Eve-ville 100 – The End

What looked on the radar like it would be an hour turned into over 3 hours.  But, the lightening did finally stop.  Sheila continued on loop 7 and Grady added.  It was sprinkling when we started.  You’d think I would have tried to get some rest during that unforeseen break and I did, but it was impossible.  I started coughing up all the trail dust and could not stop choking on it.  I was cold.  It was miserable.  I just wanted to be finished.  I did not want to stop, but I know it was safer this way.  I tried to sleep in Grady’s camper but got claustrophobic as it was very small.  I tried to sit in Sheila’s truck and snooze sitting up because that seemed to be better for the coughing, but that wouldn’t happen either.  I was tired, but my body would not let me go to sleep.

This 7th loop was going to mark Sheila’s first ultramarathon!  That brought a fun aspect.  This was a MUDDY loop!  Like mud caked all over our shoes.  We would stop and try to get it off, but it didn’t matter.  This was also the loop that I got soooooo tired.  I was weaving all over and could not keep a straight line, nor stay on the trail.  Finally, just over 7 miles into that loop, I told them I need to sit down and rest my eyes for a minute.  I did just that.  I sat down on a rock and leaned up against a tree and passed out for what seemed like an eternity.  They said it was probably 30 seconds.  I woke back up and tried to stand up and get going and they both said to rest a little more. Another minute of shut-eye and I’ll tell you that redefines the word powernap.  You would have thought I slept 8 hours after that.  I was ready to run.  And run we did…all the way back in.

We celebrated Sheila’s ultra and Grady and I were off for the last loop. My loop times were getting better.  That one was 3:12.  I was getting close to the end and I could taste it.  I was going to finish and there was no question in my mind that anything else would keep me from finishing at this point. LP, Mark and the girls were the lifesavers here.  Kimberly was racking her brain what in the world I would eat since I wasn’t eating any of the things I had brought.  I was living off of honey stinger waffles Sheila gave me the last two loops.  They made me mashed potatoes and pancakes. OMG, I could not have been happier. It was the food jackpot!  They sent pancakes and roasted potatoes on the last loop.  The life was coming back.  The sun was up in full force.  It was a new day.  I can remember this exact feeling from R2R2R when the sun came back up.  I told Grady I wanted to walk/run up, run across the top and run down.  He led me.  Since I was on the 8^th loop, I knew there was a very distinct point on the mesa where you could tell you started descending.  Grady and I talked the entire way up.  We chatted across the top.  I told Grady for 3 miles, there’s this point coming up and when it does, I want to get in the front.  I think he thought I was crazy.  I had the trail memorized by now and I knew what I was talking about.  The wild horses were out that morning on the mesa. They were grazing with the elk.

This is the point where I should mention music.  We had some ipod drama prior to this event.  I had taken all the music off my computer because the memory was full.  LP has PC’s and couldn’t get the playlist I wanted to download to the ipod from his computer.  For the Leadville 100 MTB, I was able to get about 40 songs on an ipod to listen to in the event I needed it.  40 songs doesn’t last that long.  I’m pretty sure I listened to those 40 songs at least 4 times each at Leadville.  Needless to say I didn’t think I wanted to hear those songs.  On the way to Ruidoso in the truck, I had spent several hours getting another playlist together that had over 100 songs.  I gave the iPod to someone that morning and had explained to LP how to get them from my computer onto that iPod.  They did it!  I was able to listen to that on loop 4 when I was melting down. Once I started having pacers, I didn’t really need music.  It wasn’t until this point, loop 8, where I wanted music again.  When they handed me the iPod, it was the iPod from Leadville MTB.  Not the new one.  Just a simple mistake.  However, you know that awesome run when you hit play on your device and for whatever reason, the order the songs shuffle just seem like that’s exactly what you needed for that run?  That’s what happened next.  The wrong iPod turned into the right one.  We got to the point on the trail I had been telling Grady about.  I got in front of him and pushed play.  I started running.  Fast.  I saw sub 10:00 more than once.  Grady was laughing the whole way down out of disbelief, I think.  It was exactly what I thought would happen.  He kept saying, let’s don’t tell them we’re coming.  Let’s surprise them.  And surprise them we did.  It was my second fastest loop.  I would still have 4 miles left when I got back to base camp.  We planned it that way so everyone who wanted could join me on the last 4 miles.  When we started making our way out of the woods running, I saw Kimberly by the lake. She did a double take and took off running to tell the rest of the crew we were already back.  It was fun to watch their confusing behavior.  They were expecting us to take at least 20-30 minutes longer.  Since they weren’t ready for us, Gary added and we just started power hiking around the lake to keep things pretty flat.  We walked a mile and came back to pick up the girls and started walking the other way.  Eventually, Jello added and Shane added and we all finished Eve-ville 100.  My goal at Leadville was 28 hours because that was my R2R2R time and I knew I could be on my feet that long.  But, once I realized how tough this course was, I just wanted to beat the Leadville cutoff time of 30 hours.  I almost made it at 30:34.  But, I ended up climbing over 15,000 ft and ended up a little over 101 miles. 3000 more feet of climbing than Leadville.

It was over.  I had finished 100 miles.  My best friend, Karen, had run the last 8 miles with me back at home.  We faked a finish back at the trailhead to make it look more official.  It wasn’t exactly what I thought it would feel like.  I don’t know why or how to explain it.  Now, we still had to drive home that day.