I went with Hammad who was doing the 25K. Got there early and checked in. Chilled with some people. Talked to Billy Richard and Mike and Hammad. Saw DB(Chris Mozer). He made a comment that if I'm here, Fred will be here. Whatever.
Stressing a little as to what to wear. Just not sure of the weather. Mike eating and chilling as I'm getting ready. Why isn't he drinking his pitcher of coffee is beyond me.
It's almost time. Last pee, this one behind a car. I'm not going to stand in the line for the port-a-potties. Mike still chillin. I tell him, I'm going to line up. He's still talking. We have less than 10 minutes and he comes running. He thought we start 30 minutes later. Nope...Right away he informs me that he will have to "take a dump in the woods". Nice.
Before he lined up, DB made a comment to him. Mike just grunted. That kind of day. No negativity people...
We start. It's a road portion first, just to thin the herd. Soon we are in the trail. I'm leading, Mike following. We catch up to Dave Debrisky. Didn't realize he's here. He joins us. I'm leading. There's no getting lost. I mostly know the course. I know what to look for. I'm very cautious about not seeing signs and confirming all is good.
Each aid station is 2 slices of watermellon and Coke for me. I make sure these guys are moving. Gotta move people.
After the first aid station, Mike asks me for some wipes. He knows I always carry. He leaves us to take care of a situation. He joins 2 other runners and eventually gets back to us. He was very quick dealing with his issues and ain't afraid to tell me that. ;)
He joins us right after the second road crossing and there's an easy turn to miss there. I see him and the 2 people from up top and make sure they don't miss the turn.
We get to the turn around. All is well. Mike keeps telling me that we will catch up to DB by mile 25. I'm not sure. He tells me that DB hasn't done more than a marathon some time ago and will die by 25. We'll see. Not my main goal.
I don't remember the names of the 2 people Mike joined with. It's a he and a she. We run together a little and I finally let them go so I can wait for Mike and Dave. I could have stayed with them but that's ok.
We see Hammad as we are on our way back to the start/finish. He looks ok. Not good, not bad. Just ok. I worry.
We get to the end of the first loop and start loop number 2. Not sure when exactly but we lose David. Later he told me it was a long port-a-bush issue. Sorry.
It's just Mike and me and we are on the lookout for DB. I know he is ahead of us. In the beginning of the loop, I wanted to see him early. It would have meant he died right away. At one point, I didn't want to see him or rather I wanted to see him much closer to the turn around. I knew, the closer to the turnaround, the easier our job would be.
We see Hammad. He doesn't look good. Still worried.
Finally, we get to the Lawrence hill crossing. Just a 1.5 mile to the turn around. No DB yet. Awesome. We continue on. We finally see him. He's climbing out of the turn around. It's a hard climb. Cool. Best place to see him.
Watermellon and Coke and "C'mon Mike...We gotta go!!!".
We are in full chase mode. He knows he's our pray. He knows we are the hunters. He knows the hunters have him in their scope. Am I being overly dramatic? Not really... Just writing what was going on in our minds.
Quick note: Before we got to the aid station, this girl, Rachel, (finally) passed us for real. We kept leap frogging with her at a certain place. She was a good climber but we would get her on the downhills and flats. She finally passed us for real.
Back to the chase. We are chasing and we just didn't see DB. That's one of the beauties of the course. You can hide easily and make the hunters think you are gone. We weren't falling for that. We felt good. We were 2 people working as a team.
I saw a flash of red. It disappeared. There it was again. His red shirt... We chased even harder. I purposely slowed us down going up a big hill. I didn't want to pass him at a crawl. When we pass him, it will be with strength.
How is he not seeing us? Or perhaps, he did see us but had nothing in the tank? I don't think so. I think he really didn't see us.
Right before the Lawrence hill crossing, we got to him. As we got to him, I said outloud to Mike, "Tomorrow is the 10,000 feet of elevation, 100K, right?". Had to do it...
Felt good to pass. Yes, it did...
We still have a while to go tho. We continue on. Suddenly, I catch a flash of red and there is DB, chasing us. I DON'T THINK SO!!! I put on the gas. We drop him. This isn't happening.
We catch up to Rachel and she decides to stay with us "if it's ok". Of course it is...
We continue on. We even meet her husband Perri who is taking pictures.
No slowing down.
We are about a 100 yards from the end of the trail. Only about a 1/2 mile of road to the finish after that. From that distance, I see a runner leave the trail to go do his last 1/2 mile. That's all I needed. Too early to sprint but I can't help myself. I scream to Mike Polanski if that was a runner. He yells yes. I ask who it was and he said runner #61. Don't matter to me now. I'm chasing. I leave the trail, and avoid hitting a car or perhaps getting hit by a car. I chase. Slowed down a little to catch my breath and to be able to pass strong but I'm still running fast. I'm in full stealth mode, trying not to make noise. As I catch up to him, number 61 sees me. I expected a fight but he just says "Good job... GO! GO! GO!". That's all I need again. I take off in full sprint. I go through the finish line strong.
Number 61 finishes and I go to congratulate him. He tells me he had a bad day. I said, "what are you talking about? You finished, you're vertical. All is good!"
He tells me that his first loop was 2:40 while his second loop was 4:20. No matter to me.
Mike and Rachel come in and eventually did DB.
I have done this race now 3 time and each time I did it, I PRed on the course. I'm done with it. At least for a few years. It's fun to do a local ultra and see the same ol' people but enough is enough...