Race Day.

3am comes and I jump up and head for the shower. I then get my race clothes out, double check my drop bags and start munching on a blueberry bagel. Soon I am down stairs in the kitchen talking with Molly and Jimmy. I get some coffee, drink some Gatorade and we all make laughs about how early it is and were ready to get the show on the road. Next we load up the car and are driving out to the start. It about 4 miles from the ranch house to the road where we turned to get to the start line, which was about a 20 minute drive from there. We actually got a great parking right near the gate to walk about 1/4 mile down to the start line, Yes, we had to walk about 1/4 mile Down to the start, which meant the first 1/4 - 1/2 mile was uphill. Welcome to Ultra!

Being as we were there before the chickens get up we had plenty of time to get our drop bags in order and get our race bibs!! and yes, they are Bibs! check them out. Then we hung out and shivered in the cool morning darkness. S. Baboo and Misty arrived and I spoke with them briefly as the attended to there morning pre-race rituals. Then the race director yelled 5 minutes to start so everyone moved to the front of the Kentucky Camp old fort building, which I totally forgot to take pictures of but then again it was dark. As we lined up they did a raffle drawing and Molly won a free pair of trail shoes! I was standing next to Misty and Baboo and 4, 3, 2, 1 Bang! We were off. I had my mini-mag lite in my hand and as we all went up the road back to the parking I was chatting with Baboo & Misty and so we were off and running up the gradual incline. I then caught up with Molly and said Hey Molly!! Funny how I am always running with you at night! (Last time I ran next her, other than one morning training run but I didn't run with her b/c she was much faster than me, It was at Badwater when I was pacing her and we were looking for snakes) That's funny between us because we said it again, don't forget to look for snakes! I then started settling into my pace and then the trail turned to single track which is narrow and you basically run single file.

As most of us strung out in the first few miles I was soon talking with Steve from New York who has ran 11 - 50 mile races and is 1/6 at the 100 mile. I asked him many questions over the next 3 miles and as I stopped to take some pictures I didn't see Steve again the rest of the day.

By the time I reached mile 7 aid station I had taken 1 or 2 too many gels and my stomach was starting to let me know it was not happy. I then heard Jimmy yelling at me and I look over and I see Jimmy showing me his palms that were bleeding and scraped as his legs were from the trip and fall he took on the single track trail where it was somewhat rocky. Jimmy was smiling though and he loaded up and took off with me following shortly behind him after I dumped two extra shirts and my leg tights. As I started running again I noticed we were going up this long type climb and there was several of us running within yards of each other but then I am upon this big mud pit and there was a couple of guys 4x4 in the pit so I stopped to watch them for a couple of minutes and took this picture.

I then continued on up the road which was nothing but power walking for a long time. I actually had cell phone service here and was texting my family and actually told them I couldn't text no more because I couldn't breath and think while power walking up that stupid long road but when I got to the top it was so beautiful and I took some more pictures. This was about the 15 mile mark and as you can see from me pointing in down into the valley I am actually pointing at the road I can see from the top and that road is where we are heading! to be continued after mile 15... rockon'