How are you all doing?? Well, it's time for another "some of you wanted to know how I did, but I'm too lazy to find who you are, so everyone in my address list gets to find out" email. And, for better or for worse, this race gets its own full-blown story, so sorry ahead of time. This past Saturday and Sunday, I was part of a team for the 24 Hours of Laramie, a 24 hour relay up in the Happy Jack Rec area. We were the Mad Mountain Masochists, and our members were:
myself
Micah Franke from Cheyenne
Derek Mitchum from Laramie
Paul "Pablo Diablo" Herald formerly from Cheyenne
Brian from Laramie.
The race began at 9 am Saturday, and as of 6:30 Friday evening, only three of us were signed up to run for MMM. Micah and I had been working on assembling the team for three months and our population ranged from a full 5 man team to the two of us at various times, fortunately a group I run with, the WARTs (Wyoming Adventure Running Team), pointed me towards Derek, who was more than willing to join in on our fun and games. Micah and I camped out at the base camp the Friday before to avoid having to rush around Saturday morning.
The race started at Pole Creek camp ground. It was a 5.8 mile course, which included a 1.6 mile climb of 725 feet out in the middle of the woods. There were 3 all-women 5-person teams, and many soloists and 100 milers running. I was the first out of the gates, followed by Micah then Derek. We all ran very well our first legs, and were thoroughly enjoying it. During the second cycle, Brian arrived, who was initially planning to run the 24 hour solo category, but due to illness, chose not to. However, he was feeling good enough to join our team. We had no objections, as it would mean a fresh set of legs and an extra hour of rest.
We continued on throughout the afternoon, running well even through the frequent climbs back up the mountain, and the increasing heat. Paul, who was one of the first to receive an invitation to join the team but had to refuse at the time, was camping in the area, and came down to visit. After several hours of chilling and hanging out, Paul became slightly jealous and also joined the team, which was fortunate. As Pablo was signing up, Derek came back from his third leg, having twisted his knee slightly. Due to this, he sat the rest of the race out to avoid making it worse. As we proceeded through the evening, I was sent out on the first leg that we were required to carry light, and I needed it about half way through the trip.
Coming out of that leg, I was feeling very good, but we suffered our next casualty right after that. Micah got the first completely dark leg, and on the homestretch, he was moving a little fast for not being able to see, and he sprained his ankle a little bit. He was able to finish the leg in good time as well, but he ended up sitting the rest out as well.
Brian and Pablo went out on their legs without incident, and it was back to me. However, by that point, I was starting to have problems myself. Physically, I was fine, but mentally, I was wearing out. I went out on my lap slowly, but by the time I reached the midway aid station, I completely broke down. I don't know if it was the fact that I was still tired from Big Horn 2 weeks earlier, the stress of trying to assemble the team, the fact that my team was falling apart, the pressure I was putting on myself to go faster as I was consistently going 10-20 minutes slower than the next slowest person on the team, or a combination of all these, but I literally got to the top of climb and completely broke down on those guys.
As many of you guys probably know, I usually don't take pride about most things I do, but I had always taken some level of pride in the fact that I was always mentally strong enough to get through near anything, including things I probably shouldn't be pushing myself through. Probably the most unsettling thing when I reached the aid station was the fact that I wasn't sure if I could push myself through anymore. At that moment, I was completely done with the race. However, one of my major saving grace was the fact that a WART named Perry was manning that station, and he helped me a lot. He sat there and just talked me through it all for about 15-20 minutes. Finally, I wasn't feeling great, but I was feeling good enough to at least finish the loop. I hiked the rest of the way back to base camp by 2am, and slept until about 5, not really planning on doing anything else.
By morning, Micah and Derek were still resting and recovering, and both Brian and Pablo were completely trashed (trashed as in exhausted... what were you thinking it meant?!?) and calling it good for the weekend. Again, I physically still had more laps in me, but mentally, I wasn't sure if I was ready to go back out there. However, my second saving grace came along. Alec, another WART (and
the crazy man who designed the course), talked me into going out one more time. He got me pumped
up with a cup of cola, and by 7 we were off to conquer the trail again. Alec kept me talking and distracted the whole way, and as we jogged/ hiked the course, I was feeling better and better. Probably the high point of the whole loop was reaching the aid station and seeing Perry was still there, and excited to see me making another round. We proceeded to the base camp, and crossed the line with about 40 minutes before the cut off time.
Though, it wasn't known at the time, but the final lap was actually number 18 (I was told 17 before I left to do it), and that put the team over 100 miles (104.4 to be exact). We even came across before one of the girl's teams (with 104.4 also) by about 20 minutes. In the end, I had ran 6 laps, and was able to anchor the team in at the finale. In conclusion, this may have not been the smartest thing I have ever done with the Big Horn previously, and the fact the team wasn't very well organized on my end, but it was an experience I wouldn't trade for anything else. It was mostly a fun time, definitely a good learning experience, and something I look forward to participating in somehow in the future. Again, sorry this was so long, but this was just something that couldn't be described or talked about without the accompanying story.
Oh, one last thing-
Thanks you to Bishop and Foot of the Rockies for footing (no pun intended) part of the bill, thanks to Micah, Derek, Brian, and Pablo for joining this crazy little experiment, though I don't think any of us were quite sure what we were jumping into, thank you Alec and Perry for not letting me give up, you two were the ones who really saved my butt (and I probably would have been kicking myself in hindsight if I had quit with out going out one more time), and for those of you who made it down this far, thank you for taking several hours out of your day to read this.
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