Haliburton 100 Done

So every step from here on out was new territory.  Oh, I know we'd just run this loop, but not with 50 miles under our belts (belts!).  More people telling us to have a good night.  Hmmmm.  We blew through aid station 2 and 3, but stopped again when we got back to 2.  Yeah, the order is weird.  It went 2, 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 2, 3, 2, 1(start) cause it did a loop around a lake to start.  The guys never met us at 3 or 5.  3 was too soon after 2 for them to bother with.  5 was off limits to crew because of road damage.

It took a few steps after leaving the start again to get moving smoothly.  Stopping for any length of time made us cold and stiff.  When I had changed back at the 50 mile turn around, I controled myself, keeping my short sleeves and shorts on even though I was cold.  But.  I did put on my sleeves.  If you don't own a pair, I highly recommend them.  I had them up, down, on, off, one sleeve up and one down throughout the night.  Every aid station I had to remind myself I would warm up quickly cause I'd be shivering quickly after stopping.

When did it get dark?  What mileage were we at?  I don't remember.  I used my favorite head lamp to start.  It's light and the most comfortable to wear.  Unfortunately, it's a rechargable that only lasts five or so hours.

Oh, also at the turn around, I recognized that I didn't keep having shit in my shoes end up under my one left toe.  I decided the entire pad of that toe was a blister and tried to pop it with a hand-sanitized safetypin.  It wouldn't pop.  I still thought it was just a deep blister.  It wasn't till the day after that I finally figured out that my toe that Piper broke was just permantly weird feeling.  Now it just feels like I have my sock wadded up under it or it's numb.

Back to the running.  I think it was between aid station 3 and 4 that I started falling asleep.  The footing was technical.  I was staggering.  I told the Squirrel something.  I'm not sure what.  I also kept startling myself awake with odd dreams.  Sometimes it was of trail hazzards, sometimes it was the kind of dream that makes you jerk cause a ball is coming right at you or you think you tripped on a root.  Shit. Shit.  Shit.  I have trouble sleeping until I don't and then  I cannot stay awake.  How was I going to finish.  Fortunaely we weren't too far from the aid station.  I plopped into the chair the guys had waiting for me.  I complained about falling asleep while falling asleep in the chair.  I don't know who suggested coffee, but soon I had a small cup of black joe.  It was horrible and my hand shook with cold as I tried to drink it.  I don't really know how Mindy was doing at this point.  After I got the coffee down, we got back on our feet to go.  Was it here that Pete joined in as pacer?  Maybe.  When he did join, we had to wait for him to get ready.

Wow.  I was awake.  All my little complaints seemed to melt away.  Coffee.  That simple.  Wow.  We moved well.  This was a good, late leg for me.  I knew, though tried not to be too sure, that we'd make it.  Coffee.  I less than 3 coffee.

I think the next aid station was the one where we sat by a big fire.  I wanted to empty my shoes.  A volunteer was being very, very, maybe a little too, helpful.  Not only did he take my shoes off of me, he tried to dry them out a bit by shoving paper towel in them.  I was reassembling them when Squirrel asked for something to blow her nose on.  The guy went to give her the paper towel that just came out of my shoe.  I siad, "No!  She needs to blow her nose."  The guy nodded and handed her the paper towel again.  He obviously didn't understand that was just wrong.  Was it Ann that got her something acceptable?  Probably. 

Rick asked if I wanted to trade out my head lamp. I figured I'd be good for one more leg and trade at the next aid station.  Pete headed out with us again.  I think he needed to suggest running a bit as we were giving to walking.  I thought my headlamp had totally died.  Mindy's light was so powerful that the little light mine was casting did nothing.  The shadow I cast in her light was too dark for me to run comfortably.  I know Pete wanted us to run, but I was too afraid of falling on the technical trail in the dark.

Speaking of dark, I don't think I've ever experienced true darkness till Hali.  It was amazing.  When I turned my light off for peeing privacy, I discovered that the dark was dizzying.  No lie.  I couldn't stand without turning on my light.  Amazing.  I'm not sure at what point, but the stars did come out; the skies cleared.  They didn't really add any light for us to see by, but how brilliantly they shone!  It was good to look up, to appreciate where we were, to stretch our necks, ahhhh.

All through the night, not the dreaming part, I was still seeing things that weren't there.  I normally see faces just about everywhere anyway.  I was seeing snakes on the trail, little animals scooting along my peripheral vision.  Mindy was having the same.  Then we did see an actual deer.  It was huge for a doe.  And oddly colored.  It was very pale, almost white, yet it had white spots.  Mindy noticed yellow eyes.  We decided it was our wolves in deer clothing making sure we were OK, perhaps seeing if we were ready for our ride in.

Pete was with us at when we hit 71, one of our milestones.  I think he was a little disappointed that we were more happy with it.  Just getting it done.  At least he was with us when we saw the baby head.  It was a real rock the size of a baby head with marbling or striations that looked exactly like a doll face.  Yikes!

We pulled into the aid station seven well ahead of the cut off, but Mindy had a big, we're-not-going-to-make-it moment.  After the technical stretch we were just through, how long it had taken, she was pretty sure we couldn't do it under the 30 hour limit.  But (Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jedi) I'd seen it before.  That's exactly what I told Mindy.  We had it; we were all over it.  I saw George rally enough.  I knew us and knew we could.  We had just over 25 to go.  Did I say that it's an interesting turn around.  They don't put the aid station at the turn around point.  Rather you hit aid station 7 then run like 1/2 mile up the dirt road to a sign that says, "100 mile turn around".  Then you turn around and hit seven again.  Like before, we dropped our hydration packs to be topped off.  It felt so good to be free of it for this little stretch. 

When we got back, Rick said he'd pick us up at aid station 6 and run us in from there.  Pete was done; he'd run his farthest ever!  Knowing that Mindy was worried about time, I set out at a good clip.  We worked mostly in silence on this stretch, but we were working.  Rick had told the film crew we'd probably get into aid station 6 by 5:30am.  I think they set their alarms looking to get some sleep.  But!!!  Scout and Squirrel pulled into the aid station a full 1/2 hour faster!  Rick was shocked, but ready to head out by the time we were.  I don't think we took much time at all at the aid station.  The film crew missed us.

Mindy, not a coffee, drinker decided, after my resurrection, that maybe a cup would do her good.  What did she say?  Something like, I can't believe you people drink this shit.  But, I think she felt the effect, because she did not limit herself to one cup.  I waited a pretty long time before having more.  I wanted to have it in my back pocket, like knowing I could always pull out Underdog's secret energy pill.

I was very happy to have Rick with us.  I had worried that our legs might not hold on some of the technical downs.  Not that Rick would help us down, but he could run ahead for help if we fell or just having him there, we wouldn't fall. 

Mindy started appologizing.  She kept feeling like she was slowing us down.  I said what about all the times I slowed us for real because I had to use the woods.  She was all, that's nothing, that's just what we do!  I tried to convince her she wasn't, but we were going how fast we were going to be going.  Even after, when thinking about our longer aid station stops, we were not sorry about them at all.  It all seemed like just what we needed. 

We heard birds!  We saw some daylight.  We picked off some runners.  I think somewhere along the line I realized we were only passing people on the last 25, never getting passed.  OK.  When I saw someone ahead, I say lets pee now.  We wouldn't want to pass just to need to pee and be passed we our pants down.  Does it sound weird saying we were peeing?  Well, not sure how far into the race it started, but we both were peeing machines.  So as not to waste time, we figured to pee when the other did so that we wouldn't be out of phase, taking longer.  Remember when I said I turned off my light for peeing privacy?  Both Mindy and I used to look for good places to get off the trail when it was light.  Now?  It was just drop the shorts and squat - even when we were on the dirt roads.  Whatever.

At one aid station, 4?, Mindy asked a volunteer what mile we were at.  The answer was 140 km (or some amount about there).  Mindy retorts she wants to know it in Amercian!  The poor volunteer tried some math, but...

Mindy started realizing we were going to do it.  My eyes teared up a couple of times thinking about finishing.  I had to rein it back it.  Things can happen.  Don't celebrate yet.  We were both tired.  Stuff was grumpy.  My feet that always hurt, had only just started.  Aid station 3!!!  Yay Scout and Squirrel.  Did Rick point out that everyone knew us?  I think both the guys had mentioned that on an off during the event. 

Rick said Pete was joining back up with us at 2 to run in with us.  Ann was at 2!  We asked about the Jedi.  We hoped he stayed on the trail and would be right behind us.  At two, the guys told us what to expect for the last, what was it...1.8 miles.  It was on dirt road.  There'd be two hills then it was sort of down to the finish.  When we did the second up, I complained when there was another hill up ahead.  I think Rick didn't realize that first one was really two.  I think I grumbled even though we were that close.  We walked the last hill.  Gonna run it in. 

There was a guy ahead.  Soon we were with him.  Pete said come on run with us, we'll bring you in.  In my mind I was all, hell no.  Scout and Squirrel are finishing together, not Scout, Squirrel, and miscellaneous dude.  But, Pete got to be good and encourage him, he got to have a better finish cause misc. dude tried to stay with us for a bit, but we kept running, maybe even adding a little speed.

Then I saw that the gate to the forrest was closed.  WTF?!  We have to go around?!  It really was no big deal, but you would have thought they were making us go an extra mile instead of the width of the road.  Mindy wasn't complaining, just me.  But there was the finish!!!  And! And!  Unlike lots of events, people stayed for all the finishes!!!  We were cheered like rock stars. Went we entered the finish area (didn't seem like a line), we hugged, then both grabbed our heads like, "What the hell did we just do?!"  I only know that from the picture some guy took at the end.  It's my favorite shot.

I don't think it was long before we were in chairs around a fire.  Some guy kept bringing me water.  Our feet hurt, but it wasn't at all as bad as I expected.  I was still wide awake.  We just needed Jedi to come in...

Next installment will be the wrap up.