We {Tammy the crew} & I arrived in Denver on Wednesday, drove on up that night to LV. We checked in to the Innd of the Line, which is now my personal B&B in Leadville, so stay away, they're booked! J/K, they were fabulous. Better care than Mom could give you. Thursday, we attended the evening "dinner" & basically spent the day trying to relax. I knew I couldn't relax if I were at home, so we planned that day on purpose. Friday we awoke to attend all of the mandatory meetings. The pre-race meeting was pretty much not helpful, as well as the mandatory crew meeting. All information which had previously been covered, & would be covered again in multiplicity. At any rate, we put our time in & picked up the BEST race bag ever. Too much good stuff to mention, but it is to say, I would pay good money for that bag. We took a couple of trips to the HQ, where we bought some clothing items. Both times we were overcharged, & received no receipt, but I didn't raise a stink...I figured why not help out my new favorite event.
Part 2 of the crew, Randy & Libby didn't arrive until I was already in bed on Friday, so they weren't really able to review my race plan with Tammy, which I had only obsessed over for about a year. At any rate, when Randy arrived about 10, he & Tammy did the pre-race freak out so I didn't have to. I was in bed with earplugs in.
3:30 came sooo early, but Jane & Mary Beth made steel cut oats, bagels, fresh fruit, coffee, yogurt, eggs, the whole deal. It was amazing. I sauntered upstairs & popped on my gear, which I had laid out 2 days before. Time flew so quickly, I blinked & it was 15 till...YIKES! I jogged to the start to check in, the official check in table turned out to be roving clip board folks. Nice. Lucky for me I found one. Luckier for me, I had my wrist band on, but Tammy had my bib. I ran back up the street, borrowed a cell to call them, Tammy's phone was {shocker} not on. Panic.
As I ran down the street looking like Paul Revere, Libby shouted out to me, & I was back in with my bib on my shirt. Again, the time flew, the gun went off, & I was jogging down the boulevard.
I kept smelling something, I knew the cat in front of me needed a shower, & I thought to myself, "what will you be like 24 hours from now" but I kept running. I hit his calves with my headlamp, & knew in an instant it was Barefoot Ted, the legend. A quick glance to his home made Huaraches, & it was verified. One of the coolest moments in the race for me...to be running behind this urban myth, if only I'd had my flip. Either way, it was cool, so I followed him for about another mile, smirking to myself at his self bantering & comedy.
Soon, we veered off onto the trail that parallels Turquoise Lake. I had asked my crew to wait @ Tabor Boat ramp with 2 water bottles as I left the starting line, purposely light on water. I was going as slow as possible in an effort to conserve energy for later. Well, they determined that they missed me, so they left before I got there. When I didn't see them, I rocked on. About a mile or so outside of May Queen, I found someone's water bottle on the ground, un-touched. Yep, drank it all.
Into May Queen, Tammy & Randy were there, I picked up my pack & dropped off water bottles & rolled on up the hill. This is one of my favorite parts of the course; it's on the Colorado trail & the views are breathtaking. I still felt sooo relaxed & was just enjoying the day. Up Sugarloaf to Powerline, then down into the Fish Hatchery.
Again, Randy & Tammy were there. I dropped my pack, switched back to the handhelds, & cruised out feeling fine. About 4-5 miles of grueling pavement later, I came into Pipeline, where Tammy was waiting. She was also running the video & asked me how I felt, to which I replied, "SUPER COOL." Of course, later, watching the video, I saw my left ankle roll like a spaghetti noodle, but I never even flinched. I didn't feel it at all. Obviously, by this point, my ankles were just flopping around like dead fish, but heck, I didn't care. I was running Leadville, conserving energy, & having a BLAST!
Pipeline to Twin Lakes is yet another feast for the eyes. I again, ran this conservatively, my plan was to hit Winfield, and then actually "run" the rest of the race. As I came down the hill into Twin, there was a lot of confusion. There were tons of people standing around, but no clear direction on where to go. After asking several spectators, I was finally pointed in the right direction. I went into the check station; saw none of my crew, so I went out the other side. Up until now, someone from my crew was at the entrance of the checkpoints, so I assumed they would be here. When I didn't see them, I started looking for them...I NEEDED some of my things which they had. I ran down the boulevard, no crew. Down to the adjacent street, no crew. Soooo, I ran the 3/4 mile back into the aid station, filled my water pack, grabbed some gels & cookies & set out to climb Hope. After I crossed the adjacent street, Randy was there saying "just in time." Arrrgh. Really? “I just lost about 23 minutes looking for you guys, where were you?” “Here.” “Why?” “Why not?” “Okay, from now on, someone meet me at the timing mat, PLEASE!” “Okay.”
They popped me on the massage table, Randy & Libby beat the crap out of me, Tammy changed my shoes & socks, & they kicked me out of the station.
Well, up over Hope Pass we go. I still "felt good" but picked up a walking cane one the way as my right knee was on fire. Apparently my IT bands were not happy. I hobbled over Hope & down the back side, then up 3 miles of gravel into the half-way point, Winfield, 50 miles. Libby met me on the road with her kid gloves on. She radioed back to Tammy what to prepare, & the crew was in panic mode. I only had 10 minutes to enter & exit the aid station. I kept telling them to relax; I had plenty of time, as I really felt like they might forget something. I asked for my Garmin, which I had traded out earlier, & they gave it to me, but somehow, they had lost the charger in the car & didn't charge it, so I picked up a dead Garmin.
Out of Hope with 2 minutes to cut-off, 5:58. Let me say this, I don't like pacers. I like being alone. Maddie had asked if she could pace me & I said okay. Anyone else I would have rejected, but I thought since she was a teenaged girl, who may never get this chance again, to go over Hope, why not. I told her on the way out to stop treating my like Libby & Tammy had, that I was quite lucid, & didn't need a babysitter. I finally just had to ask her to start talking to me. I think they had her freaked out thinking I was "pretty disoriented." Still packing my stick, we hobbled on. At one point, for the first time in the race, I sat on a rock to take a break. I told Madison we would rest 3 minutes & then go on. I passed out, sitting on a rock with my face on my stick. Exactly 2 minutes, 55 seconds later, I woke up. On we went. Darkness hit us just at the summit. I told Maddie we would walk for 3 or 4 minutes to rest from the climb & then run. We did. We went into the hopeless aid station; I asked for soda, I needed caffeine badly. They had nothing but water so we quickly moved on. Still hobbling with my stick, having NO idea of the time, I really begin to push down the mountain as best I could. At one point, I left Madison & went on by myself. I knew I would be past the cut-off, but I didn't know by how much. As I passed people on the way down, people who had passed me on their way up the other side, I begged them to not give up. You can call pull me from the race when they cut my band or the race is over, but not until.
Well, on into Twin where Libby went out to pick up Maddy. Tammy met me at the river crossing, & took me on up to the timing mat, where my wrist band was cut & I was pulled from the race, still hobbling on my stick- 62 miles.
As I sat in a chair, Randy pulled my shoe off & I realized for the first time, my ankle was the size of a softball. Huge. Purple. Sprained. Bad. I suppose the IT band issues caused me to use the stick in my right hand, putting extra weight on my left ankle. I have since discovered a discrepancy in my leg length; my right appears to be about 1/4inch longer than the left. Wonder why I've been having ankle sprains????
Well, the second they cut my band, I looked at Tammy & said, "364 days till next year," and I meant it. I started this race, I WILL finish it.
A few quick points:
My hydration & nutrition were perfect; I lost about a pound over the entire race.
I should have ran a 'bit' faster at the start. My average heart rate was 124 for the first 25 miles.
The crew was helpful, but they need to be better informed of my race plan next time. Tammy knew what I wanted, but since the rest of them didn't get there until late the night before the race, they really didn't know what I wanted or expected of them.
Madison was awesome. I found out after I was cut, she is 12 years old. Wow. She has a running career ahead of her for sure.
I can't wait to get to the starting line next year!
Missy lives in Cape Girardeau also and she raced the Berryman with a team in 2009 but that was the extent of her AR experience. But don't mistake that for not being battle tested. Ahemmm. How about competing and finishing the Branson Half Ironman just six days prior to this race? This aen't no disco. Now that's what I call a competitor!
So the Friday night pre-race meal pretty much rocked, I caught up with my friend Gary Thompson, and then we took our bikes over to the YMCA Trout Lodge about 16 miles away for the bike drop. Yep, we (ok, I) busted off a few bars of our own version of the "YMCA" song, rest assured. After that we hauled back to Bass River for a standing room only pre-race meeting, got the maps, and headed back to our tents and canopies to plot 25 CP's. 
We plotted the CP's, 
highlighted our anticipated route choices, filled our packs and probably got to sleep around midnight. Ahhhh, tent camping before a race. Nothing quite like it. Not much quality sleep.
I think we came out of the woods after that O Course in about 10th place out of 60 12-hour teams so we cleaned the course pretty well. We came in to CP12 which was a mystery event. It turned out to be that we crossed a creek and then came upon an artificial rock climbing wall. Awesome! Two team members had to put on a harness and climb to the top and then rappel down. Ken and I chose to do it. 
With no problems, we came down, loaded up the packs and took off for CP13 where we then received the UTM's for another mystery event, CP14. Yummm, they had Snickers and Oreo's too! Once we plotted CP14, we made our way to it and as we approached it, we could hear what we all agreed sounded like a ZIPLINE! Sweet. We had to wait a few minutes until the line was available, but once it was, Ken and Marc put on the harness and zipped on down. 
We found out what we had suspected already. We were in first place in 4 person co-ed, but the Tulsa team was pushing and closing fast. 
We held them off for about 20 minutes or so, and then they came by in a fury, and off they paddled into the sunset and on their way for the 1st place prize in the premier 4 person co-ed division. They earned it though. They put around 25 minutes of distance on us on that final paddle. Some people don't take any solace in losing to anyone, but if you are going to lose, personally, I'd rather lose to good teams with cool people, and they are both. Despite losing our lead on this final paddling leg, the paddling leg nonetheless offered a surprise as we encountered none other than my friends Jim and Wendy Davis. What a treat to see them at this manned CP! 
It was a solid race for us. The weather was phenomenal, trails and course were great, mystery events added some unusual elements to the race, and it's always great to get together with my teamies and camp, hang out, and race. 
