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Well, Pistol went fine. C&O Canal didn't go as planned. Jamey and I finished. Everyone else DNFed. People were bummed including me. Lots of mistakes happened by everyone. You can read those reports for yourself. I made them clickable.
Two things seemed to happen as a direct result.
My big issue with Pine Creek is that I am a chicken. I don't have a problem with running in the dark. I do have a problem with running in the dark in the trails. It's scary. One of the many reasons you will NEVER find me on "Naked & Afraid".
I was assured we would be together. Well, Kate would run ahead and I would never see her and Mike and I would be together. OK... Well, he did amazing at Beast. He actually went sub 24 hours which I have never been able to do. Awesome! That is a HUGE (spelled Y-U-G-E) accomplishment. Unfortunatly what that means is that he will try to PR that time. I will never see them except at the start/finish and as they fly by me in the other direction. To make things worse, the field is so small that even without DNFs, there are so little number of people there which means I probably won't find someone to work with. Oh well...
And then there's Ghost Train. They both need to exact their revenge there as well, so forget that. To add salt, I decided to do a big race 13 days before Ghost (fine that one is my stupidity - I actually may DNF) and I would need help but it would not be there for me.
So, believe it or not: Extroverts, Happy go lucky, Enablers do sometimes get despondent and perhaps need enabling. I can't really talk to my crew about this. I am very happy for Mike but I did sign up for these 2 races for those guys and now I feel like I am being hung out to dry. Add to that, I was not able to find crew for my race which is also weighing me down. Actually just yesterday, Dipak mentioned to me that he is able to crew me for that race so maybe just maybe...
Anyway, enough for now I guess...
Well, race weekend was finally here. It was the first weekend after Jessie started High school which also didn't help things. In any case, Mike picked me up that Friday and we made our way to NJ to meet Kate. Had some difficulty but we met her. She wanted Mike to leave his car in the mall parking lot for the 2 days that we would be gone. That didn't end up happening. We ate together and then packed into his car and we were on our way. We picked up our packets, found the hotel and instead of checking in, we went straight to race site to scope the place out. We met the RD, Steve Hanes, and I got his cell phone number for Elizabeth as a just in case with the proviso that cell phone coverage may be spotty.
Kate and Mike were sharing a suite which had 2 seperate bedrooms tho he had to walk through her room to get to the bathroom. I had my own room but my room was kinda far from theirs which was stupid. Whatever. I settled in and ate and then went over to join them as they ate. When we came back, I helped them unload the car. At one point, Mike and I are outside and we see 2 people get out of their cars and it's obvious that they are runners. I started talking to them and one guy was going to pace the other on his first 100. I asked where they were from as they had NY License Plates on their car. The guy told me that it was a little town that no one has ever heard of near Buffalo called Lockport. Dude! Beast of Burden much? Turns out we knew some of the same people. Awesome.
Got back to the room and took a nice hot bath and talked to the family.
Chafing seems to be my usual thing at races and I keep trying to figure out what to do about it. Well, during the vacation, we went to the Dermatologist. We all had appointments with small issues. Something the doc said resonated with me. Jessie was complaing about a dry patch of skin on her leg and the doc talked about the fact that she was drying out her skin with Chlorine (swimming) and long showers and baths. I asked about dry skin and chafing and she said that dry skin will definitly chafe more and the realization hit home. I swim twice a day, I shower anywhere from 3 to 4 times a day with hot water and sometimes I feel like the skin on back is ripping which is alleviated by lotion. Hm... I wonder...
Well, I've had a few successful runs now without getting chafed due to the fact that during the vacation, I only showered once a day or at most twice. I also swam less. So, after the hot bath, I did something that I never do. I slobbered lotion all over my chest and back. Hated it. Suck it up Buttercup...
The race was supposed to start at 6am and we wanted to leave approx 4:45. I woke up at 2am and checked the weather. Low 40s currently with a high expected of high 50s and maybe a low 60. Well, thinking about the course I decided to dress and pack for the worse. The course is through the Pine Creek and we go down to the valley. It's also known as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. To me, that means it will be colder.
So from bottom to top, here is how I was dressed:
Other people wore more and others wore less. I don't care. I need to take care of me and my issues!!!
Hit the port-a-pottie twice which worried me as I had already taken a pre-emptive strike on my GI system with the little pill. Socialized.
6am rolled around and we were off.
The run to Wellsboro Junction was good. We actually stayed together the three of us. Mike was peeing every so often trying to set a new pee-pr. We were joking around. All was good. Headlamp was on. I made sure to use my backup headlamp so to conserve battery time on my main headlamp.
Right before Wellsboro Junction, Kate took off. She wanted the port-a-pottie. Mike was happy because they had coffee. I loved the mini muffins.
At Asaph, I took the opportunity to stow my headlamp and switch hats to a regular running cap. The rest of the run was uneventful. Beautiful course. Joking around. Ran with Dipak and Meghan. Made a new friend, Miss Ohklahoma, even though she may prefer Marie.
At one point, Mike was either up ahead of us or behind us. Kate was getting annoyed at him and went to speak to him. I think she got really annoyed at 1 point and left both of us. Mikey and I stayed together. We weren't sure what to think. We didn't realize it was because she was annoyed. We thought she just wanted to do her thing. We figured she knew she had an insurance policy behind her meaning us.
It constantly seemed like we were going uphill and the course wasn't straight which sucked. It meant we never saw her. We stayed too long at aid station in my opinion but I'll take the company. Finally as we were arriving at the last aid station before the turnaround (Blackwell) we saw her. She made a friend which was good for her. She made a comment which pissed Mikey off big time. Whatever. We continueed to the turn around. We did start talking to a couple holding an American flag while running. Theirs was an interesting story... Apparently the wife found this race and told the husband about it as a "by the way". A little later, she found out on FaceBook that he signed them up for it. She wasn't too happy but said ok as long as she gets either a diamond ring or a puppy. She now has a puppy. They were both Army and we had a nice conversation with them. Anyway, turns out they DNFed. Oh well.
Mikey and I stayed together. We ran into Ed Peters. I really didn't think he could do this. The time limit is 30 hours and UltraSignup gave him an estimated finishing time of 32+ hours. He said he saw a 6-8 foot rattle snake. Whoa!
We ran but now that the sun was up, we kept looking on the ground and on the side of the trail. Mikey spotted both rattle snakes. Yes, both rattle snakes. We both spotted the garter snake and the DK snake which apparently is a cousin of the Garter snake. The Garter snake and the DK were in our path. The rattlers were on the side. Last year apparently the weather was in the 90s and I heard the snakes were in the way. Jeez. I know this race boasts wildlife but this race can be scary.
We eventually got to Asaph and then to Asaph which we heard seems like it is constantly moving away. Once we were there and turned around, it got real dark. As in real dark... It got scary as hell and I was glad for the company. I couldn't believe some people were by themselves. Ed Peters, Eva Baseheart and of course Ms. Ohlahoma were by themselves. Gutsy...
The scariest part of this race was this 5.6 miles section. The rest of the course had a down cliff to the river on one side and a up mountain climb on the othere side. I felt safer there since you really couldn't be surprised. Here, we were between 2 forest sections and you had to be vigil. There were noises too from either side and you really wanted to constantly scan all over. That's when I noticed it... Up ahead, illuminated by my headlamp was 2 shining points. I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating so I pointed my head in another direction but kept my eyes straight ahead. The 2 points disappeared. Again, I looked ahead and they were there. Pointed the headlamp away and the dots disappeared. I showed it to Mikey. And then things got scarier. My headlamp was pointing straight ahead and the 2 dots were there and then they disappeared. And then they appeared. And disappear. Oh God... What the hell?!?
I don't know what it was and I don't know that I want to know. Actually, now here in safety, I do want to know...
On we went... Eventually, we saw a headlamp approach us. A runner was catching us. As she came up, 2 words came out of her mouth. They were "HUMAN CONTACT!" which was followed by "can I stick with you?". Of course you can. Christine was the runner. She and her husband are from South Africa and now live in Texas. She was doing the race while he was driving from aid station to aid station. His plan was to get to the next aid station, run a few miles to her and bring her in to the aid station. Wow... Apparently she made a friend and ran with her and that person dropped and now she found herself all alone, wishing her hubby would show up already.
She was glad to be with us. Her hands got very cold at 1 point and I gave her chemical handwarmers. I had grabbed a second pair of gloves and didn't need them. She was happy. I was happy to actually be the one who can give those out while being ok myself.
Eventually her husband showed up and I remember seeing him at aid stations. He had an Ironman hat on. He was happy that she had support even tho I think he thought we were a little bit nuts.
Mikey at this point started sleeprunning/sleepwalking. I would every so often scream to him to wakeup when he went ahead and I could see him moving like a drunk from side to side.
Here's a complete list of the wildlife we saw:
Unfortunatly we did NOT see the Black bear. Others saw him. I wish I saw him. Fortunatly we did NOT see the coyote. I'm not upset about this one.
We everntually got to the last aid station and continueed on to the turn around. Once we were back at the last aid station, Christine went to the port-a-pottie and Gary (the husband) was kind enough to give me new batteries for my headlamp.
I don't know if you remember or even read my C&O Canal 100 miler race report but something that happened there happened now. Christine's temperature was ok. Her hands were a little cold but mostly she was ok. When she went to the port-a-pottie, which for the point of the story I will refer to as the Sauna, she was fine. It was nice and warm in there. Once she got out of the sauna with her sweaty clothes, the cold temps hit her and she started shivering out of control. Same exact thing that happened to me. They gave her soup which she tried to drink without spilling too much on her self while Gary ran to the car to get another top for her. While he was doing that, I gave her a big sweaty bear hug while rubbing her back to try to induce heat. He came back and we put it on her but she was still shivering. That wasn't enough. She agreed to borrow a top from me and I took Gary to the gear bag drop off area. He asked me what I needed and I told him it's not what I need but what you need... I showed him my bag and he opened it and took out my top and together we put it on her, on top of the bag that she was carrying, over the top we just put on her. Yes - she looked like a mess but the shaking immediatly stopped. My top is a black underarmor warm top with green on the sleeves. It did the trick.
We left. We saw Ed Peters which shocked me. Not only was he doing this, he actually passed Eva. I told him about the cutoffs. He wasn't worried. Next we saw Eva. She had a flashlight and it wasn't even pointing forward. She was in her own world. I kinda grabbed her and explained the cutoffs to her. She woke up! She thanked us and left with a purpose. We saw the Lockport boys and a few others and it was good. Last we ran into Ms. Ohlahoma. She was with a guy (John) I talked to at Asaph who was helping out. Over there, we talked while he helped out and when he asked about a runner. He tried to describe her and I said that's not going to work. Well, his friend, a cyclist we saw on the road popped in and it turned out that he knew her and he was talking about Ms. Oklahoma. Anyway, I pulled John aside and explained to him that he needs to ger her moving. The time cutoffs were approaching and she could not afford any delays.
We had 8.4 miles to go and on we went. We knew we were close to the aid station and Mikey decided to get there faster than us so he can nap by the fire pit they set up. I, on the other hand, had an amazing conversation with Christine. Turns out she had a double masactomy and apparently the MD told her she must have an augmenation as part of the reconstruction because of health issues. Besides the mental and physical pain of the Masoctomy and reconstruction, she had to get expanders put in to actually make space for the implants. What she endured... For 8 weeks, she had tubes coming out of her chest. She wasn't allowed to do anything. Every week, she had expand the area in the chest using this apparatus so eventually they could implant. It was a very frank conversation and I was shocked about what she went through. One tough chick...
We got to the aid station and Christine went to the indoor plumbing available. She did not have the shakes this time. I was monitoring the time and was ready to go check in on her in a few minutes. Mikey was sleeping. They gave me fresh made pancakes and then made eggs for me. I LOVE EGGS! I don't know how to say this enough. This aid station by the way was awesome. They had smoothies during the day. They had 3 pieces of chocolate in little ziplocks all ready to take to go. While I was eaing my eggs, Mikey woke up and when he saw Christine, he went over to her. The conversation was hillarious... He was so dead tired.
M: Excuse me...Did you see my friend Elik Hirsch? I came in with him. C: What? M: Did you see my friend Elik Hirsch? I came in with him. E: Dude... Dude... At this point, Mikey looks at me. I was only 3 feet away from Christine. He looked at me and I could see he had no idea what was going on. Suddenly the light turned on in his head and he recognized me and Christine. It was hillarious.
We left. We were being chased by the way by a little old Asian woman and her friend who we later heard was her son. They chased us since the turn around.
Small Tangent here: I should mention this as best I can. It was during daylight on the first loop when we got to the aid station with the firepit (Tiadaghton). There was a guy there and while we were finishing our first loop, he was still going out. He seemed ok. A little while after we left, I saw a race official car fly by us. The guy literaly flew. A little while later, he came back driving at a more normal speed. I could swear that guy was there. Later I heard he was taken to the ER with a groin injury. Sucks. Another incident happened as well. There were 4 guys together all wearing blue. We called them Blue guys. When we were heading out on the 2nd loop, a race official car came in and they were in there. That sucked. They were doing really well. I asked them if everything was ok and one guy nodded yes while another shook his head no. Oh boy... I'll come back to this one later.
Anyway, we were so happy to be at Darling. This thing was almost over. Gary was there and he told us that there are only 2 more people on the course behind us. I couldn't believe it. I asked and the volunteer told me the same thing. There was an older guy there volunteering as well but he didn't speak. More on him later. Anyway, I was shocked. I asked about Dipak and Meghan, Ed, Eva, the Lockport boys and Ms. Ohlahoma. I knew they made at least some of the cutoffs... I was shocked. A woman came over to me and asked about Meghan. I told her that they were not too far behind us. She was glad to hear that. That was her mom. I didn't know that.
We left. I hoped everyone was ok...
There's the construction equipment. The Bridge. Now the first gate. There's Mikey's little doghouse. Only 2 more gates to go through. That's when we saw the eagle. Gary joined us. We were almost done. We finished. Not very dramatic even though they had the bells ringing. Hugged, ate, took pictures.
We did see the little old asian woman and her son finish. We saw Ed who instead of finishing, stopped at his car first to take his long sleeve shirt off first and almost fell. He then finished. We saw Eva and Dipak and Meghan. We changed clothes and left hoping and praying that Ms. Oklahoma finish. She did. Unfortunatly we missed it. Sucks.
While I was eating, I was talking to someone and remember the old man from Darling? The guy who was talking to me asked me my name and the older guy responded before me that "my name is Elik and be careful... I'm from Queens.". That was weird. How the hell did he know that?!? Kate told me in the car what happened. Apparently, that guy was a little put off by me at 1 point. Not sure what I did. He didn't care for me. When he saw my concern and worry at Darling for the other runners, he changed his mind about me and decided that I was a good guy. Oh boy...
While we were eating, a guy came by and asked about our drop bags. He looked familiar and I asked him if he was part of the blue guys. He was... Apparently he signed up for this race and his friends decided that it would be a good idea to sign up as well. He was trained for it. They were not. He usually does long endurance events. They do not. All was well until one of his friends suddenly said "look at my color". After that he almost fainted and was clearly not doing well. Sounds a lot like Rhabdo from what he described. I told him that seeing a doctor would be a really good idea.
We left and I drove to Wendy's. I had only driven for 2 minutes and while talking to Mike, I suddenly realized he was sleeping. Oi. I drove but had a hard time. Kate took over. We were only 12 miles away - I napped. We ate. It felt good. She drove afterwards while I slept. I woke up when she pulled over to sleep. I then drove. When I couldn't anymore, I stopped at a rest station and woke Mikey up. I wanted him out of the car, walking and stretching. He bought 2 coffees while I was peeing. I thought one was for him and the other was for Kate but they were both for him. He looked better after that. I fell asleep and woke up as we were pulling in near Kate's car. We left her and drove home. We talked. I fell asleep again after crossing over the GWB. Sorry...
That was awesome. I got home at 5:30 and Jeremy needed to leave the house at 7:30 so I could actually see and talk to him. Even more awesome was that except for very little, minimal chafing, I was pretty much ok and I enjoyed a long hot shower. Usually because of the chafing, I can't do hot showers until 3 or 4 days later. Not this time... Yay...
I'm a little annoyed that this race doesn't give a buckle but I knew that going in...
I think that's it for now...
The other thing that happened was that toward the end, few miles before that last aid station, my stomach was acting weird. There were indoor plumbing on the course and I was contemplating on using one. I didn't want to go behind a bush as the sun was coming out and didn't want to use a stinking port-a-pottie. Well, we got to an indoor plumbing hut and I went in. Christing used the other one to pee and Mikey? Well, he laid down on the ground in front of it and slept for 5 minutes. He was that tired!
