Saturday, October 27, 2007

Kids, the results have been posted: It turns out that, yes, FIFTY runners dropped during this sucker. That's a hair shy of 50% of the field. Bud landed first in the 60+ age category with an official finish time of 28:35, and Karl Meltzer was first men's finisher with 17 hours, 45 mns for his time, which is 2 hours longer than his record last year on the old course!

I guess we all struggled on this one.

34 runners dropped after the 50 mile mark, which means 16 didn't even make it that far. It looks like Jonathon (good ol', nauseous Jonathon) waited to drop for TWO HOURS at the 50 mile aid station. This tells me that, during my 6 mile trek to mile 56, Jon sat there in his chair and wondered if he could keep going. That's one tough, puke-covered warrior.

Many of the volunteers, including the race director and his wife, live locally, and many of them couldn't return home on Sunday after staying awake for 40 or so hours lending us aid. On the flipside: None of their homes were lost, miraculously.

The race was SO well organized, and the volunteers incredibly helpful and cheerful, so my hat's off to them, and I hope they and their loved ones remain safe.

10 comments:

Dubs said...

When talking about an Ultra... I don't think "dropped out" should be the right words. There should be a mile marker that anything past that point is "finishing with X miles".

I am awe inspired by you determmination and training.

Miki said...

I just looked at the current results for Javenina Jundred just now and Jonathan Gunderson is running that right now. Masochist!!

rustyboy said...

Holy crap, miki!

That fuggin' guy, man...

DawnB said...

wow sounds like it was a hellish day for everyone. Congratulations!!

mindy said...

What you accomplished is just totally amazing. The course sounds insanely hard. What is the coolest to me is that you didn't feel the lure of the natural "break" at mile 50. You kept on going 10K AFTER that... How is the ITB feeling?

rustyboy said...

Mindy, it's coming along. I'm rolling on the foam roller 3 x/day. Last time I wrecked my ITB, it took about 2-3 weeks of that and cross-training before I could start running again.

And thank you. Mentally, coming up on the 50 mile mark, the dark thoughts of the option of dropping starting creeping in, especially since Bob and I had been dragging Jonathon, at a much slower pace. The second I hit the lights of the aid stop, though, my body got charged and I was rarin' to go!

The body is a weird machine. And the brain? Don't get me started on the power of THAT thing...

No Wetsuit Girl said...

What a disappointment about all the bad luck that surrounded this race for everyone: the weather, injuries, the changed course, and then the fires on top of all that. It just makes me respect everyone who even turned up so much more, and means the people who DID finish are superhuman. I was thinking about you Sunday when I could barely walk to my car and wondering how ANYONE runs a quadruple marathon with 10x the hills in one day. Every time I wanted to feel sorry for myself I just thought of you and told myself to quit being a pussy. You're such a rockstar! Now get back to humping your roller so you can get back to training!

Sunshine said...

Maybe you could tell Angry Feminist that we miss her.

Congratulations to you
and good luck.

BJ Haeck said...

russ,

Nice job on knowing when to stop. Sometimes, your body just won't let you do it. There's plenty of other races for you to beat. I enjoyed our time on the trails. Hope I'll see you out there again soon!

Bj

Phil said...

Congrats on your 56 Mile PR. I know it's not one hundred, but it is still insanely far. I admire your guts and determination.