La La Land Pennsylvania...Eastern States 100 Report

I have been waiting 8 months to run my 1 and only 100 mile race of the year. The inaugural Eastern States 100 in Pennsylvania. With a lot of help from generous friends & family I raised money for Runwell as this was one of the events we helped sponsor this year.It was great to finally meet some of the other runners who were also fund raising on behalf of Runwell for this event. We stayed at a nice cabin together in Happy Acres Campground a short distance from the start/finish. I arrived Friday afternoon after a 5 hr drive and was happy to see the weather was supposed to to be pretty nice all weekend. I made it to packet pickup and saw Linda Quirk the founder of Runwell. We chatted a bit then I went for a ride and took some pics of the area. It was breathtaking! Trust me I knew my breath was going to be taken away many times over the next day or so! I have spent many years in the Allegheny Mountains up By Warren & Mckean County Pa but this was going to be  a different beast all together!!! 

 

                                       


We had a great group of runners from NE Ohio trying out this Inaugural race.
Hanging out with everyone made for a great weekend even if my results did not.
Thank you everyone!!! There really are too many names to mention and that was part of the magic of the weekend and my Ultra running experience in general! I would Like to offer congratulations to 3 people in particular that managed to complete this beast of a course!

Congratulations  Jimmy Heun, Crystal Shinosky, & Mike Dowdell!!!

Saturday morning came early and I wasn't any more or less nervous than any other 100 start. If anything I was a bit more relaxed because I knew it was going to be a slow go. I had posted earlier that I would love to finish in sub 30 hrs based upon the fact I did the Hyner View Challenge 50k in 6hrs 46mins this past April. Hyner Run was going to be part of the 100 mile course so I thought that was a reasonable best case scenario. The title of this blog gives you a fair indication of how much I underestimated the effects of mile upon insufferable mile of loose rocks and steep draws on my body & mind. Not to mention overestimating my abilities! They advertised this race as not for beginners. No false advertising there!

Appx. 165 of us started at 5am and the first mile or two was a nice flat jaunt down the road and into the park and then BAM! 1200 feet climb to just let me know what I have gotten myself into. It was a long journey up that first climb and to add a little excitement I got stung on the side of my head by a bee that wanted a few more minutes of sleep. Not a good sign! At least I am not allergic.I would get stung many hours but not that many miles later on the leg. As I told a few people on the trail that day "If the worst thing I feel are these bee sting I will be in good shape". It wasn't even close to being the worst things I felt and I wasn't close to being in good shape either!

I think on a good day a person of my abilities can run maybe 25% of this course. It wasn't just the 20,000+ feet of elevation change but throw in the endless loose rocks and the 6" wide trail canting to the 25'-100'+ drops up the draws and this course is better suited for power hikers. I think there were spots where the RD just had people tie flags to trees to make it look like a trail! It was pretty awesome!
Rumor has it there are some beautiful views & vistas but the only thing I was looking at the majority of the time was my feet. I honestly can't believe no one injured themselves on these demon rocks from Hell!

I did what I could and actually felt pretty good except for my lower back which decided to start acting up two days prior to the race. I am not going to say the lower back pain was what kept me from finishing but it was definitely a contributing factor. Mentally I just was not prepared to go at it for 36 hours if that's what it was going to take. I thought doing Oil Creek in 29hrs 26mins was tough last year and being out there for 6.5 more hours did not compute. When I realized it was going to take me between 10 & 11 hrs to do the first 50k I knew I was in for a long strange trip through the woods.

One thing that kept me going was seeing some of my friends at the crew access areas. Great to be greeted by smiling faces and words of encouragement. Thanks also to all of the volunteers that worked tirelessly to keep us runners going! You Guys & Gals Rocked!!!!!

Laurie Rehbergar & her husband Paul had graciously agreed to pace & crew for me starting around mile 40. They were making the drive in that morning and hoped to see me at Hyner Run. I came into the aid station and saw them along with a few other friends and except for my back pain and being down about how long it was taking I felt fine. I changed and freshened up with a little mouthwash, deodorant and Axe spray and told them I would see them at Mile 51. Not sure why but within 2 miles of leaving Hyner Run my back got worse and I slowed even more. Laurie was going to pace me from mile 60 to the finish but I knew in that stretch I needed someone to join me at mile 50 not 60. Luckily for me Paul and Laurie had already decided that Paul would start pacing me at 50. Everything is sort of fuzzy from here until the end of my race.

I ran as much as I could with Paul given the terrain and my condition. He got me to mile 60 and Laurie took over from there. I really feel bad because I did not want to drop with Laurie & Paul being there. I really don't think I managed to do much running except for one crazy burst I had somewhere in the 12 miles with Laurie. The constant up & down and slipping on moving rocks was all I could take. I knew after we left the aid station at mile 65 or so that my day was going to end in the dreaded DNF. I tried to be a little jovial with Laurie but it is hard when all you want to do is stop moving and take a nap. When we finally did make it to mile 73.2 aid station I told them I was done and the gentleman said "you were done 34 minutes ago you just didn't know it" I saw my Good friend Des and her pacer Mel at the aid station waiting to be picked up. Des had been fighting the good fight but also got timed out at mile 73.2. The people at the aid station did a great job of getting a vehicle to us and we were headed down the mountain under the power of 4 wheels and I was okay with that!

                                       The only view of the finish line I would get on this day!!!

Of the 165 starters I believe 72 finished and only a total of 78 runners made it as far as mile 73.2
If it weren't for Laurie & Paul I would never have made it past mile 51. I owe both of you a big thank you and will not forget the patience and support you showed even when I was heading up the draw at a blistering 40 minute mile pace! I was 100% sure I had no interest in redemption next year. now I am at 99%
As my wife Mary says, I have to be honest with myself and ask do I really want to spend close to 36 hrs mostly hiking! The answer right now is no I don't. That's down the road too far for me to worry about now.

 I managed a 50k trail race yesterday with no ill effects to close out my trail running summer. I will start road marathon training next week as I would like to Boston Qualify at the Columbus Marathon in October!

Hope to see you on a road or trail somewhere!!!!!