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How I Spent My Summer VacationPerry EdingerSo, my buddy Don calls, he also gets into WS and says he is entering the Grand Slam. Well, well, well. Wouldn’t that be a challenge?? Time to start spending cash and making plans! Before I know it, I am an official entrant in all 4 grand slam runs, Western States, Vermont, Leadville and Wasatch. Looking at the statistics, not too many have completed this. I wonder overall, what the factors could be. I myself figure I am one of the least experienced to tackle this task. Now Don only has 1 100 completion, so I am light years ahead of him. Training begins in ernest. Time to put “money in the bank”, because obviously there will be 4 big withdraws and little time for putting it back in during the time between races. Too much training, lots of long runs. That is exactly what December and the first part of January brought to me. Sooo…my buddy chip and I are out, before dawn, off trail in South Mountain Park on a “trail run” and a little fall allows me to break my wrist and a couple of ribs. VERY NICE! Old Pueblo 50 miler is only 2 weeks away and Run to the Sun 4 weeks away, I want to do these back to back to see if I have ANY chance at recovery for this journey. Just by finishing the run (2 hours left), I feel like I have a chance to push through things a little bit. I did make a call to one of the Physician Assistants at work, Amy. She was so nice to come over on a Saturday and help me splint my wrist so I wouldn’t have to spend time in an emergency room. Thank goodness for her kindness!! Needless to say, Old Pueblo didn’t go as I wanted, but I made it through, no falling and across the finish line. Two weeks later was able to take quite a bit of time off my previous finish at Run to the Sun. So, time to get serious about this “slam” stuff. My good friends Vianne and Jack Kucera set up some great lodging for Western States. It is going to be so nice. The Kucera’s, Amy, Mark and Fred, all great friends and the race of a lifetime. My plans are to run it just as hard as I can, when it is over, do what I need to, to recover, and then come back at Vermont. Wednesday before Western, “race cancelled due to fires”. Quite a disappointment to say the least. Amy and I head over to San Diego for the weekend. I gear back up my training for a few days and enjoy a quite weekend. Lots of emotions that weekend, but the slam will continue with Arkansas on the end, so I will also continue. Just get over this weekend and move forward. Don has now pulled his plans for the grand slam. He has also pulled out of Vermont. Dag gum him, the guy who talked me into this, has reasons not to do it. I will rely more and more on my friends and those close to me, no problem! Plans for Vermont include Amy, Karla and Koichi all coming out east to help. Vianne will be taking care of my “kids”. First time ever at an ultra for Amy and Karla, Koichi has helped at an aid station at one ultra. I have the ultimate confidence in the three of them and know they will help me in every way I need! Vermont trail 100
How about that flight? Delayed by hours on Thursday, extra city stop, late, late arrival in the woods around the northwest. It is quite a drive from the airport at 1:00 in the morning when nobody you are with has been there, it is dark and appears to me that it is difficult to get around anyway. Once we get to the hotel, it is very nice. A little rest and the run will be good. Where did all these hills come from?? The word I heard, was this race is the “most runable” We must avoid allot of them. NOPE. We ran over every hill I saw. What a great race. Lets take out the part about the 95 degree weather, 90 percent humidity. Thunder boomers in the afternoon making sure all the horse krap is nice and soft and smelly. Getting lost and off course for a half hour. Shoot, other than that, PERFECT! My crew and pacers were fantastic. Amy did two stretches and Karla did one. Koichi was hiding an injury to his knee and hadn’t run in a few weeks, he provided constant driving and crewing help with Amy and Karla. No way would I have done what I did without their help! They took pictures and wrote some quotes from the aid stations. I guess I shoot my mouth off more than I thought, oh well, how nice it is to see people after being on the trail for such a long time. I have learned, pacers and crew people truly get you through an event. Just to see them was a pleasure. How about some of the people in the race? There was “youngster”, Devon from Seattle. She was the woman’s winner and ended up just a couple of minutes ahead of me at the finish. We had a nice early 30ish miles together and it was good. There was the “Hulk”, I still don’t understand why he wouldn’t carry anything on him, no water or food. But then the Hulk was not with youngster or I at the finish. “Old dude”, who I followed after getting lost and brought my mental state back up even though we never spoke. Good people to run with here, topped off by my pacers. Ran pretty fast, tore the dickens out of my quads and feet, but what the heck, great race and I have 4 weeks to Leadville. Vermont to Leadville
Humm…What to do? Just ran great, how should I approach this? Of course at work on Monday, I did fall down twice because my quads gave way, must need a little recovery. I agreed to meet Amy Wednesday morning for a light jog. I got to her house early to warm up. After three failed attempts at jogging and nearly falling again, I text her to tell her, “I’m out”, I think she understands and I am pissed I am not recovered enough in 3 days to run. I did run (kind of) that weekend and just kept plugging away over the next two weeks. Funny thing though, I just don’t seem to feel very good with this running thing. Do I need a long run? Do I need more time off? (Are you kidding? I just took 5 days) Oh well, time to pack up and get ready for Leadville. Leadville Trail 100
Amy and Karla are headed over to San Diego for America’s Finest Half Marathon. That allows Vianne, Mary and Tony to help me. Mary was an athlete at ASU when I was there and is married to Tony, who is the Track coach at UNLV, all is good! Funny thing, how come my legs are just so tired. Shoot I have had 4 weeks of little training and I just ran a terrific race. Oh well, this will go well and all will be good! Lots of friends from Phoenix are coming and am Staying with Don and Brenda and their folks. Amy got me hooked o a book, “A million little pieces’ believe me when I say I am not much of a reader but this book is frickin good and thank goodness for the distraction, I just want my legs to feel better. BEAUTIFUL morning on race day! Little brisk but nice, they are forecasting some precipitation, but no problem here! Off at the gun, through 13 miles right on time, but things just don’t seem right. I have music in my ears from the start and it just seems like a struggle. I tell Mary that I am going to slow down, now I need to adjust my plan. OF COURSE I don’t!! Right over that first climb. Quite beautiful with the hail and sleet coming down, maybe I could use more clothes than a tank top. Very few peeps to run with here, not very good. I don’t know, could it have been I went out very fast and faded even faster?? O well. Well after the road section, things fell apart a bit. BAD stomach, must have a defective shoe because my left achillies, left tibia and right hip flexor are not where they should be. A nice shoe change in the rain and some strong encouragement and off into the woods. Okay so the achillies is better, the hip flexor is sore and the tibia is not good. All okay IF I COULD JUST EAT, and it would quit raining or sleeting. I see Honey pass me on the trail at about mile 35, I am not good but just need to get to mile 40 and my peeps. As I walk into twin lakes, I cannot find a reason to go on. I know Vianne, Tony and Mary are encouraging me but I really hear nothing. Next thing I realize, Vianne hands me a phone, she has put Amy on the line and Whatever it is she said, was just enough to push forward. No more sugar today, just whatever I can eat without sugar and hope my stomach starts to turn around. After a nice climb up and over Hope Pass, Tony joins me. He does a great job on the climb and walking me back into twin lakes. My shin hurts so bad that there will be no more running downhill. I will do what I can to climb and “hobby jog” the flats from this point on. Mary picks me up here and ends up taking me into the finish. Quite an accomplishment for a speedster that hasn’t every run much more that 20 miles at a time before in her life. Of course there sure wasn’t much running going on!!! Tony had great weather on his section, if the hail/sleet/rain would just stop, it all would be good. More “issues” but got across the finish line. THANK GOODNESS! Not the time I wanted, but the result is the same. Finisher and Grand Slam participant still. I did wear 1 pair of gloves for 100 miles, and additional pair for 40 miles, a beanie for 40 miles and mucho other clothes during the run. Lots of laundry to do!! Leadville to Wasatch Okay so there was only a 40% finisher rate at Leadville. Okay so the grand slam is down from 27 entrants to 6. I need to look at what I did wrong from race to race and fix it. I call my “advisor” Walt. He has plenty to say to me and most of it involves me eating better, resting more and running less. WHAT THE HECK??? Oh well, time to listen. I up my sessions with Sophie (not my dog), the massage therapist, Dr. Maynard and heaven forbid, go to “hot yoga’ with Amy. It only took about 3 sessions and I touched my toes for the first time in over 20 years. It would help if my shin felt “just a little better”. With only three weeks between the toughest two courses, there was little to do but fiddle faddle around. What I am noticing the most, is my feet are becoming very soft and nice. Not really what I am hoping for in the big picture. I do not think a nice soft foot bed is what I want for a 100 mile run. But I am doing very little running, and no trail running, so what should I expect?? Much more recovered (but then I should after how slow I went) and most things are better. All a go for Wasatch. Wasatch Trail 100 So, I know nothing about this course except, time limit is 6 hours more than most. Honey says “as soon as you get sick of climbing, you start going down and as soon as you get sick of going down, you start climbing”. Nobody told me about the rocks, or the steep climbs, or the steep downhills, or the fact that the mileage has to be off ALLOT. Headed up there with Amy, Karla, Vianne, Jack and Chip. Dag gum Chip has been training up in flagstaff for this thing. I keep saying “DUDE, I will already have gone 60 miles when I see you and two other 100’s under my belt, no need to keep training for this! Beautiful weather at the start and all day. The first 53 miles were really nice. Had a couple of good folks to run with, “Coop” Matt or Ryan Cooper (bad with names) and Coumbus) kept great company until I picked up Amy at 41. She did another fantastic job for a little over 13 miles. She still amazes me. Karla took me over the next 8, which included a hill that about brought me to tears except she was able to keep my mind off of it with conversation. Chip picked me up at 61. I was getting to be a mess by then. The big downhill going into mile 18 aid station did no help to my shin. Amy put a patch on it at the next aid station and it was very helpful. I had some stomach issues, but headed them off with some meds early. For some reason though, my quads started to tire, humm, why could that be?? A little pucking at 61 got me going again. We had some difficulty with my Nathan pack leaking and “I guess” I didn’t drink much up to mile 75. There is still some discussion about demands I was making and that Amy and Vianne were about to slap me silly until I was able to throw up again, this time in the water fountain. We were right at the door to the woman’s restroom and the men’s was MUCH too far away. Amy said I needed more water, time to listen. All the other things, I still contest as not really being said. They made some stuff up. Chip did a great job walking and listening to me whine and bitch. I did not see any of the deer off the side of the trail he said he saw, I did see the one in the middle of the road right in front of me, but “all that beauty”, wasted by me looking straight down at the trail in front of me. How about those feet? Nice supple feet. Those don’t do well in a rocky, climbing 100 mile run. That is the end of that topic. Also, just for the record, a stress reaction doesn’t fully heal in 3 weeks. End of discussion. A little misdirection at mile 95 or so woke me up enough that I needed to get running and I am sure Chip was tired of walking. After more whining and speculating that I wouldn’t make it in time to finish in under 30 hours, I got across the line. Note to self, know the course a little better. Wasatch to Arkansas Okay these stumps attached to my ankles used to be feet. They are swollen and Amy’s compression sock help, but what happened to my skin? Maybe my shin could feel better. Shoot, maybe my quads could feel better. Or my right hamstring, or the knee that got whacked on my fall at mile 5 during Wasatch. Oh well 4 weeks. Maybe a little rest will be good!! All six of us are still in the slam, I am so happy for the other five. Although I only know one of them, I am happy for all of them. During this adventure, I have closely connected with some of my friends and unfortunately less connected with others, but I just want to mention a few, before the last race begins: Amy; Amazing, always there for me and such an inspiration Jack and Vianne; couldn’t have done it without them in so many ways Karla; What a great person that supports me in any way she can and is raising an amazing boy. Mama, of course; I don’t want her there to see me at my worst but appreciate her support Koichi; great friend and wonderful spirit Mary and Tony; drug them out of comfortable Las Vegas to suffer through Leadville Chip; for being there during my fall while breaking my arm and kicking my butt at Wasatch Honey; Always says the best things and brought me home too fast at Arkansas Sophie; for the massages and beating the krap out of me Walt; For the advice I needed to complete this thing WMRC’s; For kicking my butt over the winter so I would be prepared Ron; Always there as my best friend, wish he could have run with me Mark; Great friend, great stories, great person. Would have been at Western States Fred; Great friend, great inspiration, great person, Would have been at Western States Michelle; Weekend runs and always supportive, makes me laugh Dr. Woodall; An amazing person, always, always an inspiration Dr. Maynard; Great friend, such a generous person and kept me healthy Don and Brenda; Great friends, and tech guru’s, always there Debbie; Always, always nice things to say and ultimately supportive There are so many more, but I do need to let these know what I feel about them. Now, just a minute of reflection on the slam. What stops people from finishing? When I started, I wondered what keeps people from finishing this thing? Here are my thoughts: #1. How about feet. Without hard running in between races, my feet became very supple and soft. That sure doesn’t bode well over the rocky courses and makes for some nasty blisters that could break your spirit #2. How about the moodiness and depression between races. It is very difficult to get recovered and I spent the summer very moody and not the person I like to be #3. How about the weather conditions and all the different changes #4. How about the altitude changes in the different races #5. Staying healthy #6. Okay, 4 100’s in a summer. Enough said The bottom line I see is, the only real reason not to make it, is if you simply are not fast enough to hit the cut-offs. I am fortunate enough that this is not a worry for me, but I cannot find another reason not to make it through what you started and finish the slam. Time for reflection. All this time between the races, all this time on the trail allows for someone to really search their soul. I have had the chance to break free of many of my old demons. I believe I have found what I have been searching for. I am going to go back to school. It is time for me to become a Physicians Assistant. Lots of reasons, but the most important is, that is where I should be. It will take a while, but in the long run, all worth it. If nothing more comes out of this summer, I have found my calling. I have also found the most amazing person I could imagine. What a great experience! Okay just days before Arkansas and for some odd reason, I feel great. Looks like it is time to “roll” Arkansas Traveller How can I explain this trip?? First off, Jack has chartered a flight for us. He is indicating that it will help him get hours behind this new jet. All I know it is incredibly generous. There are no direct flights from Phoenix to Little Rock. WOW! Amy, Michelle, Honey, Vianne, Jack and I roll out Thursday afternoon. Just a great flight and terrific hotel. Saturday morning brings about clouds and some rain, no problem for me, I just hope my crew can stay dry. My race plan has me out the first 50 miles in 10 hours, then fade to 22:10 finish. I will be happy with that type of finish, considering all that has happened. I have just the best people with me, Jack for 4 miles, Michelle for 4 miles, Jack for 4 miles, Amy for 16 miles, then Honey for 16 miles. Just need to plug through the first 48 and then I will have my friends. As the race starts, the race plan goes directly out the window. At the first aid station , I am 45 minutes up on my plan. Okay, just keep plugging away and fade at the end, no problem. Shoe change at aid station #2 and all’s good, I meet Jack next time. Jack keeps my mind occupied very well during our stretch and things seem to be going very well. Michelle picks me up and our section is an out and back. Sitting in third place but the lead guy has sprained his ankle. Amy has helped him, but from what I hear, he is struggling. Michelle has a couple of funny stories that help and I have plenty of gas, to pass the time away. She does a great job and back to Jack. During Michelle’s stretch, the one guy has dropped, but I am passed by another. I am fully satisfied with sitting in third, beyond my wildest dreams. Coming out of the Aid station, I have some strange issue with my tongue, it has gone numb and I cannot talk correctly. Doesn’t take long, to get better, but Jack sure has a difficult time understanding me in THIS state. He keeps reminding me there is a long way to go and controls my pace through this section. That is a huge help! Amy is next. Of course I am looking forward to her with me and am not disappointed at all. She takes such good care of me, reminding me to drink, eat, stop being an idiot, all the things I need. I have a shorter version of the tongue going numb, but goes away quickly. I feel like I am about to “red line” it, but I trust her fully and push through this section more than I ever have in a 100. She is amazing. I was able to piss her off a bit on a nasty section, but then it also allowed her to make fun of my out of control running, so we are even. Next up, Honey. I know she will hammer me, but then, what do I have to save things for?? This dag gum thing is about over, might as well push it a bit. All in the dark, but for the most part the trail is good, so, lots of running. At 94 miles, it appears that the dude in 2nd has come back to me. Honey tells me over the last 2.5 miles I have made up 8 minutes. Although I try and say it doesn’t matter, it is time to hammer and move into second place. A little bit of trash talking between Honey and I put enough time on the guy that we cannot see his light anymore. Coming up the final road to the finish, I am shocked. First off, I am finishing, it looks like I will run right around 19 hours, I have actually run the last part of this race and passed someone. Wow. Final time, 19:07 (9:00 first 50, 10:07 second 50). 96 hours for the slam. WOW!!! 6 finishers in the slam out of 27 that started. WOW!! That is all I can say. I am so happy. Synopsis What a summer vacation! Would I do it again? One and done. That is it! Couldn’t top this in my lifetime! I would encourage this adventure to anyone who is nuts, but also wants to “find” themselves. - P! « Back to News |
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