out on the Candy Store loop at 6:30am as a group. The trail was very beautiful and similar to the Noble Canyon trail in  San Diego.

The "fun" begins....

Mile 0:  Gastrointestinal stress begins and I am unable to eat a proper meal for energy
Mile 1: I need to go to the bathroom from the distress, 20 miles to go until I am back at the restroom.... I wait
Mile 2-4: Rolled my ankles bad...twice
Miles 4-7: Bottle-necked on the single track by a few slow people. Finally broke free and began to run faster then I should have. Slammed my big toe into a rock....twice, and it felt like I broke it.
Mile 9: I was running up a slight uphill on technical, jagged rock trail behind 2 gals. Focusing on their footing and not mine...I tripped, flew through the air, landed palms first into some sharp rocks. Thank goodness I was still wearing gloves for the cold weather, which allowed me to press
on with minimal injuries.
Miles 10-13: I slip off the wet rocks while crossing a stream and dig my right foot into a mud pit, completely soaking my right shoe/foot in mud.
Miles 14-21: The intestinal distress got more and more intense. My hips and knees lock up, causing me to walk for 4 miles straight, back to the bluejay campground.


I was greeted with cheers from the onlookers and encouragement from Shawna (of the awesome Wentlandt family)When I got back to Bluejay campground well below the 6 hour cutoff in 4 1/2 hours. More importantly, I finally got some momentary relief in the bathroom after waiting for over 4 hours. After plopping myself down on the ground, I surveyed the damages from only 21 miles on the trail.

I then began the internal battle of whether  I would press on for up to a total of 14 hours...... No, I decided it  would be better if I quit now, since I then could relax the rest of the day.

Mentally I had given up, but for some reason I was in autopilot mode....I let Shawna fill my camelback, I took off my wet compression socks and put on just the dri-fit ones, and began having about 5 cheezits as my first calories in the race. Next thing you know she is telling me that I have to go on, and  I am being kicked out of the Aid station by her.

No turning back....
Miles 21-23.6: Some of the real climbing begins, temperatures climbed on the exposed trail, and my intestinal distress came back with a vengeance. I felt very sick and disoriented at the Trabuco Aid Station. I stumbled through the aid station accidentally bumping into people. I thought my friend Jessica was taking my pic with a camcorder, but instead starts interviewing me about how I was feeling. I had to divert the question, as to not start spewing out obscenities on film. My break was short lived. The awesome photographer,
Lynne Cao, was yelling at me to continue on. Carlos begins spewing out all sorts of advice as how to break down the sections in my mind. I was not coherent and could not make sense of what he was telling me, let alone remember it.

Miles 23.6-28.8: The 5 miles straight of downhill over super rocky terrain was a short lived relief since it caused my quads and feet to be overworked. I was in post race shape at the halfway mark, every things hurt. This was not very comforting as the OG50 race really begins at mile 28.

Miles 28.8 - 34: Things went from bad to worse on the trail. I was still not eating enough calories after several hours of running, and I began to bonk hard. The temperature kept rising and I started to experience heat exhaustion. I was so hot and overheated, but I was unable to sweat. I took this as a bad sign and began to have a mild panic attack. I tried to calm myself by taking deep breaths,but was unable to since it caused a pain in my chest. A panic attack mixed with heat exhaustion, a hard bonk and hard breathing made for a slow and scary climb up to Bear Springs aid station.

Mile 34, Bear Springs: From a distance I spotted one of the volunteers open chair in the shade, and I planned to spend the rest of the race sitting there. I sat there in a state of bliss and so glad the pain was finally all over. Trying to cool off,  I doused freezing cold water on top of my head. My break and DNF decision was short-lived once again as a racer plopped himself in the chair next to me. He was in much worse shape then I was, throwing up every time he ate something. I figured if I wasn't in as bad of shape as him that I should continue on.I also could not bear to watch someone throw up when I am not feeling too good myself. I could not stick around to watch the carnage, I pressed on to finish the never ending 8 mile straight up climb to Santiago peak.

Falling apart...
Mile 34 - 36.8: 2.8 miles to the top of Santiago peak, with another aid station? When reading it on the paper it didn't sound so bad. Doing it was another story. I was slowly moving up what was the most ridiculously sustained fire road incline I had ever been on. Every ache in my body reached its maximum pain. Every injury from the past year seemed to surface all at once.. from my knee pains..... to shin splints......
to hip flexor pain..... to quadricep tendon pain.... to calf pain.... to back pain.... to shoulder pain.... to neck pain.... to ankle pain... to feet pain....
 I felt like the mountain was trying to beat me down, not allowing me to reach the top. The physical beating brought about an emotional breakdown. This was not new to me, it had happened twice before; once as I neared the end of my first Ultra and again during ATY's 24 hour race.
It is hard to admit,, but I was in tears, with an enormous feeling on inadequacy. I got my phone out, turned it on, and hoped I could get some signal to talk to a friendly voice. Luckily I did eventually get that signal and phone call. She encouraged me to press on, and I was  able to snap out of the bad frame of mind I was in. I pressed on, made it to the top of the peak, had a celebratory half of a very small quesadilla and headed down.


Miles 36.8 - 47: The large downhill sections were a nice break from the sustained climbs, but I was experiencing such an intense burning sensation on the bottoms of my feet that I was only able to run .2 miles at a time before needing to hike. I still to this day do not know why they were in such pain, as I did not get any blisters.
I would run until the pain was too severe to continue and go back to hiking. I repeated this over and over.
Breaking the 40 mile barrier provided a great mental boost that was much needed, especially with everyone that I led the entire race passing me on the downhill. I probably would not have made it through all of the
climbs on the main divide fire road without that boost. I was so mentally drained that I even
left my water, bottle full of ice water, on a table at an aid station and did not fill my hydration pack. I started to feel very dehydrated, although I'm sure it was mostly in my head. I was so over this race......mentally physically emotionally..... At least I was blessed with a nice sunset over the clouds.

Miles 47 - 50:  I was greeted down the trail by my friend Jessica, who was working the Trabuco aid station. She jokingly offered to take over for me in the last few miles. I was definitely not in a joking mood at mile 47...I somehow flipped a switch in my head, blocking out all my pain receptors. I skipped getting aid,
and flew down the remaining 3 mile hill, passing 5 people in the process. A few of them asked me if I was feeling better now. I told them no.... "I just want to be done with this," as I ran by.

It was a great feeling to finish strong and an even better feeling of being able to stop. There was a big cheering crowd as I finished, and the RD shook my hand, placed a medal around my neck , and congratulated me on finishing..

I walked over to the chair that was kindly offered by my friend Trasie, I sat down, my body shut down, my joints locked up, and I got a bad chill.

I had no sense of accomplishment, just an overwhelming feeling of happiness to be done.

The finish line festivities were by far the best of any ultra I had been too. A home cooked meal was being prepared by the RD's  daughter in both vegan and meat varieties  I had a veggie burger and some soup before hobbling back to the car. Once the chills went away, we left the race.

12 hours 40 minutes 4 seconds

79th out of 117 finishers and almost 170 starters.

It is time for a temporary break from Ultras. I hope to come back stronger, injury free and mentally stronger  when I do. 

Rohring Round The Clock 12 Hour Race

  The 12 hour race is still painful to think about and I have been procrastinating writing even the shortest of race reports.....

The 12 hour race was on 2/23 at Rohr Park in Bonita, California. Rohr Park is a 5k loop of dirt trails and cement sidewalks intertwined throughout a park and circumnavigating a golf course.
Despite the course being significantly longer then the Across The Years course, it is a loop nonetheless and just as mentally tough.

I had got sucked into signing up for this one as my first race of the year , less then a month before it was to take place. I was cautiously optimistic going into it since I had a few hundred mile training weeks in a row on the pavement for the Taji100 challenge. The downside to those big weeks was that I was coming into the race overtrained and slightly injured. I had to look at the race as an opportunity to just run all day with my friend Jeremy and a few others, treating it as more of a party.

5:30 am : Me and a small group of other lunatics doing the 12 hr race embark on our first lap in the dark. The group quickly divided and I found myself running with Jeremy and a guy named Joe. It was dark enough out that we missed the first turn without knowing it. After running about a quarter mile we quickly realized that something was off when we were running on a golf course fairway. We kept pressing on, hoping that we would rejoin with the trail. After running in circles around the inside of the golf course, the day was looking to not be a good one. We finally spotted the starting line across the fairway and decided to keep running until we passed 5k of distance. After passing the 3.1 mile mark we ran back to the start line, which was now visible due to the increasing light in the sky. We had tacked on an extra half mile and were dealt a huge mental blow to start the day.

Autopilot mode.... The first 20 miles felt like we were on autopilot and we ran non-stop without any walking. We would fuel up every 10k at our cars with food and drink that we had brought. Bringing your own supplies is a must for this race since the supplied food and water were in short supply.
The autopilot mode eventually caused us to crash, me mentally and somewhat physically and Jeremy physically. Around mile 27 Jeremy had to sit out a lap to attend to a growing pain in his feet and legs. I kept pressing on, hoping that I could hit the 50k mark in 6 hours.

From mile 24 on I was beating myself over the head for signing up for another looped course. I could not think of any good reasons to keep pressing on... except that I had told everyone that I was going to get 50 miles done that day. I had really screwed up making this my first race since the 24 hour.

This was my first race that I had used a heartrate monitor as a tool to determine my pace. As I clicked away the miles into the 30 mile rage my body was in rapid decline according to my monitor. My 147 heartrate pace slipped gradually from 8:30 pace down to 11:00 min/mile pace. After passing the 50k mark, anytime I ran it would immediately spike to 160 heartrate no matter how slow I went. I knew that I would get more injuries if I kept that heartrate for the many hours yet to go in the race, so I had to employ a run/walk strategy for most of the remainder of the race.

After getting above the 40 mile mark I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and began to pick up the pace again, mostly running. I was envious of Jeremy and the wife sitting on the sidelines and wanted to join them. The endless hours of sun were starting to get to me, so I wrapped the shirt on my back around my head. I looked like a person wandering through the desert, in hopes of scavenging every last bit of shade. She told me I looked ridiculous, but I did not care since races like these allow a person to stop caring about what others think and perceive of you.

I finally passed the 50 mile mark on my Garmin in 9 hours and 38 minutes halfway into one of my laps!! The sad part was the lap was only going to make 49 official miles when I finished it. After finishing the lap I waited for her and Jeremy to join me for the last lap. It was a very long lap since Jeremy had to limp walk it with us, bringing his total distance to 60k. Over an hour later we finished the lap, giving me 52 official miles and 54 miles on my Garmin in 11 hours and 7 minutes. We called it a day and I finally got to sit down for the first time.

The race:

 If you want a bare-bones, fat-ass style ultra with no frills, this is the race for you. No t-shirt,medals or timing chip for this one.

Pros: Nice course if you can handle lots of concrete sections and almost no inclines. The scenery is always changing  with the never ending flow of civilians on the trail and in the park. All of the competitors, like at other ultras, are friendly and motivating. The course is very visually appealing with all of the trees and greenery.

Cons: Lots of obstacles on the trail with all the random people walking/running/skipping/rolling around the loop. You will not survive on only the food and drink provided. No timing chips made for an annoying day of having to check in after each loop, messing up the flow of continuously moving... sometimes they didn't hear you and you wondered whether that 3 miles counted.

Taji100 Challenge.

 My recovery from my Across The Years race has gone better then expected. I do not have any stress fractures or seriously dehabilitating injuries from it...just some tendinitis issues.  After taking a week off at the beginning of January, I jumped straight into my training for Old Goat 50. I started a running streak on January 11th and am 18 days into it now. My main focus has been technical trail hill repeats everyday. The last 2 weeks have been about 40 miles per week of hill training.

 I came across an interesting challenge someone referenced on Facebook. The Taji100 challenge caught my eye for two reasons. For starters, anything with the number 100 in it is alluring, secondly the Wounded Warrior Project is a great organization that I have given to in the past, and lastly, I love a good challenge! It also does that hurt that the month of February will contain my peak training for OG50.

 I have set a personal goal of hitting 200 miles in the short month, a distance I have never come close to in previous training!

Please consider donating to WWP through my donation page per mileage I complete. If you cannot donate, please follow my progress and encourage me on! Thanks!

http://support.woundedwarriorproject.org/individual-fundraising/christopherbrill/
www.facebook.com/runforwwproject


UPDATE:
2/7/2013
DAY 7 :  Finished the first 100 miles. 2/4 to 2/10 was my highest mileage running week ever at 112 miles.
DAY 14: I am at 196 miles and plan to finish my original goal of 200 miles later this evening. My original plan definitely did not have me running back to back 100 mile weeks. I have readjusted my goal to 300 miles and have begun doing less miles in preparation for my upcoming 12 hour race on Feb. 23rd.
FINAL: 282 miles in 28 days, took it really easy the last 2 weeks of the challenge to rest up for my race, but I am happy with the total.

Reminiscing 2012 and Across the Years Race

  Many of you may not know this , but the beginning of 2012 was the beginning of my running career. 7 years earlier I had done a little running but I never tested myself in a race. My obsession with running and racing began with 2 Spartan races which began a snowball effect ,causing me to complete over 15 races of various distances this year.... 5k's , 10k's, half marathons, obstacle races .

  My new found fun on the trails was derailed for several periods of time before the summer due to various injuries and a car accident that left me with a bad back and neck. I eventually bounced back for the most part before Summer. 

Everything changed though when I stumbled across a listing for a 50k race in the mountains. The race, Cuyamaca 3 Peaks, was a few weeks out and sold out already. Jokingly to my friend Jeremy, I said we should put ourselves on the waiting list. Next thing you know I was shooting off an email to the race director , asking to put us on the waiting list. I knew absolutely nothing about ultra marathons at this point, it was definitely not on my radar of being something I would do. I had heard of a character named Dean Karnazes from a book my bro read but that was about the extent of it.  Heck, my longest run had been 14 miles at that point! Lo and behold 8 hrs later in the morning I had gotten a response back from the RD saying he opened 2 spots for us. My impulsive race addiction had me signed up for it the same day!

 Long story short, I did the race in July( 7 months into running), got my butt whooped from the course, heat and my inability to follow course markings( adding distance), but still managed a mid pack finish. I was hooked, I loved everything about it.... the misery, the cool people, and  a sense of accomplishment knowing that I had gone further in a race than most people have.  From that day on in July I lived and breathed everything ultra running related. All the great podcasts, articles and documentaries were fuel to the fire that created the urgency to do another one as soon as possible. And so I did....in  September I did Endure the Bear 50k, shaving over an hour off of my 3 Peaks time and again in October at Lake Hodges 50k, shaving almost an hour and a half off of my Endure the Bear time. To this point , Lake Hodges was my longest continuous run without any walk breaks, 32 miles of mostly a sub 9 minute pace.

  I ended up getting injured at Lake Hodges from overuse of my peroneal muscle and tendon due to a compensation in my foot for another injury. I was on crutches for a bit and my running was derailed once more.

  Right before Lake Hodges 50k, Across the Years race had just come under my radar as something that I would be interested in doing to cap the year off. I liked the idea of giving myself 24 hours to see what kind of distance I could travel. I would never be able to duplicate such an environment to try  outside of a racing environment.  With my foot injury I was unable to get any good running in for about a month and a half, so I withheld entering the race.  Eventually my foot did heal and with the stir craziness of only doing one race while my foot was injured (pr for the half marathon), I impulsively signed up December 12th for Across the Years 24 hour race on December 29th. My Christmas gift to myself was to see what my body was capable of. 

  The allure of getting a 100 mile belt buckle was upon me, but the odds of me going that distance with all the injuries and setbacks I had during the year, on top of it being my very first year of running, placed the odds at least a 1000 to one against it. I knew I had the drive and determination to finish an event like that, and my ability to operate well under extreme exhaustion was an asset. Nevertheless, I had never even been on my feet for that long and my longest run had been around 32 miles! 

 At a Buckle party ( cool event to see other peoples 100 mile finisher's awards) I went to, I received a big confidence booster by my buddy Carlos, who is a multiple 100 mile finisher, when he told me that I definitely could do the 100 miles. I think just hearing one experienced person tell me that changed my mindset. I still had my doubts, but I started to at least believe in the possibility that I could do it somehow. Within that week, the organizer of the Buckle party, Trasie, messaged me , wanting to know about what mileage I was shooting for in the upcoming race. I told her 100 miles, I expected her to laugh but she didn't . She asked me what my longest run was... with hesitation I said 32 miles in a day, I definitely thought she going to say I should shoot for a lower mileage but she didn't. Instead she said that she believed I could do it. I could not have been in a better mindset going into the race. This was essential to my success and I am now a firm believer in how powerful the mind can be.

December 29th was here, it was sunny and 34 degrees outside as we set up our canopy , gear and food. We quickly became friends with our immediate neighbors Jim and Steve . I had every meal planned out since I had planned on being completely self sufficient due to me switching over to a vegan/ plant based diet 2 weeks earlier. The wife was to crew me for the race so I didn't waste anytime rummaging through gear instead of making forward motion. 

9 am : race began and I was not feeling good physically . When I stopped running and began walking on the back half of the course my hip flexors were giving me trouble on the very first mile. Only 95 more laps to go!

3pm: I completed the first 50 k of the course with a run walk strategy of not running most of the turns on the second half of the course.  I was on course time wise with a split schedule I worked up to get to 100 miles on time. Calorie intake proved to be a problem , I had not anticipated having trouble getting down the calories I needed to keep my energy up. My main calorie source was avocado sandwiches with vegennaise, tomatoes and sea salt.

  From my first 50k to mile 40 things were still going great and every step was now the longest distance I had gone in a day.  Once I hit 40 though things went downhill fast. All of the little annoyances were starting to build up and negativity was starting to take hold. It started with the realization that in 10 more miles I will have to do the entire 50 miles over again!! You have got to be freaking kidding me! Instead of breaking the run into 5 mile goals like I had been, I started looking at the entire 100 miles as one big chunk.   I needed a little boost in spirits so I tried to go on Facebook to see everyone's well wishings but instead my phone kept saying I was putting in the wrong password. First I was locked out 1 minute, then 5, then 15 ....Then I swore the timing devices did not capture a few of my laps. By that time I was steaming mad and ready to throw in the towel and quit. 

Mile 40- 50: I did a lot of walking during this time , I figured I needed to press on to see if I could recover from the super low I was having. I reached mile 50 a little off my desired time of sub 10 hrs , but got 10 and a half hours instead.  

Miles 50-62: I experienced my first recovery from a bonk. I had heard of people experiencing such a thing, but experiencing it myself was incredible! I began to feel as fresh as the beginning of the race. Hitting that 50 mile mark felt amazing!  I now had my eyes set on the100k (62 mile) mark, a distance that seemed unfathomable before this race. With fresh motivation, I was able to quickly start cranking out the miles under the light of incandescent lamps running off generators.

Mile 62: Beware the chair.... As the middle of the night approached, the temps dropped down into the 30's and the amount of racers dwindled down. I had completely lost my appetite and my crew, the wifey, settled down for the night in the warming tent. Every lap I would look to the inside of the warming tent and see people napping, conversing, putting their feet up and foam rolling..... I envied them....a lot. I was feeling pretty crappy now and decided to risk taking a break to ice my feet. I plopped myself down on a chair in the warming tent. Sitting down for the first time did not bring about the relief I was expecting......I actually started to feel all of the pains I had been suppressing and it was not pleasant. The second I took the ice packs off of my feet they still felt like they were on fire. After wasting about a half hour I decided resting was not going to do me any good, so I tried to stand up to get going again but I couldn't activate my muscles even with the help of someone pulling my arms.I had to be basically lifted up out of the chair. After getting to  my feet I was unable to walk without stumbling..... everything had tightened up and my chances of finishing were looking bleak..... bonk #2 was in full force and I wanted to quit... I was even given permission by Lauren and other people there that it was ok to quit and that I had still conquered a great amount of distance.
   I headed out for another lap on the 1.0495 mile course to see if I was really done. After a full lap everything began to move again and I was back in the race. My new friend Jim, offered me his timer that beeped every 30 and 45 seconds, signifying when to walk and run. 
My body somehow bounced back once more and I was running again.... very fast in fact. When the timer went off for running I was averaging about a 8 minute pace. People on the course started to tell me I looked very fresh! After pounding out 8 fast laps the surge of energy I had got, tapered off and I was back to a death march. 

Mile 70: After a few slow laps I had a huge surprise waiting for me near our Canopy. I thought I started to hallucinate or go into shock when I saw my good friend Jeremy from San Diego waiting for me to finish the straight part of the course. Luckily I was not having a mental breakdown or dying , instead it turns out he had driven from San Diego to help me out on the course and witness me getting the 100 miles done. He didn't tell us he was coming and it was a great lift to my spirits!


Mile 75:  Another tough lesson learned... I should of listened to my body at the 100k mark when my feet were burning. I should have reapplied skin lubricant to my feet or changed socks because now I had an onslaught of blisters on the bottom of my feet. I literally could not walk another step so I decided to take a break to see the medic on duty. Of course they were with someone else and taking a long time to treat their feet. After what seemed like eternity he took a look at my feet and told me he couldn't do much for me since draining them would make the pain worse.

 After taping up my feet he told me that my race was pretty much over and that I should reassess my goals since I was not going to make it to 100 miles. This was not what I wanted to hear at mile 75....
I decided to press on even after wasting 45 minutes in the medic tent and being told that my race was over. I knew with all the wasted time and being unable to run on the blisters, that my chance of finishing 25 miles in 7 hours was unlikely in my condition.... I just couldn't walk fast enough.

One thing that should be known about me is that if I am told that if I cannot do something, it kicks my determination into high gear and I will do everything possible to prove that person wrong and prove to myself that I am capable of anything!

I needed both my wife and Jeremy to pull me out of the chair since my body had shut down even more so since the first chair incident. I was unable to walk on my own and had to keep my hand on Jeremy's shoulder for stability on the first lap. We were moving so slow that I started to get a really bad chill, I took Jeremy's jacket and was then wearing a shirt, beanie, 3 jackets, shorts, pants, gloves,and ear warmers. Even with all of that I was still chilled to the bone and feared that I would get hypothermia. Luckily it eventually passed and I slowly eeked out the miles through the night with excruciating foot pain.

Mile 86: After a long night of accompanying me on my death march and getting a blister of his own, Jeremy had to return his night bib at 6am and he went to his car to get some sleep. I was on my own for 3 more hours and I could see her sleeping on the ground in the warming tent. When she woke up we talked about my new goal for the race. I told her I wanted to complete the 24 hours as my primary goal and to go into the 48 hour race so I can make sure I finish the 100 miles as my secondary goal. The organizers were super cool and put me into the longer race for no charge since I would not go the whole next day. I decided to see what I could do in the remaining 3 hours.

Mile 92: Done yet not done..... I had made it through the 24 hour race with 92 miles! What an accomplishment, almost 3 times my longest distance to date! I thought I would keep going but I only made it to the turn where our canopy was. I was moving at about a 30 min/mile pace so it made sense to rest for a bit. I laid down on the grass and went in and out of sleep for about an hour. It was not at all restful as I had some of my new running friends yelling at me to get up and keep going. They were not experiencing my pain, they had no idea what i was going through....and they definitely didn't know the pain from not reaching my original goal in the 24 hour period. I got up anyways and started shuffling around the course on my mutilated feet.

Mile 97:  Only 3 laps left yet I could not go another step due to my blisters multiplying through the night and day. I decided to get my right foot treated by the medic before continuing. The blisters were under much of my toes, heel and one even popped under my big toe. The medic made her drain out one of the blisters on my foot, lucky her!

MILE 100! This was it, the pain was about to stop and I was going to join the small fraction of the population who are 100 mile finishers. My wife and Jeremy both joined me on the final, 96th lap. 

I did it! and on a Vegan / Plant only diet that I had not tried out in any training !

2012 was officially over for me and I had proved to myself and all my friends/family that anything was possible(and that skeptical medic).. I thought I would be emotional at the end of the race, but I had nothing left.... I left it all on the course. 

Thank you to Jeremy White, Jim Tello, Steve Kissell, Ryan Weidert, and Anastasia, you were all instrumental to my success in getting the 100 mile buckle. A thank you to everyone who believed I could do it (you know who you are), and extra thanks to Jeremy for sacrificing his money and weekend to come to the race....and especially to my wife, for her support of all my athletic endeavors this year and for taking care of me during the race, without her support I would have never finished.

The injuries are mostly minimal and will heal with time...Hello 2013! Bring it! 

Running into the New Year, follow me!

I'm bringing in 2013 and closing 2012 with a 100 mile attempt at Across the Years 24 hour race in Phoenix,Az!

I'd love for you to follow my progress, and you can do so here:

Webcam:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aravaiparunning

Live results:
http://www.aravaiparunning.com/ultracast/

General updates of the race:
http://www.facebook.com/aravaiparunning


Send me your positive thoughts, healthy thoughts and prayers!!

Happy New Year everyone!

Lake Hodges 50k Race 2012

 What should have been my easiest 50k to date , turned out to cause the most injuries of all of them. I have been waiting to write this blog post until I had visited a doctor. I finally went to one yesterday to get my foot x-rayed...luckily no fractures, but I am now on a pair of crutches and cannot walk on my right foot until whatever is wrong with it heals up.

Based on the bum knees, hips, right foot and left glute you would think that I had a disastrous race day. It was quite the opposite!!
I was feeling pretty good going into it except for my sore left knee from the Mt. Williamson trip and being sleep deprived.

The 50k race kicked off at 7 am with over 160 runners hitting the trails. The overall field was quite quick, not a surprise given the relatively low elevation gains of the trails. I had the fortune of a friend of mine wanting to run at the same pace for as long as possible, so Mark and I headed out on the first leg of the trails towards the first turnaround. It was freezing cold in the morning so we kept a brisk pace of around 8:30 min/mile.
  The picture below is around the 1 mile marker, coming across the bridge





 At the first turnaround and aid station of the day, the currently #1 gal caught up and didn't get anything from the station. She passed me and started doubling back on the trail we just came down.








 The sun came up as we were doubling back towards the bridge which gave me a mental boost as my pace was starting to slip to 9 min/mile. As I reached the bridge Mark caught back up to me and we started to keep the pace between 8:30 and 8:45. We were both being passed by lots and lots of people and felt like we were going to be last place, with everyone getting sub 4 hour times! Once we reached the super flat section of the course by some agricultural farms, a lot of those people began to slow and we were finally able to do some passing. That gave us the boost we needed to bring us to the aid station at mile 13. I stuck with a very basic nutritional approach to the aid stations and ate only Chia Surge packets and electrolyte drink. This allowed me to maximize my running time since I was able to eat the stuff while running, as opposed to eating regular food items while walking. I believe I ate a total of 12 packets of the stuff during the race. With my fast turnaround at the aid station, I decided to leave my friend there as he figured out what he was refueling with. I began my climb up raptor ridge where I was able to gain a few more spots as some of the runners appeared to be getting a beat down from the short climb. After cresting the top and heading down the backside of the ridge we ran along farmland all the way until the final turnaround and aid station at mile 19. Because of the out and back nature of the trail, I was able to get an idea of how far ahead most of the field was. I spent between 10 and 15 seconds at the turnaround aid station before beginning my mission to catch up to 2 of the gals who were about a mile ahead and another who was about a half mile ahead.  I received another mental boost when I saw my friends Jeremy and Mark running towards the turnaround together. They were about a mile behind me, based on my calculations with the gps watch.

  The building heat from the sun on the backside of raptor ridge took a lot out of me  and I was unsure whether I was going to be able to maintain my average pace of 8:58 for the remainder of the race. I attacked the backside of raptor ridge very conservatively and hiked up it, giving my hips the much needed break they needed. Feeling a bit dehydrated at the top, I decided to make a very quick sprint like decent down the mountain to the mile 24.5 aid station. I passed the #2 gal on the way down and quickly re-hydrated with electrolytes and avoided filling up my camelbak once more. I stuffed 3 Chia surge packets in my pockets and went blazing down the trail after being kicked out of there by my buddy Carlos. I kept a 7:30 pace for about a half mile to narrow the gap of a man and #1 gal that was ahead of me. It took me another mile to catch up to them and pass. I started to build a nice .25 mile lead over them, but lost it leading up to the last aid station at mile 28.9.  I heard the volunteers shout out to her that she was the number one female. I decided to make an attempt at not being chicked in the race, and I passed right through the aid station without refueling. Camelbak was dried out, I had no food, and I had  5k to go. She was right on my tail all the way unto the very end. We had slowed a bit from the last climb in the intense heat of the day but quickly picked up into a very fast pace to finish out the race in a respectable 4:50 time in 18th and 19th place. She was only around 20 seconds behind!

  After crossing the finish line, it was like a switch was flipped and I was unable to walk or move!!!

2nd in my age group, 18th overall, 31.89 miles with a 4:50 time, average pace of around 9:05

Mt. Williamson 2012 : My first DNF?

  Yep, that is it, Mt. Williamson , 2nd tallest mountain in California, standing at over 14k ft elevation, overlooking the Owens valley.
  Despite popular belief, I want to confirm that is my index finger in the picture, not me making an obscene gesture at the Mountain.

To quote the accomplished ultra runner, Kilian Jornet, in a recent interview he said: " There are days when you take so many risks, and you feel stupid, and nothing happens. Messner says mountains are not fair or unfair, just dangerous. It is true. We know they’re risky, and that maybe we will lose our lives there. But we do not stop for this reason, because life is about keeping dreams. The more bad experiences you have in the mountain, more you feel unsafe, more you pay attention when you’re there. But you continue to go."

I finally got to experience some risk in the Eastern Sierra mountains this last weekend. I feel like I have been so sheltered in the past with well maintained trails on my hikes and runs. Our Mt. Williamson attempt, to me at least, was very humbling. Here's a small part of the story:

First off, let me heed you the same warning that I read and ignored off a trip report by enduranceguy.com about attempting Williamson in a day:
"Before I tell you all about how I hiked 30 miles, to the top of the 2nd highest peak in California and back, in 19 hours, you need to promise me you’ll never try this."

  We hit Shepherds pass trail at 12 midnight on Sunday after driving for 6 hours and being up since 6 am on Saturday. So, at the beginning point of the day, me and my friend Jeremy had already been awake for 18 hours after a crappy night sleep on Friday night. We were both tired but still extremely confident in our ability to get up and down the Mountain in a day's time. I had already done a few 50k's and also been up to the summit of Mt. Whitney before.
The issues started early on for both of us, Jeremy was having trouble regulating his temperature in the cold weather and I was having a sharp pain in my left hip, all in the first few miles!

Here's Jeremy with some early sun protection in the middle of the night :-)

  We were keeping a very nice pace all the way up to Anvil Camp, which is around 10k feet elevation. We had now climbed 4879 feet in 8.8 miles, in about 4 hours. We topped off our water supply at the Anvil Camp creek crossing with Jeremy's new UV filtration bottle. After a short break,some side planking for my pushup group on facebook, and a few gear adjustments, we pressed on through the 30deg weather onto the next section of trails. We had a bit of trouble finding the start of the technical, non maintained trail heading up to Shepherds Pass. After a bit of wandering in the dark,we split up to find the trail, and I found that we had to cross another stream to hook up with the trail.

  Shepherds pass really kicked our butt's in that high elevation. We spent almost 2 hours climbing the pass in the dark, trying to beat the sunrise at around 6:30. The temperature outside reached its low point once we reached the top of the pass. The low temperature, combined with being awake for 24 hours, caused us to hit a low point in our hike. Jeremy was insisting on us taking a short nap at the pass before pushing onward, but I did not feel comfortable with this since we were both shivering and losing feeling in our feet. In the end, we pressed on, trying to find a route to the Williamson bowl.

       

 

  We hiked in the only direction that appeared to have a trail, which was pushing us in the wrong direction and towards the Great Western Divide. Those jagged ridge lines were some of the most beautiful mountains that I have ever seen.

  In the panorama picture above, that is Mt. Tyndall to the right and the crest of the hill leading into the Bowl. The 3 pictures below are after we dropped down the first large hill of boulders, overlooking the boulder field. We were happy to get this far, but we quickly realized that we had no idea where we were going down there. Mt. Williamson had so many chutes going up it, but all of them seemed impossible with their steep inclines, loose rocks and cliffs. I spent the better part of an hour wandering around, attempting to find cell signal so that I could get on the internet to do a little research. The best info I could find in my zombie like state was a picture that someone took, looking down one of the chutes onto one of the alpine lakes. At this point we only saw 2 of the lakes.

                

   According to the summit post I found, we had to cross the entire boulder field and locate the lake called Lake Saint Helen of Troy. With a renewed purpose, we traversed the boulder field. What no one described in the summit posts online was that the boulder field was far from flat. After about 3 hours of route finding through canyons and ridge lines of boulders, we came to what we thought was Lake Saint Helen of Troy and the black stain on Williamson:

When looking at the picture above of the lake, if looking at the mountain ahead, which is Williamson, we were going to attempt going up just to the right of that middle slope. This is the best picture we took that gives a good representation of what the climb looked like. From the base to the top, the slopes rise over 2000' ! From this point it took us almost an hour of bouldering to reach the foot steps of the mountain. Once we got to the "right spot," we wasted no time in giving it a go. The mountain gave us a good smack down almost immediately. We split apart as to not dislodge any rocks onto the other persons head, and started climbing. We were expecting a steep incline, but did not anticipate a scramble up the mountain side, requiring solid hand and foot holdings to get any forward momentum. After about 20 minutes or so of climbing, I had progressed fairly far up and to the left of Jeremy. All of a sudden I got to a spot where there was only 1 poor grip to hold onto, and the hillside on each side of me was giving way, including my foot hold. I quickly wrapped my arms around the one anchored rock and held on for dear life. I had a bit of a panic attack and was yelling out to Jeremy that I was in a bad situation. He could not see me and had no way to get across to where I was. My choices were to stay there forever and risk rocks falling on my helmetless head, let go of my hold, slide down to a safer spot and risk tumbling out of control to my death or broken bones, and the last option was to risk a quick scramble over the loose scree to a ledge that was about 10' away. None of those seemed like good options, but I went for the ledge and lucked out getting a hand grip on it. I was able to pull myself up there and got to stand up for the first and only time on the hillside. After getting myself calmed down, I decided to work laterally across the mountain to above where Jeremy was. We had to yell up and down to each other in order to have a discussion about what we were going to do, because the route was obviously way above our ability level. Jeremy said he was at a point where it would be too dangerous to go up and we did not know at this point whether we could reach the summit from this way. I told him to stay put and that I would climb a little bit higher to see if the route got any safer. I went up another 50 feet or so and saw that it was possibly getting worse. With the distance between us and the increasing winds, it was almost impossible to hear one another by yelling. After a short discussion, we decided reaching the summit was not worth dying over and that we needed to just find a way to descend safely......

Defeated!!! This is the first time I had to concede and not finish a physical challenge I started!

 It was reaching a point in the day where we could not attempt another route and be out of the boulder field before dark. It was a hard decision to make, a smart one I'm sure, but it is also one I am now regretting!

Getting down the steep scree slope proved to be more difficult and dangerous then going up. We decided to descend with our backs to the mountain and control our descent with our feet, putting our arms out to the side to stabilize us. After reaching the boulder field, instead of finding another route up the mountain, we decided to travel the 15 difficult miles back to the car as fast as possible. We took an extremely direct route across the boulder field, hitting several dead ends that required jumping off 6 ft ledges. It took us a total of 2 hours to get across, going at max speed and almost no breaks.

  These photos are from the last bit of the climb out of the bowl . It was warmed up to around 40+ degrees when we were climbing out. The last of the major climbs, included a wrong route back to the pass, which tacked on a few hundred more feet of climbing up a steep loose mountainside. Once at the top we saw another wicked boulder field and did not want to deal with that, so we turned back around and had to find another way around. Once reaching the trail for the pass, we took a short break before descending. I was pretty beat up, but I was still thinking clearly and able to try and reason with my hallucinating friend, who was seeing signs, cars, trash, people and roads that did not exist. After debating whether a sign was in the distance for about 15 minutes, we were up and moving again. Going down Shepherds pass was a time for me.....I fell a total of 5 times in about a 3 miles time. Jeremy had one good fall, but he was no longer wearing gloves!

Looking down the pass during our descent.

             Nice view of the canyons on the way out.

 Once we reached Anvil camp we refilled our depleted water bottles and realized that we had not replenished our water in about 10 hours. I'm sure we were severely dehydrated but too tired to even realize it. At Anvil camp, we had been awake for about 33 hours and took another break. I took off my shoes for the first time in 14 hours and dipped my feet into the ice cold stream. We had trouble getting moving again since it felt so good to rest by the stream among the large trees. Eventually we got moving again down the terrain we were getting to see for the first time. I began having problems with focusing on anything far away, the hillsides appeared to be moving constantly further away and they were in a wave pattern like a flag. I decided it was best to just focus on the few feet in front of me, as to not veer off into one of the ravines due to a misstep. After clearing the technical terrain we even ran for one of the remaining 8 miles. Before reaching the 4 mile-to-go mark we hit the last incline of the day, a short but  steep 500 ft gain grade. During the final ascending grade we were treated with the company of Jeremy's dad and friend who were headed up to hopefully meet us. They helped us keep a good pace on the final 4 miles and helped us negotiate the final 4 stream crossings.

We finally made it back to the car! Our minds were in a fog, our bodies were beaten down, and we began to shut down after being up for 39+ hours. We hiked a total of 30 miles, over some not very friendly terrain and  recorded almost 11k feet of elevation gain. For both of us it was our longest and most difficult hike.

  We gave it our all, took some risks, but in the end came up just a little short. If we had been smart and took 2 days, we would of definitely found a way to summit the mountain. Next summer I will have my revenge here.... Until then I will have to accept my first DNF (did not finish) on the trails.