The internet lied: Grinding it out to Santa Rosalia

Kids. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. LA Bay to Santa Rosalia I knew was going to be one of the longest legs. Turns out it is hands down the longest. My Internet research found a site with pretty exact milages listed for this leg that said it was 139 miles. Boy was that wrong. The guy must have been smoking crack when he was  looking at his GPS. I ended up paddling almost 190 miles to complete it. Took me a couple of days to realize how off it was and that I needed to refigure on the charts. Made it to Santa Rosalia with one day of water left. Cut it kind of close. Psychologically it was a rough week at times. The realization of the added distance got added to the fact that I was in a grind out the miles part of the trip. The first two weeks you have excitement of the adventure and something new to get you going. Week three into four you have "wow, I have gone 200 miles which is an achievement but there are  still 500 to go!"  That and a rough day on the water (high wind and rough water in a bad spot of coastline) coming around Punta las Animas put me in a bit of a funk. However by the end if the leg I was better.  Had some beautiful camping spots, the weather has been very cooperative, and I have passed the halfway mark which means it is all downhill from here. 3 days gets me to Mulege which is the gateway to Conception Bay, one of the premier kayaking spots in Baja. So far I have only seen local fishing pangas. I have seen no other kayakers, no sailboats, no fishing trawlers, or a cargo ship until I got to Santa Rosalia. There I finally saw a cargo ship loading gypsum and a pair of sailboats.   The next section has Highway 1 (the main road up and down Baja) along it so I may see more people along here then anywhere else. If I don't see kayaks in Conception Bay then I may never see any. I was surprised I didn't see any in LA Bay. 

The wildlife highlight of this section (there are many to choose from) was a 2+ mile long line of whales (50 to 100 to I have no idea how many) that were leaping out of the water and making loud smacks when they hit the water. It sounded like thunder. It went on for about 5 minutes before the settled down and just went back to being a whale parade headed north.  Amazing to watch but too far away to film. 

More when I can report again. 

Through the Heart of The Wall

First time I have gotten to a computer. Can´t find WiFi or I would add some pictures. Red sky in morning, red sky at night. Amazing sunrises and sets. Wildlife galore. Whales breathing as I sleep in my tent. Dolphins frolicking outside my tent. Sea lions grappling birds 20 yards off of my kayak. Just under 200 miles done at this point. The first week was a good warmup with lots of houses and a road nearby. This last week was the most technical section. The most remote area with no road anywhere near and the cliffs went straight into the ocean. Very few beaches if the wind picked up. Next section is 139 miles to Santa Rosalia which is just short of the halfway point. It tends to be very windy here. I have had 3 days of calm out of 13. I get up very early to get as many miles in before the afternoon winds start to pick up (usually starting at 9am. So far I have had one fisherman offer me marijuana and 2 run ins with the Mexican Navy so I would say so far the authorities are winning the drug war. All the Americans and Canadians that live down here feel quite safe. They say just don´t do dumb things just like in the US. I have met some great people here. People have invited me to their houses, fed me, given me rides to the market, etc. Both expats and the Mexican people. This is the 5th time I have been to Mexico and each time it has been great. The hardest part of this trip is missing Kathleen but I can look at the mountains and water and have to pinch myself that I am actually living this dream. It will be over before I know it. The funny thing is I keep dreaming about snow.

Into Mexico

     So I made it out of town.  Everything took much longer to get done then expected but eventually it got done.  The entire house was packed into boxes and everything was put into a storage shed for the foreseeable future.  Initially the storage shed was neatly stacked and packed but I will admit by the end I was just throwing things into it to get it done.  If there is an earthquake there will be major problems trying to get the door open.  While I was piling stuff in there I did have some moments where I was convinced I was about to be buried in a crap-a-lanche of my own belongings.  I managed to get everything done with only a few scrapes and cuts on my hands and shins. 
     I have now spent the last 5 days taking my time visiting friends as I made my way to Juli's house in LA out of which I am staging the Baja trip. I spent a night in Portland and then 3 nights in Northern California visiting friends from High School, undergrad, vet school, and former coworkers.  It was a relaxing few days to catch up with old friends and to slowly get my head wrapped around the upcoming weeks.  Good food, a few drinks, and chatting it up with friends I hadn't seen in way too many years was the perfect way to immerse myself into the trip.  It also allowed me to catch up on some neglected sleep. I picked up a friend Toby at LAX who is going to come to Mexico with me and then drive my truck back to LA where it will stay while I paddle.  The clouds chased me down then entire way.  I did get some sun yesterday afternoon but even today in LA it is completely overcast.  Meanwhile I hear that Seattle is gorgeous.  Soon after a few weeks of burning under the sun I will probably be praying for clouds.   
     Now that I am dropping into Mexico the amount of communication I will have and internet access will be very intermittent at best.  My cellular service will be disconnected so from now on the only way to contact me will be through email (solsoul@aol.com) or through Facebook. I will only be able to check this when I can get a WiFi signal so it may be 2 months before I can get a solid update posted about my trip.  My SPOT tracker is supposed to update my position on Facebook  but it has not seemed to be working.  At least it has been sending a text message/email to my Mom and Kathleen which is the important thing it needs to do so they don't worry as much.  However on the front page of this blog there is a link for "My current position" which should show my camping spots for the last 7 days. Once I get back and have my own computer I can post pictures again
    The plan is to take a day or two to hang out in San Felipe, get a lay of the land, enjoy being in Baja and set off when the wind allows.  700 miles and 7 weeks later I hope to pull into La Paz.  My Mom has now decided that she is going to go to La Paz so she will meet me there and watch my stuff while I go get my truck and Kathleen to come back down to La Paz and get my boat and gear.  As a result I will have a much nicer hotel room then I would otherwise once I get to La Paz.  I will update as soon as I can.  Thanks to everyone for the support and help, especially Kathleen, my Mom, Juli and Morgan for being home base LA,  Nicole, Nick, and Heather for feeding me and giving me shelter on the drive down, Toby for helping with the launch, and GU for the support on this expedition. 

Last minute prep and butterflies

A thousand and one different little odds and ends that have either gotten done or need to be done at this point.  The list never ends.  ..................Sort gear for the kayak trip, dehydrating and organizing food, sorting gear for the backpacking section, arranging plane tickets, arranging couch surfing with friends and family in Europe, getting up to date on vaccines, filling prescriptions for being gone including malaria prophylaxis, training for the physicality of what we are going to do, planning a wedding in Thailand including sending out the invitations, getting my powers of attorney/banking/taxes/medical insurance arranged for being gone for 2 years, getting car insurance and an international drivers license for Mexico,  getting passport photos for visas, packing the house into storage, change of addresses, finishing up working at the hospital, trying to grab in a last day of skiing or two, organizing medical and repair kits, sanding down the boat bottom to make it hydrodynamic and resealing the bulkheads to make them water tight, registering EPIRBS (satellite emergency beacon), arranging some sponsors, working on learning a little more Spanish, figuring out Skype and cell phones for communicating with home, throwing a going away party......................................., ad nauseam.   I eventually had to make a list of all the little lists I had.
However, now with less then 2 weeks to go before the rubber hits the road it seems like it is all coming together.  Most of the time I have been too busy to think about things, especially with my last days at work at the hospital.  It is better that way.  At the times where things slow down I can have my occasional brief freak out.  The magnitude of what we are about to attempt hits me like a ton of bricks.  I have been on multiple 3 month trips and a couple of 6 month long trips but never 2 years.  This trip is like taking many of my previous trips and combining it into one huge package.  As before any of my big trips it is a combination of excitement with some fear of the unknown mixed in.  It ends up like a big ball of butterflies in my stomach.  The same kind of feeling when you first meet someone you really like, or when you are about to go for a big interview, or about to go on stage in front of a lot of people.  Mostly it's excitement but I really just need to get this ball rolling.
In the meantime, I think I will just go pack.

Help from unexpected places

     We are very excited to announce that a couple of generous companies have graciously elected to help support our upcoming trip.  The great thing is that with both companies we use their products on a regular basis with our adventures.  It is an honor to represent two great product lines. Both companies products work equally well whether you are running, biking, hiking, or kayaking.
     Ultraspire is a company that makes hydration packs, belts, and handheld water bottles.  Kathleen has been one of their Elite Immortal athletes for a couple of years.  She tends to use either the Spry or Surge backpack on long runs and I use the Kinetic vest.  I love my Kinetic and it was what I ran Cascade Crest 100 in.  31 hours of running and no chaffing with the perfect amount of carrying capacity for a supported run.  We also have an assortment of their handheld water bottles around the house.  For the trip they have given Kathleen one of their Fastpacks which has more carrying capacity since we will be out for multiple days on some of the runs we have planned.  I will be using an Ultraspire Fastpack also.  For more information on their products go to www.utraspire.net.
     Gu Energy Labs is a producer of nutritional products to help power you on your adventures and in recovery afterwards.  They make energy gels, chews, electrolyte solutions, and a recovery brew.  On long efforts we try to eat every 30 to 45 minutes so the GU gels and chews provide a quick easily digestible energy source that comes in a small easily carried package.  I use these a lot so if you are what you eat I probably have at least one foot that is made of GU.  There are a variety of flavors (some with caffeine) that we enjoy though sometimes Kathleen and I might arm wrestle over the Mint Chocolate ones since those tend to be the favorite.  Kathleen also tends to use their Roctane gels when she races. Gu Energy Labs will be a main source of our training fuel over the course of this adventure. Their website is http://guenergy.com.
     Not only do these two companies produce top-notch products, but the people behind these businesses have been extraordinarily encouraging, kind, and supportive of our plans.  A HUGE thanks goes out to them.


     Lastly, many of you know that Kathleen entered in a contest with First Endurance.  The contest had already been going on for a couple of weeks so she was behind from the start but still managed to get to third place with everyones help.  Thank you if you voted.  First Endurance awarded a runner-up prize to the contestant with the most compelling story.  Our upcoming trip caught their attention so Kathleen was awarded a years supply of Optygen HP.  It is a supplement that is designed to improve endurance and performance.  Stay tuned and Kathleen can let us know how it works in a few months.    

The Plan (for now)

     So a lot of people have been curious about what our plans for this little escapade are going to be.  There have been some of you that have also been interested in meeting us in certain places so we wanted to send out a rough timeline about what we are thinking.  That said, no plan ever survives intact once implementation begins.  Part of the beauty of our trip is that it is free form.  With the exception of the initial plane ticket and our wedding in November we are not locked into anything.  If we meet people on the way, hear of someplace cool to go that we weren't aware of, or decide we really like someplace and want to stay there awhile, then we can do that. The plan of course also relies on us staying safe, healthy, and not going broke. 
     With that caveat, the current plan is as follows.  My last day of work is 17 February.  That gives us 10 days to pack up the house into storage and load my truck with a lot of gear and two kayaks.  Kathleen will finish up work in Seattle while I will set off on a 700 mile solo sea kayak trip down the length of the Baja Peninsula in the Sea of Cortez from San Felipe to La Paz.  I have been dreaming of this trip for over 20 years and can't believe that it is finally coming to fruition.  I plan to take 7 weeks to do this which works out to 16.7 miles a day with one rest/weather day per week.  I can carry 10 days of water so have to get to resupply points/towns in that amount of time.  Much of this paddle is very remote along roadless desert.  The pictures I have seen are jaw dropping beautiful.  Many photos and video will be shot along the way. Being separated from Kathleen for 2 months is the only drawback to this part of the plan.
     At the end of the paddle I will reunite with Kathleen, my truck, and the other kayak.  There are some bays on the west side of Baja where the whales come to mate.  I am excited to show this to Kathleen and be able to do some day paddles in this area.  Eventually our road trip will lead us back to the states ending up at my Mom's house in Durango, CO.  We will spend a week there saying good bye to family before spending the last week of May on the Front Range with friends.
      Then begins World Tour in earnest.  We will fly from Denver to London on 31 May with a week long layover in Iceland.  Serious trail running will now ensue.  The rest of June will be spent in Ireland visiting Kathleen's relatives and running the drumlins and eskers that make up the landscape.  This month will be the training for our upcoming Alp-capades.  From the British Isles it will be a hop over to Oslo.  There an old high school exchange student that I haven't seen in over 25 years has offered to put us up and show us around her corner of Norway.  Then it is down to Germany to see more relatives and by this time the snow should have melted from the Alps.  Much of July and August will be spent doing long trail runs through the Dolomites, Alps, and Pyrenees Mountain Ranges including the Tour de Mt Blanc over 4 days.  For September we are planning on going to Turkey and trekking the Lycian Way.  This is a 300 mile trek along the southern coast and we are considering this our "warm up" trek.
     October will signal that it is time to switch continents.  We plan to take the Trans-Siberian express using the Trans-Mongolian route as the way to travel to Beijing and then Southeast Asia where we will spend the winter.  We have a 4 month window to see this section of the world.  Our wedding will be on 29 November on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand.  The rest of the time will be spent exploring.  Myanmar and Vietnam are high on my list but Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos are also on the list.  We hope to find some volunteer work during this time.  Veterinarians Without Borders is doing some excellent work in Laos and I hope to find something similar in Vietnam. 
     Once the snows start melting in March it will be time to move on to Nepal.  Besides going on world tour Kathleen has always dreamed about doing an epic long hike like the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail.  I introduced her to something called the Great Himalaya Trail and now we want to attempt the Nepal section of this.  This trail basically traverses Nepal.  It is an almost 1000 mile hike involving multiple 20,000 feet high passes.  It has only been done a handful of times.  The hazards and obstacles are numerous including high altitude, navigation, crevasse hazard, technical climbing and rappels, finding food, river/stream crossings, rockfall, and the remnants of the Maoist revolution.  It makes Kathleen (and me) giddy just thinking about attempting it.  This will likely take us about 4 months if we succeed.  Ideally this is how we will end up in northern India.
     At this point the plan becomes fuzzier as it is getting to be too far into the future.  The rough idea is to spend some time in India before moving on to East Africa.  I am not sure if we will have the time or money but in a perfect world we would attempt to make on overland journey down the length of East Africa from Ethiopia to South Africa.  This would be getting us into the winter of 2014/2015 which is summer in the southern hemisphere.  We want to spend time in Patagonia doing some trekking and Kathleen has expressed interest in climbing Aconcagua (which I summited in 2001).  If we are going to southern Patagonia then I have to go to Tierra del Fuego just so I can say I have been there. 
     The plan is to go to New Zealand last.  We are both afraid that when we go there, we may never leave.  It has always seemed like a paradise of climbing, trail running, trekking, sea kayaking, and skiing.  Kathleen has been but I have only dreamed of it and drooled over pictures. 
      If any of that sounds interesting where you might want to join us for a spell then feel free to contact us.  I can't promise that we won't smell really bad during periods (or a lot) of this trip but if you have a strong nose and a good spirit of adventure then come find us. 

Cascade Crest 100 Mile Endurance Run

Cascade Crest 100 Mile Endurance Run  25-26 August, 2012

or as I like to call it:  Into The Heart of Darkness

Training:  Training for this began in March after we returned from Tunisia.  I had a rough 6 month training plan of gradually longer weeks of running mileage.  I was in OK shape to start from skiing that winter but I was not in Ultra shape which was rapidly proved at the Chuckanut 50K on March 17.  I finished but it was slow and not pretty.  The only other race I ran during the summer was the Redmond Watershed 12 Hour Race where I covered 60 miles.  That was the longest single run I had ever done before the race.  Otherwise I just did a lot of local running (Discovery Park, the Issaquah Alps - Rattlesnake, Tiger, Cougar, and Squak Mountains, hill repeats on Mt Si, and trips up the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River.  Kathleen and I mixed that in with road trips to the Columbia River Gorge and the Wasatch Range in Utah.  Weekly mileages slowly increased to a max of 100-110 miles per week for a few weeks before tapering to rest up for the race.  I was pretty sick of running by the end of summer.  When you are trying to run 70 to 110 miles a week (and work) you don't have much time for kayaking or climbing. 

Final Preparation:  The race started and ended in Easton, WA so we went and spent the night before at the condo at Alpental.  A friend Mindy was also running the race paced by her husband Jared so they came up and spent the night with us.  Dinner was lasagne, garlic bread, a big salad, and even two beers.  No sense in changing my usual routine right before the race.  Drop bags were checked one last time and final plans were made.  I only had two drop bags since I planned on having a crew person and my truck available at various points on the race.  The morning of the race we got up at 6:30am for the 10am start.  Often these races start at 5am so it was nice to be able to "sleep in".  We ate breakfast, geared up, and headed for the start about 15 minutes down the road.  After checking in, saying Hi to various friends, eating some sausage at the Firehouse Breakfast, and listening to the pre-race briefing it was time to get my game face on.  Then 10 minutes before the start Kathleen luckily checks her phone and finds out that my crew person wasn't going to make it.  In a mad panicked scramble I had to rearrange and create new drop bags.  It ended up being fine but it was not a stressor I needed right before the start.  They played the American and Canadian National Anthems with the Canadian flag hanging from a hockey stick.  It was during this that I managed to have a zen moment of calmness as my brain centered on what was about to happen. 

The First Third To Tacoma Pass:  I placed myself at the back of the pack at the start.  My race strategy for the first section up Goat Mountain and Cole Butte was to get stuck in traffic to slow me down as I tend to let my race nerves and adrenaline cause me to go out too fast.  In the first mile we passed a house with a llama running along the fence with us along with some dogs.  This llama was either young or had a haircut making it look young.  It really should have been at the end of the race because there was no way you couldn't smile when you saw it. 

The entire day was going to involve eating/drinking, managing my electrolytes, and metering my physical effort.  I started my goal of eating every 30 minutes.  Some sort of quick energy gel on the half hours and real food on the hour.  During this first section I had a homemade Pastrami sandwich on a roll with avocado and cheese that made several people jealous.  My strategy worked as things were bunched up at the start of the race and I would often be in a line of 5 to 15 people.  When there were chances to pass and reshuffle it would occur but it had the intended effect of making me take it easy during the hottest part of the day.  About 3/4 of the way up I couldn't believe how easy the climb felt compared to when I had done a training run up it.  Then I remembered the training run was deep into a 100+ mile training week while now on race day I was fully tapered and rested.  We had been told that the Cole Butte Aid Station (10.8 mi) would be water only this year because of bad road conditions so I just expected some jugs to be on the side of the trail.  To the runners joy there was a 4x4 pick-up with volunteers filling our water bottles and a cooler full of popcicles.  Awesome in the heat!  The next section was down and then up 1500' on road which helped spread the runners out and shuffle everyone into their respective speed groups.  It was here that I had an earlier observation confirmed that I was gaining/passing people on the ups and flats at my natural pace but I was always getting passed by these same people on the downhills.  I just kept running my race and didn't worry about what other people were doing.  The Blowout Mountain Aid Station (15.2 mi) at the end of this section had ice cold fruit smoothies.  Delicious and I gave myself brain freeze guzzling it down....not your typical running injury.  I staggered a few yards along clutching my temple and then I was fine and it was soon back onto single track and the Pacific Crest Trail.  This was a an absolutely gorgeous running trail.  Rolling hills, smooth soft trail, and very scenic.  It was easy to make good time here and at the pace I was metering out it felt effortless.  I pulled into the Tacoma Pass Aid Station (23.3 mi) at 5hr 31min which had me on track for around a 30 hour finish.  Kathleen met me there as this was the first crew access point.  There was a mix up with the drop bags but after a brief freak out I realized there was nothing in it that I really needed that I couldn't get at Stampede Pass in 10 miles when I would see her again.  A brief rest and then off again.

Tacoma Pass to Stampede Pass:  This section I ran with Jill from Reno who I had met in the Port-O-Potty line before the race.  This was the late afternoon section and again it was a beautiful rolling piece of trail with great views on a perfect weather day.  Couldn't have asked for nicer conditions. 

Stamped Pass to Hyak:  This was my Molly Rose section.  At Stampede Pass (34.5 mi) where I picked up my headlamp I heard that my friend Molly wasn't that far ahead which I found surprising.  She is a far more talented runner then I am and has the added benefit of youth (she ended up being the youngest female finisher in the history of the race) but she had had some nausea and other issues earlier in the day.  When I reached the Meadow Mountain Aid Station (42 mi) there she was.  She got a big hug and then she was on her way out of the station as I rolled in.  It was here that I started noticing that there were some people around me looking really rough - moaning and shivering with the 10,000 yard stare.  The Olallie Meadows Aid Station (47.7 mi) was reached right before it got completely dark.  Molly was there and together we recharged ourselves by eating a bunch of pirogues with yogurt.  We decided to run the next section to Hyak together.  This may have been my favorite part of the race.  Molly is a great Montana mountain girl that is focused and an excellent runner.  When I was her age I was busy partying and on the fast track to nowhere.  It rapidly got dark after leaving the aid station and we switched on headlamps.  2 lights is better then 1 so it was nice to have someone to run with.  Along here we passed Mirror Lake where there were a bunch of people camping.  People were partying and there was one tent set up next to the trail where out of the dark a voice would urge the runners on.  Eventually it was time to split off the PCT and drop down a steep road with lots of loose rocks.  It was in here that Molly and I had a runners endorphin overload telling each other how we couldn't imagine doing anything else, anywhere else, and that we were really glad that we were able to share this experience.  Shortly after there was a section through the woods to get down to the Iron Horse Trail and the Snoqualmie Tunnel.  This bushwhack was so steep that there were fixed rope lines to help people down it.  These ropes came in useful as I slipped toward the bottom and would have gone ass over teakettle backwards without them.  I also dropped a water bottle in here but fortunately was able to recover it.  This section reminded me that all race directors have a little sadistic bastard in them.  The last section before Hyak was a 2.5+ mile run through an old railway tunnel with an icy wind blowing through it and mice in places.  We caught up with another acquaintance, Sofia during this section before she pulled ahead again. 

Hyak to "The Trail From Hell":  Hyak was were we picked up pacers.  Kathleen with me, Dan Sears with Molly.  When we got there it was shortly after midnight.  The first 53 miles had gone great but at Hyak was the first signs that the wheels were starting to wobble.  Once it had become dark it got chilly (high 40s, low 50s) which was fine if I was moving but since I was damp from running for 14 hours I quickly started to shiver violently when I stopped.  I think it was mostly because I was so cold that as I started to drink some chicken noodle soup the first two swallows were instantly puked back up.  I wasn't nauseous at all.  My stomach just rejected it.  I shrugged it off and then finished the soup with no further problems.  I grabbed my fleece and because I was so cold took off fairly quickly ahead of Molly.  The next section was a long road up and over Kecheelus Ridge.  It got surreal in here.  There were people camping nearby so at 3am we could hear gun shots which didn't bother me that much but the Roman Candle going off annoyed me since not 2 weeks before not that far away there had been a major forest fire where over 70 houses burned in Cle Elum.  The aid station at the top of the ridge (60.5 mi) was a small affair where I had more soup - my aid station food of choice deep into these runs.  The entire time we were there a guy sat unmoving on a chair completely buried in a teepee of blankets.  On the way down the ridge we were passed by an old white hair guy with big bushy beard and flamboyantly colored shorts screaming down the hill at breakneck speed.  I asked out loud where in the hell he had come from and one of the other runners said he was the guy under the blankets.  I ran this downhill and by the time I reached the Lake Kachess Aid Station (67.9 mi) I needed to be put back together.  It was also on this downhill that I really started to feel that there was something going on in my right ankle.  I hadn't done anything traumatic to my foot so I figured it was tendonitis.  I was now 2/3 done with the hardest 1/3 ahead.

"The Trail From Hell":  Another friend Justin Jablonowski was at the Lake Kachess Aid Station and he helped get me recharged.  It was 4am and this was mentally the low point.  I ate well, sat under a blanket, and got ready.  However, every time I tried to cinch the waist belt on my running vest I would come close to puking.  I finally got it together and felt good the first mile or two of the Trail From Hell.  This section is really rough with logs and rocks to scramble over and across, lots of short steep ups and downs, and big drop offs on the side of the trail.  It is very hard to get any kind of rhythm in here and the 6 miles took me just under 3 hours.  Halfway through it is when my ankle officially started to hurt from the rough terrain.  At the beginning of the trail I was catching up with people but did not have the energy to pass.  Right around the time my ankle started to hurt I got nauseous again and decided to let myself puke.  A quick retch of 1/2 a Gu packet and I felt better.  Not long after the sun came up.  When we reached Mineral Creek I expected to have to wade across the water but someone had built a log bridge so my feet happily stayed dry.  When I pulled into the Mineral Creek Aid Station (73.9 mi) I was in ugly shape again and had my other low spot. 

Mineral Creek to Thorpe Mountain:  The 7 mile road climb from Mineral Creek to No Name Aid Station was a long hike with brief moments of running when I could.  We chatted the first part with two college kids from Vermont (Williston and Middlebury) - a runner and his pacer with his parents as crew.  He said that his parents kept telling him what a good job he was doing and that he really should stop.  Typical parental mixed messages.  By the time I reached No Name Aid Station (81.5 mi) I felt much better then I had at the bottom of the hill.  Laura Houston and her band of merry volunteers fed me chocolate chip pancakes.  Usually it was Kathleen urging me down the trail but at this aid station I had to tell Kathleen that the social hour was over and it was time to move on.  Back into the single track we went with extra pancakes in my pockets for later on.  My ankle all during this time was becoming progressively more sore but we made it over to Mt Thorpe, dropped our packs for the short up and down, and I even managed to smile from Glenn as he took photographs near the summit.  On the way down Thorpe I felt a blister pop up on my left foot that was bad enough that I had to take my shoe off and lance it.  I knew I couldn't have two painful feet.  On the way up Thorpe I had thought (but did not want to say out loud) that I was worried that Molly had dropped.  At certain locations we had been able to see far behind us down the trail and there was no sight of her.  Then as we were coming down Thorpe there she was going up, bubbly as ever.  When she caught up with (and passed) me at the Thorpe Mountain Aid Station (84 mi) she asked me what we were going to do......."Slay the Dragon!" at which point I jokingly threatened to throw a rock at her. 

Thorpe Mountain to Silver Creek:  These last 16 miles I was not moving fast and it got progressively slower as my ankle was officially jacked.  Otherwise I felt ok for a person that had just run 84 miles.  I never had a doubt that I wasn't going to finish.  However this was where Kathleen had a freaky occurrence.  She had felt totally fine and I was definitely not pushing her effort.  My jog was a fast walk for her.  Acutely at about the 86 mile mark she got violently ill - projectile vomiting, the sweats, and feeling faint.  This first attack I didn't see as I had crested over a hill in front of her.  After I waited a couple of minutes she came along and told me what was going on.  We both limped into the French Cabin Aid Station (88 mi).  For some reason I had it in my head that I would have 11 miles to go.  When I heard it was 12 I felt crushed.  For some reason 1 mile made a huge difference at that time even though it meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.  After eating some bacon, soup, and quesadillas and getting some Ginger Ale into Kathleen we thought we were good but we only made it 100 yards out of the aid station before Kathleen started to violently get sick again.  There was a LOT of fluid coming shooting out of her and again she felt faint.  Thinking about it later we guessed she had gotten food poisoning just from how fast it came on, how violent it was while it lasted, and then it was over fairly quickly though she felt drained for days afterwards.  She thinks it might have been a salad she ate earlier in the day that probably sat outside the cooler too long.  She was obviously really sick and at that point potentially a liability.  I told her that if she came with me and got faint on the trail that I was not going to leave her.  She did not want to rely on a guy who had been running for over 24 hours to rescue her.  There was an aid station 100 yards away with friends of hers who could help her.  I was "ok" and could make it without her.  She was in tears because she really wanted to run me home but she realized what I said was true.  She went back to the aid station and eventually got a ride back to Easton though she got sick several more times on the car ride down.  I started the long descent along Silver Creek.  Now that I was alone I found myself wishing I had my I-Pod again which I had ditched in the car at Hyak.  At this point I didn't care about time or place in the race.  Whether I finished in 29 or 31 hours made no difference as long as I beat the 32 hour cutoff time and earned my belt buckle (the prize you win for running these crazy races).  In the Silver Creek section I calculated that while I didn't need to run fast I couldn't just hike it in.  I made a conscious decision to stop the pain in my ankle and start running and somehow it worked.  I must have had enough endorphins going through my body that while I could still feel the throb it wasn't pain.  The steep switchbacks at the bottom never seemed to end but eventually it spit me out at the bottom of the hill. 

The Homestretch:  I found Rich White and Mindy volunteering at the Silver Creek Aid Station (96 mi).  "You can run 4 miles".  I had a popsicle and grabbed two Roctanes before Mindy told me that I needed to be on my way.  Down in the valley in the sun it was really hot, even at 4pm.  I half ran, half walked the first bit but once I reached the pavement I knew that I had time and that I could walk the last two miles.  I was visibly limping at this point.  Here I caught up with Sofia who I had last seen in the Snoqualmie Tunnel which meant she was struggling also.  Michelle Maislen Pichard was pacing her and graciously asked me if I wanted to use her trekking poles which I gladly did to take a little pressure off of my ankle.  Lots of people passed me these last 2 miles but all that mattered was finishing and getting my belt buckle.  As I walked the last stretch of railroad tracks Glenn came out to take some finishing pictures of me.  I didn't find out until later that he had fallen hiking out from Thorpe, split his chin open, and broke his hand.  Kathleen was also there and came out to accompany me the last couple hundred yards.  I was happy to find her there since I wasn't sure where she was going to be or how I would find her.  As I reached the last 15 yards the realization of success and having done such an incredibly hard thing overwhelmed me and I started to cry.  What an awesome feeling to finish and finally be able to stop moving.  100 miles.  31 hours, 14 minutes, 54 seconds. 

The Aftermath:  There was a chair right at the finish line that I plopped into.  Shoes came off and I was horrified by the size of my ankle.  I am glad I had never looked at it until the end or I would have been really freaked out.  I hobbled over to the race director Charlie Crissman, shook his hand, and got my buckle.  Then I sat down.  Dan Sears brought me a bucket of ice water but I couldn't handle leaving my feet in it for very long.  Glenn gave us a ride back to the truck and then we spent the night at the Alpental condo again.  For the first 48 hours I could slowly walk as long as I had a chair, table, countertop, or wall to help support me.  It was worst when I had been laying down or sitting for awhile.  If I used it a little bit it would start to loosen up.  An ACE wrap, lots of ice, and a compression sock helped with the swelling.  Besides my right ankle I was in pretty good shape.  A little joint soreness in my knees but not much muscle soreness.  I guess I was better trained for it then I had thought going into it.  I had to work 4 days after the race.  My ankle still didn't want to bend so I was limping pretty hard until that afternoon when suddenly I could feel the tendon start to move in the tendon sheath again.  It felt sticky inside my foot which felt weird but not painful.  My limp improved greatly as soon as this happened.  10 days later I am running and biking again.  

In hindsight I would agree with all those people who told me that running a 100 miles was stupid.  It is a pretty dumb thing to do.  It is also a pretty incredible thing to do.  I have (understandably) never had a runners high that big.  Everyone I came into contact with during the experience (volunteers, fellow racers, friends, and most specially Kathleen) I had a huge sense of appreciation and kinship with.  While I have no plans in the future or a specific race in mind I would not be opposed to doing this again.  It was an incredible journey. 

(Most photos courtesy of Glenn Tachiyama)